under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Masai Mara National Reserve by Gabrielle Wilson
The Masai Mara was great as for reasons above.
under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Amboseli National Park by Gabrielle Wilson
The animals were amazing and you could get up close to them easily.
What a country!
We had a wonderful visit in South Africa (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kruger Park). Fantastic scenery and wildlife, great weather, excellent food and wine (particularly in Cape Town), rich culture, warm people...definitely worth returning and highly recommended!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
unforgettable safari with friendly and knowledgable hosts
Kenya was an unforgettable destination. We had previously safari’ed in Kruger national park, South Africa. Whilst we enjoyed this immensely, we were looking for something more ‘off the beaten track’ and less touristy. Our trip to Kenya did not disappoint. We stayed 3 days in Masai Mara, 2 days in Lake Nakuru/Lake Naivasha and a day at Amboseli, taking in the different national parks and their wildlife. August is the dry season so bush was low and game spotting absolutely fantastic: many lions, elephants, giraffe spotted, we witnessed the wildebeest migration which was an amazing highlight. We even saw the rare leopards and cheetahs and the elusive black rhino up close.
In terms of who to book with, we found Australken Tours through the safari bookings.com website. From initial enquiry to the very last few minutes in Kenya, Australken were fantastic. Special thanks to Zippy who customised our trip, was very quick to respond to our email queries and was full of helpful suggestions and ideas to create our perfect break. She was very flexible and accommodated all of our requests, even very shortly before we were due to arrive managing to secure a booking for a balloon trip.
Once we arrived, the free airport transfer was a welcome extra and from the moment we met our guide, Moses, we knew we were in safe hands. Moses’ knowledge about the parks and animals was incredible and he had a knack for finding amazing encounters off the beaten track, where no other safari jeeps were around. We felt like we had the Masai mara to ourselves!
We chose to stay in the tented camp lodges (Osero, Flamingo Hill and Amboseli Sopa). ‘Tented camp’ in fact meant a four-poster bed and fully tiled bathrooms under your canopy so we were very comfortable. The staff were without exception friendly and helpful. The lodges are in beautiful locations with luxurious communal areas, from which it is often possible to spot birds or passing wildlife. The food was always very good; the Flamingo Hill being a particular highlight.
The balloon safari option is very highly recommended; although pricey it was a wonderful way to see the sunrise and the beautiful landscape and having champagne breakfast in the bush afterwards was very special.
Our vehicle was comfortable and always clean; Moses cleaned the park dust off every evening. We had plenty of bottled water supplied for the trip.
At the end of our break, Zippy even met us at the airport to say goodbye.
Overall, we had a wonderful trip and cannot recommend Australian highly enough if you are planning on visiting Kenya
under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The wildlife is amazing!
We were luckily able to spot the big 5, including the rare black rhino so that was fantastic! The weather was great, there were plenty of picturesque sunsets. The accommodation at the Sarova Mara Game Camp was very nice and the staff friendly. Our guide Danson was amazing, he went out of his way to find animals that we really wanted to see and it was always polite.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
My experience with Nshongi Tours was excellent.
The entire experience with Nshongi tours was so excellent more than I thought. The safari tour was great, the guides and the staff, the hotel and room services were all so good and professional. I would like to visit again.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent service through the entire process
We could not be happier with the service that Maggie provided us with creating and revising our itinerary to our personal needs until it was perfect. William, our guide during the safari, did all he could to ensure we saw as many of the animals as possible including of course the big Five. Definitely recommend this company to anyone else.
Awesome first time Safari Experience
We had a lot of fun on our first Safari all thanks to Compass Odyssey, Darrren Humphrys and his excellent guides . He had a detailed itinerary so we knew exactly what activities we had for each day. He also kept in touch with us during and after the trip to make sure everything went smoothly. The accommodations were excellent. Highly recommend Compass Odyssey.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Absolutely fantastic once-in-a-lifetime safari experience
Our safari was an amazing experience and Awaken to Africa played a big role in this. I spoke to Grace exhaustively while in the planning phases of the trip, not knowing anything about safaris or having any experience in it whatsoever, and she answered every question promptly and extensively, displaying an impressive wealth of knowledge in any subject we asked about. She was able to suggest an itinerary for us that worked with what we wanted, after many back and forths and changing our minds multiple times about many things (initially the trip was to include climbing Kili also). All the communications were top-notch.
The information package she provided for us prior to the trip was very helpful also. We followed it pretty closely and I didn't feel that anything was left out or that we were ill-prepared. If anything, we overdid it a bit on the electronics (brought extra batteries, even a solar charger thinking there might not be places to charge the equipment -- although it's good to be prepared).
David, our guide, was magnificent -- had extensive knowledge of everything from animals to culture and was a pleasure to be around. I maintain that he was the best wildlife spotter on the trail -- he saw things that no one else found and often we were the first on the scene. One of the things he mentioned that I really liked was that the animal is never "just there" -- they are always there for a reason, doing something. There is a story behind everything you see. One afternoon I offhandedly suggested that we might try to go find the black rhino that was supposed to be about -- and lo and behold, about 90 minutes later we actually found it! I don't know if we were just extremely lucky or what but we saw two black rhinos, so many lions, leopards, cheetah -- even a serval hunting! Absolutely amazing.
All the camps Grace suggested for us were top notch, clean, providing great service, and had excellent food. I highly recommend the tented camps where you can hear the animals outside your tent in the night. We stayed with several Asilia properties (Olivers, Dunia, and Sayari, all of which were amazing), the Ang'ata camp on the rim of the crater, which was a excellent suggestion as it enabled us to get down into the crater at sunrise, before everyone else, and Kisimi Ngeda, which had an excellent location and just was a lovely place all around.
I highly recommend Awaken to Africa for your safari needs.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Incredible 1st time safari and honeymoon all in one!
From booking to actually arriving in South Africa, Darren was always accessible, helpful and accommodating. All of the tour guides in Cape Town, Kruger Park, and Johannesburg were amazing and knew their stuff! Every hotel/lodge was very welcoming and comfortable. Food was great, and we met a lot of awesome people along the way! We got to see the Big 5 at Kruger Park all in day 1! It was fantastic. This was definitely the best honeymoon ever! The best trip in lifetime, my husband and I will definitely be coming back!