CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A Poor travel experience
We had a total of six nights, and the hotel was changed three times in the last few hours before departure. The promised room was bad and no refund was given. The morning tour and lunch included in the quotation on the last day were not provided. The driver and guide was okay, but he kept making phone calls while driving, at least ten times a day, which was very unsafe for both him and us.
(automatic translation from Chinese)
DK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An overall good experience with room for improvement
What we liked
- Our main contact person (Boniface) was super quick at responding and always very friendly and informative.
- The lodge we mainly stayed at (Arusha Farm House) was beautifully constructed, had a nice garden with pool, bar and sofas and a well equipped gym
- Both the safaris at Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro were absolutely amazing and we saw many of the animals that we hoped to see
- Between the two safari days we stayed at Suricata Boma Lodge, which blew our minds with its stunning views over Lake Manyara, friendly staff and authentically designed rooms
- Our guide on the Foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro tour (Balthazary) was happy and cheerful, and very knowledgeable. He shared lots of stories and facts about the places we visited, giving us insights into the life of the Tanzanian people today.
The coffee farm was also an incredible experience. We were given thorough insights into the production of coffee, from coffee berry to processing, and finally, to drinking it. It was the best coffee we have had in years, and the lunch we were given was the best food of our two weeks in Tanzania.
What could be improved
- The food was generally of a low quality. On the last day of our time with Safari Soles, one of us had a severe stomach infection (Campylobacter) because of the food. As we are writing, it has been two weeks since we came home and the infection has still not gone away. No guests should ever experience this again and we hope that this will be looked into.
- Although Arusha Farm House was beautiful on the outside, it was a terrible experience in. The acustics were awful, our entrance card had to be activated every day, the bed was hard, there was no hand soap, only half of the sockets worked, there were no bed lights and in the end, our toilet got clogged. Luckily, many of these things can be fixed quite easily and we really hope that this will be improved going forward.
- Our safari guide (Abouu) was mostly very quiet and did not communicate a lot with us. This was especially present on the first day in Tarangire National Park where he several times drove on, although we wanted to see the animals for longer, e.g. the giraffes, that we only saw once.
After we posted the above review, the owner of Safari Soles got back to us with a long and sincere response. He apologized for our inconveniences and promised to follow up with the relevant parties. Although it does not change the mixed experiences we had with Safari Soles, we very much appreciated the sincerity in this response.
IE
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Karl Senn
Nothing special, but nice ride
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good operator, Terrific guide!
This was my third safari, the first just me and my 12 ys old son for 12 days
I should divide my review, one for for the support on booking/ organisation of the trip and another one the trip itself.
On the one hand, dealing with Apodiformes was always very easy; since the beginning, they has tried to find the best combination to adapt my request to my budget.
During the trip there were some issues regarding booking and organisation, but Apodiformes has been able to fix always them.
On the other hand, the safari guide Francis was a nightmare and made the whole trip quite painful!
Examples?
- the land rover was almost missing shoking absorber .. and this is crucial when you spend 10 hours per day on streets full of bumps and holes; the door opened during the trip
- the guide was very Often on the phone texting with who-knows instead of been focused on the drive
- often the tend of the land cruise didnt' close completely ... and at 6 am it's very cold
- lack understanding of the trip schedule ... it was me to tell where we had to sleep every day
- he skipped almost 1/3 of the game drives ... everytime with a different excuse
In each game, he was always far from the animal (we have always been on the back of all the other land cruise), no single explenation about parks, animals, ...never asked if we were taking good pictures/spots and if he could leave or if he had to stop.
One day he asked me to pay 200 US a ranger because of some problems with park tickets .. of course I called apodiformes and they fixed it
in few words ... 1 star is even too much.
To sum up, read the review about the best guide and ask to have some of them.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Who needs to be done to be competitive in the world of safari travel.
My overall trip was very good. However, the distances that we covered on the ground were long and tiring. I would also have enjoyed activities other than Safari. Perhaps visits to some tribes, or other cultural events. I would not recommend Zambia in general for a first time Safari Planner.
That being said, working with Christa at Bundu Safari’s was very good. She was a good communicator. Likewise, our guide and driver, Andrew did an excellent job throughout the entire trip. He was knowledgeable, patient, and did his best to find animals. I highly recommend him.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Right Choice? Not really
TLDR:
-1 star for lack of transparency and poor communication
-1 star for 5 nights of downgraded lodgings but only 3 nights of upgrades later in the trip. Would have rather had 5 nights of better comfort.
We booked a 15 day safari trip in Kenya and Tanzania through Right Choice. Initially, George was very responsive and seemed very organized, and that was why we chose to book with him. We were not happy with the lodging but were mostly happy with the guide and driver we had.
For lodgings, we noticed that George stopped being responsive once we started asking for hotel confirmations to apply for the Kenya ETA. After a few weeks of following up, he finally sent us a confirmation for just the first night in Nairobi, and nothing for the remaining nights.
After we started the safari, the guide drove past the accommodation on our itinerary, and we were only informed of the lodging change at that point. There was zero communication from George himself, even though we had been in contact for other questions. The lodging in Amboseli was a significant downgrade (farther from the park and worse than most budget hostels in other parts of the world). The three of us were also stuffed into one tent even though we paid for 2 rooms. We tried to communicate with George and he just freaked out and shut down. The lodge manager was also pressuring us to stay even though we were clearly unhappy and wanted to move to a place that was equivalent to the place we were promised on the itinerary. George was no help there and dealing with him and the lodge manager cut into our game drive times.
When George finally responded again, we discovered that all of our lodgings in the Kenya portion were downgraded from the original itinerary. We had to be very forceful in our communication and even then, we only got 1 night of our original lodging back at Lake Naivasha. He then promised to upgrade us in Zanzibar to a 5 star all inclusive resort for 3 nights.
At this point, I started reaching out to the lodgings myself to confirm the bookings and found out that for the 3 nights in Masai Mara, the price difference was over $300 USD per person per night between what we were promised on the itinerary vs. where we actually stayed.
We had to confront George with all the information again and then he told us he was going to upgrade us for 2 nights in the Serengeti and 1 night in Tarangire, and that he was unable to upgrade in Zanzibar. However, based on the photos from Google reviews, I'm not sure how much the upgrade really was, but it was too exhausting to continue to deal with him. And at the end of the day, we would have rather just had the 5 nights of our original lodging for better comfort.
There may have been availability issues but George never told us anything. It also didn't seem like he was proactive with correcting the issues - we don't think that he would have upgraded us later if we hadn't called him out on the price differences. It was not fun to have to reach out to various lodgings while on safari drives to advocate for ourselves.
The guide & driver in Kenya were contracted out to a different company, but they were sociable and nice. The guide could have given more explanations for the animals we saw, and point out interesting things along the way like the guides we had later on. However, they did work hard to find animals inside the parks and gave us many great photo opportunities. Our guide helped us with communications when we had trouble reaching George, and was also nice enough to let us visit his home when we asked. We really enjoyed meeting his family and his wife gave a great tour of a traditional Maasai household (much better and thorough than the tourist trap that people get taken to).
The Tanzania portion of the trip was organized through different affiliate partners for the safari portion and Zanzibar portion. The Tanzania part of the trip went pretty well but I feel like most of the credit should be given to those respective companies. George didn't even give us the Zanzibar contact until we arrived at the airport.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good service from agent; poor game drives
Booked 2 nights (4 game drives) at Xanatseni Lodge in the Klaserie Game Reserve, part of greater Kruger, through this company. Working with the agent was easy, and he was helpful with changing dates/last minute booking. The lodging, food, and airport transfer were great; however, the game drives (you know, the whole point of the thing) were pitiful. In fact, every person I told about my safari afterward was shocked that someone could see such few animals over four game drives, particularly during a peak month such as August, despite paying around $1000 for two nights and suggestion from my agent that the lodge was a solid place for animal sightings (I had expressed concern that it would not provide ample game viewing opportunities, and I was correct). I did not see a single predator—no lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, etc. Only some rhinos and a hippo in addition to very common sightings like elephants, giraffes, zebras, etc. A couple of the game drives were oddly redundant/unproductive and each one started later than scheduled (two of them 30 minutes later because it was “too hot” and did not end any later). I actually saw the same variety of animals and some rarer ones (incl cats) during a single game drive in Etosha (organized separately). To be clear, I understand that a safari can be a game of odds, but it is hard not to feel ripped off after paying $1000 for sightings you could get during a drive from the airport, and this review will hopefully serve as a helpful data point for anyone trying to determine their odds in the future.
HK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bad car and non-professional drivers
Bad cars, bad car driver.!!The car and driver used in Kenya are worse, the driver not professional and always keep using his phone even when he is driving. The car used in Kenya is worse, compared with Tanzania, the car seats are bad, very dusty inside and no cleaning. Also, the arrangements of the transfer between Kenya and Tanzania is horrible. The drivers always late, if you told us to wake up early and leave at 5:45am, we won’t suppose for an hour waiting of the another driver . During the whole trip, only one driver in Tanzania is good, helpful and diligent.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Tour didn't quite meet the decription we were originally quoted for.
The tour was expensive for what it was. The lodge just outside the park was in an excellent location but it was run down. Rooms and the bathroom weren't really clean. The restaurant food wasn't good quality.
Norman - who drove us from the airport also drove us on the first game drive as no professional guide was available. It's not as good an experience in a car and certainly not what we paid for. Kruger National Park is excellent of course and delivered the big 5 for us! Overall a mediocre tour operator who charges a lot. We realise now that we could have done the tour ourselves without using a tour operator for less than half the price.
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary by Marco Orsi
Game drive with few animals compared to National parks. Beatiful accomodations and high level services and securities.