DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Masai Maara Safari - Shanjoy Tours
Pros:
- People within the Tours are reachable
- Excellent stay provided
- Safe driving
Cons:
- No Game Drive provided on the last day (while it was promised on the quotation). Basically, your last day of Safari is only transfer to Nairobi without any Game drive (even if promised)
- Full day Game drive ends super early. During our Day 2 of game drive, it started at 7am but ended by 4pm (while the park is open till 6pm and the sun would still be up till 6.30pm). Was disappointed to miss out the last 2 hours of Game Drive
- Was able to see only 3 out of 5 (Big5) while other Tour operators promises to shown all Big5
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Good but not amazing
We went to Bwindi in May ans the experience was good , seeing these animals is a unique experience.
I think we were not lucky enough to see a big silver back as the one we saw was small. I think the price is pretty high for what you get to be honest
Our guide was not as attentive as I expected and we had a elderly person in out group who hired a a porter who was not that helpful
Nice experience in general
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Noor
Not very exciting after visiting other parks, there are not many animals to spot. The water was very high so many roads were not accessible.
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not a bad place to visit but Disappointing
The driver/Guide and myself left Nairobi at 0700 in the morning and drove to the Sarova Mara game Camp. We stopped on the way at the Rift Valley Lookout and a then a Souvenir shop a bit later on. Both places have clean toilets and expensive souvenirs, you can get them for a third of the price in Nairobi. The Game Camp was very nice with fast Wifi and comfortable luxury tents. They turn off the power during the day and there is no air-conditioning in the tents which get quite hot in the afternoon. Our first drive through the park started in the afternoon and we saw all the various deer, lions, elephants, giraffe, buffalo, hyena, fox and some birds. The food at the Camp was excellent with a huge buffet but they charge you for a bottle of water ridiculous but juice is free. The next day we started early at 0700 and drove around the park until 1300 when we ate a packed lunch, continued driving until 1600 at which point we returned to the Camp. We saw the same animals today and a Cheetah. We never saw a Leopard or a Rhino which was disappointing as this was one of the promises made which I think are false promises because if these animals had been in the park we would have seen them. The next day a later start at 0900 and we visited the Masai village in the Park an additional cost of $20 quite interesting and then returned to Nairobi. I would not come back here or recommend this park, there must be more interesting Parks in Africa where you can see the famous Big 5 in the wild.
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
If you’re planning for you safari adventure, Mantis Africa Safari is a way to go
My husband and I loved the 8 days Uganda experience that bonita planned for us well executed
Where we went to Murchison falls and the falls were the highlight of the the trip plus gorillas in Mgahinga and the boat local canoe on lake mutanda
JP
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Decent Safari experience with the guide asking about tip everytime
The experience of Safari was really valuable, except our guide keep talking us about tipping him whenever he has some free time, which made us very upset.
Tip your driver and guide is not a mandatory thing. I want to tip someone only if I am satisfied with the service. But our guide was quite demanding, keep asking about it. Now all I remember from the Safari is ripping off from the tour guide lol
The time we spent at Safari was only 3-4 hours, and we could see wild animals like giraffs and elephant etc.
We are not lucky enough to come across liones or leopards.
It was a precious experience, but I can not recoomend you taking a SUV for more than 7 hours from dar es salaam to Mikumi.
LV
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari and cute animals, drivers with attitude, providers with misleading info.
- Safari experience 5 out of 5 stars, lots of animals, beautiful nature - love it.
- We had 3 different drivers, 2 of them had attitude. One made us wait in the morning for him, the other one argued with our safari member and did not want to make an effort to communicate with us.
- The nice driver always had water was us, explained about animals, made an effort to make sure we saw every animal. Thank you Felix!
- The other 2 drivers - did not have water. One of the drivers - did not get water even after we had asked several times and then later reminded us we had to give tips. The other driver did not have enough but later brought us water.
- Hidden extras that were not mentioned - bicycle ride in Hell's Gate 10 USD extra, Walk in natural reserve in Naivasha 30 USD extra (otherwise we would not do anything else), Amboseli morning walk 10 USD extra
- Some game drives were shorter and started later, and the reason was not explained.
- We were promised that there would be 6 passengers in the van and one day we 9 people, most of the days 8!!!! I have messaged the tour provider and they have kindly ignored it.
- Overall experience with tour provider -> It was OK, all animals and birds are cute and beautiful. I would recommend being aware of all the negative sides and if you are happy with those, go ahead and book. If you complain during your trip to the tour provider, most likely you will not get a refund/discount/apologise, you will be ignored. I have a feeling all tour providers are one big organization, promising things, prices might be different, but they are all the same if you go for a budget option.
EE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Hell’s Gate National Park by Ilunia
Our guide did not give us enough time there, we had to wait for him in the morning, so we left late.
We did not see enough of the park. Anyway - there were zebras, giraffes and birds - we did not see many, as we went there after Masai Maara.
To hire a bike you need to pay 10 USD extra. I would say you can skip it.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Nicole Nigro
Roads were flooded and the flamingoes had migrated to the Ngorongoro crater and therefore, have not seen much there.
under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good guy
The guys were nice but the bus wasn’t. It was too small, my legs were paining