DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Nairobi National Park by Nancy Wambui Michuki
It was okay..
Everytime l could see the City from a distance. It sadens me tht the animals always have to adjust to humans..
All in all not bad!
FI
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An average operator who needs more experiences to organize tours
In our safari there were too much sitting in the car and the car was not very comfortable. We even had to take some luggages inside the car and the space there was very limited.
For vegetarian the food was very similar almost the whole trip (beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, rice and eggs for protein source) and usually same way prepared.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tshukudu ROARS, Hamala closed, Seasons Resort NOT!!!
Our tour started off poorly when we were met by our tour guide to find out that we would not be travelling to the Humala Lodge. We understand “things” happen, but we were surprised, as was the tour guide, Thabo, that we were not informed by Touchdown Tours in advance. As luck would have it, thankfully they decided to move us to the Tshukudu lodge for 7 days. A simple email in advance from their customer service department certainly would have been appreciated. Not a good way to start a trip!
The Tshukudu lodge is beyond words. The accommodations, the people, the food, the “bush” bar, the game drives, simply put, how about 10 STARS!!!! Karmin and her staff made sure everything was perfect. Our game guide, Tyler, was INCREDIBLE. His knowledge of the animals, the bush and even the dung beetles was AWESOME. I could have listened to him forever!! The staff at the lodge were great, especially Dolly, Bongani and the young lady who made the BEST eggs on the morning buffet!!! We did 6 days of drives, early morning and evening. No 2 drives were alike. We were able to find the BIG 5 and then some. Again, Tyler made these drives SPECTACULAR!!! During our downtime, our tour guide, Thabo made sure our time was occupied with side trips. We were saddened to leave this lodge, especially with what lied ahead.
The Seasons Resort is NOT a resort, a major disappointment. It is a timeshare community with a couple of townhomes reserved for guests. The rooms lacked WIFI, phone to contact the front desk and no safe to lock up our valuables. The room we had was the furthest from the lodge as you could get. Add to that, the pathway was dimly lit, you walked on cobblestones and the walk to the street was at least a 20% incline (wet weather made this dangerous). We complained about this unacceptable situation and spoke with Touchdown Tours customer service. We were told they would look into this and we even asked to be moved to a hotel. Sadly, our complaint fell on deaf ears as NO ONE FOLLOWED UP ON THS!! The side tours that we went on were really nice. 2 of them were advertised as ½ day tours, but realistically, they were only 2 hours each (Walk with the Elephants and Monkey Sanctuary). Had we known about this, we could have flown home a day early rather than being sequestered at this “resort”. Luckily, our tour guide, Fabian, tried his best at making a bad situation better.
The people really made this tour!! Thabo and Fabian were AWESOME tour guides. The entire staff at Tshukudu made our time there EXTRAORDINARY. You MUST have Tyler as your game guide!!!! You MUST have Thabo as your tour guide!!!! Yep, we loved these 2 people!!!
So, would we book this tour again? Probably, but minus the time at the Seasons resort. I think Touchdown Tours should quit misleading people by calling this a resort, call it what it is, a townhome community! Our airport hotel bested this resort easily!!
IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Inflexible. We were not able to see the lions and I was another game drive
1. We were not able to see the lions and I was expecting that they will make another effort by giving us another game drive so that we have a complete experience but no effort was made
2. I made a request to change my drop location to my hotel instead of airport but it wasn't approved.
3. It was football world cup final that evening & the taxi was late by 1 hr. As a result I missed the world cup final.
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Nxai Pan National Park by Anouk de Sloovere
Lodge was not so spectacular.
Drivers can not go of road so you don't get to see much wildlife (we didn't)
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Addo Elephant National Park by Elizabeth
We did see elephant’s, and the bbq was outstanding. It was difficult to see the animals since the park is so dense with brush.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The corrupt leadership of the country and the disparity between classes is heartbreaking.
The most beautiful part of the trip was taking the panoramic scenic route from Johannesburg to Kruger national Park. Kruger was awesome and we saw all of the big 5. Cape Town is a fantastic city and is a cross between Sydney, Australia, and San Francisco, California. We especially enjoyed the V & A waterfront. We would highly recommend the hop on hop off bus to get a feel for where you want to return to.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Kruger National Park by Brenda Poland Willis
Kruger seemed a lot like Yellowstone National Park in the States...a lot of people, and it was very crowded even though we were not in the peak time.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Nakuru National Park by Lisa van der Hoek
Lake Nakuru is beautiful, specifically because of how non-tourist focused it is. Most animals were seen from quite a distance. The park is a Rhino sanctuary, but don't expect these big fellows to cross the road in front of you. After a long day, we eventually found a group a couple of 100 meters away from us, which is magic on its own.
Seeing the animals actually be free; very few cars, roads and lots of freedom; is a great experience that one should not miss.
CZ
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Average services, had some issues
We decided to take a safari tour to Serengeti from Arusha. First I would like to say its a nice area and we saw all animals what we could, so we are happy to did this trip. However there are some things that was not perfect as you would expect - safari car did not have A/C (did not work!!) so it was too hot first day so we wear exhausted. Also, the road is very dusty and car not good for dusty roads and the driver had open windows nearly all the time, we did not understand if he likes dust in his lungs. Also we sent in advance some diet requirements that was not met in our lunch box and the boxes were just a little, not a normal lunch. We have seen in picnic points what some other companies could do, so this is a very weak pain point and would expect more. If we would return? Probably not by car to the area, better going to fly and spent days directly at lodges in Serengeti park.