KY
Really well organized, but also allows flexibility
Jeff was incredibly responsive to all my queries. His flexibility allowed me to make my own plans, at the same time as he facilitated wider group excursions etc.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It's was lovely,we had great time .the game drive was awesome
Communications was good,the service was great. The Tourist camp we checked in was ok..the food was great ,only the Tent they gave was horrible ,i called the Triumph offices and complained and after some hours we were changed us to better Tent.I would recommend that you inform the person incharge of Majimingi Tourist Eco Camp should try see that the Tents are kept clean especially the Washrooms .
The game drive was Awesome the drivers were very kind and friendly we had alot of fun .Abig thanks to the drivers Godfrey (fred) and Raymond you did a good job keep it up.hoping that the next safari you will drive us again.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Four night package to Amboselli, Tsavo West and Tsavo East.
We booked our trip within 45 days of departing. While Vincent (the operator) was difficult to understand, he made up for with a stellar trip. I'm from America and I speak no other foreign language, and admire those that to. While not fluent in English, we decided emailing and texting would be best for both parties.
The company demanded only a wire transfer for a deposit. I think that in this day and age of credit cards, spending $80 wire fees is ridiculous, but I wanted to support a small business and begrudgingly wired the money and paid the fee. During our conversation, I clearly communicated that I will not be carrying $4,000 in cash and that my party would pay the balance with credit cards upon arrival. Upon arrival, this was met with reluctance by Vincent and mandated a trip back to Nairobi (out of the way by two hours with traffic) to meet his office manager that had a mobile unit for authorizing credit cards. Vincent could have had that with him when he met us, saving all of us two hours of our lives and more importantly, our vacation.
Once we got that out of the way, we met our driver and our guide, Lawi and we were on our way Amboseli. Lawi is a wonderful man and we enjoyed him immensely. After we checked into our accommodations at Amboseli, we went out on our first outing into the park. The first night we experienced an entire family of elephants near a small lake, that had a mother and baby hippo. We were delighted seeing that. We also experienced giraffe, impalas, gazelles, baboons and other exotic creatures. L
Lawi wanted to get us back to the lodge prior to dark, so we could eat dinner. Our group couldn't care less about eating timely or at all for that matter, if it meant sacrificing time looking for animals. That was met with resistance from Lawi. That issue also came up in the morning. We stayed 2o minutes from the park entrance and wanted to meet at 6:00. Lawi insisted we not leave prior to 6:30, but we settled on 6:15. The sun rose at 6:30 and by the time we got to the animals, the sun had been up for 30 minutes and we missed the best light of the day for our photography. However, once there we found a pride of lions coming across the savannah. Shortly after getting there, the lions continued coming directly toward us and we got amazing photographs of these magnificent animals. They crossed the road thirty feet in front of us and settle in a shadow with Mount Kilimanjaro directly behind them. It made an incredible photograph, when a lioness turned her head and looked directly at us with zebra and gazelles in the background.
Shortly after the lions went out of view, we saw a family of elephants again coming right at us. Lawi’s lack of understanding of photography became evident. While we could have easily stopped before the elephant and on the sunny side of them, Lawi continued past them and stopped the truck on the dark side of the animals. I was furious! Poor Lawi did not understand what he had done and after calming down, I conveyed the importance of being on the bright side of the animal, if at all possible, especially in hours immediately after dawn and before dusk. I’m not certain he understood why that was important, but he became vigilant at asking where he would like us to stop and that forged a great relationship with him for the rest of the trip.
After the magic of the morning resided, we went back to the lodge, cleaned up, ate breakfast and traveled on to Tsavo West. The drive there was remarkable with the scenery. It was hilly and heavily vegetated and while very scenic, it made seeing animals very difficult. We stayed at a phenomenal lodge at Tsavo West and it had a watering hole right of the back patio with a back drop of gorgeous landscapes. When we first arrived, an elephant was drinking water there along with many gazelles, waterbucks and zebra. We headed out that afternoon to view animals with little luck. The vegetation was just too thick to catch a glimpse of very many animals. Another outing in the morning yielded similar results, but it was breathtaking scenery. Then, it was on to Tsavo East after the morning drive.
Tsavo East is near the town of Voi and one must navigate its streets to arrive at the entrance to the national park. Voi was an interesting town where trash was simply thrown out and would land on public streets. It didn’t seem unusual at all to the people that lived there. Hundreds, maybe thousands of goats roamed the town and seemed to sanitize the trash as evidence of the fat goats, but I digress.
On our way to our lodge, there was no shortage of wildlife, we saw many bull elephants by themselves, many giraffes (twiga in Swahili). The accommodations were first rate again and we checked-in and then started our next drive. This time we went along a river where we witnessed many elephant families and all got great shots of them. We also experienced vervet monkies, baboons, along with many other species and witness babies as well.
After leaving Tsavo East, we took the highway to Mombasa where we said our goodbyes to Lawi and checked into a hotel there.
Overall, I thought Trip Advisor Africa Safaris served us well and I would book with them again.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Maasai mara Kenya safari
Myself and fiance went on safari. We both are well travelled but never did safari. Information out there was overwhelming. We chose pam safaris from recommendation . 4 in maasai mara nights was fantastic . Great attention to our needs from first email.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good choice!
If you want a safari these are the men for the job.
This safari was from Mombasa and we'd already had a safari from Nairobi earlier in the holiday with a different company where things had not gone according to plan and we were worried that this would be a repeat performance. We needn't have worried; this was a totally different experience and we quickly felt at ease and started to enjoy ourselves.
We opted for airport transfers and Max, the boss-man himself, was there waiting for us, with a big sheet of paper with our names on held high. We have often had problems of one sort or another with this type of meeting, but this time it was perfect.
On the day the safari began he was again already waiting for us when we came down to reception and introduced us to our driver & guide, Bashir. Bashir is a star. We saw and learned more than we had expected thanks to his comprehensive knowledge and helpfulness. The safari bus was in good order and he kept it clean & tidy, unlike some others we saw. Throughout the safari Bashir made sure we were well watered, well informed and as comfortable as possible, given the condition of the 'roads', and always seemed to know where the animals were to be found. We were always delivered to and collected from our overnight accommodation on time and it was always of the quality we had chosen, although there were a couple of substitutions - this is normal, and was explained early on in our booking.
Once again, on our departure, Max was waiting for us and we were taken to the airport in good time in the comfort of his personal car.
A safari is not something we'll be lucky enough to do again for a few years at least but when we do we'll be knocking on Max's door for sure.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A great experience, accommodating company, very professional guide.
I was shopping for a last minute trip to Africa, with less than two weeks notice. I didn't have time to do a lot of research, or join another group, so I started emailing companies I found online about options. Home to Africa was quick to respond, and willing to organize a trip for me, solo, on the dates I could travel. They sent several itinerary options for me to consider and kept in close contact to answer questions until it was settled.
There were a few issues with details, which I gave feedback for them to improve (like knowing how to wire money so that we don't all get hit with big fees; being clear about how much drive time was expected each day and offering stops; knowing if there was periodic wifi service available; providing a beverage as part of the meal; and being explicit about who tips at each stop on my behalf- little details that show top notch professional service).
Overall, my itinerary was a very good tour of the country. I could tell they had planned it to be as comfortable as possible for me (although this meant eating and staying at some places I would not have picked because they were situated and oriented only to tourists). Because my itinerary was designed to see highlights that were far apart, I had looong days in the car, so that is something to consider for your trip. The roads are not always in good shape, so it can be slow going, but I did also see a lot of interesting things out the window!
My guide Paul was an excellent driver, he was very professional and knowledgeable about what we were seeing. We saw all the wildlife I expected, I was able to talk with him about Uganda's history and politics, about conservation issues and natural history of the animals.... it is no small thing to be traveling with someone every day, all day, for 12 days and have a good experience. I had seen similar reviews of Paul and concur he is a pro!
I am happy to answer questions about this company, I recommend both their services and Uganda as a destination- this was my first trip to Africa. I never felt unsafe, and was able to have a very comprehensive experience of culture, landscape, and 'safari animals' in a 12 day tour.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari is the best part of Kenya but be prepared for lower service quality
We had with my wife a private 3 day Safari. The trip started in Amboseli, which was amazing - lot of animals and beautiful nature views. Kibo camp where we stayed was also great - tents were perfect, cozy and totally comfy. Then we moved to Tsavo West, which was a bit less interesting. It was very dry and we saw almost no animals. Luckily we are huge fans of nature, which was beautiful also there, so we were happy anyway - but I can imagine that "regular" tourists would be disappointed from seeing no animals there. The Ngulia Lodge where we stayed was also not a very nice place - very old, empty and with low service quality. Our guide Anthony was a nice guy, however he was more like a driver than a guide. He drove us safely to all of our agreed places, but he didn't provide us many additional information - only the name of an animal and some high-level basic info. He also paid more attention to his "fellow guides" than to us, which caused that we stayed for couple of minutes every 500m, when we met some other Safari car to have a talk with them. In general the Safari was great experience, but the service level could have been much better for so much money.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Soweto and Joburg Tour
We really had a fantastic time, Willy was always on time and he is a good tour guide.Willy explained every place we went and I understood we were not even afraid to ask questions.I also learned that Johannesburg is not all about history has many things to offer Coffee shops and food market etc.I will definitely recommend Mount Zion tours to tourist because they are really professional.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Excellent and very Responsive. They are customized according to budget.
They are very friendly &responsive. Customer care is good before, during & after travel. Their wide reach in the region makes them a good choice within the areas where we work.
Professionally organised trip, good lodges, excellent wildlife guides
Kingfisher Safaris arranged our trip in a very professional manner, with no communication glitches, and with excellent liaison with the local Zambian tour company. We stayed in two lodges in South Luangwa National Park. The lodges were actually situated very close to each other and game drives from each covered the same territory, but we saw different wildlife on each drive, so this was not a serious drawback. The lodges were very well run and the time was organised in a very efficient manner between rest, daytime safaris and night drives. The lodge staff were friendly and professional, and our wildlife guides were excellent.