20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Average
Fair services
but bad with time keeping both drivers and tour guide
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Aberdare National Park by Clare
We didn't see quite as much wildlife in the Aberdare but had a great time! Definitely need a car with high clearance - the roads are rough but do-able & make for a fun adventure with the right people.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great tour, but there is room for improvement.
Hi,
we had a wonderful hike on the Marangu Route / Kilimandscharo. The planning, communication and overall process before the trip has been great, tour price reasonable. Onsite everything has worked as planned, everybody reliable and on time and we felt in good hands. The guides have been very friendly, knowledable, adapated the tour to our speed & wishes and the food has been good. (as higher you get as less it does taste, haven't known this before) We didn't make it fully to the peak due to elevation level but still we had a wonderful once in a lifetime trip!
On the downside of things our support group has been eleven(!) people (to get the two of us on the top?) and it has not been explained to us why we need so many people. This got clearer when it was time for the (not really mandatory) tipping round as everybody expected to receive something. We stayed a little under the 'recommended rates' and still gave 500$. This unfortunately left a negative impression on the professionality of Tansania specialist.
There is no reason not to book with Tansania Specialist, still it might make sense to compare with others as well and have a special attention on these type of details.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great staff, but beware a bargain
My day trip to Saadani via speedboat from Zanzibar was a wonderful day out, but not without its complications. Abdallah was helpful and communicative from the start, but I had to pay $17 in Tanzanian bank fees to pay a deposit to hold my spot (not the operators’ fault, I appreciate). When the day of the Safari had to change due to adverse weather, the communication and rebooking process was excellent, and they even drove me to a different part of the island afterwards at no extra cost.
My main complaint is that the boat that took us from island to mainland and back was barely seaworthy. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the small size of the vessel, and learned that we had to wade through knee-deep water to disembark (I had asked beforehand if I should wear a swimsuit and was told no so I got my clothes wet!). En route back, the motor actually stopped working and we had to travel back at a very slow pace as a result, taking almost 3 hours instead of 75 mins. It was worrying, to say the least.
The Safari itself was indeed fantastic, and our park guides were very helpful and friendly and spoke excellent English. All in all a great park to visit if like me you only have one day. We saw giraffe, Impala, elephants, many more animals. It was the ideal first Safari experience.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very good driver
Very good value for money. Saw the full big 5 in massai mara, with a very skilled driver. Camp side was very nice, with own bathroom.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by S. Müller
All flamingos are gone. Due to extension of the lake the scenery looks a bit spooky.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Be aware of last minute surprises and disappointment, as a disappointing start and a sad end.
The company maybe good, so long as they give you their dedicated tour guides.
We felt we were duped, in that the dedicated driver was changed the morning of the start of the tour, resulting in a late start. The replacement guide (who later confirmed he was freelance and not with the company) seemed like he was dragged out of bed and tired throughout the day. He was a nice guide, but we felt like things were rushed. There was no debrief at the star and or cautions during the drive. This was particularly important when a deep ravine was attempted to cross requiring a sharp decline. No warning was given, which sadly resulted in the wife falling from the roof vantage point and damaging her ribs and arm. The Serengeti was an awesome place, but sadly the promise of seeing the migration by the tour company was just a hype to get us to sign up with them as no attempt was made to try and view the migration, which sadly was told by a guide from a different company that the package/days would not allow for such a drive. The camps were ok but in need of maintenance, especially one where the hot water was not functioning, resulting in a bucket and electric kettle being provided. The last day was the biggest disappointment as it was Ngorongoro crater and home to the Rhino, which sadly, after repeated requests to try and find the Rhino, was never attempted and the day was wasted by killing time driving, stopping for 5 minutes, driving stopping etc. Then to our shock and horror, the trip was cut short by 40 minutes and we were rushed off to the airport without any further game drive.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
ES
Communicative
Overall my experience in a 4-Day Tour with Africa Magical Scenery Tours was good in terms of what was expected. To see and share wild life with animals is a unique experience! Also the driver/guide drove excellent on the road. Although, the second day of the tour my guide was confused and did not know that I was going to Nakuru with the rest of the group, then he sorted it out. The third day I could not enjoy the partial game tour it was supposed to be because the guide did not want to, or perhaps because of a lack of coordination. That day our guide made me feel bad for taking some pictures in a few specific points such as the Mara National Park main entrance, cos “it was a problem to take me there”, I still wonder why that’s a problem when it comes to feed the tourist curiosity and enrichen the experience. Last but not least, Next time I would rather hire a guide who has eagerness and initiative to explain about Kenian culture, curiosities and interesting facts about wild animals.
TR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tanzania and its nature was great but we had some bad experience with tour guys
First of all, I loved Tanzania and everything I saw and I experienced during my trip. You can book any tours via here (I mean this website not th tour company) its really perfect. I had 4 days tour but I think 2 or 3 days would be really enough. Don’t waste your money and days for extra 1-2 day.
Our first day, our car broken and they gave us back up car. It was full of dust, we couldn’t even breathe. Also, with new car we had a new driver for that day. He driven car so fast (our speed was 3 times more then the others). Even our warning he just drive fast and it wasn’t safe. After the arriving camp site we waited more then 3 hours to eat and get into our tent. Every other groups ate their dinner and went to their tent and we just waited outside with nothing (no food, no tent, not even chair we just waited ). Anyway we asked where is our tents and where is our driver to every responsible person over there and they told us oh he will come in 30 mins every time. And after 3-4 hours they gave us tent which I should have my own tent but I shared with stranger. At midnight they told us they never talked with driver -they said they talked with him and he will come in 30 min severel times- and they told us to go to sleep. Also we didn’t have morning plan because we didn’t have driver. In the afternoon our driver came but we had same problems everyday. Our car broken 3 times, no body try to explain anything, we always went to campsite latest and started to tour every morning latest. It was really bad experience in that way.
PS: You can buy cheapest tour for same program because people in my group we all bought same tour from different operators. For the same tour we paid different amounts (there was a 250 dollars difference me and a guy). So with the over 4 stars operator you can choose cheaper one