IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari was great! However, we had some problems on the 3rd day and missed two planned game drives.
We booked a four-day safari in Masai Mara and Nakuru. The 3 out of 4 days went as planned. On the third day, however, we had problems. We planned a morning game drive in the Masai Mara, but our driver refused to take us there and instead took us to visit a Masai village (which we did not request and which we did not like, being an extremely touristy and rather sad activity ... and with a surcharge of $10 per person!). Also on that day a "game drive en route" was planned, which we did not have. So basically the day was wasted, with one hour at Masai Village and the rest of the day driving back to Nakuru. We were quite disappointed. The good thing is that we managed to contact Ann, who was very helpful and gave us back 3000 Ksh each (which was the equivalent to one entrance fee to the park in Masai Mara). Still, we missed something we had booked. So be careful, try to defend your rights with the driver, and in case contact the agency while you still have time! (from what we have heard is a very common thing that has happened to many).
Apart from this, we can overall say that it was an amazing experience and we really enjoyed it! The parks are beautiful, we saw so many animals. The lodge in the Masai Mara was also really nice, and we liked so much to be in nature for a couple of days. The people working there were also really friendly (also the food was great!). Ann was always helpful and stayed in contact with us before and during the safari, which was really much appreciated.
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Mkomazi National Park
The tour guide Thomas was so nice and we had a really good time with him!
Sadly we were not informed before we paid that the animals in Mkomazi are very shy. Therefore the animals were far away. That wouldn‘t have been a problem if the tourguide had provided a binocular, but on both days we had none eventhough we asked…
But to see the rhino was a once in a lifetine experience!!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Hell's Gate National Park by Sophie C.
Very dusty if you hire a bike. You have to stay on the track so get clouds of dust when vehicles pass.
FI
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A budget safari with some challenges
We booked this safari well in advance with Donatus from 'selousrufijihippoadventure' who works with Ngalawa Camp. We tailor made the safari to be 4 days including a boat safari, 2 days of game drives in Nyerere, a visit to maasai village and a walking safari. Our day 1 drive from Dar Es Salaam to the camp took about 6hrs. It had rained the night before so our car got stuck in the mud twice and had to be pulled out with some help of locals. We also spent 2hrs just getting out of Dar as the "guides" went to do their foodbuy for the trip after picking us up. The person who was our driver was also told to be our "guide" but throughout the whole 4 days he did not give us any information and was purely the driver. In Ngalawa we got another local expert who joined us for the boat safari and the game drives. The boat safari was really nice and we enjoyed it a lot. On Day 2 we got a bit unlucky as it was raining and we didn't see so many animals during the game drive. In the morning we got stuck in the mud again and had to be pulled out with some help. To be noted, our safari car was not a 4 wheel drive so it got stuck very easily and our driver wasn't experienced with driving in mud. After lunch our driver headed to a route where we specifically told him not to go as we had seen the condition of the road. Immediately after we got stuck in the mud and spent the next 3hrs trying to push the car out of it without any success. Our local guide didn't have a radio to call for help and the mobile reception was coming and going. This part especially felt quite unsafe. He told us that some help was coming but didn't know when and after 3hrs trying to push the car out of the mud we ended up hitchhiking 50km on a truck to get to the gate of the park and to get out before dark. During the Day 3 game drive we told our driver to stay only on routes that didn't give us a chance to get stuck. Of course this limited our chances of seeing all possible animals. In the end of the day we visited a nearby maasai village. This visit wasn't really planned beforehand and the maasai didn't seem to know that we were coming. On Day 4 we did a morning walking safari with Didi who was a great character! He really made the walking safari very interesting and fun! The Ngalawa Camp itself was nice and the staff were friendly. It would have been nice to have a choice of dishes for meals instead of set plates. Our drive back to Dar took about 5hrs and in the end we had to renegotiate the price of the safari due to the circumstances.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Tsavo West National Park by Russell Corbett
I did not have great luck here, especially since I arrived at noon. I did like the guided hike at Mzima Spring.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Nakuru National Park by Russell Corbett
I did not have a lot of luck. It was very dry on my visit except right at the lake. I got good shots there, but ate dust most of the day.
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.