BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Professional organisation offering expected game drive in Masai Mara
The pick up at Nairobi is always a bit chaotic. Indeed, no matter where do you stay, a cab has to take you in the cbd where you will pay the activity (we paid in US dollars). Then, you directly go to Masai Mara in a nice 4x4 vehicle driven by your guide. For us, it was James Gichina who was really good during the game drive to bring us close to the animals and especially the big 5. Regarding the hotel, it fits the expectations, the food was good. To resume, it was a great experience to discover the wild world of Masai Mara,
under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Friendly
Very good safari but could have been a bit more clear on what the trip involved as he didn’t tell us some of the things that we needed and that we weren’t getting. Great value for money though and really organised
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Ngorongoro Crater by Melissa Furano
It was our last park. The scenery was exceptional, but it was very cold, so it was probably the one we enjoyed the least.
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An Amazing African Adventure!
Bridgids Africa Adventures provided an unforgettable trip with excellent service and seamless communication from start to finish.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Almost perfect!
Overall, the trip was quite satisfying. Jimmy is very knowledgeable, experienced, and great at communication—he knows when to engage and when to give us space. When we encountered rare and beautiful scenes, he made sure we had plenty of time to enjoy and take photos.
However, Jimmy was a bit careless at times. For example, we often agreed to meet at the lobby at 7:00, but I had to call him at 7:10 to remind him, rather than him waiting for us in advance. On the last day, due to miscommunication with the transfer driver about the timing, we had to wait for an hour and a half in 30-degree heat.
These issues weren’t deal-breakers, but they did affect the experience. If Jimmy can improve on these easily fixable details, I would still recommend him to my friends.
OM
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
HK
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Generally satisfactory
Good value for money, the driver Jackson is reliable, makes best endeavours to search for the animals, drives smartly. If the driver can brief us the itinerary for the next day in advance, the service will be perfect.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good reliable operator providing a quality trip.
We travelled through Madagascar for 4 weeks with Madagascar Natural Tours. We enjoyed reliable and punctual service and had guides that were considerate of our preference to see wildlife in the National Parks. The roads are terrible, but our driver was always considerate of our comfort and tried to make it as smooth as possible.
SG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Reactive and efficient team, but unfortunately the shared tour is outsourced
I have booked a 10-day mid-range & high-comfort shared safari and zanzibar trip with Zanzi. All the communications and booking went smoothly ahead of the trip. The team at Zanzi is reliable and responsive. On my arrival, I got picked up at the airport and a representative from the company came to meet me at the hotel, collect outstanding payment and would be my contact point in case of issue during the trip.
To my surprise, the lodges I was told I would stay at (and given in my quote 5 months prior) were changed last minute. I didn't think much about it when I was told as I didn't realise the locations were actually different! Part of my tour was to stay 1 night in north Serengeti to catch the great migration, this night was changed to be back in central Serengeti, which means that I didn't get to stay a night in the north of the park which is what I had booked and paid extra for! So we only had half day in the north part of the park and had to leave by 3pm to drive all the way back to central Serengeti, which really was a pity as I thought I would get to enjoy at least 1 full day to 1.5 day there. This is the part where it is full responsibility of Zanzi and hence the 4 stars rating.
On another night, my accommodation was changed last minute on the day itself! I was looking forward to a lodge with a view and I ended up in an ecolodge tent with no running water and only shared electricity and no reception (nothing against ecolodge, they are great if I had chosen to stay in them, but for this trip I had chosen comfort and needed connection and this was in the coldest part of the trip in Ngorongoro - knowing my aversion for cold, i would have never picked to stay in a tent there, but I wasn't given the choice!). Zanzi team reimbursed me 100USD for this (I gave it back to them in the end).
The other point that is important to note and which I was not aware of when I booked is that shared tours are not shared amongst Zanzi guests with the same itinerary! This is outsourced to another company that pools together different guests from different agencies with different itineraries and different accommodations (being it level of comfort but also localizations!). So on the first day, I was in the car with 6 other people and from day 2 to day 5 with 6 other people, which was ok. The part that was not ok with me was that every morning and every evening, we would be spending 1.5 to 2 hours picking up and dropping off everyone in their respective lodges!! It was such a waste of time to be up at 6am and by the time everyone else was picked up it would be 8am, which is very late to start game driving (needless to say we missed all the actions! and it is very frustrating when going back to your lodge in the evening and hearing everyone else has seen animals that you haven't at all!). On the first day, the driver didn't know where my lodge was, it was already dark at night and brought me to the wrong lodge! I had to take my google map out, use roaming and indicate the route to take. On 2 occasions, I arrived past 9pm to my lodge, which is past dinner time! I was still served dinner, but I had no choice as to what to eat and had to eat what they served me. Most of time, I would arrive at night in my lodge (last to be dropped off), and depart before sunrise in the morning (first to be picked up) and so didn't get to enjoy at all balcony views, sunsets or sunrises or even relaxing time post safari day. I think the frustration culminated on the last day of safari when out of the 7 people in the car, 1 person was doing a balloon ride and all of the rest had to wait for her in a parking lot until 10.30am instead of game driving!! I felt I have wasted so much time in this trip on all these logistics instead of being in the park looking for animals. This is my 3rd safari in Africa and this is the first time I am encountering this, which seems to be the way in Tanzania, so beware when booking shared tours to ask how the sharing tour works.
I think I wasn't lucky with the driver and guide we got as well: he was very young and unexperienced (doing this for 1 year only), so there were still part of the parks he didn't know well (he had issue finding another lodge I was staying at inside Serengeti too) and it was frustrating to always follow other vehicles / guides he knew instead of going our way. He clearly wasn't passionate about the wildlife and would not be driving the right way to spot animals (way too fast to be able to spot anything on certain part) or getting way too close to animals to the point of disturbing them (I was surprised these guides don't get trained on what to do / not to do with wildlife).
It was the same in Zanzibar, the guide I got on the blue safari, took starfish out of water. Even some of us told him not to do so as it was killing them, he continued!
The guide I got in Stonetown was ok only, again not passionate and not listening to her guest preference. I am a photographer and I always like spending time in markets, because there is always good opportunities for photos. I did tell her I wanted to see the fish auction, I even insisted asking whether there were specific timings not to miss it! She let the market to the end of the tour and went around in 5min and saying this was the end of the tour and she needed to go and run her errands before shops close and it was too bad that at the time we arrived there was no auction ongoing! Lunch was included in this walking tour, but instead of asking me what I wanted she ordered what she wanted to eat. She ordered fish and octopus without asking (I eat seafood so it was ok but imagine someone who is not!) and I understood later that she actually wanted to pack the fish back home for dinner for her family!
All in all, it was a nice trip (Tanzania is a beautiful country and there is so much to do and see!), but obviously there were misses and disappointing parts!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
James communicated well and was ready to help when we were stuck.
This is my second time using Urbann vacations and I am happy the second experience was better than the first. Although the hotel mishandled us because we arrived early, they tried to make up for it.
