NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great views and animals, challenging logistics
I booked a group joining safari with Beast Spoor. I was with 7 other several travellers who booked through different agencies. The driver guide was employed by another agency (Axis) too. Although communication upfront with Beast Spoor was good and swift I was not aware of the above.
As the organising agency and the driver were not from Beast Spoor it is difficult to pinpoint whos fault it was when things went wrong (drop off in wrong hotel, driver not fully aware of everything in my package). Logistics was a challenge and waist of time as the group was staying in 3 different lodges througout the trip (3x drop offs and 3x pickups every day). Also this was not communicated to me before.
Having said all this, Beast Spoor did their best to ensure i had a good trip. My advise would be to book a private trip with them not a group joining trip.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Just good enough.
Generally speaking, the experience was quite good. However, there were some points that we did not like at all.
First of all, the visit to the "Masai village" from the Enkorok Mara Camp hotel. The hotel is very nice. However, we had a very bad experience with the visit to the “Masai village”. It is not worth visiting it at all. We were 2 adults and 1 kid. We pay 70$ for a 15-20 minutes visit plus the big market that they make ready just after finishing the visit to try to sell to you different kind of items.
Regardless of the cost, the worst point was the feeling we got after the visit. We felt that the only and main aim of the visit was to get money from the foreigners, not to show a real Masai village.
The hotel itself is not directly involved in this visit/activity, but they are aware of the situation. In fact, one of the hotel staff members were directly involved in the visit as an inhabitant of the Masai village. Therefore, they should advise their clients about the details of the activity.
Second one, we got the feeling that our guide was "just doing his job" without providing any extra advice or knowledge of many points related to the trip. For example, he does not advise us on how to deal with the shopping at the markets. He neither advise us on the visit to the Masai village. In fact, he even recommended us to go to the Masai village.
Therefore, it could have been quite better.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Holly
Of the parks visited, this was the hardest to see animals and seems like ecological change has impacted the behavior of them. It was a lush jungly vibe and we did see a lot of wildlife, to be sure, but as a follow on to the other parks, I might have allocated the time to the Crater or Serengeti.
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Khwai Concession by Mandy Dickinson
We only spent a couple of nights in this area and saw plenty of water buck, Buffalo, lions, hippo and a couple of crocodiles. It was lovely to go for a walk near the river with a guide and pont up river with another guide the second afternoon. Saw a Lioness drinking water from the river from our tent late afternoon on the first day, and later heard the squeal of a Buffalo who we assumed was that nights dinner for the Lion pride.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice experience, but with some negative aspects
Me and my girlfriend went on a safari with Vision Safari. In general, it went all smooth, the drivers were very nice and we were able to see all animals. The food was good. We were given very good binoculars, branded tshirts and a keychain, which we really appreciated.
There were a couple things which were unexpected:
- You are informed by Vision safari that there might be some people from other agencies in the car, but they don’t inform you that you’re actually one of them, because we were on a car NOT owned nor handled by Vision safari, instead it belonged to a second company, and hosted customers from themselves, vision safari and other agencies.
- Vision safari mentions while booking that they have the best and newest vehicles, however the ones we got did not belong to them as mentioned before, and were about 25 years old with more than 550.000 km on the Odometer. They were not well maintained, the last we got had wet seats in the morning and was leaking water inside all over the safari.
- They advertise that the tent you’ll sleep in has some bed structures, however you’ll sleep on 10 cm mattresses on the ground.
- While you are in the lodge waiting for your car, it’s not really clear what’s gonna happen, when and whit whom. You just wait, sometimes hours.
- The people that were in our car booked the very same safari (Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Manyara) and being them in our very same car, they had the exact same experience. They booked through Serengetisafaritour and spent 700 USD per person, as opposed to us, which booked with Vision safari and spent 850 USD per person. I would then recommend to go with Serengetisafaritour to save 150 USD per person and receive the exact same experience.
- On the website the price was 800 USD, but when we receive the quote they raised the price to 850 USD without informing us beforehand. I did not like that they raised the price, and that they did it without saying it. Furthermore, we requested the safari only, but when they sent us the quote and asked us to formally accept it, they included 2 nights in a hotel/lodge without informing us, and at an additional price not included in the quote. I would recommend you read the offer thoroughly to be sure of what you’re accepting.
IE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Safari was disappointing
Disappointing safari
This was our third safari the last 2 were in masa mari National park this one was in Nyerere national park
We booked through Greg adventures and would not use them again
They flew us outside the national park and arrived at 7 am and we couldn’t enter the park til after 11 am because they only paid 2 days park fee when though we were quoted for a 3 day safari
We drove nearly 7 hours to get to our hotel through desperate roads
We ended up having to buy a flight out from a nearby airstrip as we couldn’t face the journey again
The park is nowhere near as good as masa mari it’s hard to see the animals with all the growth and we could drive fir ages without seeing anything
Overall disappointing and had a lot of upset all down to the agent we booked through
CW
65+ years of age
nice to see once
We were not lucky to visit national game park in rain season at the coast near DAR es Salaam. Due to the high grass and bush we did not see a lot of animals,Dar es Salaam is a big city with not a nice vibe.
ES
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Correct
The program was ok, we watched lots of animals, but it would be fine if you change the jeep, ours was very old and dirty!!
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Murchison Falls National Park by Astrid EM
Coming from South Africa, I have been to many other national parks. At Murchison Falls NP the scenery is quite monotonous, though the tall grass is a beautiful contrast to the sand roads. Cob, elephants and giraffes seem to dominate the wildlife scene, but I did see buffalo and some other antelope as well but no zebra. The lion kill had been close to the road but too many safari vehicles were bunched together at the site, so the lions moved off into the tall grass. Another highlight was the quick sighting of a leopard walking though the grass. The birding was very rewarding!
BR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Drowsy driver
We took a 1-day trip to Amboseli. The safari part was ok but the transfer between Nairobi and Amboseli was carried out by a driver who was dead sleepy (both on the way and on the way back), which left us insecure. On the way back, I even sat next to him to talk and make sure I kept him awake.
