ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great work online
The online communications with Axis Africa was amazing. Lennox answered always fast and clear. But the reality afterwards wasn't that good.
I paid for a upgrade and I stay in a low category camp in Masai Mara. Also I was said I will be in the Sopa Naivasha. In from of the lodge I was said then that I was "upgraded" to another lodge. I wasn't. The Naivasha Lodge was worst than the lodge I had paid for. It was a disappointment.
Then, Robert the driver made us leave the last day from Amboseli before time, only because he wanted to go to " no man's land", in the Tanzania-Kenya border to buy grain. Quite a surreal experience! I guess this kind of things happen a lot in safaris, but it was quite surprising for me.
DK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Average !!
We went on a 11 days Safari with AAA in the end on September 2019, Tanzania. We are ardent wildlife lovers and had pretty high expectation from AAA considering the earlier reviews. However, I must admit that the experience was pretty average.
Day 1 - Travel to Tarangire from Arusha - Stay in Tent in Lake Manyara
Lots of time wasted in Arusha (picking up food for next 3 days). This should have been arranged before picking up us. As a result we reached Tarangire pretty late - Past noon. Tarangire is a pretty nice place for game drive. We were staying at Manyara, which was 2 hours of drive from Tarangire, so we were forced by the driver to leave before the usual time of park closure. Again a disappointment - the road from taranire to Manyara is a highway and no reason the drive cannot be taken after dark. At camping site, the tent provided - we had fight with the zipper to close it. These are basics of camping. Dinner was good.
Day 2: Started Trip to Manyara around 630 in the morning, Breakfast was good. Lunch packet was good. Game drive was nice. But again the driver/guide was too keen to leave early before the closing time of the park. We missed the bird watching walk. Dinner was good.
Day 3: Manyara to Lake Natron: Start of the trip was delayed - as the chef informed that the driver found some defect in the car. Was wondering why the maintenance was not done in time and vehicle not checked in time. We started at 9 (wanted to start at 7) and reached Natron at 1.30 pm. We wanted to directly go to the Natron lake for Birding - but again the driver/guide played the spoil sport. We were not taken to the location before 4 pm. We were frustrated. The entire plan and experience was ruined as the day got wasted. The camp site arranged was horrible. Worst toilet possible. Food was OK.
Day 4: Natron to Serengeti North: Started at 7 and reached around 1400. Game drive was good. Stayed in Heritage Mara Tented Camp for 3 days. Superb location and staff.
Day 5-6 - Game drive was good. Watched the Mara river crossing. The driver/guide always found it difficult to find the correct spot suitable for photography and filming. I did not find the guide passionate about wild-life.
Day 7-9 - Central Serengeti - Again the game drive was nice. Arranged stay was at heritage Tented Camp - Fantastic location and experience. But same story with driver/guide continued - missed spotting birds, driving past / stopping late - we missed quite a bit of shots. And this was heartening as this was the sole purpose of the trip.
Day 10-11 - Central Serengeti / Ngorongoro - Stayed in Rhino Lodge - Great location again. But was again amazed by the drivers behavior at the dinner table - don't know if he was high - but whatever. Ngorongoro game drive was nice.
Over all - I would say the trip could have been much more satisfying & fulfilling. In Serengeti all the vehicles communicate over radio and once something interesting is spotted all vehicle comes to know - so don't worry you will have a lot of sightings for sure.
under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
we didn't see that many animals
I already went to the same safari before with my family and we were able to see way more animals and a lot of the big 5 close to our vechiles. When we went we were able to only see one lion that was also 1km away from us which was very disappointing the same with the elephants and rhinos.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great for budget and convenience, but more downtime than expected
Safari With Us booking at Kruger adventure lodge was overall a good experience for the price we paid, which while not cheap was definitely the cheapest we found compared to others for the value it offered. This package definitely maximizes budget and convenience (transportation to/from airports and safaris each day, breakfast and dinners included), however the package included more downtime than was expected with little to do on site.
The package advertised activities at night, full day safari and optional game rides on the third day. All optional rides were ~$100 extra each, there were no activities at night, unreliable WiFi only in the reception area, and the full day (which does start at 5am) ended before 3pm with nothing to do in the evening. So, what we thought was a 3 day safari was actually 1.5 (evening ride day 1 and 5am-3pm day 2). The game rides were incredible and made the experience absolutely worth it, but more transparency about what we were actually getting up front would have been nice.
The staff were mostly friendly (especially those who drove us and receptionists up front), with exception of 1-2 wait staff who seemed caught off guard when we sat down to eat and were not friendly at all.
The rooms were clean and spacious, though the AC does go out, the fridge did not work, and we found a frog in our bathroom on the last day.
Overall, I would still recommend this tour package if you are looking to maximize on budget and convenience while still getting to see some incredible things, but not if you are looking to maximize your time on Safari or a luxury lodging experience.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Addo Elephant National Park by Ruth
Too many cars driving around.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Classic Overall my experience with Classic Journey was average.
Classic journeys needs to be more detail oriented.
We would get to the airport not knowing what airline we are flying, and have to call them last minute to find out.
They need to audit the hotels, they are doing business with on a regular bases. We were sent to Swahili hotel on the coast which is a dump!!! I would not send my worst Enemies to that hotel.
Tour guides were good, am not sure if it’s a wage issue or not but some tour guides had a body odor issue. The knowledge level of the tour guide was good.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Overall, I give you 3 stars as customer service wasn't the best. Our safari driver was very good!
Last month our travels in Kenya were to Masai Mara (2 days/2 nights), followed by a hotel resort stay in Diani Beach (2 day/2 nights). Leading up to this booking with Purity and Bienvenido, I researched several different companies, some of which were not on safaribookings.com, etc. One of these companies had great customer service, and I was nearly ready to commit and book, however, given the fact he didn't take credit card payments, I backed out of it completely. I explained this to Bienvenido and was looking for good service and more convenient payment options. Despite the fact I mentioned this, I found it difficult to book since I was 2 continents away (and there was a 9 hour time difference). I had higher expectations with Purity, and customer service is so very important to me, I found the process of things very strange and just different. We were asked to send different information and documents later on and it just wasn't as organized as it should've been. The service was kind and courteous all along, but there was too much of a delay in getting back to me about what we needed. Perhaps it's due to experience and it's a newer company, but I don't know why for sure. However, I did appreciate (eventually) having our transfers all set up, but again it was very last minute that we received the info. We would ask Purity for the details, but then sometimes there was no response. Delayed again. However, she would always get back to us, told us to relax and be patient. I'm not sure why if I paid in advance and was on top of things and diligent, why we had to wait sometimes days after she originally said she'd get back to us. This was my first safari, and the actual safari was spectacular. The wildlife was out of this world! The tent in Miti Mingi was just okay, with some electrical problems at times and there was NO hot water. That definitely lowered the score. On the flip side, what did raise the overall score was our safari driver, Boniface (I hope I have this correct)! He was such a great driver, very personable, patient, and went out of his way for us. It was excellent customer service. Good job!
The second leg of our travels took us to Diani Beach. However, before we got to the beach, we had to travel 5.5-6 hours from Masai to Nairobi. Due to the hard rains the evening before, we had to take a detour, so this ended up delaying us far too long. Some of the safari group members were forced to leave early with us instead of staying one more day (one group member was not too pleased). It made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but I tried to ease the situation for him. Whether he complained to management or not, I do not know. He became a friend to me however. :) Great members on the trip made for a fun time also! Anyway, Boniface dropped all of us off, somewhere about 2 hours from Nairobi (where each person picked up their transfers). I was getting nervous and he reassured me you guys will make your flight to Ukunda (Diani Beach). It turned out everyone else in both safari vans had been picked up for their transfers before us. That left us all alone still waiting! We had a 3:20 flight and it was not until about 1pm I believe before our driver picked us up (with our luggage). Imagine that. Not what either of us wanted for sure. He drove like a madman and obviously knew he was under pressure and stress. It was like the Daytona 500 (which is today as I write this), and he somehow got us to the airport about 2:45. At this point we still had to go through security and pass through the other one after being dropped off. We raced to the gate, said we were in a hurry, and somehow...with all of this craziness and stress of thinking we would miss our flight for sure...I asked the woman behind the check in counter if the gate was still open...and she said, "Yes!" Amazing. It was way too close for comfort, but we made it. It was a miracle that we made it. However, this could have been avoided with much better planning on the company's part. That's why it is best to get to the airport 2-3 hours beforehand, esp. when you hire a company to plan everything for you. I think I'd go with another company next time, however, the trip as a whole was priceless. My first trip to Kenya was incredible! Thanks for reading. I hope you publish this, because Bienvenido Kenya Tours can learn a lot from our experience, as well as others. I am appreciative for some of your efforts, we were just disappointed in some of the service as a whole. I had higher expectations than what we received.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not great info
We booked through this company without realising same trip half the price through company in Cape Town . The driver was ok but obviously ready to retire as seemed bored , Jeep very old and we had paid top dollar so expected excellent Jeep but not the case . We were told to buy all our equipment so after spending over a thousand dollars each discovered the lodge supplied everything for gorilla trekking and all info about that was not great . Our lodges were great and food and service but will not use this company again . Absolutely no follow up on return which speaks volumes
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Ok
Food, transportation, guide were great... but the wildlife and safari experience was regular
RU
Can’t say it was the best experience in my life
Things I liked:
- beautiful nature and animals;
- accommodation was perfect;
- the car was new and safe;
And what spoiled my impression:
- our guide wasn’t a real guide. I would say that it was a driver. I don’t remember anything interesting he told us about wildlife.
- a lot of cheating everywhere. It would be nice if a travel company or a guide warned tourists against all those beggars on every step. In a massai village native people literally extorted 40$ from us. It’s one of the points of the tour and I felt unsafe there.
- 5-days tour is very long. In fact, 3-4 days is enough for what we have seen. On the 3 day in serengety the driver dragged time and we drove with the speed 20 km ph. At 3 pm he brought us to the lodge. The only thing we saw on the fifth day is massai village (15 min) and then at 11 am we arrived in Arusha.
- there were a lot of misunderstanding with the guide and the manager. They asked additional money for massai village (100$ pp) inspite it was included into our package. Only my email to another manager helped. Plus, initially we agreed to leave us at the border with Kenya after our tour. They said that it’s no problem, it’s on our way. At the end of our trip our guide asked 100$ for it. That’s so miserable.