SA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Rwanda Trip
I stayed in Rwanda for 5 days and they arranged for me 3 different tour, Day 1 Kigali city tour, Day 2 Nyanza district i visit King place museum, Day 3 i did Volcanoes National park and I terreked golden monkey tril i saw alot of them. Was amazing everything. Thank you so much
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Incredible wildlife viewing & accommodation
We (family of 4) did a safari with Serengeti Smile through the Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro & Lake Manyara - and it exceeded our expectations. We saw far more wildlife than we expected, our guide Zach excelled at getting us the best game sightings and was flexible with the game drives to meet our desired sightings, which included a long drive to the northern Serengeti to catch the great migration. We had a wonderful time - highly recommend
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly recommended! Great communication, safe, and trustworthy
Our safari with Gilmag was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I 100% recommend working with Mary and her team at Gilmag. My wife and I visited from California in mid-June for our honeymoon and we had an amazing experience (private safari for a couple with mid to high-end accommodations). Mary and Erick (our driver-guide) were hard-working, honest, and we felt safe and comfortable the whole time. Here's how it went:
*Booking*
Our goal was to have a safe, high-quality safari, with a great guide to see all the animals.
I emailed about 30 tour operators (after going through reddit, friend recs, trip advisor reviews, google, etc.) to inquire about their tours. I found with some operators they had nice website and a junior sales person in say the UK that was smooth but was only superficially knowledgeable around the actual on-the-ground safaris in Tanzania. Plus they charged a huge/unnecessary premium mainly for having a slick website and English-speaking sales reps.
Or I spoke to junior sales reps in Tanzania who's English was not as proficient and it felt like they were copy-pasting pre-written answers to me when I asked a simple question. Eventually, I had to pay thousands of dollars to one of these operators that I had never met in person, so I made sure to do my homework.
After emailing, whatsapping, and having calls with ~30 operators - Mary was BY FAR the best tour operator I spoke with. Her English is good and she was the most responsive (she would respond to my whatsapp messages quickly), knowledgeable (she has been running Gilmag locally from Tanzania for years and knows the ins-and-outs of every angle of a Safari tour), and flexible (she really listened and accommodated us when I asked for adjustments) travel agent I spoke to. We spoke about the various lodges at different levels and what she thought about them and I felt like I could trust her.
*Safari*
On the Safari - my wife and I had a once-in-a-lifetime trip. We saw lions (multiple times, cubs, lionesses, multiple male lions), hippos, giraffes, elephants, thousands of zebras, buffalo, and probably at least 100,000 wildebeests (the Great Migration is truly an epic natural wonder).
Erick was our Driver-Guide and we had a great experience with him. My wife and I always felt safe during the tour. As a driver, Erick was very safe and reliable - he always managed to get us to our lodges and flight on time (we typically liked to take a lot of photos and linger for a long time).
As a guide, Erick was great at finding all the animals. Once we saw about 15 lions about 5 to 20 feet away (lionesses, cubs, and TWO male lions at the same time). He was really knowledgeable about all the animals/plants/landscape in the Serengeti (he's been doing this for I think 10+ years). He taught us cool factoids like the hippos excrete in the pools, the fish eat the excrement, the crocodiles eat the fish - so if a crocodile eats a hippo they are ostracized from the group (I love this kind of stuff).
Mary also helped us arrange the flight from Central Seronera to Zanzibar and our airport transfer in Zanzibar. We felt very safe the whole time, knowing Mary had arranged a driver that she trusts to pick us up.
Overall, it was a 5 star safari experience. If you're looking to go on safari in the Serengeti, I would 100% recommend booking your safari with Mary and her team at Gilmag.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Kilipath was well informed, patient, and accommodating
Kilipath made the whole safari experience easy. From research to booking to minor adjustments along the way, they handled everything effortlessly. I highly recommend their services and would book with them again.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Giraffe
Fantastic patience with me crazy husband and I. The guides were spectacular and very knowledgeable. They built a customized Safari for us several different times to get it just right. The accommodations they selected were very nice and had great views and services. 100% would book with them again.
CN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
What a perfect trip to Kenya!
Trust me, this was truly an unforgettable journey! We managed to see all the animals we wanted to see. Our driver Martin was professional, passionate, and incredibly patient. Even though I've traveled to 40 countries, the sheer wonder of this Kenyan safari still stands out as a lifetime experience!
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very friendly and professional
I did this safari with my wife and my daughter who’s 9 years old. We thank the whole staff who are true professional especially Michael our guide. All logistics worked flawlessly , (pick up, boat cruise, etc)and the lodges were superb including food. The way to Reserve from Dar es Salaam is about 4 hours with bad road but finally it was an amazing experience ! Maybe we had good fortune we have seen many animals and beautiful birds. It’s unforgettable ! We thank you again.
Recommended
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very well organised safari experience
This was our first safari experience and we could not have wished for anything more! We got picked up at OR Tambo for our van transfer (perfect, both ways), then joined a private game reserve afternoon safari, 2 days in Kruger park and a guided tour through beautiful nature 5 day, 4 nights program - would highly recommend!). The itinerary was very well communicated and we did not have to think about anything ourselves during our stay at the tentcamp. The facilities there are also good, the food is amazing and the camp host (Ian in our case) is very friendly and takes care of all the rest!
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari
There was a good and fast communication. Even when our Flight changed (Airport and Time) they rearranged the booking so that we would make it to the Flight.
The tour was great and we had an excellent tourguide.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Responsible, friendly, a very good organizer
Joseph is really awesome. He helped us plan the whole journey and everything went well in Tanzania. We decided to change our plan in the middle of our trip, he helped us make it and booked another tent with a fair price. He is so caring and responsible. We really appreciate everything he has done.
