GR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
a pleasant trip along the garden route
Cape Town was great as always, but for the weather, cold grey and foggy. Winchester Mansions hotel was very comfortable. unable to see anything at Cape Point and table mountain cable car was shut. V&A shopping improves with each visit.
Drove the garden route and stayed at Franschoek, The Avondrood Guest House, lovely, wine tram was great. Stayed at The Belvidere Manor Kynsa, nice complex of chalets outside Knysa, very pretty views and visited the Craggs sanctuaries , all of which were very good. Bird World is a very special place!
Drove to Port Elizabeth. Only stayed at one private game park on this safari, Lalibela which,we found out when we arrived, was under reconstruction( not the lodge, the reserve !!! ) . We were shown a video explaining their long term plans and why we would go on to see huge areas of devastation so the vibe was very muted at Lentaba lodge. Had we known they were taking hundreds of mature non indigenous trees out with heavy equipment we would not have stayed there. The bush has yet to grow back. The effect on the wildlife must be substantial. We paid for a chalet upgrade ( it was our wedding anniversary and my wife's special birthday ) only to find it was nearest to the very noisy generator which switched on every 4 hours when they experienced the Government induced power cuts. Very obtrusive in the room. It was so noisy it drowned out conversation at the pool! Sounded like a jet engine! . Weather was not good, with rain and mist and little sun, not a good time of year to safari. In all a holiday with some highlights but could have been so much better. Not good value for money to us.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Kakamega Forest National Reserve by Christiane Saar
We only cant See a few animals.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good viewing - poor guiding
The booking process was easy and Thale was a pleasure to work with. Very accommodating.
The accommodations were as advertised and decently comfortable.
It was on overall good value for a private tour, with food included and in those accommodations. I enjoyed the food, great cooking by Lungisani!
My problem and reason for 3/5 is the guides. I honestly don’t know if Isaac can see well enough to be guiding tours. He was knowledgeable when we spotted an animal, but he never saw them. Lungisani would spot all the animals and tell Isaac to stop (his driving wasn’t great either). On the 2 drives in which Lungisani didn’t come, Isaac didn’t even stop the vehicle once because he didn’t see anything (even though we did). Also he didn’t speak once to us. When they were both there, on the drives and at camp/during meals, they just spoke to each other in their own languages or were on their phones, which made it very awkward and uncomfortable for us. Very little conversation with us and getting to know each other. Although we saw lots of animals, and the park was incredible, the guides detracted from our experience a lot.
Overall, would I go back to Kruger? Yes, 100%. Would I use Wild planet safari? Possibly, but it would totally depend on who the guides were. Service levels while spending 5+ full days with someone needs to improve drastically.
SE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Etosha National Park by Jessica Krepper
I have been to Kruger National Park before. It was more wildlife and greener. But with that said it was low season in Etosha when I was there. But we did see a lot of lions. Which was great!
US
Got referral. Sounds great. Good price. Good cause.
Got referral. Sounds great. Good price. Good cause.
BR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful time at Krueger game, but some issues with the logistics
We had a great time in South Africa, really beautiful Country, we had the best Safari we could have with the guide Mr. Lucky Mathebula, we saw see all the big five with him, he was simply the best. The Lodge (accomodation) was really good as well, the owner was a sympathic lady and the food was good.
But on the other hand we had some issues with the Bonnie, the guide that took us from Joanesburg to the Park and back to Joanesburg.
He got late to pick us up in the hotel to get to Krueger so we didn´t have time to have lunch, we had to eat our pizzas on the way to the Park! Also, he didn´t make any effort to be nice when he was joining dinner with us. When returning from the Park to Joanesburg, he drove fast and it was rainning a lot, a lot of accidents on the road, it was really tense.
And to complete, he charged us 300 Rand each to see the Panoramic route, when the offered from Adventour was 250 Rand per person. We felt really disappointed and betrayed.
I explained all the above to Mr. David (my contact at Adventour), he apologysed and said he would make a refund to amend the situation. We are still waiting the refund, his last promise was to make it today.
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Arusha National Park by Gilbert Meon
The main interests of Arusha NP is game walking and the flamingoes at Big Momela lake
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Donald Gramkow
After a flood in 2013, the park entrance has suffered big destruction and has not yet renovated. The wildlife itself is very interesting, but Serengeti and Tanrangire are much better.
IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Bogoria National Reserve by Ankit Desai
Can be given pass. Visit only if you are interested in Hot-spring and flamingos... Too far for travelers!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Vast but sparsely populated
Visited both Tsavo East and Tsavo West. They are quite vast, but sadly not a wide variety of animals are present. You see plenty of elephants and zebras, some giraffes, and that's almost it! We spent 2 days and only saw 2 lions in Tsavo East on our very last hour after a very frantic search for them (our guide had been told where to go and look for them!). There was the occasional monkey and one buffalo. This is all over 2 days! If you really want to see animals go to Maasai Mara, Amboselli, etc.