50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Vast but sparely 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.
SK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
good office interaction, driver not perfect
Minneh was great helping get this organized at the start and was quick to respond to our questions and queries, which was fantastic. But there were some mixups on what time we were supposed to be picked up at our hotel to start. Not a big deal, but we were told three different times and ended up ready at 7am while the driver said he was told to get us at 8am. A bigger deal was the 45min wait at the tax office coming home while our driver sorted out permitting issues on the way out. Other safari teams came through the tax checkpoint quickly, showed their receipts, and left -- less than 60 seconds -- while our paperwork wasn't quite right, and so we waited and waited and waited.
The animals of course were great, which is what you want to remember from the experience. And Keekorok lodge, while dated, was a great location and had super friendly staff.
I'd probably be okay using Jocky Tours again for the ease of payment and organizing, but just double and triple check how things are supposed to go on timing. And maybe avoid Leonard as a driver. We didn't get as a warm a fuzzy with him as we might have liked -- he'd clearly done this a lot before, but spent a lot more time on his phone while driving that we would have wanted.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Tarangire National Park by Kadir
Tarangire is dominated by elephants
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tanzania was beautiful but the change of our travel plan by Uhuru was not nice
We visited end of February Tanzania. Wildlife, scenery and the weather was perfect. We did camping. So nothing luxury, but the tents and sleeping bags were clean. It was a great experience to hear the wild animals in the night in the near of the tents. The cook prepared amazing food for us. So Tanzania was beautiful and I recommend everyone to go for it. One thing was not nice. It was planned that we visit first Tarangire, then Serengeti and then Ngorongoro. Uhuru changed our travel plan, we visited first Serengeti and then Ngorongoro with two other tourists. In the third day the safari ended at 1 PM for us (half day!). The two other tourists went with the same SUV to Arusha on the same day. We spend the half day at the camping side. Next day another car brought us to Tarangire. This change was not nice. Uhuru informed us about the change at the first day of the safari. So we did not have a chance other than doing the best out of the safari.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I got what I paid for for booking last minute!
AMAZING scenery, especially at sunrise and sunset! The weather was perfect at this time of year (dry season). Got to see a pack/herd? of giraffes, elephants, buffaloes...etc. We were able to see everything except Lions!
We booked very last minute and so we had quite a few disappointments...
- no park ranger as a tour guide - which would have helped us see lions! we were so disappointed to miss the lions!
- our guide spoke poor English and barely explained things to us
- did not go in a 4x4 land cruiser as stated...ended up in a very old van with broken A/C and extremely shaky
- Stayed at Bwana Tembo, which is outisde of the park. Good food, nice manager, but not exactly worth the mid-range price. No electricity in the rooms! Just a fan to help keep cool at night, and our driver was put in a room with NO fan at all and it was boiling hot all night. Very unfair treatment for him.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Drones was great in Kenya, but struggled in Tanzania
The communication from Drones before the trip seemed great. In Kenya we had a little orientation of what to expect, and that went well. Our guide was knowledgeable and looked out for us well. The accommodations were very comfortable.
The transfer to Tanzania was confusing because we kept being handed off to different people and the information they were giving us was different that we had been told. And our hotel was changed to a place that was not as nice as we had been told we would be staying. That was apparently for the convenience of the manager on the Tanzania side. That manager was rude when questioned about the change. The cook for our stay in Tanzania was great. Our guide was not quite as good as our guide in Kenya, but was fine. The camping was uncomfortable because the provided tents were old canvas tents which were not waterproof and the weather was cold and rainy. Additionally, the tents were put away wet, so even before the rain started, the tents smelled terrible and were very wet inside.
Despite booking the entire trip through Drones, the experiences between countries were very different.
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exhiting
I recomend to improve the information on the elements for choise the best tour.
The dexcription of the park, rate the lodge not only by quality but also for their position (to avoid long transfer to park entrance) and finally to the vehicle.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Skeleton Coast National Park by Heather Johnston
Dunes run to the ocean. Cooler than inland. Seal colony a big hit, but smelly!
KR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Let down
When I had made my booking, I had specified that I needed a driver/guide who had knowledge of local birds.
The vehicle provided was a below average vehicle. Lots of noise and smell. The driver a good man but not so knowledgeable about birds. There was not even a reference book for birds. Even worse was he was on the phone for a long time due to which he was not engaging with me.
A trip to Africa is probably once a lifetime to many people. The tour operators needs to respect that and ensure proper service.