NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great trip back from Safari
Tiyani was great. Professional, kind, helpful and made our trip lighter.
Vehicle is fine. Good for big luggage. Air co. Etc. Great option to travel.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing, better than I could imagine
Our guide and chef were Gerald and Tito.
Gerald was an excellent driver, very knowledgeable and went into great detail about each animal. He had a great personality with a sense of humour and very polite.
Tito was an excellent chef cooking more than enough food for us all throughout the day. Again, very polite and helpful.
I would recommend this company for your safari
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Michelle is ncredibly well-organized, super-responsive, and very knoweldgeable!
We had an abzolutely amazing trip to Africa, and we never would have been able to put it all together nearly as thoroughly or as impeccably as Michelle did! I tend to do all of the organizing of our family trips, but this time I left the planning to Michelle and Explore and Travel Africa, and I am incredibly glad that I did. Everything was smooth and flawless, and the accommodations and excursions gave us an experience that could not have been topped. From our stay at Sabi Sand, to our trip on the Panoramic Route with a Michelle-selected birder, to all of our connecting flights, to the other places we stayed, it was all wonderful! I can't recommend Michelle or her company enough!
VN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable trip to safari in Kenya
We had an amazing 6-day safari with Captain Khalifa, visiting Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, and Amboseli National Park.
Captain Khalifa is an outstanding guide—professional and incredibly experienced. He has an excellent understanding of wildlife behavior and always knew where to look, giving us the best possible chances to see the animals. Thanks to him, we enjoyed many unforgettable wildlife sightings throughout the trip.
We highly recommend him to anyone planning a safari in Kenya.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A Memorable Masai Mara Safari with Excellent Hospitality
We had a wonderful experience with Tall Masai Safari and are grateful for the effort they put into making our Masai Mara trip memorable. The team was helpful and accommodating throughout the planning process, and the safari itself was an incredible experience. The game drives gave us the opportunity to witness the beauty of the Mara and its wildlife up close. Overall, it was a memorable trip, and we appreciate the team for helping us experience one of Kenya’s most beautiful destinations. I would recommend Tall Masai Safari to anyone planning a safari in the Masai Mara.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Friendly and Professional Team – An Unforgettable Safari!
We had an amazing safari experience! Johnson was incredibly warm and welcoming, always checking in on us throughout the trip to make sure everything was going well. Our guide, Simon, was also very professional and knowledgeable. Thanks to both of them, we had a truly unforgettable adventure. Highly recommended!
CN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Overall good, but tons of effort required to confirm/resolve the details upon arrival
I have to say that overall experience is still good. But I spent serious effort managing key details that deviated from the contract significantly. For hotels (other than the kili-base hotel they owned), I recommend that you put in the contract that they email you the invoice within a week after you sent in upfront money.
The major flaw in Kwesa's service was that they did not quite stick to the contract. None of the deviations (technically breach of contract) were due to force majeure. Rather, every incident was Kwesa-caused, foreseeable, and the worst part is that none was communicated to us ahead of time. So imagine how pissed I was. These issues were eventually resolved to our satisfaction after I sat down the owner Edward for a pretty serious talk. But it would only earn them a 4 star at the best.
The two of us (both females) booked a PRIVATE 6-day Kili-climbing tour, and a 3-day safari tour with them. We sent in upfront money (20% of total) for the entire trip more than a month ahead of time.
We arrived at the hotel(also the kwesa office) around 3 am. we planned to start climbing the next day, so we planned to spend the whole day chill around Moshi. around 9/10-ish am, Edward caught us on the way going into the city center and said that he wanted to have a meeting with us, during which we found out: 1) he thought we would climib kili on that day, not the day after as we contracted. 2) he added an Austrilian girl to "tag-along" with us. After stating that we departs tomorrow, and our tour was private. Edward agreed that things should go as we planned. He also promised the other girl would have her own team, which turned out to be a total lie. He basically sold the team we paid for a second time to the girl. We ended up liking the girl. but when we returned to the hotel, we and the girl both complained to Edward. His attitude for making up for his operational mess was not bad. we ended up getting some money back, and I think she did too.
This was when I realized Edward can be full of BS. So I hammered him about the safari details esp. the hotel we contracted. Just as we suspected, he didn't book the hotel (serengati classic view) we paid for. instead he booked a lower-class hotel and tried to slip past us (no meantioning whatsoever till that moment), and then tried to persuade us it's a good choice. I took out the contract and told him how serious breaching of contract was, and the consequence is severe, and I didn't accept anything less than SCV, and if SCV is sold out, I need something at least as good as SCV. He agreed, and did what I requested. Our safari trip was great, mainly (by some serendipitous miracle) due to the guide who happened to agree to be hired by Edward for this trip. Edward was BS'ing again by putting his apprentice a 17-year-old, in the car to learn from our guide, and dared to tell me that I should tip him as a guide. I complete ignored his words and gave the kid 0 tip to make a point.
We still think the overall experience is postive, because the safari guide was really great, knowledgeable, honest, transparent, and considerate. The kili-climibing team was also quite good:
1.the assisstant guide is a really honest hard-working guy who actually helped us along the way. ( Lead guide is the same person as Edward, dishonest when a problem was spotted, but not as much, generally OK)
2. the cook was really good. we had hot lunch every day.
3. the waiter who was also a porter was really caring for us. I left him two new water bottles and some hiking nutrition packs.
4. the porters and guides provided a supporting and naturally happy mellow vibe, which mentally made our days easier.
5. the stuff they used were not new, nothing fancy, but comfortable. food was all locally sourced. but we had no GI problems for 6 whole days, which testified for the quality of the goods and the preparation.
6. the price was fair.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great organization, professional and friendly from Edwin @ Hyrax Safari
We booked our safari with Hyrax Safaris, and we're really glad we did.
Edwin in the office handled all the planning and coordination for us. He was very helpful and incredibly responsive. Whenever we had a question, he got back to us right away. He stayed on top of every booking, reservation and concern we had, so we never had to worry about anything.
Ben, our driver and guide, made the safari. He knows the area really well and did everything he could to find as many animals as possible during our game drives.
The highlight was when we went looking for lions. Ben found a male and a female in a spot you couldn't even see from the road. We still have no idea how he knew they were there! We ended up watching them mating, something we never expected to see and will never forget.
He also knows a lot about the animals themselves, their habits and the small details you'd never notice on your own. He was easy to talk to and happy to answer all our questions!
Thank you, Edwin and Ben, for a great experience. We'd book with Hyrax Safaris again without hesitation.
35-50 years of age
They made our whole experience unforgettable.
If you have limited time in Tanzania, this is a must!
From the time of booking the company was very proactive in reaching out and providing us useful information about the day hike. They were very responsive and helpful.
Our day start at 5:45am as we got picked up at our hotel in Arusha. They were right on time! It was only me and my friend for the trip.
Baraka, our guide, had been so amazing to us! He carried some of our stuff and was very encouraging, understanding for some changes in pace and some quick stops, knowledgeable and fun with all his singing and awesome atmosphere. All these helped me as a first timer of any mountain hike. Baraka was also taking lots of videos and photos for us, which is amazing as we love photos and videos. He was so patient as well in teaching us Swahili words that were very useful in encouraging porters climbing up with all the gears and camp stuff. This was one of the highlights of trip. This made the entire trip, although difficult, memorable and enjoyable.
When we got to the top, we were served with a sumptuous lunch! There were lots of food for us to replenish all the energy we lost.
Eric, our driver was very pleasant as well. Although we didn’t manage to interact with him a lot, he was very polite and always smiling the limited time we had with him.
+ on our way to the hotel, they stopped and offered to take photos of us with Mt. Kilimanjaro as our backdrop!
