FI
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Awesome tours but poor tour management !
I spent some awesome time when exploring Tanzania. I joined into 2 tours operated by Kili Slopes, Mt. Kilimanjaro tour and Serengeti NP tour.
Im giving only 3 stars because of poor tour management.
+ guides + other personnel were awesome
+ landscapes were memorable
+ tour programmes were cool
Kilimanjaro:
- As a tipping culture not being common in my country, i was totally surprised when i was asked to pay extra 350 USD after my tour as a tip for the guide and personnel. I wasn't given any information about this arrangement beforehand, which annoyed me a lot. Im not definitely denying the staff wouldn't deserve and need the tip usually given, but as me being the only tourist joining the tour and still asked to pay for the normal tipping sum made this situation absurd. Moreover, I imagined the staff being paid enough for a decent income, obviously not. As a compromise, i gave them 100 usd.
- Again, when discussing about the matter of tipping, I was given the feeling by the tour operator, that as a tourist (and a white person ??) I'm supposed to be rich and afford to give away random extra 350 USD ! Oh, I am surely a millionaire, but only in my dreams.
Serengeti:
- My Serengeti tour was awesome, but bit messy. Considering this tour too, i wasn't given enough information beforehand, again including the thing with tipping. Other customers were having some more information, like list of equipment needed, which i never had. What comes to both of my trips, i thought i was having all the information in needed. Well, I didn't (even though asking for every possible information needed couple of times).
- Overall 6 customers attending to this Serengeti tour, and every person was having a different tour program. It was obvious right from the beginning that it would be impossible to coordinate everything. This is why some ppl didn't get what they were looking for - but ill let them to write their reviews on their own behalf, if they wish to do so. ++Our awesome guide Jackson did his best trying to fix it all ! ++
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great experience, we saw loads of animals, but accommodation and food were very average and limited.
Overall I had a nice time and was able to see many of the animals which live in Uganda I thought that the range of activities were great and your guides were very knowledgeable. The campsites were very good and the fact that we did not have to carry tents made things much easier. However, there are a few points of issue which I would like to raise.
Firstly, we were only offered one small bottle of water throughout the entire trip which was not an issue when we were at the campsites, but was an issue during the long journeys. This became such an issue on the first day that after the walk up the waterfall - which was extremely hot and sweaty - one of my friends became ill with dehydration. One bottle of water was not enough to sustain us from 6am through to 7pm when we were served dinner and had access to a Jerry can.
Secondly, there was not enough food. The chefs made delicious food, but there was not enough - one girl in my group did not have lunch on the second day because there was not enough. On trips like this in a group of my size (which was 22), there should be more than enough food. Moreover, we were told on day one that we would not need any money for food as a packed breakfast and lunch would be provided. Instead, however, we stopped at a petrol station after 3 hours of driving and were told to pick up something from the shops. This would have been fine had we been told beforehand, but we were expecting a packed breakfast. Then, lunch was simply a wrap - delicious as it was, that and a banana was not enough to sustain us from midday to 7pm. I expected more in this packed lunch.
And finally, I have never been so frightened in a car before. Our driver drove ridiculously fast over potholes and puddles which was incredibly uncomfortable and nauseating. One of my friends was sick because of his driving. Furthermore, he would chase both animals and children to get them off the roads. This was unnecessary and frightening for us passengers. We would rather have gone slower and taken an hour longer to get to our destination than have to consider the prospect of our driver being imprisoned for manslaughter caused by reckless driving.
I hope that these comments will help you to improve your safari in future.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing wildlife, excellent lodges.
The safari with Best Memory Safaris was amazing. We did a 10 day tour visiting Nakuru, Masai Mara, Lake Navaisha, Ambroseli, Tsavo West and Tsavo East (finishing on Mombasa Beach).
All lodges were great and in privileged areas with good food. The drivers/guides were very kind and thoughtful. Real great value for money. Isaac the owner of BMS was great, he helped us fantastically in getting our lost baggage back and also with an other problem we had during the trip. He is great.
Outside the national parks there is not much to do, the roads are realy bad and rubbish and dirt all around, very disappointing.
We will go back to Kenya in the future but only flying directly into the National parks. We will make the reservations with BMS again for sure.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great Safari but not in every places , SAVUTI are for us The Best for Lions and Killing !
Wild life is Chobe at that time we are there ( 12 of June 2019 ) the animals are not so many and Cats we don't see , well many Elephants.
The rest of our Safari at Moremi , Sable Aley and Linyanthi ...it's many elephants , but the cats you must looking for them and some times are not that easy , because of the very thick bushes.
For us if we are favourite of the Big Cats ...exspecialy the Lions we like more SAVUTI ...as this place grear for Lions and Killing elephants !
KENYA and TANZANIA - are for us still The Best for Wild Life , and the p[rices for the accomodations are not so high as in Botswana !
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
A Pleasant Park
This is a pretty park, but it's by no means one of the best in Africa. I did enjoy seeing the roan antelope, eland, zebra and bushbuck. The birding was good as well. I was lucky to see a serval.
I feel that Bale Mountain National Park offers something similar, but more unique. I was able to see species of wildlife such as the Ethiopian wolf and Mountain Nyala which are truly unique.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Tsavo West National Park by Steven Levenson
Did not have time to see much
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Be careful with whom you book
The countryside is fantastic. The wildlife is even better. The people are polite and helpful. However, the traffic is horrible both inside and outside of the the game parks. The company with whom we booked, Bluerange Connect Ltd., did not live up to the proposed/agreed upon itinerary and there is nothing we can do about it.
Be careful.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great wildlife, friendly driver and chef, bad equipment
We choose the 4-day Safari to Manyara Lake, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti and the communication, before the Safari started, was good although it was not possible for us to do the online deposit, but it was possible to pay when we arrived Arusha. Our guide/driver Horas and the chef Vitalis cared really good about everything and did a good job. Sometimes we expected more information of the guide spontaneously which was rare, but he could answer all our questions. So we saw a lot of animals an he gave us enough time to observe them- what was great! And the dinners Vitalis cooked for us were really good!
But we also had a few problems: at the gate of the Serengeti we were not allowed to enter the park because Richard hadn't done the cash transfer or something went wrong (we still don't know). So we waited for three hours and one member of our group had to do the payment with his credit card. After the safari he got the money back from Richard but it was annoying that we had to wait for three hours without knowing what's going on. The second thing were the tents. They are okay but because of the age the zipper is bad/ broken and it's not possible to close them properly. One evening was an short rainstorm and all the water came in on every seam. Furthermore the sleeping bags smelled like hell (sweat of a lot of people) and I would recommend to everybody to take their own sleeping bag! Third and last thing: the car broke down on the third day. The driveshaft of the back wheel broke. It was nobodys fault and they were able to find a solution after 40 minutes - so we drove to the next camp with front wheel drive. The guide drove to the next garage and they fixed it during the night.
So all in all it was a good safari with some adventures.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Amazing place but....
First of all, we didn’t do any safari. My partner and I have been travelling the last 7 months and we spent 6 weeks in the country.
Ethiopia is full of amazing places, very unique landscapes and lovely people that in some places made your stay a wonderful experience. The highlights for us were the Simien Mountains where we did a eight days trek and we had the chance to see Gelada monkeys a couple of Waila Ibexes and many birds and the landscape was just beautiful. The Danakil Depression, the lowest place on earth (100mt below sea level), although it requires lots of driving at the end it worth all the journey because it is such a unique environment with lots of things to do from the right moment you arrive in the desert until you climb the top of a volcano, the heat sometimes can be challenging. After that we went to the Tigray area where you can hike and climb some of the amazing rock hills to visit a medioeval church, again a very unique experience. And the Abuna Josef mountain was the last trek in the country where we were lucky to see three Ethiopian wolfs many monkeys and an amazing view of the mountains around also we had the chance to spend a couple of days with a local family.
At the end we did lot more and we visited many places but these were our favourites, it is a big country with too many people, interestingly diverse from north to south and with plenty of activities that can make the experience unforgettable but for us that we were backpacking sometimes moving from one place to another was difficult and challenging because the lack of official and reliable information especially for prices.
It is an amazing place that can be enjoyed easily with an organised tour operator but at higher cost but for backpacking style it can be a very challenging and expensive experience but it worth it.
Thanks
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing but now the government has reinstated elephant killing - tragic
We chose Botswana as a destination worthy of the additional expense due to their conservation and reputation. Safari Bookings and Desert and Delta were both top notch with excellent service. Tragically however the government has just reinstated elephant killings. These are smart and emotionally intelligent animals that understand who is attacking them. This is a safety issue in addition to the vulnerable status of African elephants. We will not return or support the decision to reinstate elephant killing.