JP
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very helpful customer service, and safari went as promised
Booking our safari was very easy, and all of our customizations (including domestic flights unrelated to our safari) were easily covered - Michael is great to do business with.
The tour itself was as promised, and we saw a great variety of wildlife. Our guide (Solomon) was very experienced (he said he had been a guide for 8 years), and he was able to spot a lot of animals we would have missed otherwise. He picked up that I had an interest in birds as well as mammals and started to stop the car more frequently for birds as well -- and he knew every one.
There were 2 things that were different than our expectations: we wanted to visit the Masai people, which we did, but our tour package document stated that the visiting would be included, it did not mention that we had to tip the Masai people $20USD per person to visit -- unexpected.
Also, the tour package document stated that the tents would be prepared by the staff. Mostly, they did -- but with our help. I am not adverse to helping, but the guides didn't make us feel like we had a choice.
Overall, though, we saw lots of great animals, have a good time, and got value for money. There were some other safaris that were slightly cheaper for similar itineraries, but I went with Northern Circuit because of their attentiveness during the booking process -- I felt in good hands, and we most certainly were. I would contact Michael again next time I am going to Arusha.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very good game drive with Right Choice
When I was looking around for a good tour, I have contacted several tours as their prices all fell within my consideration. I did not consider the tours for which the prices were too high.
I like the Right Choice Tour because the manager George was always provided very quick responses. Based on many researches that I did and experiences from other people that I gathered, I proposed my own route and requirements. George always helped and supported. For example, I really wanted to see is flamingos; I asked if I couldn’t see them at Lake Nakuru, I would want to go to Lake Bogoria. I also asked to add one hour boat ride at Lake Naivasha, etc. In terms of the price, George was very fair. So that’s why I decided to pick this tour group.
My trip was seven days plus the first day of arrival. We were three families going together. We arrived at Nairobi with 3 different times. George picked us one family by another to our hotel without charging us very much. We made a mistake booking the hotel in the center of the city and this was paid for the first night ourselves. We thought that we had some time to sightsee in the city so it would be more convenient to book the hotel there. But we didn’t expect such big traffic from the airport to the city center. It took us two to three hours to get to the hotel from the airport, which got us really exhausted. The hotel also really sucked. It’s 75$/per night and we’ve never lived in such a bad hotel before. It really hit us hard on the head. We didn’t even dare to go out to eat since there were so many homeless beggars on the street so the street looked really unsafe. Not only that, the second day we had to get out of the city center, and encountered the same bad traffic. If we had lived near the airport we would’ve avoided the traffic both times. It would’ve been nice if George could’ve made some suggestions beforehand.
Our game drive ride was a minivan. The vehicle is resilient although it was not as good-looking as the jeeps. We thought that there would be Wi-Fi on the van also the van has a sticker saying Wi-Fi on boat, but there was no Wi-Fi. So we were a bit disappointed about that. Due to the fact that going to every single route took a long time, approximately 4 hours, it would’ve been nice if we had Wi-Fi. Because then we could contact our family and friends about how we were at the moment.
Tom was our driver and he was professional, drove fast but also safely. Every single time we arrived earlier than I expected. He also constantly consoling us that the destination was near and that there were no more bump road ahead. That made us feel more comfortable.
We stayed in Masai Mara National Reserve for three nights. The arranged lodging that George made for us was the Masai Mara Sopa Lodge. It was a very comfortable stay, food was good also. We also had a formal dinner which made us really happy. Everybody said that the lodge and its service were out of their expectations. There was also WiFi in lobby.
During the two-days game drive in Masai Mara. Tom was very fast in finding the animals and was very diligent in helping us finding everything that we wanted to see. Under his guidance, we saw a lot of animals, especially lions. We actually saw lions mating twice and saw male lions many times. We also had a really rare encounter with cheetahs in pre-breakfast game drive. Tom also negotiated with us regarding changes. For example, if we go to see Masai Mara river he suggested us to bring our lunch, so that we save time going back and forth. He also took us to another lodge for resting and eating lunch. The surrounding environment was really nice. He cared about if we were not happy about something by constantly asking us if everything was okay. He was also humorous at times and made us laugh. We really liked him and thought he was an honest person. We were very satisfied with our Game Drive at Masai Mara.
When we left Masai Mara, we went to Lake Nakura and stayed there for one day. George arranged that we stay at Lake Nakuru Lodge. The place was also really good, only that there was an extra charge for WiFi so that was a big disappointing. At Lake Nakuru Park, we have seen black and white rhinocerose. This completed seeing the “Big Five” from our top wish-list for this trip. But I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see the flamingo at Lake Nakuru. Tom drove very far distances and tried to see them on the side of the lake with no luck.
After reading so many other people’s trip diaries, I learnt that apparently the chances nowadays for seeing them at Lake Nakuru is rare. That’s why from the beginning I asked to go to Lake Bogoria if we don’t see flamingo in Lake Nakuru. I thought I have I had a back-up plan that if I couldn’t see them at Lake Nakuru then I’ll try Lake Bogoria. That was what we agreed in the contract. But I wasn’t notified until that point that apparently we had to pay 50$/per person out of our pockets. But that wasn’t what was written in the contract so I hope in the future I would be made clear on this. We did not go Lake Bogoria. I felt upset that the fact that I did so much homework finding them was wasted, especially I have promised my friends we could see them either in lake Nakuru or Bogoria. Another thing is that the trip route that day was not reasonable and I didn’t find this out until we got there. If we came out of Masai Mala we had to go straight to Lake Bogoria to first see the flamingos and then come back to stay at Lake Nakuru, wouldn’t there be a lot more chances. Also from Masai Mala to Lake Nakuru, why did we have to pass Nairobi city center for lunch? Was it because we need settle the accounts? We met a lot of traffic passing through Nairobi again. If in this trip when we settled the contracts, George can be a bit meticulous in helping us fix these little things that would be good.
The last part of the trip we stayed at Amboseli National Park for two days. We wanted to go see Mt. Kilimanjaro. Staying two days was also a back-up plan for me because many people who stayed one day did not get to see Mt. Kilimanjaro. We finally saw Mt. Kilimanjaro on the second day evening and that is really existing and nice. The lodging there that George arranged for us was also really good. It was at Kibo Safari Lodge but too bad that it didn’t have Wi-Fi at all. Compare to Masai Mara, Amboseli National Park didn’t have a lot of exotic animals, mostly elephants so it wasn’t as exciting. But Tom still worked really hard helping us find animals that we’ve never seen before so we still saw a few animals that we haven’t seen at Masai Mara.
We finally successfully finished this entire itinerary. We rate the tour 80 points. Overall it’s pretty good. How many people wanted to go to Africa to see animals, it came true for us!
Safari as we planned it
Very satisfied with the commonly organised Safari for our small (5p) group.
Selected Parks / resorts and very good guide.
Every body enjoyed it
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amboseli vacation.
Excellent!!! Good service Thanks for your service Steps, we really had fan with my family.
CA
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Moremi Game Reserve by gfin
We just did one evening river trip into Moremi, out of Little Kwara lodge. The birding was good and the sense of wetland wilderness was very strong. We had a dramatic hippo encounter there.
CA
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Botswana by gfin
Outside of the Delta Botswana is a dry country of flat, bush-covered semi-arid terrain. We didn't travel the southern parts of the country that are pure desert, but I expect that the scenery there is equally stark. This kind of country has real beauty but can easily get monotonous because there is little variety.
Ideal June safari
David at Vacay Holiday Deals was absolutely great to work with in planning our ideal safari this June. He was accommodating of our requests and responsive to all our inquiries. We had a wonderful safari - from the flight to the Mara to the hotel and food to the spectacular game drives. What a wonderful way to see this beautiful country! Thank you to David and his team.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
USA student touring team
What a great experience. Our team was treated with professionalism and the staff where very helpful.
Will definitely do it again
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great trip in the Serengeti!
We took a four day trip which covered Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, and Arusha. It was the experience of a lifetime. The guide and the cook in the trip were really great. We were a little disappointed that the guide wasn't a little more strict about getting up early in order to see the actual hunting. We weren't aware until the last day that the hunting takes place very early in the morning and it was too late by then.
The food was excellent; we were very surprised at how good the food was considering we camped in the middle of the forest for three nights. I was very impressed with the trip overall.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Camdeboo National Park by lollipop_lass
Small park but lots of animals to see - antelope and monkeys in particular on my visit. Across the road is the spectacular Valley of Desolation ... Breathtaking views of Graaff-Reinet from the top. Have been to this park twice ... Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. Great camping facilities too.