20-35 years of age
Kilimanjaro Hike October 2023
Had an unforgettable experience with Almighty Kilimanjaro when hiking up the Machame route in October 2023. Massive thanks to the whole team who work amazingly hard to ensure you reach the summit, particularly the porters who carry all of the equipment, food etc. each day.
IN
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
They made wonderful arrangements to ensure our enjoyment during the safari
Jacinta was there to receive us for the early morning flight, to ensure we have all papers and tickets in order. The hotels she booked for us in Mara and Serengeti were simply beautiful and full of surprise visits by wild animals near our resort. One thing, we liked about her is, she always responded for calls and messages and that made the bookings and the tour trouble free.
Her team of drivers, James in Mara and Rolando in Serengeti were knowledgeable, patient and accommodative. James had many stories to tell, of course about the animals, and did not leave it till he finished it. I tried to change topic but he always came back to the story. We had a great laugh with him on this.
Rolado was a gem, as a guide. He had all the info and names of the animals. When he was in doubt, he always referred to the booklet and provided the right info. he managed to track all the animals we intended to see and with best position for photos. Tusker and lion cubs were awaesome. Cheetah with 2 babies were tracked by him in the huge savannah and hats off to him.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great staff and an excellent value.
Saw tons of wildlife! Wonderful and knowledgeable guides and drivers. Bastian lodge is great. Long drive, but with rest stop and decent food. Highly recommended package. Good value for the money.
NG
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Expert travel orchestrators, crafting seamless journeys.
Crystal Tour and Travel exceeded expectations — stellar communication, impeccable service, excellent value, unwavering reliability, and an unforgettable tour. Highly recommend!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Consulting, organization and acommodation were great!
Balule as a smaller reserve was great, didn't like Kruger as much as it was more a drive in a safari zoo. Tremisana and Marc's treehouse lodge have both been great places stay and very welcoming. The game drives in Balule had been more personal and Rocky our guide had very good instincts. The Bush walk at Marc's treehouse lodge was more about plants and animals' behaviours which was very interesting and added great value to the trip.
CH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Good organized
The Safari was great. We liked the Tremisana Lodge. The Food there and the whole organisation was super. We saw a lot of animals
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Timbavati Private Nature Reserve by Mary
The River Lodge which we stayed in was very good, but overall we were surprised that there weren't more animals in the Reserve, yet we did see all the Big 5. At the Lodge, we had elephants walking by our tented suite and one even drank from our plunge pool. Also had hyenas and monkeys close by.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great safari, organisation can be improved
The safari at Hamiltons Tented Camp was amazing with beautiful wildlife, nature and a great lodge with friendly people.
The experience with the agent was not as great. Originally, we were promised a morning game drive on the last day as part of our package. We agreed on a price and payed. A few weeks later the agent reached out to let us know that we will not be able to have this morning game drive because she booked the returning flights too early. She wanted to make us pay more for different flights so we would be able to still have the morning game drive.
After some push back from my side an alternative solution was offered which was supposed to stay at the original price and still include the morning game drive. However, this solution was not communicated well to the lodge. The employees at Hamiltons were completely unaware the night before our last day.
All in all it was still a great experience. It's just not great when people try to make you pay for their own mistakes.
TW
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well arranged
Well arranged with a nice tour guides, will consider your company for next trip next year if plan go Kenya Africa.
NZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
10 day Kenya and Tanzania Safari
We really enjoyed our budget safari (6 days Kenya, 3 days Tanzania)and the communication and booking process from super eagles tours was awesome. They even looked into changing our itinerary mid trip. 5 stars for communication
Kenya:
Even though we booked a budget camping safari, the accommodation was really good. We were in a really large tent with a proper bed and private toilet and hot shower. There is not really much point booking anything above budget in Kenya, as you will only really get slightly better food.
For the first 3-4 days we had 8 people in our van even though our tour company promised maximum of 7 and other people in the van tour companies had promised 6. 8 was way too much as not everyone could stand up at one time to look out the top of the van. Everyone was staying at different places as well so with 8 people we spent a lot of time driving to drop all the people off at their accommodation. Sometimes this was up to 1 hour if they were staying in the parks.
There is a lot of driving in this safari, not only doing the safari but getting to the parks. There is more driving on the road than actually driving in the national parks. The tour companies could set it up so that driving is minimised as currently we go all the way down from Nairobi to the Tanzania border for the Masai Mara and then back up past Nairobi to Nakuru and only spent 2 hours safaring there, and then back down to Amboseli near the Tanzania border again. If they started going north of Nairobi to Nakuru first, then it would probably take out at least 1 whole day of driving and we could spend a lot more time at Nakuru as we felt we didn’t get enough time there.
Overall, The guides in Kenya were great and we saw lots of amazing animals. It was really fun, however the driving was getting to us in the middle of the trip and this could be avoided if it was set out better.
Tanzania
We opted for a ten day safari that covered both Kenya and Tanzania. We made this booking in a rush due to other plans falling through, we would probably book differently doing it again.
Since we are a young couple looking for an adventure, and not crazy about photography or animals, we would just do 6-7 day Kenyan safari and then head to Mombasa or Diana beach for few days at the beach. The Kenya side is a lot cheaper and this would take out a lot of driving.
For animal lovers, we would recommend adding on Tanzania, Tanzania is extremely good, It is Kenya on steroids. You see the same animals but just more of them. For example we saw a pride of 20-30 lions in the Serengeti and thousands of wilderbeest which you don’t get in Kenya. The downside is a lot more driving.
Tanzania
The Tanzania safari was great and the wildlife and scenery was next level amazing. We added Tanzania onto our Kenyan safari and spent 3 days on a safari tour.
We chose the budget safari and unlike Kenya the accommodation did reflect this. We were staying tents and had communal bathrooms which is fine for use but something to be aware of when booking. This also meant that the trucks were loaded with food and camping equipment which made it a bit crammed. Even though the facilities were basic the food was still amazing. Note that the chef also needs a tip which we did not know about. A generous tip for this is 10USD per person.
The safaris were awesome, but we felt we didn’t really have enough time to do the Serengeti well, but that is because it is so vast. Ngorongoro crater was amazing but likewise we only had a morning and it was cut short to get some people back to the airport.
For our trip the guide was below average and more of a driver than a guide. He didn’t really talk to us and only did very minimal talking on the safari. We would have liked him to talk about the animals and tell us facts and actually act interested. In Kenya it felt like a group hunt to find the animals which was fun, but in Tanzania is was more just drive and see what you see. The main thing that annoyed us about our guide is that in the last two hours of the trip he started being very friendly and even bought us red bananas, likely because he was about to receive a tip. When we finished we gave him our tip and he preceded to count it in front of us and then ask for more. This was very rude and in our opinion unacceptable, especially when our Kenya guides didn’t even look at the tip but just thanked us.
If there is a set amount to tip then the tour companies need to advise this and be reasonable. It is such a murky territory, and can easily ruin trips for people, when it’s not clear and people have paid thousands to be there.