BR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Full budget safari
Safari through 3 national parks (Masai Mara, Nakuru and Amboseli) costing less than 800 dollars. Everything included in this experience: accommodation, food, water, entrance fees to the parks and travel distances, which are far away. The agency team spoke to me all the time to make sure everything was ok. The only negative point was with the first driver, who did not check the car properly, and we had to stop on the road to check the brakes. Furthermore, he drove irresponsibly, and while overtaking improperly, he tore the tire, so we had to change cars. Super Eagle immediately provided another one. The first car was also full of cockroaches, which shows that proper cleaning was not done. I emphasize that this was not under super eagle's control, and when informed she quickly resolved all issues. I highly recommend this company for a safari in Kenya.
CH
Great price/value however hard to get complete answers from agency before hand
Great guide (Jeff ❤️), we felt safe on the road and Jeff made his best for us to see all animals on the safari! Price/value great, however I struggled to get quick and complete answers from the agency beforehand.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Adventuretour threw Tansania
Contact and planning went smoothly and in German. Special was that the guide was always on time and the lunch was cooked himself. In Africa, punctuality is usually not taken that seriously. During the tour we saw many animals and were able to collect impressions. It was a successful trip.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Nice, but too touristic.
I do not like it as drivers call each other during the safari. Whem one of them spots something, other drivers drive like crazy through the park ending with ten of cars at the animals the one driver spotted. This does not give me a safari feeling.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nature on your door step.
Very good experience oveall. Karibu operator was very good and the guide (Mark) was superb.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Katja
Te area around the lake seemed very sad with all the dead trees.
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Really good safari experience, could have been better..!
My husband and I did a 4 nights 5 days tour with Joagro Safaris. Overall we had a good experience for the entire duration. We visited Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara. We loved the whole wilderness experience with our guide Anwar. I would like to detail out day by day experience -
Day 1 - Anwar picked us from the airport on time and dropped at the Hotel Tulia. The drive was pleasant and we loved the greenery around Arusha. The hotel is basic with minimum amenities, Ok for a transit one night stay.
Day 2 - We start around 8.30 am to Ndutu part of Serengeti. I feel it was quite late to start given the distance to cover and time taken to reach. The journey was good, however, we were rushed to the stay inside the Park which was towards Central Serengeti. We did mention we wanted to explore the ndutu side as January season is for migration to be around this area. We fell short by easy two hours, had we started early we would have had more time to spend before reach our camp stay.
Having said the above, the Signature Into the wild stay was breathtaking. The views were gorgeous. food was delicious and staff extremely courteous. We loved the overall experience at this luxury camp stay.
Day 3 - We started at 7.15 from the camp post breakfast, we didn't see many animals to our surprise, the park seemed empty. Our guide didn't do much tracking on this day we felt. Since we didn't see any cheetahs in the park, he said he would take us for another drive outside park to spot them and thus he was trying to rush us out of the park. We exited the park early around 1 pm with expectation of the cheetah spotting as he had mentioned, Upon exit, he took us hardly 2/3 Km towards ndutu lake on the road just on the entrance of the Serengeti gate and he said we must return as he doesn't have permit to take us on that side. We felt cheated as he rushed us out of the park and then did not continue the drive that he mentioned he would. We completely understand its luck to spot animals and it would have been OK that we didn't see cheetahs but we didn't like the misleading and then not following through. Also if we would have known that Ndutu lake needs additional permit we would have been ok to get that permit and spend more time in that area as the park was kind of empty of animals.
Also we had to wait almost 2 hours at the Nabi gate for getting clearance to check out which wasted a lot of time. We saw all other vehicles checking out faster than we did, and we were given a reason that network was slow. I am not sure if that was the real reason.
We reached the Ngorongoro wild camp quite late as our vehicle broke down. People on the way were extremely helpful they helped us alot in this situation. The camp was decent and food was also good.
Day 4 - Our guide was pushing to start for Ngorongoro safari early but he never told us the reason on the previous day that the permit to be in Ngorongoro was only till 3 pm. Again this felt misleading. We started around 7.30 am thinking the Crater is small and we can spend whole day inside looking for animals, however we didn't know about the time limit only till we started our safari on Day 4. If guide had told us in advance we would have planned to start early as he suggested. The ngorongoro safari was good, we spotted many animals. We decided to skip the lunch in the crater to increase our safari time. We only saw two lions, I think the claim that 22 lion families reside in the crater seems bit inaccurate.
Anwar dropped us at the bouganvillea hotel around 4 PM. The hotel was really good and food was super delicious.
Day 5 - We visited the Lake Manyara national park. The park has a dense jungle which was quite nice however we didn't see the tree climbing lions for which it is famous. Our guide told us that its not the season for lions in the park. I think since trip operators are the experts, they should guide tourists with such details while we do our bookings. We google information and plan the trip but if its not the best time to visit a park, then I would expect the expert tell us how to better plan the trip.
One last thing to add - we were promised Complimentary Wine and Beer for the trip but not served even on a single day. Since it was complimentary it felt awkward to ask. It would have been great to be honest and let us know if promised things would not be served for whatever reasons.
Overall the experience was good, Jonas and Anwar were warm and courteous. Only the above few issues left us a little dissatisfied given the amount of money we spent on the whole trip. If the above is addressed then Joagro would be a definitely 5/5 tour operator.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Small operation with knowledgable guides and comfortable arrangements!
Chris, our guide from Zimbabwe, was very knowledgable and eager to show us the best that Kruger has to offer taking us to different parts of the park to try to catch a diversity of animals. He was patient and easy to connect with. Being a private tour, we were happy to be able to have the freedom to stop and continue on as our schedule allowed and it allowed us to find what we were most interested in. We saw 4 of the Big 5 on our 3-day tour which is really 2 days with the transfers from Joburg taking half a day each way.
We didn't realize that the driver and guide were one and the same person but this seemed to be the norm at Kruger. Our chef was lovely and made delicious foods but we would have appreciated being given different options beforehand to select our menu from.
Thale from the head office was not very responsive regarding the booking after the initial engagements were made. He doesn't seem to be on the ground with his guides and so may be a bit out of touch with the goings on.
BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience
Positive remarks:
- Incredible experience, 7 days was a good time
- We saw 4 of the big five
- We saw a lot of different African animals from so close, we could nearly touch them
- We saw a lot of different types of birds
- As a budget safari, the accomodations were quite good
- All the people we've met are very nice and helpful
- The parks we visited were very different from eachother, it is really worth it to go to the different ones
Negative remarks:
- Our guide was not really interested in the animals. We had more a driver than a guide, we hadn't a lot of information and some were even false.
- Some activities needed additional fees (Lake Naivasha, Hell's Gate, Masaï Village)
- Masaï Village in Masaï Mara is not worth it, it is a tourist trap
As a conclusion, we ended the safari with stars in the eyes and dark rings under them.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
You want the Zambia experience book Lochinvar Safaris!
If you want to see the real Zambia go with Lochinvar Safaris! We travelled with Mark from Lusaka to Livingstone , with 4 people in a jeep. He gave us a lot of information and history of Zambia, really interesting! We saw the real life of the Zambian people. We ate with our hands in local restaurants. Every day we had a briefing over the next day, the time schedule is flexible. Dutch people are more strickt, I guess. The lodge we sleep in Livingstone was standard, the beds are short, but okay. It was clean but nog very fancy or luxury. We made some tours, really like the boat safari! We had one day of and Mark booked for us rafting at the Zambezi, great experience!!! If you want to see the big 5, or other wild animals, you go to Botswana at your free day. I’ve heard that’s really cool! The little park in Livingstone you can see the rhinos. I’ve had a very good time and one day I hope to see Zambia again!
