20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The best part of the tour operator was its guide Jimmy
- Jimmy our tour guide was excellent, patient and kind. Made the trip worthwhile. Always made every effort for us to get the most of the trip and seeing the animals up close in every given opportunity. Patiently attended to every request. Also, excellent driver. We saw other vans running up to issues and we did not had one. Jimmy always helped every one who needed.
- The tour operator was overall ok, but some things could have been better.
- Responses to emails was quick but sometimes did not answer to everything
- We were told that we could either pay by cash, or by a link provided that had a 3.5% bank commission fee or bank transfer with a 20 USD bank commission fee. We chose the latter, but when in Nairobi, at the office to proceed to the payment, the guy kept trying to negotiate a "bank fee" ranging from 3-5% over the price of the safari. We denied and managed to just pay the safari price, proving that there was indeed no bank commission fee.
- Accomodation was good, some more basic then others but overall good. Specially enjoyed Amboseli Manjaro Tented - lots of contact with nature.
Overall, great trip! If you are thinking about this operator highly recommend Jimmy as the guide
IE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very flexible for changing arrangments.
As I got off Kilimanjaro climb earlier than planned due to illness, my thanks to Almighty Kilimanjaro for bringing my 2 day Safari forward a day and reshuffling arrangements. Thanks to strong cocktail of prescription drugs i was on after being discharged from hospital I found the energy to continue with my booked Safari. I had a great time going to Tarangire National Park on day one and Ngorongoro Conservation Area on day 2. The Safari drivers were all great but a special mention to Frank a Safari driver as he was brilliant on the last day of Safari. He drove like crazy so I could make a flight to Zanzibar. Also Nico my Safari driver in Ngorogoro Crater, was great in organising for Frank to bring me to Arusha. Also my thanks to Abdul of Almighty Kilimanjaro was great in picking me up in Arusha and getting me to Kilimanjaro airport. Lesson learned do not have a flight on the evening of a Safari. it puts too much pressure on everyone, me included. Air Tanzania brought my flight forward by an hour at very last minute notice. The effort by everyone to get me on that flight was outstanding. Both Safaris are well worth it but the Crater is something special. it was like a movie scene. it is a special place dropping through the early morning mist to the crater floor, emerging into a paradise of natural beauty. Be sure to get contact details for Rasheed in Almighty Kilimanjaro as it saves the Safari drivers a lot of hassle trying to figure logistics out, especially if you are on tight timelines like i was. I got lots of pictures and videos which I treasure but they fail miserably to capture the beauty of the place and the wild animals.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great company, good communication, excellent food and good guides
From the start, we have had very good communication with Lulu, answering all our questions. Our schedule got changed last minute, but regarding travel times that was even better. Throughout the safari, the food was excellently prepared by chef Victor and Ibrahim and sufficiently enough and healthy! We had some problems with the car, but that was solved as quickly as possible by the guides. William was a very nice guy, but a bit less assertive than Saidi regarding explanations about wildlife and local tribes and so on. The second half of the tour, we learned more about the surroundings from Saidi. But overall, both guides were very friendly, helpful and good. In term of value for money, we would recommend Sacred (and our tour guides) again!
QA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent service and operations
With Green Places Adventures, Jane the Organizer was very professional to arrange our holiday. The lodges and destinations we visited were awesome. She came to meet us in Nairobi before commencing our safari. Lawi the driver had good driving skills. Lawi was also friendly and had a good knowledge of the wildlife. We spot the big five animals and other wildlife in our 6 days safari trip to Amboseli, Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara. For anyone looking safari to Kenya I recommend Green Places Adventures.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Chasing colors
Beautiful vegetation everywhere. Very active bird lives. Flowers and birds are the perfect combination of colors and shapes. Magnificent coasts and mountains. Although I wish humans have not set foot in this continent, so that wild animals are not blocked and persecuted from farms to farms.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Small group tours dedicated to showing you the REAL Zambia experience!
My companion and I took the Zambia: 10 Days Nanzhila Cultural, Historical and Wildlife Safari Adventure” tour in May of 2022. We chose this tour because it was a well balanced tour including time spent in villages with actual villagers, historical sites, natural wonders, and wildlife of course. I was born in Zambia but was very young upon my family returning to the States. So I was excited to see and experience for myself, all that I had seen pictures of and heard stories of life there. The tour did not dissappoint! Because it ended up being just the two of us on the tour, the operator was able to customize the tour a bit to include the place where I was born and the village we lived in. We even got to meet the chief there! Tour is fast paced but with enough time to feel immersed. We were very well taken care of and the guides made us feel like family. We were grateful to find a tour operator that enabled us too afford our dream homecoming trip. The only reason for the 4 stars instead of five is due to a couple of last minute lodging bungles that were stressful. But in the end, we would do it all over again. We have so many amazing memories. Thank you Lochinvar Safaris!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Gave us a great tour of Kruger and the Panorama route
Picked us up at the airport on time and drove us to Kruger and our accommodation for 2 nights at Sabie River bush lodge. Great location right next to Kruger where Hippos would play right in front of lodge. The lodge was fine, the food was less than acceptable. served child portions with old food at times. We saw big 5 2 times on our tour of Kruger. great experience. Then they drove us up to Panorama route and showed us all the cool sites up there with Gods window, waterfalls and Blyde river canyon. Drove us back to airport on a really bad road. driver would go so fast and then slow down really quickly for 3 hours, made my wife sick from the driving so erratic. We are happy with our tour and tour operator. I would recommend this tour for anybody who wants to be taken care of for the tour of Kruger.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Simon was great!
I found cuckoo safaris during my research when starting to plan this trip. They were super responsive and accommodating to making changes in the itinerary that we wanted. I think it’s important to know that cuckoo is not with you the entire time they have partners in different countries such as Botswana. I had no idea that we would be passed off to some other company so it was a bit nerve racking when you are not familiar with the country. We were with cuckoo for 6 nights and 7 days and here are our pros and cons. Pros: everyone is on time for pick ups and drops off, the variety of activities provided is a great mix, AC vehicles for long drives or transfers, bottled water is supplied daily, the price was within our budget compared to different operators, the game drives are very long days but you get to see all the animals which is a very unique experience. Cons: all the hotels except the one we stayed at in Victoria falls were just okay (even with researching prior they were rated 4 and up on Google but just didn’t really fit/meet our expectations) good thing is you can ask for a higher tier, and biggest CON was the food was absolutely terrible. On long game drives they pack you a lunch but it’s a boiled egg, some deli sandwich and randoms snacks that have been sitting in a open door SUV from 5am in the morning not refrigerated or the drivers have food like rice and a meat just chilling in the trunk for long periods of time. You feel bad saying no thank you because these people are working incredible hard but I do not trust food that requires refrigeration at home to just be in the back seat of a car when it’s 100 degrees. I would highly advise bringing a bunch of protein bars, jerky and snacks to get you thru the day. Even at some hotels the breakfast buffets had under cooked eggs or meat or flies swarming a huge bowl of yogurt. I find it better to not have open food buffets in areas with lots of insects.
We did have a good experience and very glad we saw Zimbabwe and Botswana but with the amount of money you pay you would hope that there would be better food during long days. But unfortunately the food goes across the board for many tour operators as you see several different companies throughout your trip.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great stay travelling through Uganda
We hired a supercustom and had great service from Pamoja whenever there were problems with the car due to very bad roads.
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20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic Safari and Guides
Really good value for money. We got to see absolutely everything we wanted to see over the 6 days on Safari. We got split across 2 tour guides over those days, particular mention to one of the guides Francis who was amazingly friendly, engaging and insightful. He really put the cherry on top of a really great trip especially when there's a lot of travel time between locations. Accommodation was good, the only thing that could have been better was a noise issue in our hotel in Nakuru but the tour company apologized and the other places we stayed were nice. The Masai Mara accommodation was SUPER basic so just be prepared for that. The food was generally ok, local cuisine which usually was rice, veg and a protein. As a veggie it was usually lentils and beans. Not a huge amount of variety over the week but you do get fed A LOT! I would say if you're veggie, try and be specific about what you want in your packed lunch beforehand because we got pretty stingey stuff compared to the meat eaters...
The Manjara Camp in Amboseli was super accommodating with the food though. What a lovely place to stay as well!! It was the best place we stayed by far! Henry was an amazing host and if we could have stayed longer there, we would have!! Special shout-out to Chef, she blew us away with how much she catered for us.
All in all, we had a fantastic time. If your focus is on seeing animals and being treated amazingly by very experienced guides, this is deffo for you! Bear in mind you spend maybe 10-15% of your time at camp so if you just want the basics like we did, it's perfect without all the bells and whistles!
