IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful Experience!
We had a great experience. Our gudie and driver, Mr Fredy, made us feel very comfortable. We always gave us explanation about animals and everything related to the places we visited. It has been also a very pleasure to have lunch/dinner with him and discusse aboute the tradition and culture of this fantastic land.
I'd recommend this company to everyone.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wild
We had a great experience, this was our first safari and our guide mr Fredy made it great. He always made us feel confortable and safe, he gave us very clear explanation and prove to have a very deep knowledge of wildlife. Our group was nice and we always had a great time. We defenetely recommend to book with Suricata Safari and hopefully to have mr Fredy as guide and expert driver!
FR
Great driver
The way back to Johannesburg was great and the driver was very nice.
I recommand
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Termite tour was professional and knowledgeable. The guide was funny and entertaining.
Great tour. Guide was knowledgable and friendly.
BH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
AMAZING SAFARI!!!!!!
We just got back from an amazing 3-day fly-in fly-out safari with Okondo, and we couldn’t be happier with the experience! Everything was so well-organized from start to finish. The pickups to and from our hotels in Zanzibar were perfectly on time, and the flights to and from Arusha went smoothly.
Our guide, MGonja, deserves a big shoutout – he went above and beyond to make sure we saw the best wildlife. He shared so much knowledge about the animals, parks, and local culture, which made the trip even more special.
We saw lions in action, a rhino from afar, tons of wildebeests, zebras, buffaloes, and even a massive herd of elephants that crossed the road just half a meter from our jeep! We also got up close to many giraffes – absolutely unforgettable. The jeep was super comfortable, which made the long days in the parks even more enjoyable.
We stayed at a beautiful lodge overlooking Lake Manyara, the perfect place to relax after a day of adventure. Boris, our agent, was incredibly professional and ensured everything ran smoothly – and he even surprised us with a thoughtful present at the end of our trip! If you’re looking for an incredible safari experience, we highly recommend Okondo. Thanks again to MGonja for making it so special!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent, knowledgeable, very professional and friendly.
We had amazing safari experience at Masai Mara, all thanks to Africa Tours and Journeys who organised this incredible holiday for us. The trip went very well thanks to Ms Penina Onyando, who provided detailed itinerary, invaluable advice and resolved all organisational issues. All communication was smooth, friendly and easy. From the moment we landed at Nairobi International airport, we were greeted with smile by Africa Tours staff and were looked after throughout our holiday. We are very grateful to all staff at Africa Tours and would highly recommend Africa Tours Adventures.
JP
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Experience of a lifetime!
Best tour we ever had! Both our guide John and Steve were incredible. John was extremely knowledgeable, friendly and fun! We saw so many kinds of wildlife in just 3 days. Steve even greeted us at the end of the tour. Highly recommended!
HU
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic program organization, outstanding competence
It was possible to reliably communicate with the office on all forums. Our tour guide did an outstandingly professional job. We were always right where something happened. He drove quickly and very well, which was very important for us to cover the Serengeti, Ngorogo and Tarangire in three days. We saw all five big game and many other beautiful animals. The accommodations were wonderful. They are also unbeatable in terms of value for money. It was an experience of a lifetime, we will never forget it. Thank you to the company.
HU
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Flexible organization adapted to our times
Easy communication, reliable organization. The program was well organized and we kept to our tight time frame
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
terrible vehicle
We had worked for months with Soul of Madagascar for this holiday. We had quick and efficient responses from the office employees of Soul of Madagascar. We especially were impressed with Theresia. She was quick and efficient with her responses. We were expecting a wonderful holiday because of Theresia’s thoroughness. She sent us a picture of the Soul of Madagascar rep that was meeting us at the airport and a picture of the vehicle we would be using.
The lodges we requested were reserved by Soul of Madagascar. All were what we expected and met our needs. A few of the lodges exceeded our expectations. Bakuba Lodge was absolutely wonderful. It is a very unique lodge and would recommend this lodge. Bakuba Lodge and Le Soleil de Tsingy were the best lodges we stayed. We would not recommend Radisson Waterfront rooms 19, 20 or 21. They are in the basement. We would not recommend Gaspard Hotel in Ranomafana, the food was not good at all.
Our guide, Joushia, and the original driver, Rivo, were not very punctual. In fact, they were late over 95% of the time. We had to contact Theresia midway through our holiday because of Joushia’s attitude and the vehicle issues we had.
Oh, the vehicle issues we had!! Not one, not two, not even three, but five issues with the original vehicle. Then the second vehicle was a bit better but we still had no working air conditioning and ROACHES in the vehicle. We booked higher end hotels as we expected great service and a quality experience. Because of the service we received from Theresia, we thought we would receive excellent service from everyone at Soul of Madagascar. We also thought we would have had a higher end vehicle because of the higher end hotel choices we had made. Well, that was not the case. We had never experienced such bad service between the guide, driver and the vehicle like this. The best vehicle was the one that transported us to/from the hotel/airport and the one from Bekopaka to Morandava, which was not from Soul of Madagascar. Out of 14 days we have been with a vehicle, we had air condition for 4 days. Two of these days were transfer to/from the International Airport. Taking the total time we spent in a vehicle without air conditioning, it would be over 95% that we had NO air conditioning. We understand things happen. Maybe even twice, but five different things happened with the same vehicle. The first time, on the way to Kirindy Forest, the fan belt broke. It took about 2.5 hours to get back to where the fan belt broke. The next day, driving to Bekopa the air conditioner broke. We had to drive 5 hours on the dirt road with the windows down. It was SO hot and SO dusty. Our luggage, ourselves and everything was DIRTY. I mean DIRTY. Joushia and Rivo did not even seem to care that we were filthy. The next time the vehicle had an issue was on the way to Antsirabe. We stopped once for 15 minutes, then another time for 20 minutes and then an extra hour at lunch because the power steering pipe had a hole. And the air conditioning was not working. We had told Joushia we needed a different vehicle in Antsirabe. But he did NOT listen to us.
We were heading to Ranomafana the day after Antsirabe. We had told Joushia we absolutely wanted to do a night walk in Ranomafana as this was planned on our itinerary. Joushia said we had to insure we were on the road very early to arrive in Ranomafana for the night walk. We opted to not do Antsirabe city tour and the zebu factory to insure we had enough time to get to Ranomafana. We ended up paying the price for not getting a different vehicle in Antsirable as the vehicle broke down on the side of the road. We also noticed the power steering wasn't working, even though we were told everything was fine with the vehicle and of course the air conditioning was not work. That day the fan belt broke again, the same fan belt. We sat at least two hours at the side of the road while the vehicle was repaired. We repeated that we wanted to do one tonight but because of the vehicle breaking down for the fourth time, we could not. Rivo's reply was "This is life in Madagascar." WOW, what customer service is this?!?! We have not seen any other tourist's vehicles broken down on the side of the road. Obviously, it isn't life in Madagascar. We also have not seen any other tourist vehicles with their windows down! So many lies! Joushia lied to us! Finally, we got a different vehicle, but again, it had no air conditioning, and it had roaches crawling on the floor and on us!! This whole situation was unacceptable.
We travel the world as we have visited 95 different countries. Most of these travels has been on induvial tours such as this one. Never have had anything like this. We talked to other tourists while on our holiday in Madagascar; French, Hungarian, Dutch, English, Australian, Canadian, South African and Americans. None have experienced even one issue like we had. All we ever heard from Theresia was “Thank you for understanding”. Well, that is one thing, but it does not make the facts change. If we experienced any small issue on a previous holiday, we would have been compensated for any issues. It would have been a nice gesture, indicating these issues were understood, if a small refund or possibly including meals at several of the hotels. But no compensation was ever made. We paid a lot of money for this holiday and expected great service. Other than Theresia, we did not receive good service from Soul of Madagascar. We felt as if we were a nuisance and not a client.
We had communicated with Theresia during the trip for her to try to understand our situation. Her response was “my apologies” and she was grateful for our understanding. She also stated she did not know about all the issues with the vehicle until we had told her. Joushia did not tell her about the vehicle?? Upon our arrived home, we sent a lengthy email detailing all our issues we experienced on our trip to Theresia. This is her response, “I would like to apologize for the inconvenience you experienced during your trip. As a representative of our agency, I will take all your feedback seriously. I will take the time to carefully observe the people I will work with in the future. Once again, I offer you my most sincere apologies.” Apologies are one thing, but it is as if no one from Soul of Madagascar understood that we paid good money for a tour that was far below satisfactory conditions. We honestly cannot recommend Soul of Madagascar.