US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Booking was easy and tour operator was very responsive to our questions.
Service was great, Douglas was awesome. Prepare for bugs, as mosquitos were in our room at the lodge, and AC wasn’t very cold. Food at the lodge was very good and our safari guide, Lucky, was amazing. We saw 4 of the big 5 (plus many many other animals) within Kruger. We were fortunate enough to see the 5th at a rest area that had a small preserve on our route to and from Kruger. I highly recommend taking the Panorama route, it is extremely worth it. The days are long but worth it.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The Best safari with the best safari Company in Tanzania!
Before we went on safari in Tanzania over the Christmas holidays, we researched a number of safari guide outfits and we found that they offered the most flexibility in terms of customizing your own itinerary, which was very important to us. After soliciting quotes from three outfits, we went with Viola. We are glad we did.
First, our guide Frank was absolutely incredible. Very polite and professional, and he has a college education in zoology so he was very knowledgeable about the birds and wildlife we saw. This was important for us because we are well-informed birdwatchers and his knowledge of the local bird population was extensive and accurate. Insist on Frank if you want to birdwatch. Frank was also a responsible guide. We watched many guides nearly run over animals in the Serengeti, while Frank would get us as close as possible without disturbing the animal’s natural behavior or startling them.
Second, the truck was very nice. The truck becomes your second home for the trip. We saw a lot of older trucks used by the bigger companies that we had considered hiring (including some broken down and on the side of the road between Ngorogoro and Serengeti, which has an awful gravel highway). Our truck was a Land Cruiser that was barely a year old, WiFi (!!!), and it had AC for the rear compartment, chargers for our cameras and phones (using a number of outlets, including American 2-prong type), and a refrigerator that came well stocked with water, beer, wine, and soda. Frank either took the car to be detailed every day or did it himself, even when we told him it wasn’t necessary.
Being familiar with off-road vehicles ourselves, we noticed that the Viola Tours trucks had BF Goodrich tires. If you aren’t familiar, these are often twice as expensive as generic/off brand tires. Frank told us that management insisted on BFGs in order to make sure the safaris run smoothly. I thought this was a very important detail that would be missed by most passengers, and it shows that Viola Toursis laying out a good bit of money to prevent breakdowns.
As far as the safari itself, Frank met us at Kilimanjaro International. We had a rough couple of days after Kenya Airways lost our luggage; without getting into too much detail, avoid Kenya Airways at all costs, as they cancelled and rebooked us at least 4 times in addition to losing our luggage. So it lifted our spirits to see that Frank was waiting for us, and he had set out a table near the truck with a bottle of wine and a white tablecloth for us to sit at while we listened to his briefing on the itinerary. We stayed a few nights in Arusha at the Planet Lodge which was excellent. We used this as home base for safaris to Arusha park and Kilimanjaro.
Speaking of Kilimanjaro, Viola Tours gave us a separate guide just for the mountain hike. Saloom (unsure of the spelling) had summitted Kilimanjaro 92 times and knew the mountain like the back of his hand. It was great that Viola Toursprovided us with a skilled second guide just for this hike.
We went to Tarangire, Ngorogoro, Serengeti, and Lake Manyara while we were there. The area around Lake Manyara is hardly luxurious (although it is very safe and we had no issued walking around town at dusk), so the nearby Twiga Camp - where Viola Tours booked us - was not exactly the Ritz-Carlton. However, it was very close to the gate, the people were nice, it had security guards and one of the rarest things in all of Africa - reliable WiFi. We stayed at several luxury camps during the trip also, but ironically, the fastest and most reliable internet access was at the most modest accommodation. Twiga was clean, the food was good, the beer is cheap ($2 for a tall Serengeti/Safari/Kilimanjaro beer), and there’s a grocery maybe 10 steps outside the front gate.
Angata Camp is in the Serengeti and is owned by Viola. It’s very luxurious and is like glamping, except you are actually in the middle of the park with the wildlife. Joseph, the Masai tribesman on staff, escorted us to and from our tent at night. We saw hyenas on the way back to the tent one of the nights, and that was a really cool, authentic experience we won’t forget. I say “tent”, but the tent we stayed in was larger and nicer than most hotel rooms we’ve stayed in. Our room had two king size four-poster beds, a living room/lounging area with chairs, power and a power strip for charging, a bath tub, a separate shower room, a regular toilet, and lots of hot water. We could go on and on about Angata camp and the food, service, and atmosphere there. We recommend it if you plan to stay in Serengeti. The Endoro Lodge near Ngorogoro was also outstanding.
While easily 90% of the people we saw on safari had the ubiquitous “pizza box”, which was a cardboard box that had a plain box lunch in it, Viola Tours got us chef-prepared meals every day, and we had our white-table clothed folding table, chairs, and actual silverware and glassware. At the picnic areas, all we saw were box lunches and people eating in their trucks when there weren’t enough picnic tables.
We rarely ever write lengthy reviews like this, but Viola Tours deserves it. They were competitively priced, but we felt like we were treated like royalty. Really, having a nice safari truck where you will spend the vast majority of your time is critical, and having a well educated guide and actual lunches were more than bonuses. 5 stars
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great experience
myself and my 13yr old daughter used Falcon Safaris for all our outings as well as airport transfers. Canoeing, Devils Pool visit and Elephant back ride. They were all fantastic especially Vimbai and Edna. We had an amazing time and nothing was too much trouble to sort out for us.
PL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It was amazing experience as everything was organized on a high level
I returned very happy and satisfied after a tour in November 2018. Ms Danuta lead the tour through majestic Cape Town and most beautiful surroundings with great enthusiasm. We truly enjoyed wonderful places such as Cape Of Good Hope, Stellenbosch winelands. Ms. Mariola shared her great knowledge and showed us the rest of the other remaining attractions.
We were really impressed by Kruger Park Reserve. The hotels in which we stayed were superb with wifi available. The meals were excellent. One thing to make note of is the drive through Swaziland, we spent most of the day on the bus. Maybe it would be worth rearrange this day somehow to utylize the time better
Generally I give rating 5 for this tour. My foto story with regards to the whole trip may be found on www.trip4cheap.pl entitled Panorama Africa or Touring RSA.
TR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
AMAZING TEAM
Soul of Tanzania is a very professional company. While we were trying to organize our trip, Helena from the head office, proposed us all the possible options, she was always helpful and patient with all our questions and changing requests.
I definitely have to special thanks to Huruma, with his professionalism in guiding, his experience in determining the animals, his hospitality and his kindness.
Huruma was the STAR of our 5 day trip His knowledge on wildlife is impressive. He took right decisions and made sure we missed nothing.
My son loved him very much. Huruma was so patient when answering the questions my son asked even same question was asked 10-15 times with in 15 minutes Huruma answered very kindly and patiently as it was asked for the first time.
Thank you Helana, Thank you Benedict, Thank you Aziz and Thank you thank you HURUMA. You made our trip perfect.
PT
An excellent experience with Sunny Safaris!!
Our safari with Sunny was an excellent experience! Our guide Abdul was extraordinary, always very professional and very good mood... It was a unique experience.
5* for Sunny Safaris!
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unforgettable safari experience!
Just returned from a fabulous safari with my 10 year old son. I can’t say enough about SafariBando. Our guide, Justice took such a great care of us. He really went above and beyond to make sure we had a great time. The scenery was stunning and Justice was able to find all of the big five for us. I would strongly recommend this company to anyone looking to travel in Tanzania
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari with Makasa!
It was our first safari so we had a lót of questions before we going to Tanzania.
The many emails with Fien were very nice,quick and she made everything clear to us.
The vlogs of Selma and de website gave us a sense of confidence and we do not regret that we have booked a safari-trip with Makasa!
It was a fantastic trip!
Our guide Kaleby from Makasa was already waiting for us as promised and there we went!
Kaleby made sure that we had one great trip: he knew everthing about the animals,Tanzania and the people.He was calm,friendly with a little humor.
Also he drives carefully and brought us safe to all lodges and tented camps while we enjoying all the animals.
His quotes:"Everything comes good"and " i smell leopard"were funny ánd came true!We saw the migration and so many beautiful animals!
He clearly had a lot of experience and made for an unforgettable journey.He was also pleasant company and it never felt uncomfortable.
All accommodations booked by Makasa were awesome!The tentend camps but also the lodges were an experience in itself.It felt unreal sometimes because of the friendly staff everywere(Jambo!Karibu!) and a bit overwhelming (in a good way)
We can only say that we have experienced an unforgettable journey arranged by Makasa en great accompanied by guide Kaleby!
We can more than recommend Makasa Tanzania Safaris.
We hope some day to come back to beautiful Tanzania!
NO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
9 days budget camping safari in Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara, Natron and Eyasi
Our private 9 days safari with Taste of Africa was outstanding! We created tailor-made itinerary and it was our excellent guide as we explored all Northern Circuit. We chose the parks, places to visit and lodges for some nigts instead of public camps with no additional cost. We added Lake Natron and Lake Eyasi to our Northern Circuit itinerary and did not regret summiting the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano (only 30 percent of climbers summit it according the local guide as it is very challenging), seeing the Natron lake with amazing flamingos and meeting Hadzabe and Datoga tribes by the lake Eyasi.
Thanks for the fun driver, great guide and friend Daniel and amazing kitchen chef Massawe. We all got along well and enjoyed our evening talks after dinner. We always felt Daniel puts an extra effort in game drives and spotting the animals and we appreciated alot. We felt safe along the way, enjoyed our bumpy rides and crossing the flooded river with jeep was something really brave and fun! The most memorable moments: cheetah hunting gazelle and bunch of buffaloes eating grass around our tent at night.
They made our dreams a reality to see all Big 5 up close (except rhino, but we still saw it with binoculars; it's very difficult to spot it close).
The best price for the best safari with the best team! A really memorable experience. Highly recommended!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great engagement and ideas
Very effective communications, easily reachable and able to keep up with my various ideas/changes
Knowledgable in most areas of my trip and very helpful (and successful) with some of the new regions !
My safari tour camping throughout Kenya and Tanzania was amazing! Dubai and Oman were equally amazing in their own ways.
Looking forward to the next adventure!
