DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Booking a lodge and a car made easy, safe and pleasant.
Jacky from East Cape Tours was amazing. Her communication was always prompt, so friendly and competent, she even rang me once so we could have a quick chat to get to know and trust each other. Jacky quickly understood our needs and responded to it perfectly. What she found for us was just 100 percent what we had been looking for. Jacky made booking our SA experience really easy and pleasant.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Incredible experience with a 5* tour operator!
A wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience, organised and led by a very professional, reliable and well-run team - Mufasa Travels! We are so pleased with how everything went with Mufasa and couldn't recommend it highly enough. I'll try to outline some of our experience in the hope it helps others.
Communication with Joseph:
We started planning our safari dream holiday 9 months before flying out. We emailed around 10 different suppliers and eventually decided upon Mufasa for several different reasons.
Most of it came down to the communication we had with Joseph via email. From the very first email, he was prompt, polite and extremely helpful with his responses, information and suggestions. Some other operators were also good in this regard, but it felt as though Joseph always went out of his was to make us feel comfortable and gave us personal suggestions on how to make our trip the honeymoon of a lifetime. Very importantly, it never felt like he was trying to over-sell us anything - it was all very much about me and my wife and what we wanted - he was happy to just assist! He was also very patient, as I think I ended up sending him about 100+ emails over the course of 6 months! Each one replied to with an articulate and thorough response.
Joseph really is a credit to Mufasa team and he is the reason we ended up choosing Mufasa and planning what ended up being such a wonderful safari together.
We went for a private tour which we highly recommend if your budget permits. You can take your time, are never rushed, can decide what animals to focus on, can decide how long to stay at any given spot etc etc. It just gives you so much flexibility. We also went for a luxury option with all three of our camps being top quality accommodation. At two of them we even had our own butler!
Masai Mara:
What a wonderful Park this is. Being our first safari, our objective was to see the Big 5. We ended up seeing that and much much more! Our guide Julius was excellent. He is extremely experienced and has being around the Masai Mara (and other parks) for most of his life - even his father was a guide! He was attentive, funny and knowledgeable and we recommend him highly! Everything went smoothly and it felt like he was always one step ahead in the planning.
The only thing we would note is that on the last day we had a bit of a hiccup and weren't provided with the required packed lunch from Masai Mara, when handed over to the Tanzania side - so we went a bit hungry! Other than that, everything was perfect!
We also decided on a hot air balloon ride over the savannah for sunrise on one day, followed by a breakfast out in the open plains. We highly recommend this if it is in your budget - one of the best things we've ever done! Also a special shout out to out driver for this (Pesi) who during the game drive back to our lodge managed to show us a Leopard for the first time!
Serengeti and Ngorongoro:
As we had seen the Big 5 in Kenya, we wanted to match that in Tanzania but also wanted to focus on big cats as well. Therefore, our guide (named Saidi), had a big task ahead of him! In short, Saidi delivered everything and more! He was amazing! We saw the Big 5 but also our request to focus on the big cats led to us seeing dozens of lions (hunting, courting, in trees, sleeping etc), 7 Cheetahs (3 different sightings, one of which they were hunting), and several Leopards. We also saw some smaller rarer cats like the Caracal and a Serval twice! It couldn't have gone better.
Saidi was deeply knowledgeable and was able to immediately answer all of our questions with ease. On top of that he made sure to point out everything he could and taught us so much about the endless plains of the Serengeti. What we loved most about him was that he used his radio so effectively. Communicating with other guides to find specifically what we were looking for every time, it was great! If you go to the Serengeti/Ngorongoro - be sure to ask for Saidi!
Accommodation:
In Masai Mara we stayed at Neptune Mara and it was incredible. The lodge overlooks a river where we saw giraffes, hippos, gazelle, crocodiles, zebras and baboons - all while having breakfast!
In Serengeti we stayed at Kubukubu Lodge which was great. There is an amazing view over the savannah and an awesome outdoor hot shower!
In Ngorongoro we stayed at Acacia Farm Lodge. This place is wonderful and very sustainable as it makes use of the farmland to produce its own foods! The staff also organised a wonderful surprise romantic dinner with a bonfire for us!
Overall:
Long review (sorry!), but to sum it up, it was the experience of a lifetime and we could not have had that without Mufasa Travels, Joseph, Julius and Saidi. Communication was very prompt and thorough throughout all of our planning, we were given countless ideas and suggestions, there was also a lot of flexibility to do exactly what we wanted, and the delivery from the guides was pretty much flawless!
We highly recommend Mufasa Travels, Joseph, Julius and Saidi!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Experience with Amazing Company!
My husband and I had a fantastic time during our 10-day Uganda tour with Africa Adventure Vacations! Our tour guide was Najib, and he was so helpful, friendly and fun (and put up with our constant questions). This was our first visit to Uganda, so we were eager to explore as much as possible, and had a jam-packed itinerary. Some days we spent quite a few hours in the car, traveling to our next destination, but we enjoyed Najib's company and the scenery and snacks (Rolex!!!) along the way. It is hard to pick just one highlight of our trip, but mountain gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest was incredible and so rewarding. With such a busy itinerary, we stayed in quite a few different accommodations (maybe 6 or 7?) and each one was fabulous!!! The Ugandan people truly were so welcoming and friendly, and I really don't think we could have had a better time. We would absolutely recommend using Africa Adventure Vacations as your tour booking company - shout out to Robert who made getting booked and sorted easy! And a huge shout out to Najib - best guide/driver ever! Genuinely cannot wait to return.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Every day stress
The experience is fantastic, seeing animals every day is amazing. The problem is that we never knew what was going to happen that day or the next, the guide had no information. Every morning we would leave and we didn't even know in which hotel we would sleep. Everyone in the group had different itineraries with different hotels and different activities (many of which we didn't do). We made the reservation and payment with them more than six months ago. But then we found out that nothing was paid for. Neither the hotels, nor the entrance fees to the parks. We have had to pay our entrance fee to the Serengeti park and we don't know at this point if we will get our money back, the other people in the group don't even know if they will be able to travel tomorrow (we suspect that the company Capture Tanzania has not yet bought the tickets). The whole problem seems to be one of the owners, who seems to have had an accident (of which we have three different versions) has not been able to send the money to his partner who does nothing but lie to us on the phone saying that we will get what we paid for and at the end of the day we are still staying in hotels that were not in the offer, of lower quality and every day we have done less hours of game driving. If you are thinking of doing a tour with them we recommend looking for a serious company, because so far the only thing I can say is that we feel scammed by this company.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful trip
We knew it was going to be a trip of a lifetime, but our 2 weeks safari exceeded our wildest expectations!!!
The experiences we have had were unforgettable. Thank you for the great planning, the beautiful accommodations and of course the best dishes we enjoyed.
We saw the big 5, gorillas, chimpanzees and many more animals. Many moments that we will never forget.
I can't recommend Private Trip Uganda enough.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Mikumi & Udzungwa NP Tour with Tony
We had a fantastic Safari experience in Tansania! Justine was very accommodating with the contact beforehand, and made sure we would already have ferry tickets for after the Safari, as well as a transport on Zanzibar to our hotel - so even services beyond the Safari were provided to us which was very assuring for first time travelers in Africa :). Tony was our guide for the Safari and he is a very friendly person with good humor and did an excellent job! Quite an adventurous route in the mainland but with Tony‘s driving skills I felt very secure. Having him with us was also great in the National Park as he is very knowledgeable about the wild life around and gets just as excited about all the animals :) in order for us to catch the ferry to Zanzibar on the last day, he started driving very early in the morning - 10/10 recommend his dedication to get us there in time! We will be back for another National Park for sure :)
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
the icing on the cake
My uncle and I booked Kilele Climb via SummitClimb.
We received a warm welcome as soon as we arrived at the airport.
The four-day safari was absolutely breathtaking and very exciting. The driver was super nice and it was always just the three of us in the jeep.
We enjoyed the trekking very much (Swiss people usually love mountains (:
Everything was well organised and we always had wonderful food on the mountain. The summit day was the hardest day of all (12h hiking time) but we were successful.
Many thanks to the safari driver (Asman), the guides (Yitzhack, Frank & Douglas and the crew.
And many thanks to Rebecca for the organisation.
AT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing trip to Tanzania
This trip to Tanzania with Popote Adventures exceeded all my expectations.
Sobino helped with the itinerary and organized all the permits, accommodation and activities. We had a great vehicle, stayed at top lodges and had the best experience at the parks. We've seen all of the Big 5 and a lot more.
We had a great guide Michael who was patient and professional.
I highly recommend Popote Adventures.
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing experience
Our tour was organised by Kilimanjaro tours agent Rajab and was exactly what we hoped it would be. Our tour guide Kileo was very kind and knowledgeable, and with his 38 year tour guide experience gave us great insights on everything. He also knew all the best places to observe the magnificent animals in the parks and in our short time we saw many animals that we thought would be difficult to find. Overall we really enjoyed our tour and would recommend to others.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Holiday of a lifetime
Thanks to Bushman Safari we genuinely had the holiday of a lifetime!
Kate was incredibly helpful with our planning - accommodating our numerous individual requests and working with us to resolve questions or challenges with regards to planning. She was very quick to respond in communication and was eager to tailor the trip in order to meet our specific desires.
Our tour guides, Camillus (Tanzania) and Steven (Uganda), were incredibly knowledgeable, friendly, and patient. They kept us well informed throughout our experience and were a pleasure to have accompanying us.
5 stars isn't enough!