DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Perfect 6-day Safari
I booked the safari for myself and my parents because I wanted to show them my "second home". We did a six-day tour of the northern parks and even I could see Tanzania with completely new eyes! It was not my first safari but by far the best.
The accommodations were great especially for my comfort loving parents.
Our guide James was great, he knew a lot about the national parks and the animals. He speaks perfect german, which was good especially for my parents and he could help me to improve my Swahili ;)
I would book a safari with James anytime again!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Incredible 7-Day Accommodated Northern Tour!
Highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Namibia. Honestly when I first looked at TripAdvisor I was skeptical of how a tour company could have such a high rating but can't say enough great things about this. Great accommodations, comfortable transportation, unbelievable sites, and best of all was our tour guide (Previous). His genuine enthusiasm for everything we did was obvious including his gentle nudging to get up at the crack of dawn to get the best animal sightings. He made a great tour truly spectacular with a lifetime of memories!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
OMG!!! That's how awesome this experience was for myself and my friends!
The Budget Three Day Safari was everything that the previous reviewers stated! It was amazing and we had such a good time. The weather was nice, put definitley bring sunglasses and a jacket! The drive from Johannesburg to Hazyview was not bad at all, the driver made plenty of rest stops, which allowed us to get food and even observe some animals before getting to Kruger National Park. The accomodations were just as described and eveything was well kept. The food was amazing and their were plenty of choices to choose from no matter your diet restrictions. Sidenote: I keep saying amazing becuase that's exactly what it was! David checked-in on us several times throughout the trip and made sure that we were comfortable with lodging and anything else that we may have needed. We saw all "Big Five" animals, which made the trip well worth it! This was a great experience and everybody who worked there went above and beyond to make sure we had a great time! I have already suggested this trip to so many of my friends and family.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Awesome Family Trip ans a great guide!
My daughter booked the trip for us and I am still impressed by this great country with the beautiful landscape - now I understand why our daughter loves this country so much! Our guide James not only had an eye for hidden animals, he also could give us much information about them.
The communication ran smoothly, as James also speaks fluently German. This allowed us to gain a very personal impression of this country. We would always book a safari with James again!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Responsive during the planning process and excellent guide!
Noah was always very prompt returning emails and answering questions throughout the process, from our initial inquiry up until we left for Kenya. I can’t say enough good things about our guide, Eustace, he was truly exceptional and really made the Safari a memorable experience. We were very pleased with the lodges that were included in our package and our vehicle.
This was our first (but not our last!) Safari and I could t be happier that we selected Wildbeest Safaris, they delivered an amazing experience.
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Best African adventure
We send a request to Bimos Travel and we had great quote, options from different lodges. Whatsap calls really helped to understands our needs. We were picked up on time the driver was knowledgeable and vehicle was good. The safari was 4 four of great experience. We spotted the big five in Mara national reserve.
Great Safari, terrible organisation & communication.
We booked a 10 day trip with Skywide. A safari followed by Mombassa beach to relax at the end.
The Safari was great but the relaxing part was anything but. We arrived at our so called 4* hotel in Mombassa and we arrived to a green swimming pool with mould everywhere, dirty bathrooms and flies on food. We called Skywide immediately to say we wanted to move to a hotel closer to what we had been promised without a mould and an out of action pool and their communication was quite frankly terrible- the hotel is FLAMINGO BEACH- (DO NOT STAY THERE!!!).
The hotel refused to move us to sister hotel with a clean pool in use because they said Skywide refused to cover the cost, two hours later and no news from Skywide after several calls and emails we took matters into our own hands and booked a trusted hotel and left as soon as possible.
We lost a whole afternoon (of a short 3 day break) sorting this out ourselves and Skywide would not reimburse the costs claiming it was far more expensive than Flamingo, they refunded us the stay at Flamingo and the price was half of what our new hotel cost.
On leaving we arrived at Mombassa airport to learn our flight to Nairobi had been cancelled and no one of Skywide had notified us, the consequences for this could have been massive as we had a connecting BA flight to catch to England. Skywide arranged the airport transfers and booked our internal flights therefore this was their responsibility, the flight was cancelled 9 hours earlier and they hadn't let us know, Kenya airways were shocked no one had contacted us from as they let the booker of the flights know about cancellations.
We got a flight with only 10 minutes to spare thanks to Kenya Airways running us through security, this was all due to Skywide's lack of communication and has we arrived at the airport on time and not early for our flight we'd have missed the earlier flight and our BA flight home.
So the Safari was great but I'd argue most safari companies out there would offer as good a service, after all the Masi Mara is it's own experience regardless whose arranged it, but the trip ended stressfully and as my mums trip of life time at 60 years old I was very angry she had to encounter this stress.
This was my third time to Africa and the worst company I've used I wouldn't recommend them.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An amazing lifetime experience
We booked a 5 day Great Rift Valley Safari with Namayiana Safaris. We were not sure about what to expect since we were going to Kenya and Africa for the very first time. The booking itself was simple and Mpairo (John) kept checking with us and answered all our questions. We were picked up in Nairobi and our journey started from there. We were very pleased that Mpairo and Corrina were there with us in Maasai Mara. They are all on our game drives, sat down with us for lunch and dinner. Our accomodation Fisi camp had such nice hosts. They prepared a fantastic meal for new years eve. All in all, we have a very nice time.
The game drives themselves were at "out of the world" experience. Mpairo is just excellent at tracking animals. He is always the first one to spot them! Then the other cars arrive: D We managed to see the Big 5, in addition to lots of other animals and were very happy. We visited the nearby Maasai village and it was very nice.
After the Mara, we continued to Lake Naivasha and Nakuru where we had 2 more game drives. We had some small problems in Lake Nakuru, but Mpairo intervened and solved them in minutes. This is a lot.
We would definitely like to visit again and would recommend them to family and friends.
https://www.tripadvisor.de/ShowUserReviews-g294209-d14154813-r643923574-Namayiana_Safaris-Maasai_Mara_National_Reserve_Rift_Valley_Province.html#
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was an amazing experience. Thank you Jayson for saw the big five and for the interesting story!
It was really great experience to visit Masay Mara park and Nakuru lake with this company.
Transfer from airport to hotel was in time. First of all guys from Okoa Africa Tours met us in the airport and transfered to the Okoa Africa Tours office for paying the trip, then they tranfer us to the our hotel.
Tomorrow morning they met us in our hotel and tranferd to the met point for starting the safary trip. By the way, emploeey of Okoa Africa Tours helps me to buy local sim-card.
I whant to tell the big thanks to our guide Jayson for showing the big five! It's amazing, we have also seen two representatives (lions and buffalos) of the big five in the firt day of our trip!
Jayson told us very interesting facts about animals, their habits and lives! He gave us the opportunite to saw animals as close as possible to be safety!
In the Nakury Lake we saw rinos! It's incredible, because I've never seen these animal before this trip.
So the big thanks to Okoa Africa Tours and our guide Jayson for showing us the magic world of safary!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very Good Budget Tour
Karibu Safaris was very prompt in responding by email to any questions that we had beforehand.
Our driver/guide, Arony, was excellent. He was friendly, experienced, and very knowledgeable about the game and where to find them. When one of the tourists on our trip became ill on the last night, he took the initiative to find a good doctor and see that he received proper treatment.
In most ways, the safari was as advertised. There were four minor ways that differed: 1) At Masai Mara, we did not stay at the Mara Springs Tent Camp, but instead stayed at Miti Mingi Eco Camp, which is probably equivalent. The camp was close to the park entrance, and we had warm water for showers, and a private bathroom with flush toilet, shower, and sink. It was not luxurious, but fits a budget tour. 2) We did not go for a game drive on our last morning at Masai Mara, but instead visited a nearby Masai village. This was interesting, but does involve some extra costs ($15 pp entrance, money for souvenirs). 3) On our way from Masai Mara to Lake Nakuru, we stopped at Lake Naivasha and went for a boat ride ($20 pp). There we saw a number of birds and got very close to some hippos. We could also see some game on an island, but were not close. 4) One small complaint - we were provided with some water at Masai Mara, but needed to buy our own for the trips to Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru.
Even though it was not high season, we saw a large variety of animals. At Masai Mara, we saw many wildebeast, impalas, gazelles, buffalo, elephants, zebras, warthogs, baboons, and hippos. We also saw giraffes, waterbucks, lions, hyenas, cheetahs, a few crocodiles, and a rare leopard. We also got to see a pride of 7 lions hunt a family of warthogs and bring down a young warthog. I was surprised at how close we could come to many of the animals. At Lake Nakuru, we saw many impalas, buffalo, baboons, gazelle, and some elands. We also 7 white rhinos, including one with a baby. We saw one giraffe (which was different than those at Masai Mara), a python, and a large number of flamingos and pelicans. There are apparently not as many flamingos as there used to be, since the lake flooded about 3 years ago with heavy rainfall, and the saltiness of the lake was decreased.
I recommend bringing a camera with a telephoto lens, or good zoom capabilities. I had a video camera with 80x zoom, and was able to get much better pictures than others in the group who only had their cell phones. Though for many of the animals (including lions and cheetahs) we were able to get right next to them.