TR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Cheater Joshua
The owner name is Joshua. He is a cheater.. Really it’s a fake agency.. we sent to our tour budget advance. he didn’t pay our hotel, jeeps,entrence fee etc. we had to pay again. And the last day he stole my 700 usd.. joshua is a thief..
TR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Bubble Agency
Never work this company and owner JOSHUA K KASAU . We agreed with 3 land cruiser but he brought us 3 old minivans. Minivans broke down on the way. Paid him thousand dollars via bank but he did not pay our hotels and also Masai Mara entrance fee.
Don’t trust him!!!!
We couldn’t get the money back. Kenya has a many professional tour agency. You can work any agency except Polmans Holiday and Travel
NL
under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
How can they find all those amazing animals?!
Best time ever sleeping in luxury tents in Serengeti and spotting wildlife all day with our guides Freddy and Hadji, who even managed to get us a few meters away from a female lion hunting for a zebra (next to the 25 other lions, chetahs, leopards, rino’s, and elephants we saw). Just amazing!
CH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
DON'T TRUST THEM
In January I enquired Orongai AS for a 5 days safari for late July. Since the beginning, I required to book ONLY lodges from the Serena Hotel Chain with an HB meal plan and to buy the flight from Arusha to Zanzibar for which I already had a reservation. The proposed program for the safari was meeting all my expectations and therefore I paid 50% of the total bill to confirm the trip (with 6 months advance).
FIRST SURPRISE: in June, after my request of details about the baloon trip that was listed into the proposed plan, we discovered that this was actually not included in the price I agreed (and already paid) but was an extra, costing "only" 510 US$ per person!!! After many e-mails back and forth with Martha, where I also proposed to pay 50/50 their mistake, I finally end up talking with the owner of the company (Mr Asseri) and I accepted, to pay the extra 510 US$. After we arrived in Tanzania, we were transfered to the first hotel where the Orongai rapresentatives showed up with more than 2 hours delay to the agreed breefing.
SECOND SURPRISE: checking out from this hotel, I discoverd that the meal plan was not HB as per the plan accepted by me and I had to pay 25 US$ per person for the dinner.
THIRD SURPRISE: the off-road car for the safari was a 30 years old Toyota Land Cruiser (much older than any other car we meet during the safari) with (probably) a few MILLIONS miles story: fortunately we had no mechanical problems (and this is a real miracle, considering the treatment this veicles receive) but the level of confort of that car was really poor.
FOURTH SURPRISE: we started the tour and we discovered that the plan was shuffled and instead of the agreed Tarangire-Ngorongoro-Serengeti sequence we would follow a Ngorongoro-Serengeti-Tarangire schedule.
FIFTH SURPRISE: despite my cash paiment for the ballon trip, they didn't succeed in boking that experience.
SIXT SURPRISE: when we were in Serengeti, we discovered that our hotel for the next 2 nights would have been a tented camp (and not a lodge as agreed).
SEVENTH SURPRISE: on the last day we discovered that the flight we were booked on was not the 5:10 pm one I originally requested but a earlier one (3:15 pm).
Based on this, would anyone trust them??
PS1: looking at other feedbacks in this site, looks like I'm not the only one having had this kind of disturbing experience with Orongai AS: probably the blame is not to be put on me
PS2: the only good thing of this safari were the guide (Gabriel) and the driver (Francis). They exceeded all our expectations under every aspect: nice and polite, skilled and commited
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unforgettable family vacation thanks to great care and quality of Afrishare
We were an US-Dutch group of nine visiting all for major parks in the Northern circuit. This turned out to be an unforgettable experience, thanks to our great guides, that went way beyond only spotting the big five (we saw them hunting, mating, sleeping in trees), fantastic accommodation and solid communication in preparation.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Amazing guidance to wildlife, carefully selected lodging and sound driving in very positive spirit!
Ibrahim’s response in preparation was very accurate and always timely. He offered a competitive offer with a great 6 day initerary, covering the parks in the north and very different yet always good standard lodging, varying from safari tents in Seregenti to wife views over the Karatu landscapes. We enjoyed this company as they know their profession and are passionate about it, and live up to every promise they make.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The operator arranged very excellent & guide/driver and we are satisfied with the services provided.
The operator arranged very good tented camps with good location and services in Kenya although our trip was last-min booking and some tents were changed. In addition, our guide/drivers in both Kenya and Tanzania are all pretty good with over 10 years of working experience as a tour guide. We look forward to getting back to Africa again in near future and highly recommend this tour company. It's better to book your safari trip as early as possible so that you can secure the tented-camps you like the most.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great team that will do their best to make your safari amazing!
If you’re reading this, don’t hesitate, go ahead and book with Amazing Memories. The team did, in fact, help us make some amazing memories.
Throughout booking I dealt with one person, Anne. She answered any and all questions I had and didn’t make me feel like I was asking too many questions (most of my questions were through email, but they can also communicate through WhatsApp (like free text messaging)).
They look to have set safari packages, but I wrote to Anne with particular path and lodges in mind. Anne assisted in making sure we got what we wanted. You can definitely tailor your trip to the things/places you want to stay, do, and see. That being said, two or three of my picks were full (my fault for booking so late), but she suggested other options that ended up being good.
We paid 30% down when booking and paid the rest upon arrival. You can pay by wire transfer, credit card, or cash. Cash was impossible for the down payment because I was in another country. So, I wired money through my bank (no fee on their part, but my bank had a small fee, which was still better than the credit card fee). Credit card came with a 4% transaction fee.
Because of other reviews, I requested Daniel. I’m am a fledgling photographer and I had noticed that another review had mentioned he loved taking photos, which he did and even gave me tips on how to get better photos. He would try to get us in the best possible positions for some fantastic photos - and he was successful many times!
Daniel was super friendly and extremely knowledgeable. At the time of this writing, he told us he had 10 years experience being a safari guide and it really showed because he could tell us about each and every animal we saw and gave facts with what we were seeing. He knew many of the other safari guides and could communicate through radio and just by stopping when they saw each other - this is very important because the parks are so big and unless someone tells you that they just saw XXX animal over by XXX area, we wouldn’t have encountered as much as we actually saw.
Traveling with Daniel felt like you were traveling with a friend. He was very friendly and would welcome any and all questions about Kenya, animals, the different tribe culture, and even about himself. I felt like he looked out for us and felt very safe and taken care of with him. And lastly, his communication skills are great. He would tell us the itinerary was, the time we were going to go here or there, the time he was going to pick us up....and he would repeat it at another time to be sure we were on the same page. Before we visited a village or went into a shop he would let us know what to expect, which was so invaluable. He was great with time management and we were able to see everything we wanted to see and do what we wanted to do.
Our trip was made to go to: Masai Mara, Samburu, Aberdare, Lake Nukuru, Nairobi - I won’t talk about specifics of the places since this review is about the company. I’ll just say that, those are the places I planned out with Anne and since some of the drives between these areas were quite long, Daniel planned, on his own, some things to stop at to break up the drive for us - it was much appreciated because we wouldn’t have known it was something we could have done/fit in to the drive.
We had 9 days with Daniel and we feel confident in our opinion about him. Without a doubt, I would request him when I am back in Kenya and would be super disappointed if he wasn’t available. He went above and beyond to make sure we had a great time.
Some tips: It is dusty! On game drives, the roof is up and windows open so that when you see an animal you can quickly capture the shot. Most of the roads are not paved and when other trucks/vans pass by a whole cloud of dust accompanies them. Bring sunglasses to protect your eyes from dust & I found it helpful to have a handkerchief to cover my mouth. We also brought some wet wipes to use before lunch.
Morning game drives can be chilly, but the afternoons can get a little warm - dress in layers.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great communication, amazing wildlife!
From the get-go, E-Trip Africa stood out with amazing communication. Every question was answered so quickly and thoroughly--Ben and Aurelie were very responsive to every email. This was our family's first trip to Africa and E-Trip Africa did not disappoint! Our goal was to see lots of wildlife and we sure did! We would recommend them to any friend wishing to travel to Tanzania.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Samburu National Reserve by Dan
Samburu was such a different place than the other parks in Kenya. It is warmer here but the wildlife was incredible there is quite a variety of wildlife. It was a unique experience. The birding was good but there are better places-- Lake Nakuru. The Samburu tribesmen were very interesting to see. The park is very nice and we would return here in the future.