US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
You will not be disappointed!
The ACZ Safari was the highlight of my 3 week backpacking adventure around Africa. They are quick to respond to emails, picked me up and dropped me off where I was staying, and provided water, meals and the best lodging! Edward was an incredible driver and a great guide; he led us right to the great wildebeest migration!
I am lucky to have had this unforgettable experience.
Thank you ACZ!
Lovely safari in Tsavo west and Diani
I would highly appreciate the kind effort from Sun splash safaris. we were recommended by our friend to use this operator . we booked 7 day safari to Tsavo and beach holiday in Diani. My husband and I loved the private safari apart from the driving distance to Diani which we had to wait for a long queue for ferry transport.
I would recommend them to other travelers.
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great experience with a great driver
We booked a 3 day safari to tarangire, ngorongoro and lake manyara over the internet. Mr. Ndamungu replied my emails very fast and answered all questions. The driver and his boss collected us at your camp in arusha in the morning. After a visit in the supermarket the boss left in arusha and we first went to tarangire. Our driver Abraham was very good in english and so we spoke a lot and he told us very much about the country and the animals. Both nights were in the panorama camp with a great view over lake manyara. The food was good and very much. Second day we went to ngorongoro, a really fascinating place! Afterwards we go back to the camp, where we were allowed to left our bagagge. Last day we spent at lake manyara. In these days we saw almost every animal, we wondered if Abraham could smell the animals over kilometers.
So we enjoyed our stay with mercury tours really very much and i only can recommend this company, it was a really good and cheap safari!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent communication and unforgettable experience for 16 family members ages 7 to 78!
We just returned from an amazing 8 day, 7 night private lodge safari with Sunny Safaris. I would highly recommend Sunny Safaris as your tour operator. When my parents visited Africa in 2011, it was their dream to return with all 7 of their grandchildren which finally came true this summer. We have been working closely with Jessica and her staff since last summer when our family decided to embark upon this journey. Besides price, her prompt and complete email responses was a major deciding factor when choosing a tour operator. We visited Lake Manyara (1), Serengeti (2), Ngorongoro (2), and Tarangire (1). We stayed in Serena lodges except in Tarangire where we stayed in a Sopa lodge. Our first night we stayed in Arusha at Lake Duluti Lodge which was a phenomenal experience. Due to our diverse age range (ages 7 to 78), we decided to include one day of recuperation after the long journey which turned out to be just what we all needed. The rooms and cuisine were beyond our expectation. Saeed was our dining room manager, and he catered to our dining requests. His staff delivered delicious meals beyond our expectation and pampered us with Tanzanian hospitality. All the Serena/Sopa lodges provided us with clean rooms and mosquito nets where needed. Much to our surprise, we didn't see many insects. The bathrooms had hot running water and facilities like home. The lodges were well maintained. All the dining rooms provided 3 to 5 course meals from buffet to off the menu dining with service beyond expectation. All the chefs were attentive to our dining needs, and the staff pampered us with their courteous service. We all enjoyed every meal which is difficult to achieve with a group our size. Our drivers, Abdul, BJ and Edward delivered a memorable safari experience and all the jeeps were well maintained. Our guides were very knowledgeable about the animals, plants, and culture, not only in identification, but also behavior and extra facts about the animals/plants. Because they knew the animals so well, we witnessed the Big 5! What a treat! When you are sifting through the many tour operators, seriously consider Sunny Safaris. They deliver beyond your expectation.
AR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It is incomparable. Excellent service.
I think it's a very professional, responsible agency. The guides are very well trained and the services were excellent
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
One of the best of my life.
Excellent communications. The whole trip exceeded my expectations. Our guide, Andy was superb and extremely knowledgeable about everything. In fact he absolutely made the trip. The staff were excellent, the food amazing (I'm a vegetarian) and altogether the holiday was brilliant.
Amazing, trip of a lifetime, left me wanting more
I have recently got back from one of John Cooper's photographic safaris. Wow, what an amazing time I had. We only had a small group which is a bonus on such a trip because everyone is trying to get the same vantage point. While on safari drives we were also able to split our group into two which gave us even better photographic opportunities. The accommodation and food were all great and we were able to see 4 of the big 5. We tried hard to see leopards but they just didn't want to be found. John was the ideal guide and knows a lot about the history of Africa and all the places we visited and knew where to take advantage of the best photographic opportunities. I am missing the animals and the entire Africa Adventure and am already saving for my next trip. I can highly recommend John and his African Adventures Safari Company.
MX
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Experience Paradise , Warm Hospitality
My experience was amazing thanks to Muli. Can't wait to be back to Kenya.
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great programm ,best guides (Richard & Dickens), great safari
Programm was great, easy to communicate with the agency, good service
to sum it up: perfect
FI
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not what I expected
In this safari business as in many others in Tanzania, it seems that you are buying from some company in particular but then they just put you with the same budget pack that many others offer. We booked everything through Back of Africa but once we arrived to the office, Allan, whom I have been all the time in contact, was not there, there was no signs or credentials or anything that would refer to Back of Africa. We trusted the guy at the reception, his name sounded like "Biarman". So we paid the big amount of money for the safari to him and we didn't even get a receipt. The same guy at the reception was our guide and driver the whole trip. The first day of safari was terrible, the guy was very lazy, not even going out of the car to show us the birds when we stopped at a viewpoint. He could not recognize birds more specificly than the basic information if it was e.g. "a hawk". We didn't have the promised binoculars for each neither the guides, not even one for the whole group of 5 people. Then I contacted Allan try to get some clear info about who is the guide we have and for whom does he work. Allan didn't even know the guy, afterwards he said he was new in the company. But the funny thing is that when we asked to Biarman he said that he works for Sandland Tours, the same company as the logo there was in the safari car. There was 1 person in our group that had booked the safari through a completely different company. We never got this thing clear. And it seems a common practice to put people that has booked through different companies together in the same safari. I think that only in Arusha there was something like 280 different companies, but at the end, many of them belong to the same owner, or they just change the name when the company lose its reputation or whatever, but you can never trust that the company you are booking with, will be the same you are actually going with.
(By the way, Sandland Tours has the worst reviews ever on the Internet...)
Anyways, we tried to make the best out of what we had, we put some pressure to the guide to make a bit bigger effort to find the animals, and it improved, at the end of the day we saw pretty much. I don't think he was a bad guide, but he was not a very good one either. He was just doing his job to get paid, he did not enjoy his job, he was not a nature lover.
The first day we did not have any binoculars, after the second day, we had 1 for 5 people and it was broken and not very good quality. I think it is essential to have good binocular for a safari, and they promised 1 for each, which never happened. We never got any wildlife guide or book.
The camping sites were what they were, don't expect too much, but it was good enough. Our tent was the oldest in the camp and it didn't smell nice. Thank god we brought our own sleeping bags cause theirs were pretty smelly too. We had the poorest chairs to sit during meals, and no chairs at all to be able to relax in the camp site, but the guide had his own nice chair to relax. In some camps there are no lights so they could have adviced to bring own headlamps (we had ours, but other people did not). In one of the camps there was no electricity, so for people without power banks it was a serious problem if you couldn't charge the camera.
There was 2 days that we had to take the cook with us, which make the car not big enough. The cook sat on the front with the driver so we had to share the 4 windows seats on the back with 5 people, while in the national park, seeing the animals. Specially in Serengueti it becomes extremely dusty, it would not have been a big job to cover the bags on the trunk so they wouldn't be completely brown from the dust by the time we reached the camp.
The safari of 5 days in the 4 main national parks in the North of Tanzania was still worth it for the own awesomeness of the places, but certainly not because of the company we booked with, whatever that company was...