50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beyond Expectations-10 day personalized tour of Rwanda and Uganda!!
Kisoro Tours Uganda provided a wonderful, personalized tour of Rwanda and Uganda. Dan selected accommodations that were locally owned and operated which was important to me. Kisoro was the only adventure tour company to advertise the ability to cross borders and tour in both Rwanda and Uganda. This made efficient travel possible given our limited vacation time. My cousin and I started in Kigali, Rwanda, and traveled to Volcanoes National Park, then entered Uganda, visiting Bwindi NP, Queen Elizabeth National Park, and Kibale Forest National Park, and flying out through Entebbe, Uganda. There was no time spent backtracking and driving back to Kigali, which left more time for viewing wildlife and other activities. Dan has contacts and friends throughout both countries, and we took full advantage of this. Some highlights for me was to stay in Muhabara Hotel, Room 12, which was Dian Fossey’s “Home away from home” and hiking to her grave site with local college students, majoring in tourism. They were so energetic, polite, and fun even while we all struggled through the mud! Our porters, Dany and Jean Claude, and our guide, Odela, were invaluable! We were lucky to see a gorilla along this hike which is not common!
We then went onto Uganda and did 2 days of gorilla habituation in Bwindi National Park. We stayed a Rushaga Gorilla Lodge in a beautiful location. Our rangers, Patrick and Eleisha, were knowledgeable and professional along with our porters Gloria, Abel, Innocent and Ronald. The gorillas were amazing and even visited a cave where they had not been seen to utilize before! We then hiked from Nkuringo to Buhoma through Bwindi National Park. Our guide, Mandela, was also knowledgeable. On this hike, in addition to the black and white colobus, red colobus, L’Hoest, and vervet monkeys, we saw a chimpanzee, which Mandela said was the 1st time one had been seen. They usually run from humans! We stayed at the beautiful Haven Lodge in Buhoma, which is community owned!
From here we traveled to Queen Elizabeth National Park where, in addition to the common sightings of cob, waterbuck, topi, warthog, hippo and elephant, we saw 2 milky eagle owls, 2 hyenas lounging in a watering hole, a lioness hunting cob and a leopard, who posed just for us! We stayed at the Buffalo Safari Lodge. When we walked into our room, we said “WOW”! We also went on the boat tour in the channel between Lake Edward and Lake George. Bambili, was our guide and has a degree in wildlife and natural resources. He did a phenomenal job! We saw many, many hippos, crocodiles and elephants as well as several bird species.
From there we traveled to Kibale Forest National Park and stayed at the Rwenzori View Guest House. This place had “family-style” meals which offered us a chance to get to know other travelers. We did the chimpanzee habituation experience and enjoyed that very much. Our guide was, Edison, who had worked for the National Park Service for 22 years! Dan then arranged for a tour of Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, which is a local, conservation area spearheaded, developed and managed by the community. This won an award from UNESCO Wetlands Sustainable Tourism Project as the best community sustainable tourism project! Katie was our guide and was wonderful. The monkeys in the area are somewhat habituated, so we saw red colobus, black and white colobus, red-tailed, and vervet monkeys. We also saw many bird species.
On our last day, we toured the Amabere Ga Nyina Mwiru Caves near Fort Portal. Ignatious “Iggi” was our knowledgeable guide with over 7 years of experience. We also hike to the 3 Explosion Crater Lakes where we climbed to the highest peak and had a 360 degree view of the area. Absolutely beautiful! From there, we drove the last few hours to Entebbe, where we enjoyed Burundi drummers on the beach of Lake Victoria, before flying out.
Dan, Kisoro Tours Uganda, can be trusted with providing you with a personalized tour, is professional and has a contagious smile! I would highly recommend Kisoro Tours Uganda! Dan is the Man!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience!
My family and I had a great experience with Jiwe Adventure, run by an amazing human named Edgar. Since Edgar is a local and the company is a one-man shop, it was far more affordable than Western options. It was great.
We climbed Kilimanjaro before, too. The Safari was a great reward.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bestday Safaris, Best Safaris Ever!!
This was hands down the best experience, I have ever had! Best Day Safaris were amazing! Picked up from the the airport by Freeman, a lovely, welcoming man! (Not part of the package but can be arranged by Best Day) Stephen was ready to meet us at the first hotel to brief us on the days ahead. Again a very friendly, helpful man! Then began our safari with one of the most amazing guides and people I have met! Joseph! What a legend! His eye for spotting animals was other worldly! He could spot a Lion on a rock from a mile away! My untrained eye had no idea how it was possible! His knowledge on the animals and landscape was second to none! We learnt sooo much about the animals and how they have evolved to adapt and survive! The days we spent with Joseph were amazing! He was so easy to talk to and learn from whether that was the nature or if you wish to learn some Swahili! He was extremely helpful and intelligent! I would recommend Best Day Safaris to absolutely everyone who wishes to go on this or any other excursion! Amazing experience!!!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic Tanzanian Safari Company!
Our entire experience with Best Day was amazing! From the beginning Peter was great with communication and completely accommodating towards our needs. Our guide, Joseph, was amazing! Very experienced and such a lovely person. He was really good at spotting the animals and telling us loads of interesting facts about them. The package we went for was perfect! We managed to see the big 5 and loads more! The accommodation included was also superb! Sleeping in the centre of the Serengeti is definitely one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I would highly recommend this company! They are a local small company that go above and beyond to create the best experience for you and wow, what an experience they create!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent, very accommodating and went the extra mile
Lion king we’re honestly excellent in every regard
Yusuph our guide was fantastic - got us incredible views of a huge range of animals and was very knowledgeable.
The hotels were incredible, we were treated so well and got some fantastic honeymoon treatment
Would strongly recommend
Really minor thing to bear in mind - cost is in dollars so coming from UK we were impacted by changing FX
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was a well informed and once in a life time experience.
The whole experience from the Safari to camping to Victoria Falls was amazing! Everything was very well organized, well-informed, and so much fun! It was an experience of a lifetime!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our guide, Karim, was exceptional!
There aren’t enough superlatives to describe how wonderful this 6-day tour was. From our pre-trip communications to our last hugs with Karim, our experience with the Home to Africa team was exceptional. They worked with us to design a trip that met the various needs and dreams of our family of five. It surpassed our expectations! And Karim - tour guide extraordinaire! He continually went above and beyond. For instance, at one of the lodges there was no electric in our cozy, lovely tent cabin. My husband uses a CPAP machine to sleep at night. While we were sitting in the lodge sipping wine in front of a roaring fire and listening to live, native music before dinner, Karim and a staff member were running a cable and power strip through the woods down to our cabin so my hubby could plug in his machine! If you are looking to book a safari, please, look no further. You won’t be sorry. And ask for Karim!!!!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly reliable and organised.
No words can describe how much we loved our stay, the food, the people, everything!!!!On our arrival, we were lucky enough to spot many elephants, 2 rhinos, leopard, hyenna...one invited itself while we were having dinner
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Kind, honestly interested in the well-being of the clients, always there as a trustworthy contact.
Oreteti Safari did a great job in making this an unforgettable experience! They were flexible, reacted to wishes that came up, taught us a lot about the animals, the country and the people, and made us feel completely comfortable.
Joseph was a kind and helpful reference person whenever needed and guide and driver Daniel made us feel safe and warmly welcomed at any point of the trip.
Thank you for everything! All best wishes from Germany, Lulu
IL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was professional and organised
We had the best time with Afrimine Tours! We saw a lot of animals and the guide was super smart and explained everything. The cars was in a good condition and the hotels were amazing.