The best
I have traveled severally, using different agents, but I have never been handled this professionally with every detail taken care of and the hospitality was out of this world too. I honestly recommend these guys for your travel logistics.
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience, Indeed!
Right from day 1, back in January, when we started getting quotes from various tour operators, Anne was very professional. This being our first trip to Kenya, she was responsive to loads of curious questions that I had and she patiently answered them. While we were negotiating for the best price (? ) , she impressed me with the approach and I decided to go with Amazing Memories Safari though I had lesser price from others. I truly appreciate her efforts in organizing a fantastic trip. She and her team were kind enough to pick us up from the airport, in spite of a delayed arrival late in the evening the last week of June.
Since we had kids traveling with us, I had requested an itinerary that was spread over 8 days/7 nights. This ensured that we wouldn’t have to deal with rushing from one park to another and avoid long journeys. We visited Samburu, Sweetwaters, Lake Nakuru & finally the ultimate Mara triangle. The rooms were carefully chosen to accommodate the 4 of us including extra bed. The beauty of all these stays was that the tents/room were right in the middle of the park that gave us the advantage to (i) spot animals closeby & (ii) saved time to start our game drives at convenience. Separate request was made for vegetarian food. This was taken care of to the minute detail and we felt at home, with Indian Cuisine at every restaurant we visited and for every meal.
Special word of mention to our guide & new friend Daniel. He was very friendly, soft spoken and quickly adapted to our expectations. He was very experienced in spotting animals & feathered species alike. One of the biggest advantage was the operators being connected via radio to pass on message of games being spotted. This helped us to get to the location quickly and enjoy the moment. On one occasion, Daniel drove almost 70km past the Mara bridge to spot a Cheetah, which was on top of my list, resting behind a bush. He was persistent in his quest to spot the cat despite his peers advising him against. A similar incident while spotting a leopard, that helped us complete viewing the Big Five in first 2 days. Being an avid naturalist, he provided information on all animals based on different locations across Kenya.
I strongly recommend Amazing Memories Safaris to anyone looking for a good tour operator in the Kenya region. The staff is very thorough in their job, professional in handling their commitments and will go the extra mile to bring cheers to their customers. In my case, the kids were ecstatic on their surprise dream vacation. My family and I felt confident we were in safe hands. Please feel free to email me for any specific questions/information on our experience.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing safari!
My wife and I chose to celebrate our honeymoon in Tanzania and decided to work with It Start in Africa.
We had such a wonderful time on our safari. Our driver was Tommy. He was a great guy and we had a lot of fun with him! We recommend Tommy to anybody that does a tour with ISIA. The entire trip was so exciting and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Some highlights:
- The views from our tent at Mawe Ninga Tented Camp
- Hunting with the Hadzabe tribe - We highly recommend this to anyone that comes to Tanzania. It is a little bit out of the way (not a lot in the scheme of things). For me personally, it was the most interesting thing we did!
- Seeing the Zebra migration
- Watching lion eating a zebra that they had killed that morning
- Watching several prides of lion hunt. Unfortunately, no kill, but still really great!
- The camp site and location of Pumzika - the best!
- Seeing the big five. Tommy was so great. We hadn't seen the black rhino until we got to Ngorongoro on our second last day and he made it his mission to find one for us. He found two! :)
- Seeing the flamingo at Ngorongoro
- The accommodation at Neptune Ngoronogoro - amazing!
- The coffee plantation tour in Arusha
It would be remiss of us to not note several items, which we felt could have been done better. Please note, this is feedback from our perspective and we relayed this to the ISIA team while we were on tour and they were dealt with and addressed these concerns at the time. For items we raised retrospectively, they have advised that they will work through these things.
For anybody that travels on safari, please remember that this is Africa. While we all spend a lot of money to do these tours, it is important to remember where you are.
- We both felt that the car could have been presented better on arrival. It was rather dirty and was quite an old vehicle. I spoke to the sales team about this on our first night and then to Tommy the next morning. How it was handled by both the sales team and Tommy was such great customer service. While things can go wrong, it's how they are handled that makes the big difference.
- Make sure you bring a pair of your own binoculars. The pair provided were not suitable. Again, we have raised this with the team and hopefully in future this isn't an issue. But if you are going on safari, your own pair of binoculars is a minor investment in the scheme of things.
- Bring plenty of US dollars to tip. Being Aussies, we suck at this at the best of times, and really didn't bring enough. Everywhere we stayed and anybody we dealt with provided fantastic service and they do deserve to be tipped.
- We didn't find this too much of a problem but reading the reviews below, it does appear to happen every-now-and-then. Bring a backup credit card to pay for the Ngorongoro entry fee (when leaving the Serengeti NP). As mentioned in reviews below, we had issues with the ISIA bank card. We could have waited to resolve the situation, which would have happened, but it may have taken a long time. We just paid for it on my own card and when we returned to Arusha, the funds were reimbursed. No time lost and no big deal. Obviously, this a personal preference but just a heads up.
All in all, the experience from when we first enquired nearly two years ago to the delivery of the product by Tommy was so amazing. Obviously, it's a very expensive trip for us to do, so we are not sure when we would visit again but there is no doubt that we would love to and we would have no hesitation is doing so with ISIA.
Thank you to the entire team. You are all such wonderful people and we are so happy that you were part of our honeymoon experience :)
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
A fabulous adventure to Southern Africa for a Big 5 Safari and holiday
Everything went like clockwork from my first dealing for a quote and advice down to the welcome home email. The private game park and lodge near Kruger was sensational as was the National Park and lodge in Botswana. They are different in many respects except the fabulous service they provide their guests. My time in Cape Town was enjoyable albeit I was mostly left on my own (my request) given it was my second visit there. I was really looked after in Johannesburg. The Cape Town and Johannesburg could not be faulted. I also visited Victoria falls, the only complaint there was I probably did not stay long enough. There appeared to be so much to do. Everything was exceptionally well organised (Flights, Safari's, Hotels, Transfers and Activities) which made for a great holiday. I would recommend African Ubuntu and Cuan without hesitation (in fact I have already recommended him to some friends.
NZ
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
comprehensive; very good value for money
The people were hospitable and friendly. I got what I wanted on this tour for a reasonable price. The highlight, of course, was the gorilla trek. Marvellous animals. Moses was a an informative host and a good driver. It was a pity that I was the only one on this safari and it did get a bit lonely at times but that's not the fault of the company. One small negative. It needs to be made clearer that the money paid does not include tea or coffee at meal times. I think it should as this is an integral part of meals.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing! Great communication!
I talked with several safari agencies, but decided to go with Matoke due to its competitive pricing and the great reviews I saw on this website. I'm glad I did. Despite the time difference between the US and Uganda, the agency, especially its manager Ilse, were extremely communicative and walked me through the whole planning process. Together, we created a Tanzanian safari that met my family's needs. Our experience last month was exactly as planned. I would like give a special thanks to our driver and tour guide Edward (in partnership with Easy Travel in Arusha) for his unparalleled expertise. We not only saw the Big 5, but other animals we didn't even know existed. He toured us through the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara. He took great care to make sure we had a great time and most of all that we were safe always. Thank you Edward!!!!
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
the best park in Botswana
drive yourself!
take your time
watch for signs and track of wildlife
Do this and you'll have the best wildlife experience in your life!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Dirty, bumping and breathtakingly beautiful.
I went to the Serengeti as part of a national park trip around Tanzania with my university in conjunction with Mweka. As we are all wildlife biologists in various forms, the knowledge I took from the trip was exponential. The abundance of wildlife we encountered was amazing. Within minutes of our arrival into the park, we were greeted with 3 lionesses' and around 13 cubs, around 2 meters from the roadside. An amazing first impression of the park, and one that it did live up to the entire time we were there (which was 3 days). The landscape and scenery were to die for, for sure. I have never seen a sunset so picture perfect and breathtaking elsewhere and doubt another moment will live up to this one. It was a view I will never forget.
Our accommodation consisted of camping out of a campsite, which was catered by our college staff from Mweka. Although we did not spend too long at camp on the mornings or nights due to our safaris running day long, they were of good standard and tidy. At night you can often hear the sounds of Hyena in the distance, which is somewhat scary but completely surreal and amazing if you think about it. You're completely in the wild, and its the way to do it for sure.
Our transportation supplied also by the college were large open top trucks, which provided us with a huge vantage point to be able to see easily across the savanna plains. They made the dirt roads easily manoeuvrable, but alas did not completely rid the journey of its bumps and of course, the dirt picked up from the road. However, if you're in a standard safari truck you should have no such issue.
Overall the Serengeti national park was a great end to my trip to Tanzania, and brought me memories I will never forget. As a biologist being able to see these animals in their natural environment is one of the greatest gifts I could have hoped for. The money tourism brings into the national parks helps to keep them protecting these amazing, beautiful animals, and I am glad I could participate in that.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful Trip with Africa Celebrity Tours
We took a 10 day Kenya Photo Safari with Africa Celebrity Tours & Travels in June 2017. Muli, the owner/operator, helped us create craft an amazing itinerary based on our specific needs. We were a group of three couples, each with an focus on photography.
Through the whole booking process Muli was always very informative and attentive to our questions and needs. Each time he answered our questions within 24 hours. We are in LA and I would send Muli a message before bed and have a response by morning time. He let us completely customize our itinerary and also suggested things for us to do on our last day. He took care of everything on our behalf. Because our flight landed late at night, he even booked us a hotel to rest prior to departing for our first safari at Amboseli. This was a wonderful suggestion on is behalf due to the jet lag. Everything from dinner reservations to insuring we were at the airport on time was taken care of by Muli. I was particularly amazing that he helped us unload our luggage and explained the Nairobi airport security system. Talk about going a step above! I celebrated my birthday while on safari and to my surprise Muli arranged a grand entrance and birthday song by hotel staff and a few Masai after dinner. IT was a true surprise and a fantastic memory of my time in Kenya! Thank you!
Our driver Joseph was fantastic! He is a very good and safe driver and I felt very safe with him. His nature spotting and ability to position us in prime photographic positions is absolutely second to none. He explained animal behavior which I found to be so interesting as we watched nature unfold before our very eyes. We did see "The Big Five."
It's with real sincerity that I recommend Africa Celebrity Tours & Travels. They are a small company with a big heart. Thank you for the wonderful memories. We are already looking to return next year!
If you'd like to see some of my photos taken with Africa Celebrity Tours please visit my photo link below. Without Africa Celebrity Tours I would not be able to capture such images. https://themalibuartist.smugmug.com/Africa/