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65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Serengeti National Park by Dave
Perfect for natural scenery....perfect for us
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65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Ngorongoro Crater by Dave
Ok ......but not what we we're expecting
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65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Dave
Small and unimpressive
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65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Chobe National Park by Phill
Chobe national park is an incredible place that is not too busy and offers some incredible sunrise/sunsets on the backdrop of the Chobe river. It is not too busy with tourists once you are deep enough into the park. The abundance of wildlife is astonishing where you will almost never go more than 5-minutes without at least seeing a herd of Impalas and overall during my visit I saw popular animals such as hippos, crocodiles, lions, zebras, buffalo, giraffes and even on one occasion a leopard. During my visit in June, the temperature varied quite greatly, where during the day it was hot but at night and early morning it would also drop quite low and so packing warmer clothes is advised. However I don't recall seeing a cloud in the sky during my entire stay so it is always sunny during the day and starry at night.
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65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a lifetime
July is the perfect time to visit Tanzania if you are interested in the migration. I would highly recommend the tented camps in the Serengeti as the experience allows us the most time to travel with the migration. Outstanding.
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20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My safari exceeded my expectations in every way- great guides, beautiful camp, amazing wildlife.
My Tanzania trip was magical. I stayed at Selous Ngalawa Camp and was really impressed with the cabins, the views, and the amazing food. Roman was our guide and he did a fantastic job making sure we saw all of the animals we wanted, as well as getting us great angles for photos. I was surprised at how many animals we were able to see close up at the Selous reserve and loved riding around in the jeep looking at the gorgeous natural scenery there. In July, the weather was warm, not hot, dry and very pleasant. I'd read about the nuisance of mosquitoes and tse tse flies, but those weren't an issue at all. I was thoroughly satisfied with my safari through the Ngalawa camp and recommend it to everyone.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A once in a lifetime experience of game drives and camping in the bush
As someone who had never been on a safari before, I wasn't really too sure what to expect when I booked this safari in Chobe national park so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be an experience that will stay with me forever. The safari guests consisted of myself and just one other tourist where we were treated to our own campsite with private tents. The team consisted of three staff who managed the campsite, cooked and one of which also provided an extra pair of eyes on the game drives. The staff prepared 3-meals a day of excellent food, usually including some kind of exotic meat in the evenings. The game drives also consisted of the main tour guide (Jane) and her daughter who also came along on the tour (as a one-off). The abundance of wildlife in Chobe was one thing that really amazed me and on game drives there was rarely a 5-minute window where no wildlife was seen at all and over the course of the entire tour we saw just about every animal I could have asked to see there (elephants, lions, leopards, crocodiles, hippos, buffalo, zebras...only excluding the elusive Hyena's). The tour guide had around 30 years of experience and so her and her daughter offered a wealth of knowledge and were able to answer any questions we had. Chobe national park itself was an incredible place with the backdrop of the Chobe river offering some of the most incredible sunrises/sunsets I have ever seen and is not too busy like I have heard other national parks in Africa can get (e.g. Kruger) so when we were observing wildlife we were, more often that not, the only vehicle around. To summarise, anyone looking for a safari tour that is small, with private camping and abundant wildlife then this will be ideal for you.
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50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best Safari Company!
We booked an eight day safari with Bright African Safaris in the middle of June 2018. From our first contact by email to our departure home from our wonderful trip, BAS exhibited an extremely high level of professionalism and competence with genuine warmth, caring, and thoughtfulness.
Salim, in the BAS office, was very responsive and helpful. He provided lots of great information in his initial emails to me including suggested itineraries, choices of accommodations, and pricing. He promptly answered every question I asked over the months preceding our trip including many questions about accommodations, getting a visa, and safari vehicles. Salim also went out of his way to drive to meet with us after our safari to say hello, inquire about our trip, and ask for any feedback. Needless to say, we were happy to let him know about our amazing trip and we couldn’t be happier.
Now I want to review our driver/guide. His name is also Salim and we feel so lucky that he was our guide. Salim is incredibly knowledgeable about the animals, birds and plants of the area as well as the people, cultures, and ecology. He has “eagle eyes” and can pick out animals and birds in the distance that we could only see with our binoculars! He could also find animals close by but hidden in rocks or trees. Most of the animals are so close that you can take a picture of them with your iphone, but Salim’s ability to find some of the shyer and rarely seen animals was truly amazing. He worked so hard to make sure we saw as many species as possible. He made sure we always had the best viewing and would anticipate where the animals would go next so we would be waiting for them.
We saw so many species including over 70 lions, 2 cheetahs, 2 leopards, thousands of zebra and wildebeest (migration), warthogs, elephants, buffalo, giraffe, baboons, monkeys, many species of antelope, 5 black rhinos, hyenas, hippos, crocodiles, foxes, flamingoes and many, many other birds.
Highlights included a lion hunt (the prey got away), the great migration, and a huge majestic male lion on top of a cliff outcropping at sunrise.
Salim cleaned the land cruiser every night and made sure we had drinks and snacks. We had amazing boxed lunches out in the bush with a nice table and chairs. Salim is wonderful to spend time with and you can tell what a good heart he has after spending only a short time with him. He loves his work and enjoys sharing his knowledge with his clients. I noticed many drivers of other safari vehicles just sitting while their clients looked at animals. Salim had his binoculars out and was looking at the animals with us most of the time! We would discuss what we were seeing and he would answer questions we had. By the way, for the few questions he couldn’t answer, he had a couple of books in the truck and he would look it up.
There were 3 of us and Salim in a big 7 seat land cruiser for the same price as other companies were charging for a seat in a full vehicle with other people. We had plenty of room for standing up to see the animals/taking pictures and stretching out on the road trips. Very comfortable!
I could go on and on, but this review is already long! Please do not hesitate to book your trip with Bright African Safaris. You will be very happy!
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E-Trip Africa Will Fulfill Your Dreams
My partner and I recently returned from an awesome safari in Kenya, planned for us by E-trip Africa. Our tour was a private one with a Kenyan guide/driver, Silas, who was with us the entire time. Silas was a wealth of information about the wild life and Kenyan culture, as well as the social, environmental, and political issues of concern to the country and the world. He was a skillful driver and knew the country well. Best of all, he cheerfully adapted to and accommodated our eccentricities. Many thanks to him for his huge contribution to a terrific vacation.
E-trip Africa is a young tour agency based in Tanzania and run by Aurelie Sivadier, Executive Director, and Ben Jennings, General Manager. They are your dream team for planning the trip you want to take to East Africa. We highly recommend them and their company. We told them the number of days we would be there and what our interests were, and Aurelie put together an incredible itinerary for us.
The first leg of our trip took us from Nairobi to the Sweetwaters Tented Camp in Ol Pejeta Conservancy where we stayed for three nights. Rhinos had been at the top of our must-see list. We had followed the sad saga of Sudan, the last northern white male rhino who passed away March 19 of this year at Ol Pejeta, and we were thrilled to find out that we would meet Sudan’s caretakers and the last two northern white females, Najin and Fatu. Our visit with them was surreal...what a privilege! Later, on a “bush walk” with Sudan’s caretakers, we learned about their challenges in protecting all of the rhinos in the conservancy from poachers.
Also while at Sweetwaters, we visited the Endangered Species Enclosure at the Morani Information Center and the sanctuary for abused and orphaned chimpanzees. Kudos to Kenya for their efforts to protect the world’s precious animal resources!
From Sweetwaters we went to Lake Nakuru National Park for three nights and then to Lake Naivasha for two. At Lake Naivasha the Sopa Lodge we stayed in was particularly amazing. The back lawn of our room was open to all manner of wildlife, so when we walked out on our patio we saw zebra, gazelles, giraffes and all manner of gentle animals, some within a few yards of where we sat. I love them all, but the baby giraffe was my favorite!
Also at Lake Naivasha we enjoyed a visit to the Elsamere Centre for Education in Sustainability located at the retirement estate of Joy and George Adamson. Elsamere was named for Elsa, the orphaned lion cub that Joy raised to adulthood and later set free. The book she wrote, Born Free, was very popular in the 1960s and later became a movie. The next day we took a boat ride on the lake, dodging hippos, and ending at Crescent Island where, according to our guide, parts of Born Free and Out of Africa (1980s) were filmed. The island is beautiful and teeming with wildlife, most likely the progeny of the many animals allegedly brought to the island for those films many years ago.
The last leg of our trip took us to the Masai Mara National Reserve, where we enjoyed three beautiful days of incredible sights on safari. The Tanzanian Serengeti becomes the Masai Mara when one crosses into Kenya from Tanzania. We were hoping to see part of the Great Migration of wildebeest and zebra from Tanzania to Kenya that eluded us on our trip to Tanzania in 2017, but because of the heavy rains in these countries this year the natural migration was delayed by several weeks. Missed it again.
On our final day we headed back to Nairobi, up the side of the Great Rift Valley, a huge geological trench that starts in Lebanon, Asia and ends 3700 miles later in Mozambique, Africa. The view across the valley was breath-taking and a fitting culmination to an incredible trip. Thank you E-trip Africa for a unforgettable vacation.