NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Masai Mara National Reserve by Marleen Sommers
Beautiful place!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The Magical Desert
It was an amazing trip. The diversity and beauty of Namibia was even more than I had expected. Our guide Daniel was great, took care of us all fabulously. The tour was nicely planned with some time on the road but not too much. Also plenty of time to enjoy the sites such as the wildlife in Etosha and the dunes of the desert.
CA
A wonderful experience with Mama Savanna ; Safari/Beach holiday
We were so pleased with our first safari that was catered to our costs and hotel accommodations. Everything went as planned, no hiccups and the food and lodges and the tented camps were superb. From the first stages of planning and booking to the dropoff to airport , Alex had made sure of all the details. Our driver, Alan was great and patient with us (my daughter and I) and we had toured the serengeti, crater, Manyara , Natron and then we finished with the 7 day island of Zanzibar. The sightings and experience with wildlife will be with us forever. Truly a wonderful experience! The weather and food was in our favour also.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
If you love wildlife visiting Tanzania is something you must do.
First let me say that Suricata Safaris was fantastic to work with. I especially loved there guides while climbing Kilimanjaro and going on safari for seven days. I am a professional photographer and they were more than willing to work with me on getting the perfect shot. I can not say enough about them. I have visited many beautiful places and climbed a lot of mountains. Tanzania and Kilimanjaro have there own unique and beautiful vibe. Very similar to the wonderful people that live there. The wildlife is second to none in my opinion. Elephants, lions, hippos, leaopards, cheetahs, antelope, it was all there and in massive numbers. Visiting Tanzania is something every adventurer needs to do. If you are reading this wondering if you should go then do it. You will not regret it.
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
wonderful first safari with a great ranger
I believe that everything was just great. This was our first safari and it was as enjoyable for kids than for us. We had the chance to meet the big 5 and the ugly 5 too!
Rachid, our ranger was very nice and professional and he took great care of us. the accomodations we have chosen were good too.
People were very kind and friendly.
Weather was good even though it was cloudy in morning the dyas were sunny.
wildlife and animals were stunning. We could see the wildbeest migration and crossing Mara river : top! even if few have been killed by crocodiles :(
I was a bit disappointed by N'gorongoro crater : I was expecting more of it and thought it would be the best place. To us it was too crowded (40 or 50 cars around a rhino!!!). That's the only bad comment i could give.
For the rest, it was just great.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The safari was very nice, kind driver and good views.
We did a three day safari, which is enough. It's very lovely to see all those animals, and we saw the big five.
The weather was okey, which is good to go in winter, because then it's not too hot.
The accomodation was fine, but we didn't really meet other people.
We are from Holland, and the most of all those people on these accomodations are from England.
The food was good. Our gide was a nice guy. We are happy with this Safari!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
with a couple of exceptions not overwhelming
I chose African Habitat safari company as it had good reviews and states in its info that they "believe in going above & beyond". That was not our perception. The interaction ended with the deposit payment.
On arrival in Arusha we were taken to the office of the agent they employ there & he allocated whatever driver & vehicle he chose. Really we could have put all the safari companies in a hat & drawn out one to go with. All the research we did to try to choose a "good" company was a bit of a waste of time.
we negotiated with the agent to send a taxi to transfer us to the airport for departure as we stayed in the area for two nights after the safari ended,,he forgot !! After lots of excuses a taxi arrived & we just made our flight. It just reinforced to us that despite all the "jumbo" & "akuna matatta" we are just an income stream
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Our driver was very helpful in sharing information about all animals, terrain & looking for animal
Our safari met all of our expectations, safety, excitement, knowledgeable driver and we saw 4 of the big 5! All of our requests were just what we asked for.
MX
Very well organized. The 3 places we visited the attention was superb.
We enjoyed every part of the trip and the quality of the rooms, food and the service were very good.
Rose from Luxury Safari always answered my questions right away and made my bookings very enjoyable
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Big Time Disappointment - Big Time Holidays Ltd. - COMPANY NOT RECOMMENDED
We scheduled a safari through Charles (Allan) Milambo with Big Time Holidays and ultimately wasted an entire day of our two day safari trying to sort out mass confusion due to lack of communication and general incompetence. It started with failed attempts to locate Charles (Allan) who was supposed to pick us up from Kilimanjaro airport. After an hour of waiting at the airport pick-up area and actively trying to reach Charles (phones did not connect through and no response to emails), we finally concluded we were scammed and decided to salvage what we could of our short stay in northern Tanzania. Consequently, we were out of pocket monies that were spent on taxis, meals and advice from other tour companies (note: meals and rides were all supposed to be covered as part of our service). Imagine our surprise when three hours later we do hear from Charles (Allan), who indicated that another driver had been sent to pick us up from the airport (not him - why were we not informed and provided with the new drivers contact information?) and had been waiting for us this entire time (where?? We spoke to every driver in the airport's pick up area multiple times and no one there was looking for our family, was going to Ngorongoro Crater, or was affiliated with Big Time Holidays. We did, however, have many people offer to take us instead).
Our three primary frustrations are listed in detail, below, for anyone wishing to proceed with caution:
1. Services not met
Simply put, the clearly articulated services and costs for services agreed to were not met; namely, pick-up from the airport, staying at the on-site Rhino Lodge from which animals can be viewed*, enjoying a full afternoon and full, early start morning of safari, visit to Olduvai Gorge, and all meals. Notably, early in our email conversations, Charles explicitly stated that “Ngorongoro Crater alone needs two days to see everything.” Online reviews and a general internet search did not indicate any reason to suspect sub-par service.
*a few weeks prior to our trip, we were informed that we were on a waiting list and that a reservation elsewhere was made; we were not informed that this new site was over an hour away; nor was it confirmed that this plan B had become our plan A
2. Questionable ethics
There are three parts to this. Firstly, a few weeks after our initial deposit was made, Charles requested an additional 295 USD for services. When asked for more information on the surcharge, his email indicated that “his hands are tied up on this” and that there will be “no more extras”. After looking into the situation more, including contacting the Ngorongoro Conservation Agency and friends in Kenya, there was no information to substantiate the increase, and we communicated as much to Charles. He then responded - on the same day - “Don’t you worry about it. We have already solve the situation. The plan remain the same” (Note: he did not answer the majority of our questions asking for clarification in the back and forth leading up to this 'resolution').
Secondly, Charles specified early on that he would be our driver (“I will devort [sic] my self to a company you on this trip always to keep standard.”) We expected all along that we would be working with him and did not receive any communication indicating otherwise (we would have asked for the driver’s contact number if this were the case). (note: this piece is directly related to the confusion outlined above)
Thirdly, there was a clear unwillingness to acknowledge the stress and reduced services of our actual situation on Day 1 of our trip. During a phone conversation mid day when we finally managed to get a hold of one another, Charles claimed that he had met all the stipulations of our agreement and refused to compensate us in any way, stating that he had sent three separate drivers to find us to fulfill the agreement and that it was our fault (?!) for not finding the driver at the airport.
3. Money out of pocket and undue stress
One of the reasons we prearranged the safari with airport pick up and drop off, as well as meals and 50% down-payment on what we consider a large sum of money (please note: most companies ask for 30%; we however felt that we could trust Charles based on early interactions), was so that we could arrive in Kilimanjaro and simply enjoy our experience as a family – the youngest of our three kids being two years old. The opposite happened. Not only did we spend a substantial amount out of pocket for additional transportation, international phone calls, food, and bank fees, in the actual unfolding of events during our brief time in northern Tanzania, we experienced a substantial amount of stress from not knowing where our driver was, to suspecting that we were scammed, to finding an alternate solution and being asked for about 1.6 times our original costs (i.e. being taken advantage of in our desperate circumstances), to spending almost an entire day sorting the situation, to not receiving the full services agreed to.
In short, my wife and I do NOT recommend this company to anyone looking for a hassle-free holiday. We would have accepted reasonable compensation for our troubles, but that was not even considered.