35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing, friendly, reasonably priced and could not recommend highly enough
Just finished my 5 day safari with Mama Savana in the Sarengeti, Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater. Started in Arusha after travelling after a few weeks in Kenya. Mama Savana is a local company with competitive prices.
Was concerned about arranging the Safari after hearing so many disappointing reviews of tour operators and decided to use Mama Savana because of the excellent communication given by Alex who runs the company in Tanzania and is based in Arusha. In 4 days he came up with a fantastic intinary with excellent accommodation and a stay in the Serengeti for 2 nights.
Alex went above and beyond my expectations and the service was excellent. Our driver Emanuel was outstanding, friendly, knowledgeable and would ask for our input to shape our Safari experience. He made sure that we left early every morning to experience the Safari when other tour operators hadn't even picked up their clients - with some not leaving until gone 10am and returning for lunch - we were out all day and stopping at some great places to have lunch whilst looking at great views, this meant that we saw more animals than we had even hoped for.
To top it off - I told Alex we were going to Zanzibar afterwards and he even arranged flights and accommodation there with some brilliant local recommendations. All in all genuinely a fantastic experience and again cannot recommend this company highly enough.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable safari
I just returned from the 7 day wildlife and tribes safari. It was everything I expected and even more. The itinerary was perfectly planned around my flights and communication with the reservations team was easy. All of the national parks were brilliant. I highly recommend all traveller to go for the night game drive in Lake Manyara National Park. It was unbelievably exciting to see the wildlife at night. The guide was excellent and went out of his way to make sure that I experienced the best wildlife viewing opportunities. He knew exactly where to find the herds of the wildebeest migration and woke up especially early for me, so I would to be able to see the wildlife in African sunrise every day. Thank you for making my special requests happen.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Most amazing travel experience of our lives!
Our trip with Pumba Safaris has been the most amazing trip we have ever experienced - it was truly one of a kind, our honeymoon and it is absolutely the tourguide Edwin who has made it so special. As we changed the tour a bit to our individual needs, I'll be describing our tour briefly.
We started our tour without spending the night in Arusha, so Edwin picked us up at the airport to directly start the safari tour at the Tarangire National Park with us. After spending the first night in an amazing lodge (Lake Burunge Tented Camp) including a pool, amazing dinner outside with a view to the Lake and little dikdiks running in front of our accomodation, we cut the long drive into the Serengeti on the next day in half and had a great lunch at the Ngorongoro Farm House (Tanganyika Wilderness Camps), which was really special and something I can only recommend you to do, as we sat just the two of us in an amazing garden with a great lunch menu and a big marabou bird coming up to us. Overall, we spend three nights in the Serengeti and the Serengeti Tanzania Bush Camp which was the greatest and most special experience overall. Our tent was glamorous with hot water and a unique African luxurious furniture style. The people hosting us at the Bush Camp were amazing hosts, the food was fantastic and it was the best three vacation days of our lives. The people made us feel at home at all times and they really cared about our safety. Even when five fully grown lions hung out right by our tent at night! Finally, we spend a last day at the Farmhouse again and went into the Ngorongoro crater to end our tour.
Coming back to our tourguide and heart and soul of Pumba Safaris, Edwin truly cares about his clients' customer experience at all times, he anticipates perfectly to give room for some time as a couple on the one hand and is never too tired to answer questions on the wildlife on the other. As my husband and I were really amazed by the wildlife, Edwin would drive all day for us and never get tired of searching for new animal experiences for us even if we had already spent all day in the car and still wanted to explore some more. I can only recommend to book the car all for yourselves as you have more space to move around and can have the tour YOUR way without waiting on other travellers or even photography nerds.
What is truly special about Edwin is his passion about driving and the wildlife. You can tell he has studied Wildlife in university as he has deep knowledge far beyond what a standard tourguide could tell you about the Serengeti. Also, he is a really funny guy and we loved getting to know him, learn about the culture through him and spending time with him. Finally, as I left my iPhone in the Serengeti, Edwin went beyond all service levels to get my iPhone and mail it to me to Germany, which I was so thankful for. I hope many more people get to book a tour with him and have the time of their lives in the Serengeti. Finally, we can fully recommend booking Pumba Safaris and especially we recommend you to tailor the tour a bit as it is absolutely worth spending some more money to increase the number of nights in the Serengeti desert. The Tarangire National Park is a nice introduction into the wildlife at the beginning of the trip, but the special wildlife encounters happen in the Serengeti!
Edwin, Sebastian, thank you so much for giving us the most special honeymoon ever!
IL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience in the Safari with Jacob!
We reached Tanzania not knowing what to expect of the following days.
We met a true professional. Who took care of us like family. Always explaining and sharing his vast knowledge on the Safari life with us.
We had such a great time in those four days that words can not describe!
Thank you Jacob!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wild Wings Safaris love what they do and it shows in their services.
Planning a trip to Kruger from 8000 miles away was pretty scary but Wild Wings Safaris made it very easy. They were very quick to respond to questions and worked with the dates we had available to put together a trip we will remember for the rest of our lives. Simon is very knowledgeable and his experience in Kruger is unmatched. We saw all big five animals multiple times and countless other animals. Even after guiding people through Kruger for so long he still gets excited about it. I would recommend Wild Wings Safaris in a heartbeat to anyone looking for an excellent Kruger experience.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable 3 days Selous Safari
We booked the 3 nights Selous Safari with boat, game drive and walking safari. Pick up and drop off from/to hotel quite outside Dar es Salaam, was not a problem. Safari itself was an amazing experience and driver Super Mike was excellent. The camp we stayed was well-located next to the park. The lodges were simple but enough, having 3 hours electricity every night to charge, etc. Special thanks to the amazing cook Bruno, who took my food intollerances extremelly seriously. It was also very nice to have a chat with him and his food was absolutelly delicious.
We weren't able to see the big five, but saw lots of animals including elephants, lions, hipos, impalas, giraffs, zebars, monkeys, buffalos and many more. Over all not cheap but good value for money.
BE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing experience with highly qualified and enjoyable guides
It was a wonderful journey to the summit of mt. Kilimanjaro. The guides are very skilled and have a good sense of humor. It was an amazing experience and I would highly recommend to have you guided by them.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well-organised and extemely enjoyable safari!
Shemeji were at all times extremely helpful in planning our safari trip. Our guide, Benny, was excellent; exceedingly knowledgeable, friendly, patient and we really felt he took us to the best places to see the animals away from the other safari trucks. The camps all worked really well and we enjoyed the variety and changing scenery of the trip. We couldn’t recommend Shemeji more for anyone looking to go on safari. They were excellent in every possible way.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well organised and memorable trip
My experience of dealing with Dan right from the first email to the end of our trip was totally first class. The suggestions we got for the trip and the accommodation chosen for us couldn't be better. Overall we had a fantastic and a memorable time.
In order to find room for improvement it would have been probably helpful for Dan to have met the driver to assess customer service abilities. Overall the driver was very good, punctual, hard working and very knowledgeable however when it comes to dealing with clients there is a certain cultural element involved in communication which may be seen as condescending for London residents but probably Ok in other places. Again nothing wrong with the driver per se but would expect the tour organiser to make that assessment prior to appointing the driver.
One other point was the lack of the night headlamp light for the night time game drive. Given we started to feel a bit bad for the animals having intruded into their lives overall missing the night game drive was probably OK however from an organisational point of view the hotel where we stayed should have done a better job of maintaining a spare night lamp. This is probably more down to the hotel and not so much for Transtrek but part of the overall experience nonetheless.
In conclusion, I would not hesitate in recommending Transtrek Safaris to anyone since we had a great time and we felt we had a very well organised and enjoyable time for a good price.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Just amazing!! Thank you
Thank you very much!! My wish came true !!
My guide Thomas and Mack, the director was very professional and passionate!
It's was the best experience in my life!