35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgetable Safari
We booked a 5 days group Safari with Jackson,He was very responsive and took good care of us from the beginning.We were assinged to the Safari guide Malissa.The guide was always attentive and he showed us many things and explained them to us.He was very caring and he was a good driver too.Beside that we had the cef that prepared meals during our camping,the meals were very delicious.We highly recommend this company.
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nairobi National Park Game drive
They are reliable and always feel safe and secure in their care during the safari. On safari day, very knowledgeable and helpful with finding wild life.The Covid protocols were observed to the maximum in terms of social distancing etc
RU
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
great holiday in kenya!
It rarely happens, but this time all my expectations were met 100 percent!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Fantastic, breathtaking, informative, Blue Crane went above and beyond - we loved our camping safari
Blue Crane Safaris were professional (always), friendly, extremely knowledgeable and went above and beyond in all facets of our camping tour of beautiful Namibia. Me-Gusto and David were friendly, polite and always professional. They always found practical solutions to any teething problems (which were never due to anything within their control). Thoroughly recommend Blue Crane to friends and family!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A unique safari experience
We have done a 5D/4N safari tour with Seven Wonders in Tanzania (Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro) and were truly impressed by the high standards and level of services they have been providing us. Seven Wonders is a very professional company and you will not be disappointing while booking a safari tour with them.
Right from the beginning, Evelyn was extremely helpful and supportive to help us shaping up our dream safari tour by email exchanges, answering in a very quick and efficient manner all our questions.
Our tour guide Fadhili was incredibly passionate and we learnt a lot through him about the nature and the animals in the different national parks (excellent driver which is also very important when spending many hours in the car)
A real added value about the food as we had a Chef following us during the whole safari tour freshly cooking all our meals (we were really not expecting to eat so well in the camps)
We opted for 2 nights in a tented lodge accomodation, and based on Evelyn recommendations we stayed at the Serengeti safari lodge which was a very unique and blissful experience
We also very much enjoyed the fact the Drive games were unlimited, fulls days, and our guide was always looking for an alternative road to provide us with a unique experience far away from the bigger crowds.
An incredible experience we will never forget thanks to Seven Wonders.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice Experience
It was absolutely nice to choose a package which we did Mnemba Island for snorkelling, Stone Town walking Tour and Game drive in Saadani National Park, I highly recommend to do these activities if you are in Zanzibar.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
So and so
I did a slight variation of the 12 day safari that the company offers in January 2021 as a solo traveler. I paid $2820 + 3% credit card fee. The trip included 3 nights in Masai Mara, a day at Lake Nakuru, a day at Mt. Longonot + Hell's Gate, a day in Amboseli, and 3 days in Tsavo (1 in West, and 2 in East). I had previously done a safari in Tanzania in August 2017 for 8 days in Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngororongoro, and therefore I will compare this safari with the previous safari experience. There were both good and less good things about this safari in Kenya.
First, I think that visiting Kenya out of the high season in Masai Mara, which is July to October, may not be a good idea. I knew that the wildebeest will not be in Masai Mara in January, but I was expecting that there would still be many other animals. The wildebeest also had left Central Serengeti when I visited it, but there were still many other animals left there. In Masai Mara in January, though, there were very few animals with the exception of a small area near the gate. You could drive around sometime for an hour without seeing any animals. On the other hand, the animals migrate much less from the other parks, so the experience there was probably as expected.
The second issue to consider is that while the safari was advertised as 12 days, and there was some sort of game drive for all days except the last when we traveled from Tsavo back to Nairobi, the actual number of 24 hour periods for which permits were purchased was in fact 8. This is partially due to the long distances that need to be covered between parks, but also because the company wants to minimize the number of permits it has to purchase, so it includes quite a good amount of downtime in the itinerary, which is not evident when booking a trip. For instance, in the first day starting from Nairobi at 8AM, one could do a half day game drive in Masai Mara starting maybe from around 1-2PM at the latest. Instead, because of several stops along the way, including a half an hour stop a tourist shop right before the 1 hour stop for lunch, and also a stop at the lodge right at the gate of the park, one enters Masai Mara only at 4PM, for a relatively quick game drive. Similarly, on the day when we entered Amboseli coming from Naivasha, we could have entered the park at about 1PM, but instead, we entered at 4.30PM (we got to a lodge right at the park entrance and then stayed there for 1.5 hours). That was so that the next day, which was supposed to be a full game drive in Amboseli, we would not have to exit the park too early, because the company only wanted to pay for one 24 hour permit. These are just some examples - the whole schedule is affected by this. On top of that, the driver further cut the available time in the park. For instance, for the full day Amboseli game drive, he exited the park at 3.15PM, although the permit would have allowed exiting at 4.30PM. And he cut other days short as well. These being said, it is likely that other companies use the same strategy when setting itineraries in Kenya. What I can compare with is the itinerary that I had in Tanzania, where out of the 8 days I paid for, we actually stayed in parks for 7 days because they were very close to each other, and once we entered Serengeti, we stayed there for several days continuously, with the camps being right in the middle of the park.
Third, the accommodations that were offered varied quite a lot in terms of quality. The lodges where I spent 5 nights near Amboseli and Tsavo were very nice, while the rest where I spent the first 6 nights were much less so, with the hotel in Naivasha barely meeting the minimum for a tourist grade hotel. The food at the good lodges was good, but for instance, at the hotel in Naivasha, the breakfast was one fried egg, two pieces of toast and a little bit of fruit. This is very poor for an almost $3000 safari. In general, for the first 6 days, the food was quite poor in terms of quality and quantity, and I had to buy myself more food even though I don't usually eat a lot. The packed lunches during these 6 days were also insufficient. For instance, in Masai Mara, they were consisting of a small chicken leg, a banana, and a small vegetable sandwich the size of a closed fist.
Fourth, the van that was offered, while not a 4x4, as stated in the tour description, was relatively new and reliable. And since there were Land Cruisers to get us out when we got stuck a couple of times in Masai Mara, I would say that it was perfectly fine. In Tanzania all tours are run by Land Cruisers.
Fifth, the experience with the company's manager, Silas, also had good and less good parts. The communication prior to the trip and during the trip was very efficient, most times with almost instant responses. However, there were some things that were not as expected. For instance, he agreed that I would make the payment with the credit card upon arrival in Kenya never mentioning that he would expect me to pay a 3% fee until right when I had to make the payment, even though there were plenty of opportunities to do so during our prior communication. Normally, if the seller expects the buyer to pay that fee, that is clearly stated when agreeing on a price and payment method. Second, while he promised prior to the trip that I would be able to set my own game drive schedule during the trip since I had booked a solo trip, in practice that did not happen. As mentioned above, that was partially to avoid paying too many park fees, but also because the driver, Nelson, did not really care about what Silas had promised even if I mentioned that to him, and exited the park when he wanted to exit it even when I explicitly said that I would want to stay more on that day. The driver basically said that whatever I discussed with Silas has no bearing on him and I should talk with Silas if I have anything to discuss on that topic, that "this is Kenya and promises don't mean anything", and so on. While I can say that I did see enough of each of these parks, maybe except for Amboseli, I would have liked to make the most out of the time in Kenya and spend it in the parks even if sitting around looking at some animal, rather than in lodges. In Tanzania, I had no problem accomplishing this, unlike this safari in Kenya. However, for people who are fine spending more time in lodges, this may not be an issue.
As for the guides/drivers (I had two of them since the first one had a family medical emergency after the first 5 days), they also had good parts and less good. They were both very knowledgeable of the parks and of the behavior of the animals, and while in the parks, did their best to show me the animals and the various landscapes. The first guide, Jackson, was also perfectly fine to interact with. The second guide, Nelson, was quite weird. Much of the time, he was a perfect guide, but when contradicted or disagreed with using some objective facts, he was starting to say some really unpleasant things that I had never heard on any other guided trips I was on. Like if you were to tell someone that 1+1=2 instead of 3, as they claim, and then hear him telling you some unpleasant personal things because you dared to contradict him even if you do it in a casual way. I tried to not be too affected by these and I was mostly able to accomplish that, but it may ruin the trip for people who would be a little bit more affected by such discussions. Also, worth mentioning that both drivers were saying at times things that were clearly not true when it was serving their purpose, as I could tell from other sources of information, like asking other people there. But probably this is not too surprising.
Overall, I obviously enjoyed this trip through Kenya, although it could have been better on several dimensions. However, for people who think that they may do only one safari in their lifetime, I would personally recommend to do that in Tanzania in July-August, with time in Tarangire (which is a really special park even if less known), Serengeti (including a day in the North part at the Sand River to see the wildebeest crossing) and Ngorongoro Crater. You can do that in 8 days for less than the cost of this 12 day Kenya safari. That safari I did in Tanzania was perfect - it couldn't have been better - and was probably 10 times better than the one I did now in Kenya. On the other hand, if you have already been to Tanzania and want to also see another country, then Kenya also has interesting places and somewhat different landscapes and it is also definitely worth visiting if time and money allows you. As for the operator I booked with, it may well be that in that price range, all companies offer similar services, but just prepare yourself to be a little bit disappointed every now and then relative to what you would expect or was promised. However, you should still be able to enjoy the trip eventually if you can get over these issues.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We had the most remarkable family tour
Perfect communication and we were served to our expectation
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastic tour operator who pulled together a wonderful holiday for us at very short notice.
Fantastic tour operator who pulled together a wonderful holiday for us at very short notice.
EE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Knows how to drive, very friendly and knows a lot about the safari
Good communication between driver and office. Service was really good