PH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent Trip
We had an amazing, unforgettable experience. We settled for the Tembea Kenya safari on CATS Africa website.
The tour was very well organised, We visited 3 parks and saw loads of animals.
At the beginning we were not sure on which program to settle on but based on our budget CATS Africa recommended their program.
All we have is good memories. Thank you CATS Africa!
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Excellent Tour Operatot! Great "Out of africa" Experience in Manyeleti.
We asked this tour operator to arrange a short trip for our family last December. They're based in Hoedspruit, where we have a holiday home. They know every single inch of the area and are able to design tailor-made tours and safaris, according to your needs. Among all the rest, we enjoyed in particular our experience in the Manyeleti Game Reserve. We spent the nights at a secluded bush camp nestled in a thick forest. The camp is rustic, but with a great wilderness feeling. The lack of electricity just adds more "out of Africa" atmosphere. Though with no fences, we felt safe all the time, thanks to the presence of our guides and all the camp staff at any time. Our 8 year-old child was just amazed by the amount of wildlife we could see every day, with so few other vehicles around. One of the peculiarities of the Wilderness Society Africa is to combine wilderness wth cultural experience. Manyeleti was the only game reserve open to black people during Apartheid time and the bush camp is run within a community project. It was great to listen to tales around the fire and get a glimpse of local culture. Last but not least, we enjoyed the great cuisine of Luca, our private Italian chef, who also owns the only true Italian restaurant of the all Greater Kruger's area. We're now planning with The Wilderness Society Africa our next wilderness experience to the remote northern Limpopo.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Friendly people which do what they promised
The safari in Kidepo was a great experience, tremendous vast scenery, absolutely no mass tourism
HU
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very good for the safari!
Very nice place! The people are friendly! Wonderful everything!
CZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great company, nice experience, no problems at all, just enjoy the animals => definitely recommend!
10 days safari (Kenya + Tanzania), January 2017
Preparation:
We (young couple, no kids) have chosen Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris for 10 days trip in Kenya (7 days) and Tanzania (3 days). The boss, Mr Otieno, was very helpful with communication in advance – before choosing specific trip and paying deposit I have exchanged quite few emails with Mr Otieno to clarify all the topics. He was replying fast and efficiently. Upon arrival in Nairobi we have visited Mr. Otieno at the office and just confirmed what we already agreed over emails.
Kenya:
Our guide for Kenya was Antony and we also had a cook Sam for few days with us. Both of them were really great – Tony could find all the animals and drive to great spots to take picture and watch it. We visited Masai Mara, lake Naivasha and Amboseli in Kenya. In Masai Mara we were lucky (+ Tony made a great job) to see most of the animals we wanted to see: from all common zebras, warthhogs and wildbeest as well as elephants, buffalos, ostriches, hippos, giraffes to cheetahs, leopards and lions. We were even able to watch the black rhino strolling the plains. In lake Naivasha we added plenty of birdlife, hippos and some nice 2 hour walk in safari and ending our Kenya tour in Amboseli was highlight as well. In contradiction to dry Masai Mara (it was dry season) Amboseli was partially green and thus more herds of animals were coming to these green spots. And Tony could find and show us all the animals. Kilimanjaro is visible clearly from the park so it adds to it’s appeal. We also visited Masai tribe village nearby to investigate how life goes in there.
For Sam, the cook, he was the best:) We liked his food most of all the dish we had in Kenya, including some quite fancy camps/lodges, where the food was really great!
Thanks, Tony & Sam, it was really nice experience!
Tanzania:
The guide for Tanzania was Rama. He has great knowledge about the animals and is great in spotting them. I wonder what eyes both guides have – they could saw what took us 10 seconds to find with binoculars:) Rama is a good guy, trying to care about his guests as much as he can, he keeps you informed about how much further till park etc. In Tanzania we visited three places: Lake Manyara, Serengeti and NgorNgoro crater. We spend only 3 days there and should be more to properly see everything. From high level the animal spotting is more or less same with Kenya – it depends on your guide, luck, time what will you see. For us we saw similar animals as in Kenya – lions, elephants, zebras,... For Lake Manyara we did not see the tree climbing lions, it seems to be quite rare to see them, on the other hand we saw many pelicans and water birds, hippos and other animals. Serengeti is one ecozone with Masai Mara so it was full of life here as well: we saw many lions, cheeta, leopard, hyenas there. By the way it’s best to go early morning or evening for safari – you will see more animals active. If it’s cloudy it should be fine during a day as well – it was cloudy in Serengeti and animals were pretty much active. There were also big herds of wildebeest roaming. We slept in a camp inside the Serengeti with no fence, so it’s possible for animals to come in the camp. Don’t be afraid though – after dark a staff member will escort you to your tent if you need and during day it’s safe to walk around. It was really wonderful place to be. NgoroNgoro is wonderful – it’s 20x15km crater with a lot of life inside – lions, elephants,...we saw black rhinos from far distance. The athmosphere of the creater is wonderful and Rama can provide you with details about the life there as well as rocks or anything you are interested in. Last day Rama rode as to the border with Kenya where he handed us over to David to drive us back to Nairobi airport.
Thank you, Rama, for the tour!
Accomodation & Transport
For the accomodation and transport – everything was fine. Accommodation was good, always with own toilet and shower, most time something between big tent and cottage (sorry don!t know the exact name for it). It were nice, cosy and clean places with some bonus usually: In Masai Mara small monkeys, in Naivasha you can watch hippos mowning lawn after sunset (you need powerful flashlight!) and in Amboseli were some Masai people performing dance at fire after dark, Serengeti has wonderful inside-park-no-fence camp (best accomodation!), NgoroNgoro was wonderful resort with small swimming pool etc. Also we watched the stars.
Not sure if it’s obvious but guide and driver is one person:) Roads are often bumpy and dusty, but the car is comfortable. We even had car broken but were able to fix it quickly with some local „servis“ in about 20 min. In Kenya it was for 7 passengers (tuned minivan) while in Tanzania it was original safari 4 wheeler. In both cars the rooftop is opened and you can perfectly watch the animals – if you are lucky you can see lions or elephants or other animals from several meters and hearing them breath, eat and move is wonderful. Be sure to take binoculars, it’s helpful, if the animals are further or you want to see the details. You have breakfast and dinner at hotel while for lunch you are provided with lunch box – usually grilled chicken meat, sandwich, fruit, snack, juice and some other things. We liked the food and were positively surprised – we did not expect to be fond of it (some paper guides refer to the food as not-highlight).
Summary:
It will depend on season but you should see a lot of wildlife in both countries – Kenya or Tanzania. Guides do know a lot about the animals and are able to find them (that’s even more important). Still you can be lucky or not – one day in same place we saw rhino, lions, elephants, cheetah etc. within 2 hours, next day you can spend half day wondering and not seeing much, luckily there is always some zebra, gazella, wildbeest, warthog or some other animals, so it’s not big deal.
Accommodation was nicely thematic (african style), always with all necessities (toilet, shower, bed, mosquito net), clean, usually quite simple (don’t expect 200 square meters palace). Transport was comfortable, of course when it’s bumpy, it’s bumpy in every car, between safaris it can take some time, usually several hours, but that’s just the distance you have to cross in every vehicle.
Both guides took care of us well, se we really had no problems at all and just enjoyed the holiday by watching animals. It was perfect time.
So definitely Recommend from us.
DE
Great experience
Everything worked out really well. I enjoyed the tour and would definetly come back.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Relaxed
Communication was clear and service was good accommodation was great.
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The best Safari Operator
My name is Gee, I traveled with my two polish friends to Tanzania on the 2017 new year vacation. We enjoyed very much our Safari tour with Safari Care. Manager Kamal helped a lot with organizing our tour, we got all the important notes before/after tour in Tanzania. Always kept in touch with us whereever we were.
One most important thing to mention is: we have the best vehicle guide!!! we call him "Captain", he is very experienced, smart and funny.
Safari Care, thank you again for your work. and I hope to see you again in the near future.
My recommendation to the other travelers who are going to visit Africa.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Gorilla Tracking in Bwindi
We went for 4 days to Uganda for Gorilla Tracking. It was amazing. Our guide / driver Joseph was very good. He knew a lot about Uganda history, nature and the Gorillas. Clean and nice car and gave us very good recommendation for hotels. We stayed on night in Birds Nest at Lake Bunyioni- it was amazing.
I can really recommend Encounter Africa Safaris.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Tanzania
James (our Guide)
Spent a week in Tanzania after 4 days in Kenya with another Guide. Both were Great but James was attentive informative and Really made our African Experience something Special. He helped make sure we were able to see the Animals and Sights with Our goals and requests always #1. He made sure all of our Time Tables were met from picking us up to arranging for every transfer and Hot Air Balloon on the Serengeti. We laughed and shared about our Countries Families and we especially learned about the Culture and Flora/Fauna we encountered. Highest Recommendations for both our Guide and Lion King Adventures (One World).
Thanks for the Support and the Amazing Trip. It was Great! 5 Stars!
Theresa Fox