35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Superb experience with Encounter Africa in Uganda
We teamed up with Encounter Africa to experience the mountain gorillas, and a few other stops along the way. Our guide for the trip was Patrick, and we had a sensation time and hit gold with Patrick. I would highly recommend them to any person who is thinking about a trip to Uganda. All the details where taken care off, we were briefed every evening with the finer details for the next day, nothing was too much trouble for Patrick even our wacky requests.
SG
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very professinaly managed
They provided very good support on planning and flawlessly executed. Communication with Noah Kuti was excellent.
CH
Simply amazing- there is no other way to say it.
This is is certainly the best park in Uganda, with the most wildlife and the elusive wild dog, cheetah and ostrich. Other animals include hyena, lion, leopard, zebra, water buck, buffalo, giraffe, jackals and many more. You learn so much about the tribes here, and the birding was terrific.
RO
What a welcome to sub-Saharan Africa!
The trip was a dream come true. Everything met or exceeded our expectations. The recommendations [with one minor exception] were spot on and made this one of the best holidays that we have taken.
If I am nit-picking I would say that the hotel in Dar was the wrong choice for what we needed i.e. an evening in Dar before an early flight to the UK. Somewhere in the city centre would have saved us nearly 2 hours of rush hour traffic for a hotel that we barely saw in daylight. Even so it was an experience seeing what was beeing sold as we sat in the traffic so it wasn't all bad
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An amazing experience
Booking was easy and emails always received a speedy response.
We were picked up from where we were staying in Johannesburg and driven to the Lodge where we received a very warm welcome. The accommodation was luxurious, and the surrounding gardens a lovely calm oasis for relaxing and viewing the watering hole.
We saw a wide variety of game on the drives, including elephant , giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, black rhino, warthog, kudu, springbok,and many beautiful birds. The highlight was when a pack of wild dogs made a kill at the boundary fence in front of the Lodge.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great Services
I work with an NGO that has used Eastern Vacations many times. Their bus driver Johnson is great and as a woman I feel comfortable traveling in Kenya with Eastern Vacations. Mwasi, Bosco, Becca are great safari drivers. I would highly recommend Eastern Vacations to anyone looking for a Kenya tour company.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A most wonderful way to celebrate my birthday!!
We planned this trip to celebrate my birthday in a rustic style - & we weren't disappointed! Mike, our guide was so knowledgeable about the park & its inhabitants, we cant thank him enough!! He looked after our every needs & we all learnt so much about the wildlife in the park. The vehicles were road worthy & comfortable. We enjoyed every moment & would highly recommend this tour
US
would come back any time
We had a very well organized trip with a combination of various flavors of lodges and approaches to getting to know African Animals. All places were very friendly and welcoming. The timing was good and the 2 guides were very knowledgeable and great to be around.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A whole disaster and very terrible experience - watch out with this agency! Not trustful at all
We found Mercury Tours on Safari-Bookings and Ndamungu (tour operator) seemed to be nice and helpful. We were having email contact for about two weeks in which Mercury Tours explained the Program in detail and gave us all information etc. In November 2016 we booked the 7 day safari with him (Selous-Mikumi-Ruahu Safari) to start on January, 1st 2017. We transferred half of the money to Ndamungu in November (1330 Dollar) and agreed to pay the other half directly to the tourguide when the safari would start. Ndamungu confirmed that the tourguide would pick us up at 8.40AM in our Hotel. Well, we were all excited to start the Safari and on January, 1st we waited to be picked up in our hotel reception. Unfortunately, no one from Mercury Tours appeared, so after 30 minutes waiting, we called Ndamungu. He said, that the driver had an "accident" and would come within 20 minutes. Unfortunately, this was not true. We waited for hours, calling Mercury Tours several times and Ndamungu said the guide could come very soon and hung up on us with no more information. So, we ended up waiting for about 4,5 (!) with another disappointment. Ndamungu confirmed in November that our driver would be our guide at the same time and would speak English. The person who picked us up just spoke barely English and had no idea of our program and where to go, so he had to explain him everything. Above all, he forced us to pay him 200 dollar otherwise he wouldn't drive us and explained us the actual guide was waiting for us at the camp. Well, we were very angry at the time, but paid him and hoping that the real guide would actually speak English and we could finally start our safari without more stress and headache. When we arrived at the camp, unfortunately no guide was waiting for us. The driver and Ndamungu explained, the guide would come the next day but this was another lie. The next day, the driver was gone without saying a word, no guide appeared and we were left alone literally in the bush. The people at the camp were really helpful and called Ndamungu serval time, but he just switched off his phone. Nothing was organised, nothing was paid for us. So, we lost 1530 Dollar and didn't receive anything for it. We went for a game drive with another guide but had to pay all by ourselves. Our safari was a whole disaster and tomorrow we are heading to the police and embassy here in Tanzania to report on this. Luckily we have all confirmations made by Ndamungu. So be very careful with Mercury Tours and Ndamungu - they are criminals.
US
We love Johnson!
We have used Eastern Vacations every year we've been to Kenya. The staff is always pleasant to be around and very knowledgeable when we go on safari. Johnson, our bus driver is always great to be around. I would highly recommend doing business with this company. You won't regret it.