MX
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Experience Paradise , Warm Hospitality
My experience was amazing thanks to Muli. Can't wait to be back to Kenya.
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great programm ,best guides (Richard & Dickens), great safari
Programm was great, easy to communicate with the agency, good service
to sum it up: perfect
FI
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not what I expected
In this safari business as in many others in Tanzania, it seems that you are buying from some company in particular but then they just put you with the same budget pack that many others offer. We booked everything through Back of Africa but once we arrived to the office, Allan, whom I have been all the time in contact, was not there, there was no signs or credentials or anything that would refer to Back of Africa. We trusted the guy at the reception, his name sounded like "Biarman". So we paid the big amount of money for the safari to him and we didn't even get a receipt. The same guy at the reception was our guide and driver the whole trip. The first day of safari was terrible, the guy was very lazy, not even going out of the car to show us the birds when we stopped at a viewpoint. He could not recognize birds more specificly than the basic information if it was e.g. "a hawk". We didn't have the promised binoculars for each neither the guides, not even one for the whole group of 5 people. Then I contacted Allan try to get some clear info about who is the guide we have and for whom does he work. Allan didn't even know the guy, afterwards he said he was new in the company. But the funny thing is that when we asked to Biarman he said that he works for Sandland Tours, the same company as the logo there was in the safari car. There was 1 person in our group that had booked the safari through a completely different company. We never got this thing clear. And it seems a common practice to put people that has booked through different companies together in the same safari. I think that only in Arusha there was something like 280 different companies, but at the end, many of them belong to the same owner, or they just change the name when the company lose its reputation or whatever, but you can never trust that the company you are booking with, will be the same you are actually going with.
(By the way, Sandland Tours has the worst reviews ever on the Internet...)
Anyways, we tried to make the best out of what we had, we put some pressure to the guide to make a bit bigger effort to find the animals, and it improved, at the end of the day we saw pretty much. I don't think he was a bad guide, but he was not a very good one either. He was just doing his job to get paid, he did not enjoy his job, he was not a nature lover.
The first day we did not have any binoculars, after the second day, we had 1 for 5 people and it was broken and not very good quality. I think it is essential to have good binocular for a safari, and they promised 1 for each, which never happened. We never got any wildlife guide or book.
The camping sites were what they were, don't expect too much, but it was good enough. Our tent was the oldest in the camp and it didn't smell nice. Thank god we brought our own sleeping bags cause theirs were pretty smelly too. We had the poorest chairs to sit during meals, and no chairs at all to be able to relax in the camp site, but the guide had his own nice chair to relax. In some camps there are no lights so they could have adviced to bring own headlamps (we had ours, but other people did not). In one of the camps there was no electricity, so for people without power banks it was a serious problem if you couldn't charge the camera.
There was 2 days that we had to take the cook with us, which make the car not big enough. The cook sat on the front with the driver so we had to share the 4 windows seats on the back with 5 people, while in the national park, seeing the animals. Specially in Serengueti it becomes extremely dusty, it would not have been a big job to cover the bags on the trunk so they wouldn't be completely brown from the dust by the time we reached the camp.
The safari of 5 days in the 4 main national parks in the North of Tanzania was still worth it for the own awesomeness of the places, but certainly not because of the company we booked with, whatever that company was...
DK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Did their best so relax and enjoy beautiful Uganda. There was not a finger to put on their service.
Everything was perfect. They now what they are doing and they do it with joy.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic Trip, everything went so smoothly with any problems,start to finish. Robert was excellent
Everything from the first call to Robert to the end was fantastic
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
“Superb Experience”
We had 5 days safari in Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti NP, Tarangire NP, Ngorongoro Crater and a day visit to Kikuletwa hot spring. Breathtaking landscapes and amazing wildlife viewing every single day. Every day, every moment was superb.
Our organizer was Agness. She was fantastic, responded to our questions very quick and did everything to make our safari perfect. Thank you Agness.
Our tents during safari was very comfortable and our car was in a good condition.
Our driver guide Juma was cheerful, knowledgeable and showed us more than we expected: great migration, river crossing, Big 5 and many, many more. Juma is also a very good driver- we felt that we where in a good hands:). Thank you Juma.
Goodluck pick us from JRO airport to Arusha hotel all is also included. Thanks Goodluck.
Tanzania national parks are extremely superb not to miss Serengeti National Park. Plenty of animals! !!!!!!.
We definitely recommed to used Rhino Explorer Tours & Safaris for a safari- no need to worry for anything, everything perfectly organized to the detail.
I hope we will see Tanzania again. Thanks.
HK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great!
Truly professional and helpful guides combined with great hotels, with our agent Kathi always willing to answer any questions we might had, including last minute questions about drones and whether a fleece and windbreaker would be sufficient since it wasn't listed in the general information for winter travelling. For faster answers, call or ask to add agents on whatsapp, which Kathi suggested for quicker information exchange!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Ruaha
We were three people in Ruaha. That was our first safari, so I cannot compare with other. But I can say it was just amazing ! No problem with the organization, Hello Tanzania manage it very well.
In Ruaha you're sure to see lions, elephant, zebra in a wonderful landscape. With luck, we saw also Leopards and wild dogs. Next I hope to see Cheeta !
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Safari at Mikumi and Udzungwa!
We had a great time on our tour of Mikumi National Park and Udzungwa!
We booked a three-day safari leaving from Dar Es Salaam. Two days before the safari, Mwajabu, the owner, arranged for us to be picked up by the driver, Athman, who is her brother. It was a nice touch and saved us on the taxi fare to the hotel. She met with us that evening to conduct a pre-safari briefing and to provide the final payment. She explained the itinerary, asked if we needed any special services or changes. There had been some miscommunication and apparently the final payment needed to be in cash so that they could pay for the park fees. Mwajabu and Athman gladly took us to the nearest ATM.
On the morning of the Safari, Athman picked us up and provided us peanuts and juice for breakfast. We drove directly to Mikumi, which was a five hour drive. The roads in Tanzania is quite challenging, but Athman handles it like a pro. After checking in at the park office, we started on our safari with another couple. We were joined by our guide, Gilbert. Athman drove around the park expertly, while Gilbert was hard at work on his phone getting leads from other guides. We started with a view of many impala, warthogs, zebra, wildebeest and zebra. Then, Gilbert got a call with "good news". We drove toward the good news and ran into some elephants on the way. The good news turned out to be two lionesses and their freshly killed wildebeest lunch. We were able to really get up close to to one of the lionesses, which was napping just 5 feet from our land cruiser.
After seeing the lions we headed to a restaurant in the park for lunch. Lunch was some tasty chicken. Outside the restaurant a marabou stork and some monkeys were hanging out. The rest of the day was spent driving around cm viewing many elephants, zebras, and giraffes.
After a long day we headed to Camp Bastian, where we would be staying overnight. At Camp Bastian, we were welcomed with refreshing glasses of avocado mango juice. Camp Bastian is very cute and had about a dozen cabins surrounded by beautiful gardens. The cabins were private and cute with en suite bathrooms. Dinner was served outside by candlelight and started with soup with a main of a delicious curry and rice. Alcohol was available at the bar. During dinner they took out breakfast order (omelet or pancakes) and asked us when we would like it served.
We got up for breakfast around 6:30 the next day. Breakfast was delicious and served with coffee from a French press. We then got on the road to Udzungwa. The road was mostly dirt and rutted, but again, Athman handled it like a pro. We arrived at Udzungwa and we were joined by a guide from the park. The guide was quite knowledgeable about the plants in park. We hiked a couple of hours up into the mountains and the views were spectacular. We had lunch on the top of a waterfall overlooking a beautiful view if the plains below. Lunch was a packed lunch of chicken, veggie sandwiches, banana, boiled egg, and chapati. We hiked down to a pool where people could swim though we elected not to do so ourselves. While we didn't see a lot of animals in the park, we did see a lot of beautiful butterflies and for to see a couple different kinds of monkeys.
On the last day, we went back to Mikumi and saw many giraffes, elephants, zebra impala, crocodiles, buffalo, hippos, and jackals. It was a lot of fun.
We then headed back to Dar Es Salaam. Unfortunately, we got to the city right in the midst of rush hour and it took more than 7 hours to get to our hotel. Athman never lost his cool despite the horrible traffic. Despite dropping us off at the hotel after 10 pm, Athman gladly arrived at 3:30 in the morning to take us to the airport.
We really enjoyed our safari and wholeheartedly would recommend Hello Tanzania to anyone looking for a safari in Tanzania. Thank you Mwajabu, Athman, and Gilbert!
KR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Nice trip with nice people
I got a great experience with my friends last may. First of all When I booked safari, This company's response was very fast and professional. So I got a best price. Also When I meet Hamadi, He treat to me as a friend not customer. He was caring very well so I didn't have any complain. He provide many information about safari it was very helpful when i went around safari.
If I get a chance for safari one more time I will going with this guys. Thanks Hamadi.