50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A safari that kept giving us a new highlight every day with varied animals and birds in abundance
This was our first Safari and it was a well thought out and planned safari tour to Zimbabwe, living in varied high quality accommodation.
Starting with a Zambezi river cruise at sunset, the following day taking in the Victoria Falls in the morning with a game drive in the afternoon encountering Black Rhino. Victoria Falls Hotel is worth a visit if only to be taken back a 100 years.
The Victoria Falls Safari Lodge has very spacious, five star accommodation, with a good quality restaurant overlooking a waterhole. The two small swimming pools are very refreshing and a great place for viewing the wildlife.
A few days at the Elephant Camp opened our eyes to the difficulties of conservation in Africa. Living in high quality, air conditioned tents with individual plunge pools. The food and service were excellent. A visit to the vets lab, meeting Judge Judy the vulture, was an eye opener to the Anti Poaching unit.
The Hide in Hwange National park, involved three game drives a day and well worth not missing any of them. All the guides are extremely knowledgeable, professional and can even spot a Python in a tree 100 yards away.
Nothing like having an outside shower with elephants and warthogs wandering past down to the waterhole.
Well organised sundowners in different locations, one catching lions with their cubs who then passed either side of the safari vehicle. The tents are great with the outside bath and shower, each with a viewing deck overlooking the waterhole. Good service, food and abundant drinks on tap.
Camp Amalinda in the Rhodes Matobo National Park is unique and very impressive. Each room is built into the granite rocks and are all very individually designed with mini-bars. Good sized infinity pool overlooking the park and granite outcrops. A great base for visiting the caves to view the ancient rock art and to visit the grave of Cecil Rhodes. We were led by Paul Hubbard, an enthusiastic raconteur, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the area, people and their politics, and who challenged the negative image of Cecil Rhodes. Having sundowners on the top of World's View with the setting sun giving glorious colours to the granite boulders, you could only reflect that a man who chose this site as his final resting place cannot be that bad!
On our final day, we spent the morning walking to find white Rhino and our guide, together with one of the local anti-poaching guards, took us with a few yards of them, including two of them mating. Our close encounter with a Mozambique Spitting Cobra in the en-suite was a highlight of sorts but quickly dealt with by the staff.
A excellent first safari with varied sights, game and birds in great accommodation with good food and service.
Well occupied and not a dull moment from start to finish.
Don't pack a novel as you wont need one, but pack a book of Southern African Birds.
You only need a fraction of the clothes you think you will need as laundry is often complimentary.
My only fear is you could get hooked on these safaris!
BE
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Just marvellous, the dream safari we always wanted to do, perfectly organised, perfectly executed.
We planned for the trip in early 2016 and were originally trying to combine Namibia and Botswana. After contacting several organisations we came quickly to the conclusion that it would be better to focus on just a safari in Botswana - and do it the right way = fly in safari. Doing self-drive you will not reach the best camps and you will not see lot of animals ... (self-drivers told us). We booked with Giltedge Africa (formerly Southern Africa Travel) as they gave us the best impression - and finally a price somewhat cheaper than the Desert & Delta Camps itself. Email exchange during the exploration / booking process was easy and fast - Monique Dean did really her best. All worked liked clock-work and we are very happy with our safari experience. We saw everything which was to see in the Desert and the Okavango Delta. The guides from the camps were really nice and knew how to find the animals. They told us a lot about the animals and their habits - so we returned quite educated ...
We stayed at 5 locations, first the Chobe Game Lodge, which is out of question a must do. Put it last in your trip - it's the crown jewel at the end ... but we enjoyed it first and did not regret it in comparison to the camps thereafter. Next we stayed at Moremi Camp and here the infrastructure is a bit old. But the staff was the most happiest and friendliest in our experience. But even somewhat old, you have all the comfort you need. In Chobe and Moremi we saw most of the animals - so those 2 are a must do. We moved on to Okavango and this was a nice surprise. The camp just reopened after a complete reconstruction in April 2016. Everything brand new and very comfortable. Friendly Management (Lodewijk & team) and also very happy and friendly staff.
Game viewing is somewhat different here, as you ride on a boat thru the channels and at our season, grass was high and one couldn't look over and above it. Sometime an elephant made his way through the high grass to the water and it was nice to see them in the waterways. We saw also a lot of hippo's and had the experience of a walking safari on an island. You don't see a lot of "new" animals during the easy walk, but you learn a lot about animal poo ... Next we stayed at Leroo La Tau - a very nicely situated camp overlooking a river. Upon arrival we looked down to the river bed and both banks were just crowded with Wildebeest and Zebra and Elephants, in a constant move towards or away from the tiny river. We sat on our terrace and watched it all. A unique experience. Game drives here were good and we saw a lot, but they were somewhat repetitive, as we followed more or less always the same routes. Lastly, we moved on to Savute. Nice camp as well, a bit hidden in the trees and some "tents" have a good view of the waterhole. (No. 6,5,4 and 3). The waterhole was heavily used by elephants of all sizes and we could watch also very little one's. The game drives are longer - from a distance - and we saw most of the animals, but not in numbers as in Chobe or Moremi. We had a groups of lions feeding on an elephant and could watch that for 2 - 3 days. That was it ...
Our ranking is perfect - excellent and we do not regret that it was more costly, we really enjoyed it.
If you want to spend less time and money, go for the Chobe Game Lodge, Moremi and Leroo La Tau, with those 3 you cover the best.
A special thanks to Monique having put this trip together for us. We'll be back.
Erich & Danielle
Belgium
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Well organised
Transport, accommodation, permits to see gorillas, etc. was well organised, we did not have to worry about any logistics. E-mail replies for the reservation were quick and to the point, all was arranged in 1/2 day.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent experience
While booking our own safari we were frustrated by the lack of reviews on many operators so we wanted to share our experience with Kenan Tours. Overall we give 5 stars as the trip was excellent. The logistics were very well managed and our guide / driver worked extremely hard to make sure we were able to see all of the things we wanted. He literally went the extra mile to ensure we had a great holiday! His experience as a guide made a huge difference throughout the trip in terms of making sure we were in the right place at the right time on the game drives and teaching us about the culture. We also appreciated the flexibility as they were able to modify the plans depending on our timing and the weather (e.g., starting a bit earlier or later, working additional sight seeing into the schedule). Another thing we liked is that Kenan is a Kenyan owned and operated company so there are no middle men and they take great pride in their business. The main people at the company have many years of experience with tour operators and started their own company. They were frequently calling each other and checking in with us to be sure everything was satisfactory. We also noted they had other trips ongoing at the time and after we had left so they are clearly getting some word of mouth references.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Best travel experience ever - exceeded all expectations
This was a once in a life time trip celebrating my 60th birthday by trekking with the gorillas in Bwindi so my expectations were high as this had been on my bucket list for some time. From the initial contact with Bella all the way through to the last of numerous emails, her responses were prompt and provided all the information I required. This, along with the price, was the reason I chose Bella Africa Safaris over the many other companies I contacted for quotes.
Bella customized a 15 day tour incorporating my expressed preferences whilst still allowing enough flexibility to take advantage of opportunities as they presented. The most enjoyable of these unplanned gems were visits to a village at Kibale (including an interesting house call to the local medicine man and a meeting with some of the delightful children from the village), as well as a visit to a newly established school in Rushaga and a performance from the children of a recently established orphanage. All these visits were truly joyful and memorable experiences with lots of smiles and laughs exchanged (thanks to our interpreters) with the opportunity to take some gifts a bonus.
Although Bella was not our guide on this occasion, we were fortunate to have Moses (an extremely experienced guide and expert driver) and Bella's sister in law, Justine, as our travel companions. After sharing meals, life stories and histories, some long days in our 4WD, games of a night and lots of laughs, they soon became our family away from home. We are grateful also that our tour overlapped with Bella's on 2 occasions which gave us the opportunity to spend time with her and realize we want to do another safari in the not too distant future.
Of course, we were lucky to see all the animals we had hoped (thanks to Moses's patience and persistence) except for the elusive leopard, but the animal sightings surprisingly became less the focus than the cultural education and exchange. I could never have imagined that we would laugh so much.
So, if you are looking for a unique, customized tour with personalized care from start to finish, Bella must be your choice. The standard of accommodation was excellent (budget to mid) with all meals included making it extremely good value for money compared to other quotes received.
Thank you so much Bella, Moses and Justine for making this experience the best 15 days of travel ever and one I will remember with a great deal of fondness for the rest of my life.
NL
Safari Care is Top !
We made a 5 days round through the parks, with Kamal making the arrangements and Mr Moller as our guide. The whole trip was in short excellent, the parks breathtaking in terms of views, lanscape, diversiteit and wildlife. Tanzania is a gem, safe and on top lovely people. You do not neccesarily be there at the migration, we were not and still had a life experience certainly never to forget. Many Thx to the Safari Care crew and do not bezigste to book and get spoiled by them. If you do not have much time then go for Serengeti only which is just amazing on its own already !
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Very good service
I booked a private tour and everything was arranged perfectly to my needs. Would recommend to anyone.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Top-class Service
We received excellent service from very friendly and cooperative staff at Kenyan safari Arcade. All arrangements were perfect. Thanks for making our trip so special. I will deinitely reccomend KSA to freinds and colleagues.
IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Kichaka surpassed every expectation I had regarding my African safari
Thank you Kichaka for what can only be described as an experience of a lifetime. From our arrival in Nairobi to th end of our safari tour, Kichaka ensured the utmost comfort and a fantastic safari experience Special shoutout to our tour guide / driver Bonny. He was exceptional, and went above and beyond his job description to ensure that there were zero glitches in our trip.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An amazing guide, well organised safari!
From the 1st contact, Noah, a sale representative from Wilderbeest Safaris, was very fast at replying and efficient. He organised a 4 days safari around Arusha following my comments and criteria.
He was always very fast at replying to any of my questions and organised everything very smoothly from start to finish! We were very impressed and highly recommend them.
We were lucky to get Max as our driver/ guide and it was perfect!
Max is a knowledgeable guide, smart, kind, funny and discreet. We really liked the whole experience and saw so many wild animals!! All of them really except the Rhino and Leopard but that was a long shot anyway.
In regards to the hotels, depending on your budget, I stoingly recomment you stay at the Neptune Ngorongoro!! This was a magical experience, amazing service, everything all inclusive, very spacious cottages with chimneys!! A real dream and I wish we stayed longer there!
The 2nd night was at a hotel inside the Ngorongoro national park, the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge and that was a very disappointing experience. If we had known we would have asked to stay at the Neptune again as it is just at the entrance of the park and on the way to Lake Manyara.
We also visited the Lake Manyara park, lots of girafes and elephants! And the Tarangire park where we saw more elephant, Girafes, lions, Zebras and all the others!!
Thanks again Wilderbeest for organising a great trip for us, we loved it and will recommend you to our friends and family!