US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent, Amazing and Wonderful
Steve Skrocki here, I echo the excellent reviews made by others on African Scenic Safaris. Do not hesitate to use African Scenic for your trip. Amanda was fabulous in answering any question our party had, including making suggestions for our itinerary and suggesting we rely on our guide for day to day decisions-which we did. Amanda was unfailingly responsive, answering our emails within half a day, and making the planning and logistics worry free, including providing guidance on the Angata camps, where we stayed. Our guide/driver Tom was, in a phrase, simply amazing. Tom knew each park and road intimately. More importantly, Tom was an expert in animal behaviors and was able to predict specific behaviors which were incredible for us to view by being patient; lion stalks and kills, cheetah stalks and kills, leopard stalks, and elephants sparring. Tom not only assisted us in identifying these behaviors prior to and as they occurred, but he was also able to provide commentary while they did occur and even more later while in the various Angata camps. We could not have asked for a more courteous, kind, patient and professional guide. There are a lot of larger competitors in Arusha, but go with African Scenic, they are small, local and by their reviews (including ours) continue to satisfy their clients with their great guides and custom service. Amanda's up front work, and Tom's expertise in the field made for an experience that exceeded all of our expectations and I would not hesitate to use African Scenic again. I have posted this on several other forums, but the review remains the same, it totally exceeded my expectations.
Absolutely amazing, fascinating, beautiful and awe inspiring.
We felt that every aspect of our safari was wonderful. With hindsight we would have flown direct to the Serengeti and not driven from Arusha. Our accommodation was great and our guide (Cyprian Joseph with Ranger Safaris) was knowledgeable and friendly.
We would thoroughly recommend the Serengeti as a safari destination.
Review about Tanzania by Photoman152
We saw everything except rhino (sadly) and had a wonderful experience of close up encounters with wild animals.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
One of the most amazing experiences of my life thanks to the wonderful Davis and Robert at Nyasi
Nyasi is a Tanzanian company established and managed by the highly experienced and well-respected Davis and his cousin Robert, who both grew up in the Iringa area of southern Tanzania. My 17-year-old son and I spent two weeks on safari in southern and northern Tanzania visiting Selous Game Reserve, Ruaha National Park, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. We were guided and driven by Davis in the south; and his long-term friend Ayoub in the north. Davis and Robert put together a wonderful and thoughtful intinerary for us and made lots of insightful suggestions that added to the whole trip so I recommend seeking their advice and involvement on any trip to East Africa as their knowledge and contacts are extensive. We felt extremely lucky to be with what must be two of the most experienced and knowledgeable driver/guides in Tanzania. We saw everything we wanted to as they really know the parks, the wildlife and the local people and communities. Importantly, Davis is one of the most genuine and principled people I have ever met; he loves his job; he is so passionate about the wildlife and conservation and he has a great sense of fun. His enthusiasm seemed almost matched to ours on seeing the wildlife for the first time! You really get to know Tanzania, the animals and the people if you experience it through Nyasi and you can completely relax and feel safe as you will be in the hands of experts. We are definitely planning to return to do more safaris with Davis and his team.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable Wildlife Safari in Tanzania
I could never have imagined how beautiful and exhilarating a safari could be as what we had in Tanzania with Wilderness Legends. The trip was a perfect blend of wildlife viewing and of experiencing multiple cultures. We saw so many beautiful animals and we saw so many up close. Our drivers were amazing in that they knew which animals would be here and at what time of the day. And they were very generous in pulling over the land cruisers and letting us just inhale and enjoy the beauty of the wildlife in their kingdom. I also enjoyed the different cultures we got to experience. One of the best adventures was going on a morning hunt with the Hadzabe, the last true nomadic Tanzanians. T
Thank you Wilderness Legends for the safari of a lifetime!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great trip to Africa
We hired this company to take us to Masai Mara and also to Serengeti. Both worked out as planned. The drivers/guides were very friendly. I would highly recommend Kenya Tru Nomads Tours. I want to particularly recognize our driver/u Shauri who was so amazing. The lady who planned our trip Faith, she was very knowledgeable and considering it was a budget safari we got more that we had paid for. Bravo Kenya Tru Nomads
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
GTA - Rwanda - Uganda - Outstanding
I booked a six day gorilla trekking experience with Gorilla Trek Africa. I had wanted to see the gorillas for over twenty years so there was a lot of pressure on the company to get it right, which they did in every way possible: the booking process was seemless with the amazing Nelson answering my numerous queries and the wonderful Krish who was my guide/driver for the entire trip. Krish did everything possible to make my trip as comfortable and special as possible, even providing me with replacement hiking boots when mine were destroyed while tracking chimpanzees. Gorilla Trek Africa exceeded every expectation and I will be visiting Rwanda and Uganda again with this company (and hopefully I will be lucky enough to come across Nelson and Krish again).
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unsure solvency of the company - Definitively not a care free safari!
First of all: this review has nothing to do with the beauty of Kenya and Tansania nor our personal tour guides or cooks (they have been super helpful)! Both countries are beautiful and their people have been exceptionally friendly and accommodating!
However, if you want a carefree safari tour in which all bookings/reservations/parking fees are payed in advance (as discussed and payed for) then we suggest to book with a different company. We cannot express how disappointed and frustrated we were in regards to the organizational skills of Kenya Walking Safari's (KWS) management. It caused us many nerves/patience and most of all time during our 10 day safari.
In order to be fair with KWSS we would also like to say the at the end of our tour KWSS compensated us with approx 5% of the tour price for lost time and wrong calculations.
Anyway we would like to explain what happened:
We booked our safari tour in April 2016 for our trip in August 2016. We had extensive contact with KWS which gave us confidence because they were always very responsive and answered all of our many questions. We payed well in advance (a good amount of money!) and expected that all accommodations/services/park fees would be payed/booked for us in time for our arrival.We are very well aware that we can come across unforeseen circumstances and that flexibility is required. However only to a certain extent.
During our tour we encountered four issues which we would like to explain for others in more detail:
The first issue we encountered was during our first lodge in Maasai Mara. Taking KWS's suggestion, we swapped 1 day in our tour due to ongoing animal migration in the region (adding 1 day in Maasai Mara and take 1 day off from our Tanzania tour).This was a good idea because we were able to see the river crossing. However, we didn't receive the same standard room we booked for originally.We wrote KWS a mail to see how to proceed (since there was a clear down grade on our room).They didn't reply to us until the end of our safari tour.
Second issue:after wonderful game drives in Maasai Mara and a great time at Lake Navaisha we headed off for a very long drive (8h) to Amboseli National park. According to our itinerary (which was reconfirmed verbally and on print during our face to face briefing in the Nairobi office) we were booked at the Kibo Lodge (high class safari lodge). We were then surprised to hear from our tour guide that he had just received a text message from the office saying we would be spending 2 nights in the AA lodge instead of Kibo (another down grade as they have different room rates). Apparently Kibo was fully booked due to government officials.We decided to see for ourselves and were more surprised to hear onsite from Kibo lodge that they did have available rooms and no government officials! We of course did not take the room in the AA lodge and insisted on taking a room in Kibo (according to our tour program we had payed for). We then found out from the hotel manager that they no longer accept KWSS clients because the company has outstanding payments. We (including our tour guide) tried to call the KWSS office many times (including the "hotline number") because this was a situation we were not going to accept. We were not able to get the manager of KWSS on the phone and waited 4 long hours until we reached someone from the office.They suggested that we pay the 2 nights ourselves (400$) and we will get a refund. Obviously, after all that we had heard and experienced we were not ready to pay ourselves. Due to the kindness of the Kibo hotel manager and our persisting tour guide we were able to check in at 8.30 pm. KWSS had promised to send the money to Kibo the next day, which they then did the next afternoon.However, low and behold,we encountered another group from KWSS on the second night at Kibo. They had the same problem! Unfortunately they weren't as lucky as we were and had to go to another lodge.
Third issue: after transferring from Kenya to Tanzania,we slept a night in Fanaka lodge to be ready early morning to go to the famous Ngorongoro crater.We were supposed to depart at 8am.However, our tour guide told us that there was a problem because KWSS had again not yet sent the money for our accommodations and park fees for Tanzania. KWSS's Tanzanian business partner, contacted us and suggested we pay 440$ and KWSS will refund us as soon as the money has been wired (apparently there was a technical problem so money transferring was not available). As you may guess, this was not an option for us.KWSS's credibility was non existent. So we called the KWSS office and were surprised that they actually picked up the phone. However this wasn't very helpful and the Tanzanian business partner had to borrow the money from his relative (!) so we could go on with the tour.We waited for almost 3 hrs until we were able to leave.
Fourth issue: after all that had happened, we decided to cross check our past accommodations and realised that KWSS had double calculated the first hotel night in Nairobi. By the way: don't accept a booking at Henessis Hotel.This is a shabby hotel which by far did not meet the standards of our other accommodations. This could have been an honest mistake but we decided to list all the issues we had during our tour for full transparency.
To come to an end: After many emails and involvement of a 3rd party, KWSS management was cooperative and quick in refunding us (after we finished our tour) for wrong hotel accommodations and lost time (several hundred dollars in total).
In short:
- If you want to do a safari tour do it definitively in Tanzania and Kenya - people (incl. tour guides and cooks), nature and food are amazing!
- If you are looking for a carefree package KWS is not the best option
- If you insist and put pressure on KWSS you probably will get refunded for issues, however we believe this only worked for us because we involved a third party
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
6 days in Kenya Amboseli, Nakuru and Masai Mara
We had an amazing time in Kenya.
All the trip was well organized and we really enjoy our vacations. We only wish we could stay longer
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Pre-Honeymoon!
Last August we have made a 4-day safari with bestday safari and it was simply the best experience we ever had wit my fiancé!!!
Our driver-guide, Godfrey was so knowledgeable and incredibly great to spot the animals. We had the chance to see the "big 5" even if the Rino in Ngorongoro was quite far we went very close to lions, leopards, elephants and buffaloes :)))
The food and accommodation at the lodges and the tented camp was perfect! Sleeping in a tent with all the confort in the middle of Serengeti Park is surreal!
We definitely recommend this tour and travel agency!
Steve & Natalia