BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing
I just have a lot of praise for Matoke Tours.
A very smooth and friendly treatment of my questions.
Once in Africa it has surpassed all my expectations.
I've had the trip of my dreams. Short, but perfect.
All credit goes to Caleb, my guide. He was an incredibly good guide and perfectly managed to show me everything that was possible.
I am a very satisfied customer and I'll definitely be back.
Best regards and thank you for the realization of my dream.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Nairobi Safari
We had a great day out with a super friendly driver. The booking was very easy. Highly recommended.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not sure what happened here
5 of us booked a 3 day tour through this company for a quick safari. I am not sure what happened but it was absolutely ridiculous from the start. We were scheduled to be picked up at 8 am from our Nairobi hotel, no one showed up after calling they first said that the driver had been there and left with no explanation as to why, then immediately turned around and said that the driver could not find the hotel. We were picked up in another vehicle at 9:30 and taken to meet our driver. As per our itinerary we were told there would be no more than 7 people in the van, there was 8 which was not a huge deal just another inconsistency. After the late start we then ran in to an accident on the way there was no water supplied in the van we sat for quite some time in the heat before starting off again, at that point we were to late to get lunch at our lodge and had to stop at a buffet on the side of the road. We ended up getting to the lodge at 4:30 which is past the time when our game drive was supposed to start. We sat there as our driver and the lodge staff argued for an hour because come to find out despite the fact that we had paid months in advance Jocky tours had never actually booked our rooms. Once we were finally checked in it was almost 6 oclock. We ended up getting about 30 min worth of a game drive that night. The next morning we did not get into the park until after 9 oclock due to the constant delays of the driver. Once in the park he failed to point out any wildlife and drove around like a crazy man only stopping if we made him at which point he would then take off as we were trying to get photos. We talked to him about it multiple times yet he persisted. He continually almost hit animals as they crossed paths and even sped up at them several times. It appeared the only time he was interested in stopping was to speak to his friends which were other drivers. While looking at a pride of sleeping lions him and his buddy driving the other van went within 10 ft of the lions and began revving their engines to make them get up. When we protested he laughed. After our complaints he became sullen and began not bothering to respond to requests at all. He supplied no water for the entire day that we were in the park and blamed it on the hotel despite it being in the itinerary that his company would supply it. These issues continued throughout the entire rest of the trip and made for a very akward and dangerous ride back to Nairobi with all of the vans occupants asking him multiple times to slow down and stop driving so dangerously. The drivers name was Dalton nickname Ali, in my opinion and the opinion of everyone I was with he should not be allowed within the park and definitely should not be trusted to drive people.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful experience in a group of four (plus guide)
What can I say? Our Trip to Ruaha National Park and Udzungwa Mountains was great! Our guide was Serafino, who is very experienced and also a funny, decent and modest guy.
Everything went fine (well, we had a flat tire at 60 mph but Serafino handled it very well, and his driving skills are excellent, by the way), Chabo Africa adapted our safari to our plans. We wanted to travel from Dar Es Salaam to Iringa by airplane, and wanted to leave Udzungwa by airplane, too, which went very well - thanks to Auric Air, who offer direct flights from Dar Es Salaam to Iringa and from Kilombero (Udzungwa) to Dar Es Salaam.
The tour was totally worth the price, since we saw all of the big animals which are present in Ruaha National Park (even a Leopard, thanks to a hilarious collaboration between Sarafino and Ernesto, who spotted a Leopard in a tree during their talk while standing side-by-side with their cars, chatting). July is a great month to travel to Ruaha, since it is not rainy season anymore but there is still enough water making it worthwhile for the game to hang around or go for a hunt. There were also lots of elephants, buffaloes, giraffes and lions of course (we even saw those.. "cuddling"). The Udzungwa Mountains included some serious hiking (well, at least for us, it was, since we did not expect it to be that exhausting :-)). But the waterfalls and the views were totally worth it!
The mornings and the evenings were also very funny since we had the company of Serafino and sometimes also Ernest, who guided a Belgian group through the same areas simultaneously. The accommodations had a great value for the money, but we did book the budget option, so we did not expect much.
Many tour operators from Tanzania had major trouble with a new tax law that was introduced on very short notice in summer 2016. Due to the new rules, we had to pay an extra 10 % because there was an extra tax on accommodations which cause the majority of the costs. Since my wife lived in Tanzania for 6 months prior to our tour, always reading the newspapers, we knew that this was no scheme or something, but many customers became suspicious and cancelled their tours (instead they booked in nearby Kenia or Zambia, where taxes were not increased).
All in all, we would like to thank Chabo Safari for our great trip. It was a real adventure for us, since three out of four have never been outside of Europe before. My slightly younger sister is extremely frightened of flying (including crying, refusing to board in the first place etc.) but she went through all of that. Afterwards she said that she would do it all again, since she never saw something even remotely exciting like the wildlife in Tanzania.
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.