US
Excellent safari experience
The wildlife (especially the primates) is amazing and surprisingly accessible. The wilderness is very enjoyable. We've been to other parts of Africa (mostly southern Africa) and Uganda is refreshingly very unique and varied. The drives along the countryside is also a lot of fun. The people are very friendly and almost everyone speaks English, which made it convenient for us. We went in July and the weather was spectacular. We went mostly to the Western parts (Bwindi and QE NPs) and also stayed near Lake Victoria.
ES
We have seen a lot of animals and spectacular scenery
We have booked two different tours:7 days Etosha Explorer Tour (Wild Wind Safaris) and 4 day Swakopmund and Sossusvlei Adventure with Chamelon safaris.Weather was very good,dry and a lot of sun, no clouds.Our guides (Leslie Joseph and Griffith) were excellent.We have seen a lot of different animals, the accommodations have been very confortable and the food delicious.We will recommend these safaris to our friends and family.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
beautiful landscape, lovely people, great beaches
Our trip was great. We have seen so many animals like giraffe, hippo, elephant, many beautiful birds, black mamba and other snakes, kudu, impala, buffalo, baboons, crocodile and big groups of lions on both days. One group was already at the place we have expected to have lunch...
We could tell the driver whenever we would like to stop to take pictures or to enjoy the landscape.
Also the food was delicious and the accomodation was very quiet, except the bush babys we could hear at night...
When we arrived after 6hours drive from dar es salam we could relax on the boat and see first animals like hippos, lizard, crocodiles and birds. Sunset on rufiji river was great.
The walking safari was very interesting and we could learn a lot about animals and plants.
We can really recommend doing this 4 days selous safari.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great people great places great prices, a wonderful experience.
The entire experience was outstanding and exceeded our expectations by a significant margin. We will be back.
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful Safari-Best driver-be careful with pricing
We were supposed to be a group of 4 Italian friends; we ended up being only 3 as one of us could not travel at last minute because he got sick. We had a 10 days tour touching Tarangire, Manyara, Lake Eyasi, Ngorongoro, Serengeti and Lake Natron. We were extremely happy about the places, animals and tribes we have visited. All very authentic except for the Masai tribe in Ngorngoro that was quite touristic (paid 20 dollars each for 15 minutes very touristic tour); they were asking for money every now and then. Lake Eyasi and Lake Natron are out of the touristic places and so worth visiting. Other tour operators refused to offer Lake Natron as the road to get there was adventurous, and it was indeed. The best part of our trip was Chediel, our fantastic driver! He has never been tired of showing us things, telling us stories about animals (African tales and scientific things as well); he was able to spot the farthest ceetah and taking us close enough to count all the spots on the fur! He was joyful and nice all the time. He also very quickly solved the only problem we got while driving. The jeep sank into the sands and he worked hard to take it out. If you ever choose this tour operator please ask to have Chediel as your guide!!
Unfortunately we could not say exactly the same about Joseph, the tour operator leader, as he was paying more attention on money than on services. He did not provide us with a detailed program and he did not provide us with useful information for what is surely a difficult trip. For example, he did not send us general information on what to wear, what to bring, how a day/meal/dinner was supposed to be (I had contacted 25 tour operators for a quotation and most of them sent these on quotation without even waiting for us to book the tour). For example we were not told to wear a bathing suit when visiting the waterfalls in Natron; we were said we would have had wifi in every lodges while this was not the case for two out of seven lodges (and in other two the wifi was not really working although apparently available). At the end of our trip he helped us to arrange our connection from Dar es Salaam Airport to the ferry harbor (tricky! please allow you lots of time in advance as the traffic is horrible). We thanked him for this, but listen to my consideration: he charged us 50 dollars for the ride (which was absolutely fine) plus 7 dollars each on top of the price for the ferry ticket (that we had booked in advance) because apparently he had to change shelling in dollars to buy the tickets and the commission was to be payed by us (which I absolutely agree), BUT I disagree on EACH of us. Do you really think he paid three commissions and not one? do you ever change money in three different rounds for three friends or would you change money all together to avoid three commissions? Also, as said, one of us could not travel last minute. He gave us back less than 1/10 of the money paid by him saying it was just because of my kindness otherwise he would have not given the money back because apparently he had already used that amount to book the places and even payed the ticket to the parks (which were not). I understand this was last minute and high season, but let's try to be reasonable and honest. I do not believe he could not save money from all the amount my friend had paid and I explain you why: we had paid in advance only 1/3 of the whole trip, but we had not signed any type of contract. What if the all of us had not shown up at all? would he have risked to loose all of those money?? i don't believe so. And by the way when asked to provide a receipt he only issued one for the money we paid there and not for the ones we had send by bank transfer... One last thing... (and ok maybe this was a genuine mistake but when you have more things to complain about it's better to say)...he took me to the counter to change money I needed to give him... he gave me back 8 dollars less than due...
Having said all of this, I am not "Not suggesting" to book with Tomodachi, I am only suggesting to make sure your driver is Chediel and you make clear everything with Joseph before agreeing.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was easily on of the highlights of my life.
Our service was first class from the immediate response to our inquiry, the timely communications leading up to our trip to the actually safari. Our guide was the perfect host. He went out of the way to make us comfortable and seemed to delight in showing us the beauty of his country. He made every effort to meet our specific interests and patiently allowed us to enjoy various animals up close in their natural habitat. The schedule laid out was perfect, the lodge was first class, and we saw every animal we hoped to as well as many more than we could have imagined. As my daughter said, 10 out of 10, we would recommend to a friend! Now that we have been so spoiled, I can't imagine going with anyone else.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent Customer Service and Customization
We were impressed with Pembury Tours from our first interaction with them, and our positive impression remained throughout the whole process of putting together our vacation up through the trip itself. At an early stage of planning to travel to southern Africa, we had a vague idea of what we wanted to see, do, and where to stay, and we thought we could plan this trip on our own. However, we were struggling on putting key pieces of our trip (especially the safari part) together. Thus, we decided to reach out to multiple tour companies for quotes.
Anya with Pembury Tours helped us put our small ideas into a grand plan, which ended up being a roughly 2 1/2 week trip through South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. At the outset, Anya put together a highly customized itinerary for us, and she worked with us to make small changes to it to make it our own. Through multiple emails, she asked us various questions and we provided her with an idea of what we wanted. Anya was always responsive and patient with us throughout the process, and ultimately planned a phenomenal vacation for us that started in Victoria Falls, continued on to Kruger National Park, Cape Town, Vilankulo in Mozambique, and finished in Johannesburg. Anya and Pembury Tours were also cognizant of our trip budget, and were willing to work with us to maximize our experience based on what we were looking to spend. For example, given that we had a lot of hotel points, we decided to use those for our hotel stays in the Cape Town region. Given this, we were not expecting Anya to help us out with the Cape Town leg at all. However, Anya was receptive to this, understood that we wanted to save some money, and recommended various tour options for us in that area and helped us book them. She also provided us with additional, helpful information for Cape Town, the wine lands, and Hermanus. A really nice thing that Anya and Pembury Tours did was to put together a book for us which included our itinerary, recommendations on what to see and where to go for each leg of the trip and for each day, animals we might see while on safari and on our whale watch in Hermanus, driving directions and maps, and a little bit of history on each place visited. This book, which was hand-delivered to us by one of our tour guides, was a very nice gesture from Pembury Tours that made us feel confident that we were going to have a great trip, very early on.
Our trip was memorable, relaxing, and exciting, all at the same time. We have Anya at Pembury Tours to thank for that. Should we decide to return to Africa in the future, we will not hesitate to reach out to Anya and Pembury Tours to help book our next trip there! We also plan to recommend Anya and Pembury Tours to our family and friends that are contemplating visiting Africa.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent, custom made, 7 days private safari in Kenya (Nakuru-Naivasha-Hells Gate-Longonot- Mara)
Patricia organised a fantastic, (very) custom made, 7 day safari for two for us at the end of July.
The camps were the ones I requested and of overall very good quality, the itinerary was followed as agreed, and Francis, our driver and guide, was wonderful - knowledgeable, keen to ensure we saw everything (and we did, even leopards!), and a pleasure to spend time with and talk to about Kenya. He was flexible when needed, and always in a good mood and ready to answer our many questions.
I found the communication with Patricia ahead of the trip great (so prompt and helpful compared to other operators with whom I was discussing in parallel). She was patient in agreeing an itinerary we liked and responded timely. Having researched many safari companies, I thought the offer (accommodation and activities included) was great value.
On choice of camps, I'm sure Patricia could recommend and arrange everything with little effort for clients, but I had very specific requests, which she met brilliantly. Our favourite experience was Wilderness (as it was very small and remote/wild), followed by Basecamp. We enjoyed that by staying at Wilderness we got to experience a Land Cruiser safari and a walking safari in a beautiful conservancy next to Masai Mara included in the package. Crater Lake tented camp (close to Naivasha) was also in a very beautiful setting.
Our itinerary also included a Hell's gate walk and cycle, and a hike up Mount Longonot. They were both organised very smoothly and we felt very safe and taken care of by the local guide the company arranged.
It was a fantastic week and I'd highly recommend Patricia and Francis!
US
Sf hub is the best
I was in my hollyday with my Fiancee Laura , to Tanzania and it was simply awesome , Our guide Mabu showed us the most beautiful thing ever :), thank you so much
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The Journey of a Lifetime
From our first email contact with Jackson, to our return home, Bush 2 City Adventure has provided excellent service and a wonderful adventure. Jackson expertly helped us plan our 11 day safari/vacation to Northern Tanzania and Zanzibar which included Tarangire Park, Lake Manyara, a visit to a local village and orphanage, the Serengeti, Oldupai Gorge, and Ngorongoro Crater. We wanted to see cheetah and leopards, the Great Migration and a river crossing, relax in the early evening in front of our tent watching elephants, and hear lions roar in the night. We experienced all of that and more! We even saw leopard cubs and two black rhinos!
The accommodations were excellent- both lodges and tent camps- comfortable with friendly, helpful staff and wonderful food. (How do they prepare gourmet meals in these tent camps?) We traveled in a land cruiser, which was comfortable and roomy, although we were just a party of two, plus our guide. And I can't say enough about our guide! Said was very knowledgeable about the animals and the habitat, entertaining, a great driver, and very patient and accommodating. I'm still in awe of his ability to sight these animals (and his mastery of several languages.)
This was definitely a trip of a lifetime, and Jackson, Said, Wilson and the staff of Bush 2 City made it possible. As Jackson said to me in one of his first emails, a journey is not just the sights you see, but the friends you make. We left Tanzania having seen our "wish list," and with several new friends. Thank you guys for an awesome journey!