It Started in Africa
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Member Of:
- IATA, TATO & TALA
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $550 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
US
Email Joe | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Easy to work with. Responsive to e-mails
Communication was easy. Service was good. We climbed Kili with them and had a great tour guide and team. They then helped coordinate our transfer for a safari in the Serengeti which was good. Guide was okay. Vehicle was a bit old but it was only my wife and I which was a great treat.
I'd recommend them and would travel with them again.
Email Matthew | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Horrific
This company accepted payment for services and did not provide any of what they promised and committed to for our honeymoon. They emailed a ‘story’ of being let down by a partner and took no responsibility for the thousands we paid them.
It now been over a year and we’ve had no refund and I’m astonished to see them trading. They are completely untrustworthy and I recommend you avoid at all costs. They stole thousands off a lot of people and if they hadn’t removed their trip advisor listing you’d see many other similar stories. I’d suggest any good reviews are not genuine. Be warned!
CA
Email Neil Kerr | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tanzanian Nightmare! We're out nearly $12K USD - a year later
We had booked 4 days of Safaris in Tanzania and 5 days at an all-inclusive 5-star resort on Zanzibar back in the spring 2017 for a once in a lifetime trip for my family of 5 to celebrate my wife's 50th birthday. We had prepaid 100% of the cost of this epic adventure up front.
2 days before we were to fly from Kigali, Rwanda to Arusha, Tanzania, we received an email from advising us the It Started In Africa was having serious cash flow issues and lots of unpaid for their unknowing customers. We immediately started making calls to the various hotels, safari camps and airlines only to find out that none had received payments in full with a number not receiving any payments at all.
We were crushed...what was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime turned into a total nightmare.
We had followed up with ISIA when we arrived back home in Canada in late August and was told by Baraja that the Police would send us money starting in September. We were later told that we would be receiving a full refund of $11,995.00 USD. We continued to follow up over the next few months and it was nothing but radio silence. Only when we emailed a senior official at the Tanzanian Ministry of Tourism, cc'ing Baraja, did we get a response in November 2017.
The charade continues with only ourselves to blame for being as patient (and naive) as we've been.
I'm glad to read the positive reviews of late and that no one else has seen their trips destroyed. It's hard to stomach though seeing It Started In Africa profit from this while ourselves and many others are out of pockets in the tens of thousands of $$$.
I'm glad to read the positive reviews of late and that no one else has seen their trips destroyed. It's hard to stomach though seeing It Started In Africa profit from this while ourselves and many others are out of pockets in the tens of thousnads of $$$.
TW
Email Kate | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice choice
Thanks to It started in Africa, we had the most memorable experience trip in Africa! They provide individualized itinerary and reply really soon. I can tell they really concerned what we need and what we asked. The last day, we forgot sending our post cards and left it in the lodge, they helped us send the post cards for free, so sweet! Highly recommend! Awesome!
IE
Email Marius van Niekerk | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Serengeti - Unforgettable trip, the perfect guide
Helena,
Sorry for the delay in coming back to you. I had intended to email you as soon as we got home to let you know how wonderful the trip was but somehow the time has slipped by. We had the most wonderful honeymoon. We couldn't have had a better time. Martin was our guide and was perfect for us. He had eyes like a hawk and ears like a bat.
He seemed to have a sense of what the animals would do next and always got the perfect spot for us to park. We seen a large number of safari providers and were constantly grateful that we booked with It Started in Africa. Some of the other guys were driving dangerously and flying from one thing to the next. Martin took it pole pole and we got to relax and enjoy all the wonderful sights around us.
We were lucky to see the big five and two cheetah's. Martin was focused on showing us as much as he could during the day and ensuring we got to see the big five. Some stand out moments were a herd of Elephants chasing a pack of lions, a male lion protecting his kill and some vets pulling a tranquilized Rhino by the tail to bring him to the ground.
We were extremely happy with the accommodation you picked for us. In particular Manyara wildlife safari camp. It was beautiful, the views were fabulous, the staff extremely friendly and helpful and the food was high quality. We only wish we could have stayed there another night to make use of the pool.
I really can't put into words how much we enjoyed our time with Martin. He was very knowledgeable, thoughtful and kind. He was able to bring me to the doctor in central Serengeti when I a reaction to some mosquito bites and regularly checked up on me to make sure I was ok.
We will put a review letting people know what a great company you were to deal with.
Thanks for all your assistance organizing our trip of a lifetime.
Vanessa and Marius
PT
Email Manuela | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Truly an amazing and unforgetable experience.
We loved our safari. It was a memorable and wonderful experience.
Alex, our guide, was excellent! Could not expect more. Thank you so much!
KR
Email Jingu | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Professional, Transparent, Reliable
My dad and I went 3N4D tour with It Started in Africa.
Especially I would like to mention two persons ; Bernard, the reservation manager was very agile and flexible to my request and David, the driver/guide was very knowledgeable and experienced in the endless plain.
Even though there were some hassles in payment process, since their local bank had in problem to clear my Pesapal payment, Bernard transparently & frequently shared what's going on and my tour was well done without any discomfort or concern.
As many communities said, It Started in Africa had hard time due to their oversea agent problem in 2017, however, now they are doing best to rebuild their brand and reputation. I highly recommend to ask quotes to them and take a tour with them in Tanzania!
IN
Email Nitin & Sherly | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Wonderful, exciting, memorable, adventurous & mind blowing experience-worth revisiting every year!
We had initially planned visit to Tanzania in the year 2015 by corresponding with "It Started In Africa", however, missed out the trip due to non availability of airline tickets. As a last minute thought this year (2018) we contacted "It Started In Africa" on 5th May and promptly got response from Manager Bernard. With couple of emails exchanges, the 8 days Northern Tanzania Safari programme was finalised!
We arrived Kilimanjaro International Airport on 10th May and were received by representative of "It Started In Africa". A 50 km drive from the airport brought us to their head office in Arusha. We were received with smiling and warm staff lead by Manager Bernard. After settling the payment etc. we were briefed on Northern Tanzania Safari schedule. We were then dropped to L'oasis Hotel for over night stay; the cost for the same included in the 8 days package.
Next day, after breakfast we were picked up by Estomi, guide and driver for our Safari. The Land cruiser, though old was spacious with big windows, collapsible roof top and comfortable seats! Estomi was well versed with all National parks, routes, different wild animals as he is graduate in wild life course from University of Tanzania.
Our visits to Tarangire National Park(1 day), Masai Mara Village, Lake Manyara National Park(1 day), Serengeti National Park(2 days), Ngorongoro Crater(1 day) and cultural visits to Hadzabe tribe (Bushmen) and Datoga tribe (Black smith)(1 day) were adventurous, wonderful, and exciting experience!
Estomi taught us to be patient and relaxed to see all possible wild life and their moves viz. when we spotted a Leopard relaxing on tree top; all visitors left the scene after sometime, whereas we continued and witnessed Leopard cub on the tree! Similarly, we were fortunate to see two Lioness plus two cubs on a tree top, we continued watching them even after every other visitor left and to our surprise there was one more small cub with them! Then came a bull elephant and scared them! We were lucky to witness a pair of Cheetah hunting! In all we saw all possible animals including a elephant dung beetle rolling the dung ball! We had a very memorable and mind blowing experience. Not to forget to mention watching the great migration of the Wildebeest, Zebras and Thomson's gazelles! A family of 26 elephants was indeed exciting to see.
All Lodges for over nights stay in the various national parks arranged by "It Started In Africa" were wonderful and had beautiful scenery from their respected balconies and locations! The food and services were excellent. The lunch boxes provided were sumptuous.
On return to Arusha we were greeted by Manager Bernard and his owner Baraja with gifts of Masai blankets!
Not to forget to mention that we were dropped by Mecky to Kilimanjaro International Airport for our return journey to India.
Email John Aboagye | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent guys
Thanks to all especially Mr Baraja for easy and straight forward communication and organising my tour to Arusha. My 4 days with It started in Africa was not enough, I wished to have booked for like 2 weeks, but I won’t blame you as I was having concern due to what I was reading from Safari booking remark and reading from other people reviews. Next time Iam coming back with confidence and for atleast 10 to 12 days as I have seen for my self. Thanks for being honest and open to me, all I asked why some people gave your company negative review, you have unfold everything which gave me confidence to come back again and again. I would like to thanks to all the team, each of you played your part and I felt it to my heart.
Email Nov19 | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly Recommend
Fantastic experience with the family. Great tour and stunning places to enjoy. Excellent job