Trip Advisor Africa Safaris
Trip Advisor Africa Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Tour Types:
- Short mid-range tours (½ to 3 days)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $300 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
UA
Email Alex | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They are Liars!
A plus:
It was a beautiful safari and we saw many animals. I want to say many thanks to the chef, his food was very tasty.
Minuses:
We went in the low season, so if you are hoping for what they told in the correspondence, do not believe it! They'll take you as they like. They will not follow the description that is said here. And you will have a safari only in the morning or only in the evening, do not expect that you will spend all the time looking at animals. Our car broke down and we drove 6 hours to the campsite at a speed of 10 km and no one came to our rescue.
We arrived when it was dark, nothing is visible and I hurt my leg, it was swollen and there was a hematoma, and they even do not have a usual first aid kit and they refused even to bring a bottle of cold water that I would put on my leg. On the last day of the safari, the people who were with us, ended their safaris, because they started earlier and we just joined them. At 11 o'clock in the afternoon we were taken to a camping place and we did not go anywhere else!
With all this, the director of this company blatantly lied and denied that everything was fine!
When I gave the guide a tip of $ 85 (4 days of safari for two), he also started to say that we should give tip the chef! Dear authorities, warn people that they themselves should distribute tips between employees, because I thought that they themselves share everything equally. That's why we paid even more!
I do not recommend this company to anyone. The most terrible and deceitful attitude!
US
Email Mike | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great value for your money!
I'm a budget traveller and Trip Advisor offered an affordable 4 day, 3 night safari to Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. We had 3 big meals a day and got to see all the wildlife including the elusive leopards and even 2 Rhinos. It met all my needs and expectations.
US
Email Will | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Four night package to Amboselli, Tsavo West and Tsavo East.
We booked our trip within 45 days of departing. While Vincent (the operator) was difficult to understand, he made up for with a stellar trip. I'm from America and I speak no other foreign language, and admire those that to. While not fluent in English, we decided emailing and texting would be best for both parties.
The company demanded only a wire transfer for a deposit. I think that in this day and age of credit cards, spending $80 wire fees is ridiculous, but I wanted to support a small business and begrudgingly wired the money and paid the fee. During our conversation, I clearly communicated that I will not be carrying $4,000 in cash and that my party would pay the balance with credit cards upon arrival. Upon arrival, this was met with reluctance by Vincent and mandated a trip back to Nairobi (out of the way by two hours with traffic) to meet his office manager that had a mobile unit for authorizing credit cards. Vincent could have had that with him when he met us, saving all of us two hours of our lives and more importantly, our vacation.
Once we got that out of the way, we met our driver and our guide, Lawi and we were on our way Amboseli. Lawi is a wonderful man and we enjoyed him immensely. After we checked into our accommodations at Amboseli, we went out on our first outing into the park. The first night we experienced an entire family of elephants near a small lake, that had a mother and baby hippo. We were delighted seeing that. We also experienced giraffe, impalas, gazelles, baboons and other exotic creatures. L
Lawi wanted to get us back to the lodge prior to dark, so we could eat dinner. Our group couldn't care less about eating timely or at all for that matter, if it meant sacrificing time looking for animals. That was met with resistance from Lawi. That issue also came up in the morning. We stayed 2o minutes from the park entrance and wanted to meet at 6:00. Lawi insisted we not leave prior to 6:30, but we settled on 6:15. The sun rose at 6:30 and by the time we got to the animals, the sun had been up for 30 minutes and we missed the best light of the day for our photography. However, once there we found a pride of lions coming across the savannah. Shortly after getting there, the lions continued coming directly toward us and we got amazing photographs of these magnificent animals. They crossed the road thirty feet in front of us and settle in a shadow with Mount Kilimanjaro directly behind them. It made an incredible photograph, when a lioness turned her head and looked directly at us with zebra and gazelles in the background.
Shortly after the lions went out of view, we saw a family of elephants again coming right at us. Lawi’s lack of understanding of photography became evident. While we could have easily stopped before the elephant and on the sunny side of them, Lawi continued past them and stopped the truck on the dark side of the animals. I was furious! Poor Lawi did not understand what he had done and after calming down, I conveyed the importance of being on the bright side of the animal, if at all possible, especially in hours immediately after dawn and before dusk. I’m not certain he understood why that was important, but he became vigilant at asking where he would like us to stop and that forged a great relationship with him for the rest of the trip.
After the magic of the morning resided, we went back to the lodge, cleaned up, ate breakfast and traveled on to Tsavo West. The drive there was remarkable with the scenery. It was hilly and heavily vegetated and while very scenic, it made seeing animals very difficult. We stayed at a phenomenal lodge at Tsavo West and it had a watering hole right of the back patio with a back drop of gorgeous landscapes. When we first arrived, an elephant was drinking water there along with many gazelles, waterbucks and zebra. We headed out that afternoon to view animals with little luck. The vegetation was just too thick to catch a glimpse of very many animals. Another outing in the morning yielded similar results, but it was breathtaking scenery. Then, it was on to Tsavo East after the morning drive.
Tsavo East is near the town of Voi and one must navigate its streets to arrive at the entrance to the national park. Voi was an interesting town where trash was simply thrown out and would land on public streets. It didn’t seem unusual at all to the people that lived there. Hundreds, maybe thousands of goats roamed the town and seemed to sanitize the trash as evidence of the fat goats, but I digress.
On our way to our lodge, there was no shortage of wildlife, we saw many bull elephants by themselves, many giraffes (twiga in Swahili). The accommodations were first rate again and we checked-in and then started our next drive. This time we went along a river where we witnessed many elephant families and all got great shots of them. We also experienced vervet monkies, baboons, along with many other species and witness babies as well.
After leaving Tsavo East, we took the highway to Mombasa where we said our goodbyes to Lawi and checked into a hotel there.
Overall, I thought Trip Advisor Africa Safaris served us well and I would book with them again.
IN
Email Mohammed Salman Bijlee | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Comfortable arrangement to Serengeti!
We booked our 4 days safari with Trip Advisor Africa Safaris. Seth Vincent arranged everything as we had asked him to arrange and promptly replied to every email that was sent to him. The airport pick up to drop off was smooth and well arranged. The safari to Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro was really amazing and well organised. we had a very good driver Ziggy and chef Alifa, both very knowledgeable and amazing cook respectively. Special thanks to director Vincent for arranging a pick up of our lost luggage that arrived couple of days later. It was truly a great help for picking up our lost luggage and keeping it safe until we arrived back from our 4 days safari. Also special thanks to make sure all our requests were fulfilled, like arranging halal food, hotel pick up and drop off,etc. All in all, you can book these guys for your visit to African safari and they will make sure you have a memorable trip with them.
DK
Email lone larsen | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our safari was good and we did see the animal for the first time
We had very good communication with our tourguide from elimunwildsafaris.com, and the hotel was good.We did see the animal and it was our first time
IR
Email Sajad | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful safari with logical price by Friday game driver Gorge
Wow , what a wonderful travel agency it is !!
Travelers don't be hesitate to book any activities with them, we booked 3 days Masai Mara tour and they arranged it very well , they answered my Emails immediately and help me to arrange my trip , our driver Gorge was a really patient , skillful and good in English,Gorge is a kind man who care about all persons with different wishes. so we had a good time with him , I really thank you director Seth Vincent and your colleagues , I wish you the best and hope to see you soon
US
Email Sarah | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Stellar experience seeing the big 5 for the best deal
We had an amazing experience doing a 5 day safari with our guide Salehe Mkwanda who was an expert on driving, knowing the information about the animals and trees.
At first we were hesitant to go with this company because of how cheap the price was and the fact that we couldnt use credit cards. But everything worked out perfectly and I would highly suggest booking with this company. They worked with what we wanted to see and helped us get the best deal. All of the places we stayed at during the safari had great facilities. The only issue we had was the food which couldve been better. We felt the servings were small and not enough protein was provided.
The service of airport transport was very was very helpful and a determining factor. Our airport driver Saidi was great. This added benefit plus the great price really made the difference when we were comparing other safari companies.
Seth was also very good at replying to any emails or questions we had.
Overall all the people we were in communication with before and during the safari were very professional and never tried to take advantage of us.
We would highly recommend this company!!
KW
Email Fulya | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beyond the expectations
Regarding the price was lower, i prepared myself to have poor standards. But I was wrong, We did a full 4 days of Safari, the places that we stayed amazing view and service. Camping with hot water, some places has Wi-fi. Our chef and the guide was nice. We met with some people they paid more than us to another company for the same plan. Even, our tour was included the airport transfer which is strongly recommended in Tanzania! Roads are bad and airport taxi is expensive.
You can reach Seth by e-mail or phone during your trip, they will solve any issues.
We didn't know the amount that we should tip the guide and chef. That could have been advised us before. We decided to pay daily 10 usd per person.
I have searched many organizers, trust me this is the best with a budget plan.
Email Fraser | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Incredible Experience
The service provided by Seth was exemplary, all emails and questions were answered quickly and with detail. Our driver, Ken, was excellent. We were lucky enough to see all the animals we were keen to see including 9 lions and 11 cheetahs, Ken made sure that we always had the best views and was overall, an excellent guide.
DK
Email Tomasz | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent service
Amazing job has been done!!!Seth Vincent offers the highest standard of services and communication.Wonderful safari!!!
Lot of thanks and best wishes!!!Tomasz