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
IN
Email Rohan Mantri | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Experience of a Lifetime, although you'll see it everyday in your Dreams!!
All you can do is smile all the time and wonder is that for real?!
Everything feels aligned and you just sail through, mellow indeed.
Gorgeous trip and our Guide and Trip Manager were very keen on we getting the best service. Cheers!
Email Carolyn & Peter from San Diego | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unbelievable experience, fantastic locations, wonderful camps
My wife and I took a 15 day private safari to Kenya and Tanzania in August and September 2018. We booked everything through Trip Advisor African Safari (TAAS) in Nairobi. The owner, Seth Vincent, was terrific to work with. He worked very closely with us over several months as we customized our itinerary and accommodations to exactly what we wanted and we valued all of Seth's input and guidance. Seth met us at Nairobi airport and was constantly in communication with us during the entire time. Our Kenya portion was a clear 5 STAR experience with a terrific driver/guide, Ken, who took us to all the right viewing locations and gave us great insight into the animals, land, people and culture. Unfortunately Kenya and Tanzania do not have great relationships when it comes to tourism an don't have reciprocal arrangements. That meant half way through our safari when we transferred from Kenya to Tanzania we also had to change driver and vehicle and go with a Tanzanian subcontractor of TAAS. We were disappointed with our driver as he was very uncommunicative and told us little about what was going on. He did take us to fantastic viewing and we saw everything we wanted to see. The lodges and camps were all spectacular. If there was a 4 1/2 STAR rating, I would have selected that, but the guide in Tanzania was significantly below standard.
We would highly recommend TAAS for any Kenyan safari. Seth is easy to work with and very knowledgeable. The value of this private safari was substantially better than any group tour we looked at. During our entire safari we felt very safe and couldn't be more happy with the overall experience and the memories we created.
Everything we would have asked for with a budget safari, even a little more!!
We had arranged a private 8 day safari from Nairobi through Kenya, across the border to Tanzania and then ending in arusha for 2 of us. Trip advisor safaris was very open to helping us plan the perfect trip for our budget and included the parks we asked for. We emailed back and forth a bunch trying to settle on the perfect itinerary with enough time to catch our plane from arusha to zanzibar. Although this tour operator was very accommodating, the only reason I took one star off was because I felt like it was a bit pushy to book every day and it was very difficult to sort out payment. I am from Canada and we dont do direct bank transfers and I found giving a deposit very annoying. Also when we arrived in nairobi to give full payment, he expected $3000us cash. Qe were not adware this is how it would be done and no way would i carry that in cash travelling alone from Canada as a female. So we paid by credit card in the end and paid the transaction fee percentage and waited in the office until the transaction arrived at the bank and then we went there so he could get the cash out for our safari guide. I feel like this could have been avoided with more clear communication. As for our safari, our guide in Kenya was Rubin and he was 5/5!!! He was so kind and honest and we trusted him 100%. He was a very reliable driver and was able to show us more animals than we ever expected! He was quiet, but very happy to answer all of our questions at any time. He never tried to make us shop or buy things, which was very nice for us. Our accommodations were even nicer than expected in Kenya some nights considering it was on a tight budget! Our crossing over the border to Tanzania was easy and our tanzanian guide Salim was waiting for us when we arrived. This portion was organized through trip advisor Safaris using the company kili slope. Salim was energetic and full of information and eager to find big cats for us. We saw many lions and also a leopard and a cheetah! Amazing! He was also a safe driver and happy to share information and quiz us on what he taught. Our personal cook in Tanzania was also named Salim and he made 100% vegetarian food for us as requested. He made delicious soups and yummy packed lunches! We were very pleased with our experience and saw everything we could imagine. As most recommendations say, get everything in writing. Our itinerary was not as full as it said because driving times in between were much longer than it seemed. But even so, we would recommend organizing with this company because we had a great time!!
CA
Email Julia | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip itself was wonderful
Overall we had a great experience, and definitely feel we got good value for the price we paid. I can't say much about the booking process, as I wasn't really involved. I did find the
payment method a bit odd, as I was told simply to "carry cash" the first morning, and then it turned out the idea was that we carried $3000 USD to make the payment. It worked out with visa, but cost extra money and time on the first morning.
The only other issue we ran into was that the itinerary we were given was completely unrealistic on a few of the days (meaning we weren't able to see/do all the things we had expected). It would turn out that there were 10+ hours of driving (which in itself we didn't mind), but the itinerary had said there would be a morning game drive/visiting of various sites etc but realistically there was zero time for that.
Other than these things we had a wonderful experience! Seth arranged for us to see all the parks we asked for, and we were able to stick to our budget. Our guide in Kenya, Ruben, was so kind and knowledgable and wanted to make sure we had a great trip! He was excellent at his job, and we were so happy with him as our guide. He went out of his way for us, and we feel very lucky to have had him take us through Kenya. We also had a great guide in Tanzania, Salim, who was equally knowledgeable and managed to find some very impressive animals for us!
I would recommend Seth for booking your trip, he delivered on what we asked for an we had an incredible and unforgettable experience! Just be very clear in your communications, and make sure you let him know what things are most important to you (we did this, and had no disappointments when it came to those areas!).
JP
Email So | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good experience with many kinds of wild lives
I took 4 days safari in Masai Mara NR and Lake Nakuru.
It was good experience as we could see many kinds of animals such as lions, elephant, giraffes, cheetahs and rhinos and so on. As our guide was very good at finding animals, we could see many kind of animals. I appreciate that.
We came back to Nairobi from Safari tour a day before our departure day.
Though our first plan did not include accommodation in Nairobi for the previous night of departure day, the guy from Trip Advisor arranged one night accommodation and airport transfer. It was very helpful.
One thing I would like to point out that during the safari tour exact plan was not clear for me.
Though I received a plan by email sent by Trip Advisor, it was not exact same to actual travel.
I would like to say that if someone had given us explanation about our journey before the tour, it would have been better.
However I am quite satisfied with our travel.
I can say that if you are thinking about going to safari in Kenya, Trip Advisor is good option.
Email Kyra | under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They new what they were doing and everything went very smooth and successful.
The service was very good. They would always be there on time or even earlier to pick us up for our event. It has lived up to expectations and even more than I thought. The safari was very bumpy, but you got to see amazing things. The communications was all right but it could have been better. It was a lot of fun and I would do it again in the future.
Email JOHN AND CAROLINE | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
SETH WAS VERY RESPONSIVE AND ATTENTIVE. TRIED VERY HARD TO PLEASE.
COMMUNICATIONS WERE FINE. ONE PROBLEM WAS THAT TWO OF OUR SAFARI DRIVERS DID NOT ALWAYS COMMUNICATE BETWEEN THEMSELVES WELL. ARRIVED LATE TWO OR THREE TIMES TO OUR LODGINGS WHICH COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED WITH BETTER TIME MANAGEMENT.
ONE DRIVER, DICKSON, WAS OFTEN ON HIS PHONE WHILE DRIVING, CHATTING WITH FRIENDS OR WIFE.
THAT SEEMED TO BE HIS PRIORITY DESPITE OUR COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS. NOT GOOD.
OPANY AND ALI BABA WERE GREAT AND KNOWLEDGEABLE.
RIFT VALLEY ROUTE VERY CROWDED AND FRUSTRATING...BUT TRIP TO MASA MARA FROM LAKE NAKURU WAS BRUTAL. FORTUNATELY, THE GAME VIEWING AND VISIT TO THE MASAI VILLAGE FAR EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS. WELL WORTH IT, VERY MUCH SO. P.S DO STAY AT THE WONDERFUL, CHARMING SAROVA NELSON HOTEL IN NAIROBI. OUTSTANDING STAFF!
SG
Email Bhaskaran | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good but can be better ...transparency is the key !
When we decided to experience the much famed African Safari, stumbled upon the online market place “Safari Bookings” which has thousand over African Safari operators offering either standard packages or some of them can customise according to traveller needs. It is quite overwhelming to choose from the list of operators – in spite of applying certain preferences. We wanted to cover Masai Mara, Serengeti, Amboseli, Ngorongoro and Lake Nakuru. We saw the standard packages from 3 operators offering these and one of them was TripAdvisor Africa Safaris. We usually rely Trip Advisor reviews but we couldn’t find any review for “TripAdvisor Africa Safaris” which created a suspicion if this could be a scamster operator. But their itinerary was definitely better than others we compared; while Safari Bookings assured that they do verify the tour operator licenses, they cannot guarantee things cannot go wrong with the operators listed under their wings. So we took a chance with TripAdvisor Safaris as Vincent Seth assured us that we wouldn’t regret taking up a package with them. I should add, we mentally prepared ourselves to expect some disappointments based on the past reviews and hoped we weren’t one of those who had to face severe disappointments. Our 11 nights 12 day (Jul 13 - Jul 24 2019) African Safari in Kenya and Tanzania definitely met our expectations though we there were some items of the itinerary had to be skipped – the distances between the national parks are very large and it is not possible to jam pack so many. We had to skip the baby elephant and welcome dinner at Carnivore on day 1 – this I guess depends on the arrival time. We had to skip the Hells gate national park on day 3 so that we shall be able to reach Masai Mara before the stipulated park closure time. Our major gripe is about the accommodation in Masai Mara – we were put up at Sun Lodge which is very far off from the game viewing areas, though it is located inside the park. While the location of the lodge is exotic, the difficult terrain and the long drive makes it very a very demanding. Contrary to the itinerary we were booked for 3 nights here and we were the only family in the entire lodge – that made us wonder if Sun Lodge was so infamous such that even in peak season no one prefers it. I guess this was booked pretty cheap compared to any other lodge in Masai Mara. But it would be bad on my part if I don’t appreciate the service of the most friendliest staff I ever came across in Africa and the sumptuous dinner they had prepared for us. It would have been perfect if not for the difficult terrain and long travel to the park every day. The game drives in all the national parks were very good; the guides were knowledgeable, pleasant – Jacob in Kenya for Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara; Ezekiel for Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Richard for Amboseli. Lion Hill lodge at Nakuru, Kati-Kati tented camp in Serengeti (best experience of the entire trip and sumptuous dinners), Ngorongoro Wildlife lodge, Amboseli Sopa Lodge were all very good and matched our expectations; again in Tanzania, we had a terrible experience at the Twiga camp site – this was not as per the itinerary and a rundown place; food was not good as well. We were supposed to travel to Tarangire and accommodation was Tarangire Safari Lodge but ended up in this Twiga camp site. The border transfers were smooth with the drivers/guides waiting on time – I was quite apprehensive if things would be smooth after reading some experiences. Overall except for the accommodation mess up in Masai Mara (since it was 3 nights high level of inconvenience) and 1 night at Twiga camp site, we had an excellent gaming experience. I am thankful that Vincent made sure that the gaming drives were good, sent us reasonable drivers/guides and most importantly border transfers were smooth with the drivers waiting there on time to receive us. Vincent Seth seems genuinely interested in improving the quality of tours he offers; he can definitely achieve that provided he tweaks his itinerary not to over promise and to be transparent about the accommodation if in case its different from that of the itinerary. One more vital point is to communicate the agreed itinerary to the drivers/guides and stick to it.
Email Sophia | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good value
It was a good tour (we went masaai mara, lake Nakuru and amboseli). We opted for budget and luxury on the last 2 nights which was great. Overall it was great value as you saw a lot at a good price. If you don’t have much time I recommend just the masaai mara as that was by far the best! I really recommend Geoffrey the driver if you have the choice - he is so experienced, very friendly and seems to know everyone!! We were in a mini van as it was cheaper and it was very comfortable and did not feel as though we needed to pay more for the car! I will warn... There is a huge amount of driving so be prepared (again maybe a reason to just do masaai mara) and at times it was a bit disorganised - having to drive into Nairobi at the end when we stayed outside meaning we had an extra 2 hours in the traffic. So perhaps try and make other arrangements in advance or if you can make plans for pick up and drop off to avoid this. Seth is friendly and trustworthy - just be clear on exactly what you want.
Email Tina | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
4-Day Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru Safari
Initially, correspondence with the company was superb and we had all details about order of locations and accommodation confirmed in October 2019 (we were asked which accommodation we would like to stay at and after specificity were told they were confirmed) I had been emailed with a daily reminder to pay the deposit up until the day I actually paid it, and then I did not hear from the company/ receive a completed itinerary. We next heard from them in February 2020 on the day before our safari only to make sure we had the remaining balance.
On the DAY of the safari, we met up with an employee to pay the balance and were told that the proposed details had been flipped and locations were changed. We did the safari backwards and did not stay at any of the confirmed accommodation that was specified in our initial correspondence. We were in a van and whilst ours did not break down, there were a number of them within the park which did break down.
Despite this, our guide was spectacular!! Eric had extensive knowledge of all the national parks we visited and knew of all animals and their habits. We saw the Big Five as well as a number of different animals; I feel as though we did not miss out on seeing anything.
Eric would break down the course of each day the night before with locations, game drives and time allowances for each activity throughout the day. We also had people in our car that were on shorter safaris, so he had ensured their departures were sorted for all car pooling changes.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience and I loved getting to interact with the other members of our group. If anything, it would be nice if we were notified of changes prior to departure.
Reply from Trip Advisor Africa Safaris
Posted on Feb 24, 2020Jambo Tina,
Thank you very much for wonderful review, it was pleasure saving you during your 4 days stay in Kenya , am looking forward to serve you again in future.
Regards
Seth Vincent
Director
Trip Advisor Africa safaris
Nairobi branch