The Grassrootz Adventures Dream Team 2023
Grassrootz Adventures
- Located In:
-
Netherlands
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Member Of:
- UTB, UCF & UCOTA
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $75 to $500 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
BG
Email Ilian Shopov | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Fabulous safari experience in Uganda - Kidepo Valley NP, Murchison Falls NP, Mabamba Swamp!
I and my travel companion just came back from 12 days safari in Uganda with Grassrootz Adventures Safaris. I have not felt sorry even for a moment that I have chosen their offer out of eight quotes from various safari outfitters based in Uganda. In most cases we have to sacrifice the least expensive offer in favor of the best experience or vice versa, but with this safari the owner of Grassrootz Adventures - Sander van Zanten just nailed it from the very first email that I have received from him. I am quite experienced with African safaris person and a keen wildlife photographer and by no means I would consider myself an easy to satisfy customer. Sander did provide for every possible request of mine, including the type of vehicle that we used - safari Land Cruiser with two rows of seats behind the guide and side windows that we could open on both rows (except the pop-up roof, of course). Every other detail and aspect of the safari were discussed in details in a very professional manner.
Excellent communication with rapid response to every email that I have sent. I do plan my safaris very carefully, but Sander managed to further improve the overall experience by optimizing the schedule and offering a better accommodation for a lower price in Kidepo Valley National Park than the one that I had originally selected.
The guide Moses did his best to satisfy our needs and even added some extra activities. He can be flexible, when possible, just talk to him when you get new ideas during the trip.
We had one day and overnight in Entebbe, full day (just one day) transfer to Kidepo Valley NP, which was a long, but very interesting drive, followed by four nights at Savannah Lodge (it is actually an excellent tented camp), located on top of a hill some 50 meters from the "gate" of the park. There isn't a real gate, at least up to this moment, neither it is manned, so no need to wait in line or do any kind of paperwork before entering the park. Very comfortable large Meru style tents with a private flushing toilet and a real shower (hot water at any time). Batteries can be recharged at any time inside the tent or at the dining area. Stunning 360 degree views to the savannah and the surrounding mountains. Great food (four course dinner) and inexpensive drinks (cold Nile Special beer is less than 2 US dollars). The park itself is nothing short of spectacular. Although the number of visitors is increasing, it is still a very wild place with stunning scenery. We did hire park rangers for most of the game drives in Kidepo Valley, some drives we did with our guide only. We also did an optional night game drive with our vehicle (plus a park ranger) and a spot light rented from Savannah Lodge. Great luck with that - young adult male and female lions, lot of buffalo, porcupine, white tailed mongoose, grey duiker and other animals. During the day game drives we saw the largest buffalo herds that I have ever seen - perhaps over 2,000 heads, leopard in a tree, lioness with a kill (young buffalo), server cat, tons of oribis and defassa waterbuk, Rotchild's giraffes, Jackson's hartebeest. Quite a lot of birds, including a martial eagle.
The other park we visited was Murchison Falls NP. Fort Murchison was an excellent option just outside the park, about 10 minutes drive to Tangi Gate. Victoria Nile upstream (to the falls) and downstream (to the delta) boat safaris were included in the price. We did see the very rare Shoe billed stork and many other birds and animals from the boat (the Shoebill on the trip to the delta). The wildlife density in Murchison Falls NP is higher than in Kidepo Valley NP and although not as wild as Kidepo, there weren't as many visitors there as in Masai Mara or Serengeti. Sometimes we would drive for two-three hours without seeing any other vehicle.
I forgot to mention, that we did the Mabamba Swamp day tour while in Entebbe where we saw the Shoebill from a short distance. The swamp itself is a very beautiful place and there are many other water birds present. Do not forget to ask Sander to include this trip to your itinerary.
My personal advice to any prospective Uganda visitor would be not waste time, just contact Grassrootz Adventures and Sander will custom- build the best itinerary according to your requirements.
OM
Email Kathrin Zanchi | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
No need to look further to find the right tour operator
After I contacted 7 tour operators it was very easy to decide for Grassrootz. Sanders promptness in response, his professionalism and tour layouts spoke for themselves. I am a professional tour guide myself and made my expectations quite clear. We did our 21 day tour with BOB MAGEZI. We couldn't have had a better guide. Bob is an excellent driver and guide with a profound knowledge of Uganda and a deep love for all its parks and wildlife. He doesn't hesitate to go the extra mile and if there are special sightings (like leopards or lions) in a park, he will know it. We started as clients and departed as friends and this trip will always have a very special place in our heart. This tour outmatched all our expectations. I strongly recommend to opt for a longer tour option. It is worth the money and will make the trip unforgettable. Sometimes transfers are long and activities are demanding. Having at times the possibility of a half day rest, allows you to recover, appreciate the beautiful settings of the lodges and let the impressions sink in. Like this you don't finish your tour tired and you can enjoy it to the fullest. In 21 days we visited 7 parks; Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary(Rhino safari walk), Kidepo (wonderful game drives), Murchison Falls (wonderful game drives, boat cruises and hiking to the falls), Kibale Forest (crater lake hike, community walk, chimpanzee habituation experience), Queen Elisabeth (including the channel boat cruise, tour with the lion tracking team and Ishasha with its amazing tree climbing lions and leopards!) Bwindi Impenetrable forest (of course with the fantastic Gorilla tracking experience, but also the beautiful Golden Monkey trekking) and we ended the trip at Lake Mburu. We've met some tourists who did the primate tours in Uganda and were then heading off for safaris in Tanzania or Kenia. There is no need to do that. Uganda has blown us away with its beautiful National Parks, full of diversity and overwhelming amount of wildlife. This country has it all. Thank you again Grassrootz (Sander) and Bob!!
BG
Email Rossitsa | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They made me very happy :)
I (a girl) went by myself on my first safari in Africa. Expectedly, I was very worried in terms of safety. Thanks to Grassrootz and my tour guide David, I felt very safe the whole time. Uganda's people are very nice - always smiling and welcoming.
The communication and organization of the trip was easy and quick (we did all in 2 weeks). The whole trip went very smooth and David was punctual the whole time (European punctual). He is a safe driver and I felt very calm and comfortable in the car. He was spotting animals quite well while driving even out of the parks.
All of the lodges were great (I went for mid-range, mostly tented eco camps). Please, note they are in the middle of nowhere so there is only solar power for charging batteries and water is scarce. But this way you feel and appreciate where you are even more. Food was provided by the lodges and it was plenty (not the most delicious but okay and they were trying their best).
During the 7 day trip in Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi and Lake Mburo, we saw:
*Mountain Gorillas (my main purpose of the safari)
*Baboons
*Colobus monkeys
*Blue monkeys
*Chimpanzees
*Grey-cheeked Mangabey
*Red-tailed monkeys
*Vervet monkeys
*Lions (twice - once on a cactus and once on trees)
*Elephants
*Uganda Kobs
*Warthogs (Pumbaa) - they are so funny
*Giant Hogs
*Red-river Hogs
*Waterbucks
*Bushbucks in two parks
*Eland antelopes
*Impalas
*Topis
*Buffalos
*Giraffes
*Zebras
*Nile Crocodiles
*Three-horned chameleon
*Mangoose
*Hippopotamus
*lots of pretty and ugly birds of all sizes
Probably I am forgetting something...
We didn't find hyenas and leopards but nature is not a zoo so it is due to luck sometimes (David tried really hard to find leopards for me). Actually none of the tourist I met have seen leopard, and just one saw hyenas on the road.
I highly recommend Grassrootz. Just be very clear what you want and expect and they will make it happen. I'm glad David was my tour guide and now I would say my friend.
US
Email Gerald | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Attentive and professional
We are an older couple visiting our son and his family who live and work in Kampala. We will be here for several months so we expect to take several short excursions around Uganda while we’re here. I researched tour companies, selected what I believed to be the five best suited to provide what we wanted, and I contacted them, asking for itinerary proposals. Of the five Grassrootz was by far the most responsive and professional, and their representative here in Kampala, Anne, provided us with exactly what we wanted at a very competitive price. Although they were not the least expensive, I felt they were definitely the most professional, and I was confident in my choice.
Our first excursion included my wife and me plus our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. We did a five day trip to Murchison Falls with Moses as our driver and guide. We were booked at the Murchison River Lodge which we found to be adequate to our needs, but not luxurious. It was quite acceptable. During our stay we did two game drives, a guided game walk, river cruises both upstream to the falls and downstream to the delta, and a drive to the top of the falls.
Although we were very happy with Grassrootz overall I have given them only four stars instead of five for what we felt was one shortcoming in their service. It is true that due to Covid 19 tourism in Uganda has been severely impacted, and lodges and services are only now recovering. As a result we felt that Grassrootz was not quite on top of the situation existing at Murchison Falls which impacted our overall experience. Highway and bridge construction through the park has seriously limited access to the game tracks north of the river, and the river is at perpetual flood stage due to a disastrous water management project. Bridge construction combined with discontinuation of ferry service due to flooding severely limited our ability to do game drives at optimal times as our lodge was on the south bank of the river. The flooding of the river has not only closed the hiking trail from the base to the top of the falls, but it has completely drowned the delta causing much of the birdlife that was there to relocate. I will reserve comment on these joint Chinese/Ugandan projects other than to say that I fear for the future of the park. In any case, I believe Grassrootz should have been more aware of the situation at Murchison, and they should have provided us with this information ahead of time.
In spite of this I continue to have confidence in Anne, and I look forward to working with her in planning more short excursions in Uganda during our prolonged stay. She has already given us a proposal for a trip to Lake Mburo and Kibale which we expect to do next. I believe Grassrootz is a five star operation with quality people, so I will continue to utilize their services, and I will write off our experience at Murchison Falls as just one more casualty of the Covid pandemic.
DE
Email Sina | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unforgettable Adventure in the North of Uganda!
Sander created a customized 8-day tour for our family (12 people). We can really recommend Grassrootz for their fast response and considering our wishes. Compared to other service providers the price and service was excellent. Thanks to the detailed itineray we were able to imagine our trip. We headed from Kapmpala to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary and to Budongo Forrest for Chimpanzee Trekking. After visiting the Karuma Falls and a Game Drive in Murchison Falls we had a stopover in Gulu. The next days we stayed in Kidepo National Park were we made some Game Drives and a Walking Safari. We also visited the Karamojong who are still living in a traditional way. After a stopover in Moroto we went to Sipi where we joined a coffee tour which included the whole process from growing to drinking. We hiked to the different Sipi Falls and enjoyed the Sundowner Walk with a great view. Our last night we spent in Jinja. Some of us did a wild water rafting tour and the others took a boat cruise to the source of the nile. As you can see we had a very varied tour.
Our drivers "King" David and Peter made our trip memorable and joyful. They were very competent as we could see in their way of driving without navigation and on muddy roads, knowledge about the national parks, animals and history, spotting animals - none of them were able to hide, motivating our lazy family members and always being in time unlike us. We had experienced a lot of adventures with you by repairing a broken bridge, getting stuck in the mud, driving close to the rocks to see a lion and the break down of one of our vans a few kilometers before the airport. Especially the men enjoyed this parts of the tour!
Thank you and Weebale nyo!
In case we are planning to do another Safari we definitely would choose Grassrootz again!
CA
Email Aleda | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Sander is a fantastic tour operator he will ensure you have a fabulous trip!!!
I have been emailing Sander and he has been creating an itinerary that fits our needs perfectly, his patience is incredible as I am kind of fussy about everything and he has not always answered my tons of emails and changes. I would without a question trust this company to provide you with a once in a lifetime trip, they are so knowledgeable and give great suggestions.
DE
Email Niklas | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well organized tour!
I really enjoyed my Trip to Uganda.
Sander from Grassrootz Adventures planned my trip very well and there were no problems at all. I got a quick response on my Emails from the first offer until the end of my trip.
I had close contact with the local people and the staff were helpful and kind. Especially my driver Paul tell and show me a lot of Uganda.
Full recommendation!
US
Email Jean | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Stellar service
We very recently did a 3-day safari trip with Grassrootz during our brief stop in Uganda on our East Africa tour. Our main objective was to see the gorillas at Bwindi, but since that's only a one day activity, we were also scheduled to go chimp tracking on our first full day, and on a game drive in Lake Mburo national park (NP) on our last day.
Planning with Grassrootz was quite easy. Sander, the owner, is very responsive and helpful in his suggestions without being pushy. I had actually contacted 8 different companies, all of whom offered fairly similar packages at fairly similar price points, so Sander's responsiveness was the main reason we went with this outfit. It only got better from there.
To be clear, Uganda is still pretty rough around the edges as far as tourism infrastructure. We saw a lot of development in the works, but as of October 2017, we can report that the roads are awful and the hotels low quality. Food was the worst of any East African country we visited. There's a lot of pollution and everything is very very spread out so you're spending hours upon hours bumping and rattling along those terrible roads getting what the locals jokingly refer to as "an African massage."
I say all this bc without David, our local guide, I think the 3 days in these conditions would've been somewhat miserable. But David is a gem of a person and really made our journey one I'll look back on fondly. And here's why. He's deeply knowledgeable - e.g. it was obvious to us that he was more knowledgeable about animals at Lake Mburo than the park ranger who did the game drive with us. He also gave us advice that served us well and left us feeling well prepared before the chimp tracking and gorilla tracking, which we did with the designated rangers at Kalinzu and Bwindi, respectively - e.g. he told us what to look out for with the chimps in terms of safety, how to "slope" (hike downhill) safely, how to ensure the rangers kept our pace etc. The rangers themselves covered none of these subjects.
He's deeply passionate about, and proud of, Uganda and committed to educating the rest of the world about it and East Africa (he also guides in Tanzania and Kenya etc). He's very friendly in a completely disarming and unassuming and tactful way.
And he's beyond resourceful. Uganda had heavy rains both before and during our visit, which made the roads 5x worse by enlarging potholes and causing rockslides. On multiple occasions, David figured out ways to navigate past seemingly impassable roads to keep us on track. Most critically, the morning of our gorilla trek, we found our way blocked by mud and logs. Another truck already stood empty and abandoned at that spot. As far as I understood, they only allow one set of persons to go track gorillas each day at 8 am, and the $600 permit you buy is good only for the specific day. In case of an act of God like the one we were experiencing, I suspect they would have given a partial refund or told us we could come back the next day, but even the latter would not have helped us as we were slated to fly out the next afternoon and still needed to drive all the way back to Entebbe, which was an all day drive again. Without hesitating, David got out of the car and rolled up his sleeves and somehow miraculously got us through by shifting one of the unbelievably heavy logs out of the way (with a little help from me), putting rocks under the tires to provide traction, and some very skillful driving. Had it not been for David's refusal to just throw his hands up and wait for help, and willingness to physically put himself out there to push us through when at least one other driver had given up and just left his truck behind in the middle of the road, we would certainly have missed our opportunity to see the gorillas.
Later that same day, we came across a similar situation where another tour company jeep was waiting by a much larger rockslide, unable to pass. David got out and went to examine the situation on foot, and then came back and said he was going to give it a go. Again, with his skill behind the wheel, he got us through on the first go, which encouraged the other guide to follow. I don't know how long those other tourists were sitting there until we came along, but it was clear their guide was not willing to even try without first seeing David succeed.
Also among David's resources are the relationships he's cultivated with people at the various stops we made, which seemed to be to our advantage as his clients insofar as getting small advantages like assignments to the best gorilla tracking group (our ranger appeared very knowledgeable, spoke excellent English, and we saw gorillas within an hour of setting out).
In short, if you want to see Uganda with a guide who is going to go above and beyond to get you safely everywhere you need to go, then you should book with Grassrootz and ask for David specifically.
BE
Email Eric, Diane, Bastiaan and Wendela | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Our 11-day Grassrootz trip through Uganda was amazing.
An experience that we will remember for a long time. Everything was very good organized and our driver / personal guide, Bob took very good care of us. Not only a very good driver, he also knew a lot of information about his country and all the animals and plants and flowers. He always arranged good guides in the parks we visit and we saw the Chimpanzees, Lions, Leopards, Gorillas, Hippos, Crocodiles, Elephants, Zebras, Giraffes, etc. We will definitely are going back to Uganda and we will plan our trip through Grassrootz.
BG
Email Kalin Kanev | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A Thrilling Safari Adventure in Uganda
Embarking on a safari in Uganda is a journey into the heart of untamed beauty, where the lush landscapes and diverse wildlife create an unforgettable experience. Our recent safari, guided by Bob, exceeded all expectations, blending the thrill of trekking with the awe-inspiring wonders of the Ugandan wilderness. From the mist-covered mountains of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to the vast plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park and the lush greenery of Kibale Forest, Uganda's diverse landscapes left an indelible mark on us.
The overall service provided by Grassrootz was excellent and on a very high level. The communication with Sander was very smooth and easy. All the accommodation was perfect, as described in the itinerary and even better. The company is reliable and flexible with clients preferences- duration, places to visit, budget and etc. A very good value for money. We strongly recommend using their services, while travelling in Uganda.
We еspecially want to thank to our guide Bob, who was very friendly and always taking care of us. He was important part of this amazing journey.
From the heart-stopping moments of encountering wildlife in its natural habitat to the serene landscapes that define Uganda, this journey will forever hold a special place in our hearts, a life-changing experience, leaving us with memories that will be cherished for a lifetime.