AMS Directors and Tour Guides
Amazing Memories Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Member Of:
- ASTA, KATO, AMREF & Eco Tourism
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $130 to $500 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
9 Day Safari Tour
We absolutely loved our 9-day safari in Kenya with Amazing Memories (AM)! We chose AM as they offered very competitive prices but also had some of the best reviews.
Booking Process
- Booking with AM was very easy. Anne (manager) is very responsive and provides lots of information. Likewise for the rest of the team.
Accommodation
- We opted for the premium accommodation. All of the lodges were of an excellent standard other than in relation to Samburu (which was still nice but I would not expect in the premium package).
Vehicle
- We opted for the Land Cruiser over the standard mini van. This is essential in my opinion as the mini van is far more limited off road (which much of the Safari is).
- The vehicle was very comfortable, spacious and well maintained.
Guide
- Our guide was full of conversation, patient and made sure we got the most out of game drives- I’m sure he would have driven us around the parks all day if that was what we wanted! We learnt a lot about the Kenyan culture and the different animals found on Safari. Overall he was very good.
- We were slightly disappointed by the extent to which the guide spent time on his mobile phone - this was both on game drives and travelling on main roads between parks. This lead to many instances where either the the guide did not pay attention to questions asked or it slowed down the travel in general.
Schedule
- We really liked the schedule that was offered for the 9 day safari and were generally very pleased.
- We did find that the itinerary differed from what we had originally received. We were meant to be arriving at the lodges by lunch time with time to enjoy the lodge before our afternoon game drives. As the drives between parks often took longer than stated we missed this on a couple of days and in one instance missed 40 minutes of our evening game drive.
Overall we had a fantastic experience and would definitely recommend others to use AM! The entire experience was excellent and the service offered at all stages was very good.
Email Ash | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
WOW - Unforgettable Family Holiday
An amazing company to book a holiday through, we would happily use Amazing Memories Safaris again and will recommend to any friends who would like to travel to Kenya. Anne was to communicate with, provided lots of information and price options, and gave great advice about the best options for our family. We even asked if they could book us into hotels that could safely cater for a gluten free diet and each hotel chef was more than happy to accommodate.
And we cannot rave enough about our tour guide, James! So incredibly friendly, knowledgeable and helpful; it was a delight to spend our holiday with him.
Our itinerary included overnight stays at the following venues; Nairobi Crown Plaza Airport Hotel, Ashnill Samburu Camp, Sweetwaters Serena Camp (which included a visit to the Northern White Rhinos), Sarova Lionhill Game Lodge and the Mara Serena Lodge. All of the accomodation had spectacular views, excellent facilities and amazing service.
US
Email Grace | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly recommended tour and reliable tour operator
I booked a nine day safari with Amazing Memories Safaris with a goal of seeing the great migration, and many different parks throughout Kenya. Our trip was a major success. Anne (my contact at the company) was excellent at making a custom itinerary. She always responded to my questions right away, and provided detailed information. I am a pescatarian (dietary requirement), and that was well received and handled by all of our safari locations. Eliud was an incredible guide. He provided lots of helpful information about the animals and Kenya. We told him we loved birds, so he made sure to point cool ones out to us and teach us the names. If he didn't know the name of one, he would look it up for us. He is very knowledgable and answered our incessant questions. Eliud is funny too - our group really bonded with him. We hope to stay in touch!
Our favorite stop was Amboseli and Masai Mara, but we also enjoyed that Samburu had a "special 5" - 5 unique animals only found in that particular park. Looking back, I wish we visited less parks and spent less time in each location. We were at a new park almost every day, and the drives in between were around 6 hours. The drives did fly by - I am very grateful we paid extra for a more comfortable SUV. That upgrade was well worth it. I was shocked by how few mosquitoes there were too. I worried a lot before the trip about about getting bug bites and I came home with zero. (There are less bugs in dry season, but we still took precautions.)
The only things I didn't like about the trip: I had wanted to visit Ol Pejeta Conservancy, but by the time we booked, the lodge there was full. Anne emailed us to ask if we approved of a different lodge and we said yes, but I didn't realize that because of the lodge change, we would no longer be visiting the Ol Pejeta Park. I wish that alteration was made clearer. I should have paid more attention to the revised itinerary because we were disappointed to have missed that park. We also opted to add on Masai Village - I loved the village itself where a local villager showed us how people in his village live, but I regret looking at the jewelry at the end of the tour. Our village guide made my group feel bullied into buying jewelry from each of the twenty vendors which left us with a very sour taste.
Everywhere you go in Kenya there are people banging on your windows trying to sell you jewelry, it's exhausting. But at the village, our guide said that he wouldn't harass us into making purchases so we agreed to take a look at the jewelry. While he showed us around, he made forceful comments like "This vendor is my wife. You need to buy from her. Why aren't you supporting my family?" when we decided not to purchase from every person.
All in all, we loved our trip and loved the tour company!
US
Email Leah | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
THE BEST SAFARI! Request Joseph, bring water
Amazing Memories Safaris will leave you with truly amazing memories! We made contact with this company through safari bookings.com and was met with a response within a few hours. Ann was happy to help us plan the trip we really wanted to go on, and was fast to respond to any questions. Her communication was very clear and friendly, and I could tell she wanted us to get exactly what we wanted out of the trip, I really appreciated that.
The cost of our trip was very reasonable compared to other companies, for this specific itinerary:
Day 1: pick up from hotel and drive to Amboseli, evening game drive (this was amazing!)
Day 2: full day game drive in Amboseli — our favorite park! There is so much to see here and it is a bit smaller than Masai Mara, so you don’t have to drive around as long to see stuff. It’s all right there! We saw so many elephant, a pride of 12 lions, warthog, zebra, wildebeest, hyena, lots of hippo, and plenty of birds.
Day 3: drive to Lake Nakuru for an evening game drive. — This was also amazing! We saw rhinos at a very close distance, and even witnessed a pride of lions eating a zebra. It was so amazing. I regret not booking another full day in Lake Nakuru.
Day 4: drive to Masai Mara for an evening game drive. This is where we got up close with two cheetahs! Soooo cool!
Day 5: full game drive in Masai Mara. This park is huge, and you have to drive very far, but this was the only park we saw cheetah, and 3 male lions with full mane. We saw wildebeest cross the River, big crocodile, and LOTS of hippo. Masai Mara has it all, but it is a lot of driving, and after 5 days of driving on Safari, it gets a little tiring. But thats what it’s all about!
Each lodge was really great. You have to realize how incredible it is that these lodges even exist out there in the wild. The beds are clean, the washrooms are basic but very clean and functional, everywhere we stayed provided PLENTY of food. Some meals were better than others, and some lodges food was better than others, but yet here is always something good to eat. If you have to eat rice and beans (these were always delicious) for a few meals, do it, because it is incredible to be there.
We stayed at the AA Amboseli, Eagle Palace Hotel in Nakuru, and AA Mara Lodge. Each were 5 stars in hospitality.
PLEASE READ: the drinks are not free. The water is not free. Your driver will provide you water for the game drives and car rides, but outside of the car, and in the lodges, no water is free other than the two small bottles in your room. Water for purchase is expensive. 300 shillings for a 1.5L bottle really adds up $$$. I would suggest buying 5L bottles from a supermarket ahead of time if you drink a lot of water. You can buy a 5L bottle for around 250 shillings. We brought 2, and it wasn’t enough. Our guide, Joseph Mwaniki (the best of the best) was gracious enough to let us stop at a supermarket to buy more water in Lake Nakuru.
Also, your driver is important. A senior driver will know a lot about the park, which roads to take, and how to navigate so you can see what there is to see without getting lost. I highly recommend Joseph Mwaniki as a guide. When we return for another safari one day, we undoubtedly will request him. He was so nice, and so knowledgeable about each park. He made us feel safe and welcome at all times. He wanted us to see everything, and we did! More saw more than what we thought would see. He is now a friend, and we cannot wait to return to see him one day.
Another thing to mention.. the van. The van was GREAT. It was so comfortable, more affordable, and was able to handle the safari roads BETTER than the “cool” Land cruisers or 4x4 jeeps. The roof pops up so you can see everything you need to see. Go for the van. Save your money!
Day 6: The last day we included a hippo boat ride in Lake Naivasha. This was also a great experience. It was a small private boat, not the big hippo boats you see other groups do. I recommend it.
They also provide you an AMAZING Safari hat which was very useful for keeping my hair out of my face while we were standing up and driving through the parks.
Everything was amazing and it left us with so many amazing memories. We can’t wait to go back.
DE
Email Björn | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best honeymoon we could have ever wished for!
We explored countries to travel to in September/October 2020 only in the end of August just before getting married in Germany. There were not a lot of countries to travel to and we quickly identified Kenya. We contacted some German aggregators as well as some local agencies in Kenya. The experience with the local German agencies was nice, but they offered a really high price. In the end you pay a lot for an expat that lives locally. The experience with Amazing Memories Safari was different, we received the quote from Anne in their Nairobi office very fast and it provided us with exactly what we needed. To give you a perspective, the German agency quoted $4200 for the same itinerary that we booked with Amazing Memories Safari for just $2650. With exactly the same Hotels, the same car (Landcruise) and an even better level of service! Why? Anne was so king to provide us with her Whatsapp Number and we could solve all of the questions just vie Whatsapp..extremely convenient. Also.. Anne was super honest in dealing with us. For example, we wanted to book an extra night at an Hotel in Nairobi and they were happy to communicate the nightly rate to us without hiding everything in a package price. The cost of the night was lower by the way than I could get despite having an Airline Employee Discount with a major international Hotel chain so kudos to the AMS team for offering us the best price. We also checked if we would have one of the transfers done by plane instead of car. The ticket on the air Kenya website was $485 USD one-way but AMS was able to offer us a 50% discounted travel agency rate just a couple of days before the flight. Really amazing!!! I also really liked the payment system that they have on their website, worked with our credit cards. We also transfered money via Transferwise directly to AMS to safe fees and the money arrived even before Transferwise expected it
Hotels/Parks:
Nairobi --> 1 Night in the FourPoints Airport --> HIGHLY recommended, such a warm welcome in Kenya and nice pool
Nairobi --> 1 Night in the Giraffe Manor --> Its expensive, but it was worth it, once in a life-time experience for sure
Amboseli --> 2 Night in Ol Tukai Lodge --> We loved this lodge, Elephants at your door step and also great location in the park
Naivasha --> 1 Night in Naivasha Sopa Lodge --> Highly recommend to break up the drive to Nakuru, really nice lodge with 20 Hippos just meters from our room (behind an electric fence)
Nakuru --> 1 Night at the Cliff --> Best Hotel i ever stayed in, better food and service than Giraffe Manor even, if you can, stay at least 2 Nights
Masai Mara --> 3 Nights at the Basecamp Explorer --> Really nice eco-lodge, really down to earth staff that really care about environment and the park. amazing food, highly recommended in terms of location as the gate offers a lot of variety (we saw the big 5)
One thing also, with our AMS reservation we got the BEST rooms. We stayed in the Obama Tent in Basecamp and a corner Tent in the Cliff!
Our guide and driver David was our life-saver during the trip (literally). More important to being a great guide with a great mood, he is a very very safe driver and this makes all the difference on the crazy roads where trucks and cars are mixing. David also knew the parks inside out with his 10 years of experience and made the game drives very rewarding (we managed to spot Black Rhinos and a Leopard in the Mara). We learning lots of facts about the animals and were also always flexible to acomodate our wishes like seeing the sunrise and so on.
Overall, I can only say that I already spammed all my friends with pictures and the link to the website of Amazing Memories Safari. 1000% recommended, hope you have no doubts, pictures are available here: https://adobe.ly/3i6z3qw
Also one note to the COVID situation. Kenya is handling COVID much more serious than European countries we have been. Our temperature was taken at all Hotels and Parks and the staff wore masks 100% of the time with lots of sanitation going on. Even when driving through the countryside we saw public busses were everyone inside was also wearing a mask as well. If you are in doubt, really thing about the local staff in the lodges that got let go because of less tourists coming this year, you will make a difference with your trip!
US
Email Jennifer | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well planned, terrific safari!
We had a terrific safari with Amazing Memories. Ann helped us plan everything. She was accessible and answered all our questions. Everything went according to plan. James, our driver, was knowledgeable and kind. He got us great views of countless animals!! The van was comfortable and safe. Hotels were terrific! I highly recommend Amazing Memories!
PL
Email Aga Rzezniczak | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great experience
Everything was very good in terms of the service. The communication was great before and during the safari. We were taken care of from the airport to the end of the safari. Eliud was a great companion, professional and really helpful. He is calm, knowledgeable and thoughtful. Would recommend to anybody.
We did a 4day safari in Naivasha (Sopa Lodge) and Mara (Sarova Mara). Both accommodations were good, in Naivasha we had hippos strolling by our house at night and Mara was a bit chilly at night due to the rainy weather.
Eliud took care and did his best to show us the beauties of both parks.
US
Email Paul | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastic Safari
Recently returned from our fantastic safari to Kenya and Tanzania. This was a customization of their normal 11 day trip, removing one stop and adding a couple nights elsewhere. Anne was very cooperative in adjusting the trip to our needs. The trip was amazing, the wildlife unbelievable. met or exceeded all our expectations. The driver knowledgeable and facilitating. We also did the Nairobi Natl Park, Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center with Amazing memories.
My main comments are:
1) Take the Land Cruiser. It offers more room and better air flow. Neither the Land cruisers nor the mini-vans had air conditioning.
2) Be prepared for some very bad roads and longer drives. This has nothing to do with the company, getting into and out of these parks involves long drives over some poor roads.
3) Unless budget is an issue, go with the better quality lodges. The Sopa lodges were good, but even they were not consistently great.
4) Would suggest having Anne book you something other than the Amboseli Sopa or the Oldeani. The service was poor at the Amboseli and while the Oldeani was the nicest lode of our trip, we really were not there long enough to enjoy it. Fantastic lodge, but your only there for dinner and a nights sleep. You might discuss the Serena lodges with Anne. We stopped at a couple of them during the trip. Were very nice and pricing close.
5) Would suggest skipping the elephant orphanage. Way too crowded, and short time frame in the middle of the day affected the rest of the day.
Email Ron Barnes | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
11 days Kenya and Tanzania
The booking process was easy after selecting the safari group. We initially found Amazing Memories through Safari Bookings. Emails were answered quickly with the appropriate information. Accommodation was great – glamping and hotels and the staff friendly and helpful. Our guide Daniel (in Kenya) and Charles (in Tanzania) were amazing and put us in front of the big 5 (rhinos from afar). They shared their knowledge of the culture and the animals and we had many discussions of the African way of life. I would happily recommend Amazing Memories Safaris to take you on an incredible journey.
CA
Email Andrew | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An excellent and unforgettable experience
From the start of my safari booking, Anne was able to help me build and a customized itinerary to match the type of safari I went on. She was very attentive and quick to respond. We had a lot of extra requests including some birthdays and she was able to handle it in excellent form. She was also very proactive in helping us select the best hotels that matched our preferences as well as planning an itinerary that would give us the best chance to see the most animals.
Our guide Daniel was also more than we could have hoped for. There is a lot of driving to be done on Safari and Daniel made the time fly quickly. He also knows the best places and times to see where the animals are. He is very experienced (more than 10 years) and very adaptable to our needs. Daniel is also an avid photographer and certainly taught us a thing or two about photography. I really enjoy working with people who truly enjoy what their doing and you can tell Daniel has a real passion for his job. He is the best kind of tour guide there is.
Overall I would have no problem recommending all of my friends and family to book with Amazing Memories Safaris