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
NZ
Email Denise and Colin North & Lynette Trotter | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Safari with wonderful Tour Operator
Me, my husband and sister have returned to New Zealand from a wonderful "once in a lifetime"private safari booked through Amazing Memories Safari Company. Anne (the owner) was great, always emailing straight back with answers to our questions. Our guides both Joseph in Kenya and Faso in Tanzania were extremely knowledgeable about the animals and birds and were always able to locate them. In Kenya we saw the "big 5" which was truly amazing. All accommodation, game drives etc were of an excellent standard and we felt very safe with both Joseph and Faso. To anyone contemplating an East African Safari we would have no hesitation in recommending Amazing Memories Safari Company. The cost was very reasonable and standards very high. Thank you once again Anne and Joseph. Your safaris are truly memorable.
AE
Email Melanie | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The best time in Masai Mara with such friendly people along the way
We couldn't have asked for a better safari. And we also couldn't have asked for a nicer tour guide than James. He went to such efforts to ensure we got the most out of our time on the safari. Couldn't recommend Amazing Memories enough!!! Thank you.
CA
Email Diane | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The trip was well organized with no surprises.
This was truly the trip of a lifetime! Anne was able to recognize my need for every detail before we left home and was able to provide me with answers to my litany of questions in a clear and concise manner so there were no surprises.
The actual safari was truly amazing. Although we were told to expect some wonderful sights, by Anne, we did not imagine that we would see "daily" lions, the coalition of brothers Cheetahs, and the sheer numbers of Wildebeest and Zebras in the Serengeti. The scenery is unfathomable, even to this Canadian used to the vastness of the Prairies. The balloon ride over the Massai Mara was spectacular and highly recommended.
Prior to and after our 13 day Safari (Kenya and Tanzania) we spent time in Nairobi, both times accompanied by our Amazing Memories guide. Most decidedly this was not as spectacular as the Safari, but I had asked to see the city and our guides were able to respond to my request and also very rapidly understand my aversion to crowds and planned accordingly.
The most amazing feature of the trip were our guides. We felt honoured to have Daniel, Laurence and Moses as our guides. Within a very short period of time they were able to understand our dynamic (family of 3 adults) and tailor the tour to suit us. We would not have enjoyed this trip as much without them.
The accommodations were very good as was the food. The Staff at the hotels did their best to welcome us and provide for us.
PL
Email Paul | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Everything perfectly organised from start to finish
Thanks to Anne and all the team at Amazing Memories Safaris for making our (my son and I) first trip and safari to Kenya a great experience. All the pre-trip itinerary options and selections were done very well; in fact I had initially booked to travel in March, but managed to break my leg in February, so had to change our travel dates to July. Anne reorganised the trip with no problem, finding us accommodation in what was of course an already mostly fully booked peak safari season. Our trip did not get off to the best start as we missed our connection from Europe to Nairobi due to a late incoming flight. Anne reorganised the team to pick us up at the airport very (very) early the morning after our scheduled arrival no problem. The safari part (6 nights: 1 in Treetops, 1 in Lake Nakuru, 4 in Masai Mara) all ran like clockwork, our driver John was excellent as both our guide and driver. All we had to worry about was getting to the hotel receptions each morning and afternoon, where John was always waiting, ready to go. In terms of game sightings, we saw all the Big Five and many other species, including cheetah. In the Masai Mara, we saw 28 lions, including 18 on one day, in 3 different sightings, all very close up. Of course, sometimes it is the luck of the day, but we were very happy with what we saw. While we joined the sightings where many vehicles had already gathered which is normal (for lions, leopard and cheetah - the drivers / guides keep in touch by radio to see where the action is), John also had the patience to look in many areas on our own, away from the main tracks, and this produced a leopard only a few feet from us, which we were able to enjoy by ourselves. Once again, many thanks to Anne and the team.
US
Email Cole | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
11-Day Kenya/Tanzania Mid-Range Safari - Trip of a lifetime!
My wife and I joined a couple of friends for an extraordinary private 4-person safari with Amazing Memories. Our safari exceeded our wildest expectations in large part due to the tour operators of Amazing Memories. We are extremely satisfied having gone with them after comparing several safari companies over many months.
We had a pop-top van in Kenya and pop-top Toyota LandCruiser in Tanzania. We ended up strongly preferring the LandCruiser for good suspension, comfort, space, ease of drives, and for viewing purposes. Our itinerary included tours of, in order, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Maasai Mara, Serengeti, Ngorogoro Crater, and Amboseli.
We were greeted warmly at the airport and were immediately taken out to Nakuru, which was a pretty lengthy drive. We had had problems with Qatar Airways getting to Nairobi, and Anne of AM was incredibly helpful in adapting our itinerary to fit our late arrival and start to our safari. (as a side note, I highly recommend building in an extra arrival day before your safari begins). Anne was instrumental to the planning and coordination of our trip. She made us feel like we were her most important clients before and during the trip. She was eager to match and beat prices of other safari tour operators for the same itinerary, and made really helpful suggestions to that itinerary. She also upgraded one of our camps a month or two out from our safari, which was fantastic – she moved us to a camp that was probably our favorite place to stay.
Itinerary Comments:
We chose an itinerary that minimized times in major cities – many of the multi-site tours across most safari companies spend time in Nairobi or Arusha prior to border crossings. We wanted to minimize driving time and build the most direct route possible. The direct transfer between Maasai Mara and the Serengeti was in fact the main reason we found and ultimately chose Amazing Memories. This ended up working out really well for the most part (read exception below under “Guides” section). We loved every site we visited, and the order we visited them. The one thing I would say, however, is that transfers between locations were always longer than the itineraries accounted for, especially between the Mara and Serengeti. So we didn’t have quite as much game viewing time as we were led to believe.
It seemed like every day and game drive added a unique experience or sighting to our safari. I’d say the Mara, Serengeti, and Ngorogoro were the highlights, but Nakuru, Naivasha, and Amboseli each added great things. We didn’t see as many rhinos as some others did at Nakuru, and the flamingo population had declined significantly. But it was a great start to the trip. We enjoyed Naivasha, and the optional add-on walking tour of Crescent Island is highly recommended! Maasai Mara was incredible…we saw a huge array of lions, elephants, and giraffes in particular. By the end of the trip we had racked up 68 lions, 2 rhinos, 6 cheetahs, a tree-climbing leopard, hundreds of elephants and giraffes, and thousands of herd animals. Many of the key animals were in the Maasai Mara, highlighted by about half the lions and a group of five cheetahs who made a kill, ate it, sauntered to a drink, and then plopped for a nap. The Serengeti was perhaps our favorite park experience – we had great luck in the Seronera region of the park. The park also has bathroom and picnic locations, which were really helpful on our full-day game drives. Here we saw the full array of high value animals – basically everything but a rhino. Ngorogoro was otherworldly and should not be missed…it’s like being in a fish bowl with almost every safari animal you can imagine, in a place that’s unlike any other. And Amboseli was a fantastic park to finish our trip – so many elephants, birds, and lions. And we had a lucky hour or two on our first day when Kilimanjaro became visible for a brief time. I think if we were to take a second safari, we might minimize the number of sites and stick with Tanzania. We didn’t get to see Manyara, Tarangire, or Zanzibar either (which was our choice). But for our first trip, Anne and AM designed a truly spectacular safari.
Camps/Sites Information:
We were really happy with AM’s choices for our stays. We stayed at Flamingo Hill Tented Camp our first night at Nakuru…it was spectacular. The grounds were gorgeous, the staff incredibly kind and welcoming, and the food exquisite – the best of the whole trip. And they were incredibly gracious in asking park officials to keep the gates open late for our late arrival. At Naivasha we stayed at the Sopa! Property. It was a larger, more hotel-like operation. We appreciated the wifi for photo updates. But the grounds were incredible in that animals wandered through the grounds. Zebras, water bucks, monkeys of various sorts, even hippos late in the evening. Don’t worry – they have security staff to escort people around the grounds. For our first night in Maasai Mara, we stayed at the Sentrim camp. It took a long time to arrive here from Naivasha, and Sentrim was perhaps our least favorite camp. But it was in an excellent location near the park entrance. We had been slated to stay here three nights, but we were upgraded to the Ashnil Luxury Camp within the park the next two nights. We LOVED it here. Its location was ideal for game viewing, situated above a large bend in a river that was populated by lots of hippos, birds, and crocodiles. It had an excellent restaurant and bar, and the tents themselves were really nice. We really enjoyed our evenings at Ashnil. For our Serengeti evenings we were at the Ikoma Tented Camp. It’s near one of the smaller park entrances, but it’s only about an hour’s drive into the Seronera region of the park. It was the closest to feeling like “being in the bush” – it was a comfortable and minimal group of tents that we really enjoyed, wolf spiders notwithstanding. After our visit to Ngorogoro, we stayed at the Crater Forest Tented Camp, which is in the middle of a coffee plantation. It was a really gorgeous location and nice tents and restaurant. Finally, we stayed at the Kibo Safari Camp in Amboseli, which gave us prime place to see Kilimanjaro when it came out for a couple hours. Kibo was a lot like Ashnil – really exquisite tents, good restaurant and bar, and beautiful grounds. Overall, AM did a great job of selecting a mix of places to stay – each had their own distinct atmosphere. I think the most important thing in the future is picking places already within the parks – it greatly reduces drive times. But Anne did a great job of mixing location with keeping costs within our budget.
Guides:
Each of our three drivers said the same thing: “You are one of the luckiest groups we’ve ever had.” We saw a ton of rare animals. But we grew more convinced that it was driver talent rather than just luck. We had Anthony in our first Kenya leg, Farro (of Migada Adventures) in Tanzania, and Joseph for Amboseli. Simply put our guides were the most important and influential part of our trip. We couldn’t be more thankful for their enthusiasm, knowledge of the animals, skill at getting us in really great viewing spots, and in accommodating our requests.
Anthony was particularly good at wedging us amongst the number of cars at high value areas, and anticipating how animals would move. He was a charming and really effective guide. The one thing I’d say about Anthony, though, is be sure to be very upfront about times. As we learned later, he started our drives much later than other guides, and we didn’t get to do afternoon game drives with him. Moreover, our transfer between Maasai Mara and Serengeti went very poorly. He had picked up a Maasai companion/guide for our days in Maasai Mara, and to return the companion to his home we had to take a 4-hour detour on our way to the border. As a result, we missed our first afternoon/evening game drive in the Serengeti, probably our favorite park. Without the detour, we would have made the drive without a problem. Anne was very responsive to this issue, and even compensated us for the missed game drive. And we were given a different driver upon our return to Kenya for Amboseli, one who was explicitly instructed to maximize our game drives. But this was a little frustrating since this transfer was the reason for going with AM in the first place.
In Tanzania, Anne had arranged for Farro and the Migada Adventures safari company. We couldn’t speak highly enough about Farro (and the LandCruiser…we loved that thing). He really knew the parks well and always seemed to get us to the best animal sightings at just the right times. And he always seemed to guess precisely how the animals would behave, especially the leopard that killed the prey and took it up into the tree. If it had been up to us we’d probably have stayed in the area all day, but he suggested we continue on because the leopard would nap there all day. He was spot on – we returned on our way out of the park, just in time to see the leopard feed on the impala and come down the tree. That sort of thing happened a lot with Farro – he was really eager to stay as long as we wanted, but was equally eager to make really helpful suggestions. He was professional, kind, personable, really knowledgeable – the perfect guide.
Finally, we had Joseph guide us through Amboseli. His knowledge of the animals was unparalleled. We had seen nearly every animal by this time in the trip, but we learned so much about each one we saw. He was especially good with spotting and knowing about birds…he was really excited that our friends were budding birders. He was equally personable and skillful at finding great sightings. I’d say the guides were really the highlight of the trip – they were the main reasons the safari was spectacular as it was.
Conclusion:
The safari truly was the trip of a lifetime, and we have Anne, Anthony, Farro, and Joseph to thank for that. I think we’re a bit more savvy now understanding transfers, and being much clearer with our guides about our desire to maximize game drive times and knowing about transfer times. But the trip exceeded our wildest expectations and we are very thankful of Amazing Memories’ care in planning and executing the trip. We have a number of friends now considering taking safaris, and we are eager to recommend AM to them for their (and our) potential visits in the future. Thanks Amazing Memories!
CA
Email James and Sheila | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our Tanzanian Safari Exceeded Our Expectations
While we are sure that many companies could have provided us with an excellent safari we feel that we were given the ultimate experience by Amazing Adventures and their knowledgeable driver/guide Charles Edward.
Anne at Amazing Memories gave us exactly what we asked for. We had decided on a specific itinerary and asked for quotes from a number of companies. Only Amazing Memories stuck precisely to our wishes – the others all wanted to add extras and unwanted side trips at additional expense. Not only did Amazing Memories offer us the best price, but even upgraded us at no extra cost. They also absorbed extra costs added by the Tanzanian Government from the time we booked to the time we departed. These were not insignificant. The outstanding level of service and attention to our needs made our safari a true trip of a lifetime. Not only did we get to see all the animals we had hoped to see, but we did it in style. We cannot offer too high a praise for our Amazing Memories safari – it was wonderful. We hope to come back to visit Kenya and we will be highly recommending Amazing Memories Safaris to our friends in Canada.
Email Mel | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We had a fantastic safari!
All in all I'm really pleased with the service provided by Amazing Memories Safaris, with only a couple of minor issues encountered (hence why I felt I couldn't honestly give the full 5 stars).
Right from the beginning in the planning stage, Anne was super helpful, replying to all my emails and giving plenty of information. We ended up doing a 12 day tour of Kenya and Tanzania. When we arrived at the airport the driver's were already waiting for us and were very friendly and welcoming.
Our driver for the Kenyan part of our trip (9 days) was Joseph, and I cannot speak more highly of him! He was incredible! He was so friendly, always chatted to myself and my partner on the long drives between national parks, was extremely knowledgeable and very good at spotting wildlife. He was very patient and worked hard to spot the wildlife we wanted to see, and as such Kenya (the Masaai Mara in particular) was the most successful part of our trip, providing sightings we will never forget.
Our driver for the short Tanzanian part (3 days) was still very good, a nice guy who did his job just fine, but we felt he lacked the passion and enthusiasm of Joseph so that part was not quite as enjoyable for that reason.
All the accommodation (except one night) exceeded my expectations as we had just booked a mid-range tour. The lodge/permanent tents were very clean and comfortable and some in particular were in such beautiful locations, with the food always amazing and all the staff extremely well trained with brilliant customer service. The only night we had an issue was our third night near Lake Naivasha/Hell's Gate. We were only told that morning that our accommodation had changed from the original plan as Anne had wanted to give us an "upgrade". Obviously after hearing this we were quite excited and expecting something lovely. On arrival at the hotel, we found it lacked that "African bush" feel all the other lodges had as it was part of a small but busy town and was set up as a normal hotel with rooms in buildings rather than separate permanent tents. We were greeted by the only other tourist in sight (it seemed to cater more to locals) coming up to me and warning us to be careful as she had her wallet, phone and passport stolen the previous night, which instantly made us uneasy and worried about this leg of our trip. Our room was clean and comfortable enough, but the food was absolutely shocking, almost inedible! Furthermore, whereas all the other lodges welcome tour guides and accommodate and feed them, this place would not take our guide Joseph who then was forced to leave and find his own accommodation elsewhere, which we felt was very unfair. Upon further investigation we learnt the lodge we were supposed to be booked at was currently under renovation, so we would have much preferred the honesty of being told this rather than being told we'd been "upgraded". In the end it was only one night of the trip and not a huge deal, but it perhaps would have been nicer to have been told more in advance and offered to upgrade to one of the nicer lodges in the area (of which there were a few), even if that meant we paid a bit more.
The only other issue we faced was when we left the Serengeti we questioned whether a single day there was really enough. When we later looked at our itinerary we discovered we were supposed to receive an additional evening drive (usually 4pm-6:30pmish) on our first evening there, which was never given as an option. We also were never given the optional activity of a night drive, which the camp offered, and were not told the camp had no ATM facilities which meant we weren't able to book this ourselves as we didn't have enough cash.
I will counter these small complaints with a couple of ways in which Anne did go out of her way to provide us with good service, though. Our last day I asked to visit the Giraffe Center and the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, which was not included in the original itinerary of the trip. She provided these extras to us with not additional charge, even though it meant a whole extra day on the tour, with us just paying for the additional nights accommodation.
On our final night we were supposed to stay at the Hilton, however due to the controversy with the Kenyan elections Anne thought it was unsafe for us to stay directly in the city with all the protests happening, so last minute she managed to change our accommodation to somewhere equally as nice, but further out from the city so much safer. We really did appreciate this.
Besides the couple of small issues, our safari really was amazing and myself and my partner are extremely grateful and generally very happy with the experience. Thank you very much, we definitely would consider booking through Amazing Memories Safari's again, especially if the itinerary is able to be followed more closely!
Thanks again,
Mel and Jared
US
Email Sesi | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Truly Amazing...
If you are looking for a good, affordable, private vacation with a luxury touch, you may not find a better choice.
Good communication, honest policies and value for your money. Quite a few times, those are sufficient for a worry-free vacation. Add to it what folks at Amazing Memories do - Management that takes the time to custom fit your experiences and Drivers that seem to really enjoy and care about their work - and you have all the ingredients for a super vacation.
True to their name, these folks gave us some truly amazing memories. Thank you.
One more thing, I want to give a special shout out to our driver - Danial.
He was a pleasant surprise. Intelligent, knowledgeable, informative, curious, caring and kind to the kids - perfect combination for us. We learned a lot from him about life, people and politics in Kenya.
Advise to management:
Please provide itineraries that can accommodate flight choices - at least for some segments of the journey. Infrastructure in Kenya is not to a point where road journey is feasible for all folks.
US
Email Koshy | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Safari
4 of 5 stars
Pending review
AmazingMemories is a genuine and reliable Safari / tour agency. Anne and Joseph were very prompt and patient with the answers to our numerous questions prior to our trip. We wre met at the airport and escorted to the hotel on arrival and the drivers were courteous , knowledgeable , patient and helpful. the accommodations were excellent and food very good and hygienic.
The wild life views were stunning and truly Amazing. We visited 7 parks / game reserves in 12 days and all had its own charm. The only difficulty we experinced was the bad condition of the roads in the national parks and the long drives between the parks . Had we known we would have flown the long segments. Overall we strongly recommend Amazing memories Safaris.
Visited September 2016
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g294207-d10755751-r426966867-Amazing_Memories_Safaris-Nairobi.html#
US
Email Ahmet | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Time
We had a 8 day Kenya + Tanzania safari booked through Amazing Memories in July 2015 and we highly recommend them, especially for safaris in Kenya. The correspondence before the safari was great and the total price was definitely competitive. The lodges in both Kenya and Tanzania were as good as we could've asked for. Our driver in Kenya was Joseph and he was very knowledgeable, professional and courteous. Our luggage was lost flying into Nairobi and we spent the first 5 days with a single outfit, but Amazing Memories did their best to help us. Ann from Amazing Memories went to the airport multiple times to deal with incompetent airport agents when we were were in Tanzania for us, and collected our luggage to be delivered when we crossed back into Kenya. Overall the customer service was great.
Our only problem was in Tanzania, where the 4-day portion was subcontracted to a Tanzanian company. The car was very old and it broke down frequently, the driver was horrible, we felt unsafe the whole time. We told Ann about it and she sounded surprised, I don't think Amazing Memories had direct influence on it, going forward hopefully they will do business with another company.
Overall we were highly satisfied with Amazing Memories, they genuinely tried to make us have a great time. Just beware of complex itineraries with multiple countries, if I do it again I'd deal with each company directly in the separate countries.