Across The Wild Tours & Safaris top Guide
Across The Wild Tours & Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2015)
- Member Of:
- ASTA, KATO, AMREF, Eco Tourism & TRA
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $800 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
We had the best time!
We had the best time on our Safari. We chose the suggested package which presented a great cross section of experiences and lodgings. Every single day was full of adventure! The gem in the Safari crown; our guides. I feel like we have two new wonderful friends. It wasn’t just that they couldn’t have been kinder but daily the wealth of knowledge they shared was jaw dropping. We learned so much. And, talk about eagle eyes! Wow! They could see what we could not. It was amazing. Now that our time in Kenya has come to an end, we all now have a severe case of game drive safari withdrawal. No doubt, the bug has bitten. We are already planning our return in 2024! Well done across the Wild!
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Email Alan Levy | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My wife and I had the absolute best possible experience with "Across the Wild"!!
Where to start?? Fina, the owner of Across the Wild, personally greeted us when we arrived in Nairobi to prepare us for the week. The next morning, we met our guide for the week, David, who told us we were now family. It wasn't just words, he totally meant it. After our week on safari with him, David is now a life-long friend, and we consider him part of our family as well!
Thus started our 6-hour journey to Amboseli National Park and experiencing the incredible differences between our cultures. For the next week, David, my wife and I enjoyed talking and learning about life in Kenya, seeing what was similar and different, and educating each other about all of it. It wasn't a one-way street either, David enjoyed learning about it as much as we did.
After making it to Amboseli, we ended up arriving at the lodge a bit late because we had one amazing animal experience and another. Little did we know this would be our theme for the week, because David was so skilled at finding animals that other guides did not. I was sharing pictures with our travel agent all week (who booked us with Across the Wild after her own great experience), and she just got more and more jealous!! :)
For instance, the first night we found a pride of lionesses and their cubs at a significant distance by seeing some other jeeps. David noticed that the adults walked away to hunt, so he moved us to a road where he thought they'd come out of the brush. Nobody else did this. We ended up with an unforgettable experience watching and photographing two hungry lionesses about 20 feet (6 meters) away from us for at least 10 minutes before anybody else showed up.
The next morning, David was the only one who thought to go back out to where we initially saw the lions, and we found their cubs walking down the road. Again, we ended up with an unforgettable experience, watching and photographing the cubs playing in the grass 20-30 feet away from us for 15 minutes...and getting tormented by Guinea fowl of all things!! By the time anybody else showed up, the cubs had already wandered away.
These situations happened over and over all week!!
1. A massive 45-year old elephant with tusks almost to the ground named Michael was so close we looked each other in the eye.
2. Sitting in the middle of a large herd of ~30 giraffes watching their babies play and nurse.
3. An even better solo experience with a beautiful lioness in Maasai Mara National Park.
4. Sightings of Jackals that nobody else saw.
5. Chasing away a baboon during lunch one day.
6. Watching baby baboons learn about physics the hard way when they climbed a little tree.
7. Up-close-and-personal experiences with any number of zebra, wart hogs, gazelle, impala, and even many types of birds.
David was also incredibly knowledgeable about all the animals and birds. I don't think there was a single question the entire week that he couldn't answer. Plus, he was correctly identifying small birds at 50 meters without binoculars when they just looked like flying shadows! That was just nuts!!
I'm not sure how much more I can say about our experience. I think we had literally two negatives all week, and they were very minor. One was a lodge that turned off their generators at night which killed the fan and made the room get hot. That lodge also did not provide mosquito nets unless you asked for them...so we asked for them. The other was the food selection at the lodges. The selection itself was fine, I just wished they served more actual Kenyan dishes for us to try!
Purely based on our experience, we'd recommend Across the Wild over other safari companies every time. They were also an amazing value for the money considering everything that was included.
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Email Jan Schafer and Renee Steller | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Across the Wild Tours & Safaris offers a great experience at a good value
Operator was planned but flexible. They customized our itinerary and were able to weave in a couple extras like boat ride and hot air balloon. Reachable and responsive throughout our time in Africa. Assigned us a very happy, knowledgeable, courteous, articulate driver who aimed to please. David delivered every committed game drive, sunset, sightings and everything else we asked of him. Accommodations felt safe and all staff were super friendly and helpful. Only 2 things were not ideal for us: 1) food. Most certainly good quality and tasty, but we are not adventuresome eaters and craved PB&J or a hamburger; restaurant bar and staff were great! 2) beat the clock. sometimes we needed a kick in the pants at a roadside shop or lunch to avoid having to make up for lost time or risk being too late for entry to a park, for example. I would recommend across the Wild Tours & Safaris. Do your homework to set expectations. Enjoy the experience of a lifetime.
Takes time to understand customer’s preferences and tailors itinerary accordingly.
This was our second trip to Kenya booked through Across the Wild. Each time, Fina and her team took time to keep refining the itinerary until it matched our preferences and budget exactly. We flew between two different parks, so had two different driver guides, each was excellent. The booked accommodation was superb. We saw so much, including lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant and many others. Another fantastic trip, creating wonderful memories.
AZ
Email Stuart Brown | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A simply fantastic experience from start to finish with Across The Wild Tours and Safaris!
My girlfriend and I took a twelve day private trip during late August / early September 2022 with Across the Wild Tours and Safaris visiting Kenya's Tsavo East, Tsavo West, Amboseli and the Masai Mara. We rate Across the Wild ten out of ten and would certainly use them again and highly recommend them to anyone else who is interested in taking a similar trip!
From the start communications were fast and efficient which made the entire booking process simple. It also made submission of our eVisa applications very straight forward. We feel the pricing was right for the service provided and accommodation etc included in the trip.
Our two guides Dedan and Daniel were wonderful people and exceptionally knowledgable about all of the wildlife we saw which meant we also got a great education as part of our holiday!! Fina is a brilliant organiser and host and it was great she came to meet us at the airport when we arrived in Nairobi.
Highlights of the trip have to be the balloon trip over the Masai Mara, the view from our room at the Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge and seeing so many Lion, Leopard and Cheetah!
If you're thinking of going on a safari, then choose Across the Wild Tours and Safaris - they are brilliant!
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Email Jay Finkelstein | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Across the Wild Safaris and Fina are wonderful!
We did a second safari with Across the Wild in August 2022 on our first post-COVID trip to Kenya. We had an absolutely marvelous time. Fina was absolutely wonderful in attending to every detail in planning our safari experience and assuring that it was perfect. We stayed at Serena lodges, which were ideal. Our guide, Dedan, was superb, and all in all, we had one of our best safari experiences that we have ever had. We explored different parts of the Masai Mara than we had previously and had wonderful observations of all of the animals, including a river crossing by wildebeests and zebras (patience and keen observation by Dedan really paid off!) We are already planning our next safari adventure with Across the Wild when we hope to return next year.
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Email Advait Nambiar | under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unbelievably Amazing First Time Safari Experience!
We booked the Safari around 8 months in advance for me and my father, the planning and communication with Fina was perfect beforehand. We emailed her and got a response on the same day, across the wild had a pre proposed itinerary, we could customize this to our needs, and all this too was quickly and efficiently communicated, we wanted to remove a night and add it in another park, and this was done rapidly with no problem. I had planned this for 3 people, however only few weeks before one of us had to cancel out, despite this very short notice, Fina was able to call hotels and change the booking while also giving money back with minor cancellation fees, this was handled very well by the agency. On the day of arrival, Fina had managed to meet us in the hotel despite the very late time, this was very hospitable and well appreciated. All the Payments were safe and handled well by the Across the Wild. All the promises on the itinerary were delivered and exceeded. The booking was very reliable with no problems at all, flawless! During the trip there was a Wifi problem, so my mother back at home was worried because we hadn’t messaged for a whole day, so Fina called us to make sure we were alright and told my mother the news. Fina throughout the trip conveyed her regards to us through our guide David, which was well appreciated.
Our Guide David was Fantastic! He was kind and hospitable from the very start of the journey at the pickup in the airport. He was eager to show us the best safari possible for the next 10 days. He was very knowledgeable, not only in the wildlife but in Many other things. My father and David had great conversations about politics and life in Kenya etc, he taught me and my father a lot of facts, while we also had many things to share about our culture (India), he was keen to learn about different cultures just like us, he is very easy to talk to. David is also very punctual, he was always early and ready to kick off game drives, transport to other parks etc. He had the Land cruiser prepped with roof open, windows open and our bottles filled with water before every game drive. The Land cruiser was slightly old with some issues like door getting jammed sometimes etc however this did not really create any issue on the whole, we never had problems during game drives with the cruiser as it was always fixed by David in time, and no serious issue to the cruiser anyways. We had to once wait at a gas station during transport longer than expected, this bothered my dad slightly as he felt this part wasn’t organized that well and was wasting some time, however I personally didn’t find this a huge problem as we reached on time in the end. David seemed to know everything about the wildlife in Kenya, from the trees to the smallest of birds, the massive amount of wildlife knowledge was amazing, given the fact that I’ve been a wildlife enthusiast since a young age. He is eager to teach this to us, as he sometimes questions us about animals and places to keep us interacted. He is a very careful driver, trying his best to reduce the impact of bumps and potholes on the road for the passengers, he kept within the speed limit during transport which made us feel very safe. He is also very respectful to the animals, keeping distance and giving them privacy, yet giving us the perfect shots of the animals, we got very close interactions while still respecting the wildlife. He was very patient and listened to our wants and needs as well. He gave us plenty of time to just relax and enjoy the animals around us. He was so good at giving us animal satisfaction that we did not want to take any more pictures of Lions because we had more than enough! We saw the big 5 and way way more! David also positioned us for the best view of a cheetah hunt which we witnessed on our last day, he made each game drive top the last one! I mentioned that my favorite animal was the cheetah, he ensured we see the cheetah, and we got to observe a cheetah for a whole day, and witness every moment of a cheetah’s day, this was amazing and all thanks to his knowledge of parks and patience given during the drives. He also was funny and insightful. If I had to go again I would definitely choose David as our guide. A very gentle and humble person. We hope his family can visit the Mara soon as they haven’t been there yet.
We were at Amboseli, Ol Pajeta , Lake Naivasha and Masai Mara, for a total of 10 days, all the lodges were friendly and impeccable, sweetwaters at Ol Pajeta is definitely a recommendation, with a must do night safari as an optional cost. The lodges were chosen by the agency and were all great choices. We had seen almost everything and we left very very happy and satisfied, we had a safe trip too especially during the election etc, so we thank across the wild a lot for giving us this opportunity for this great experience. I am looking to come back again with more family hopefully some time in the future! What a wonderful experience! Across the Wild fulfills an amazing experience at a good monetary value, I definitely recommend!
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Email Xaver Graupe | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best Safari experience in Kenya
Myself and my partner had the most amazing safari experience.
Our trip started in Masai Mara and went through all the main Kenyan national parks (Amboseli, Naivasha, Tsavo East and Tsavo West) travelling towards the coast to finally reach Diani Beach (right place to relax after 8 days of safari).
Fina organized every detail so that we could stay in the best resorts and enjoy the experience stress-free. Apart from spending the nights right inside the reserves, making the commuting time very short, the resorts were elegant and unique, merging perfectly with the surroundings. Everything was planned just for the two of us and according to our needs and preferences. The hotel service was always impeccable and Fina was constantly checking on us to make sure that all was running smoothly.
David was just the perfect guide for this trip. He was able to spot all sort of animals (we spot 4 of the big five in one day!) at any time and from very far away. He was able to bring us in the right spot at the right time, furthermore he explained a lot about animals and wildlife. Travelling with him was one of our favourite aspect of the safari as he also thought us a lot about Kenyan history and culture.
We could not be more satisfied and cannot wait to organize another trip with them!
Email Bridget | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An incredible safari with the most helpful and personable people from Across the Wild
We did the 7 Day Top Luxury Tour. The Serena Hotel at Lake Elementaita was incredible. Beautiful location with a stunning bar / sitting area looking over the lake and the rooms furnished with colonial buffets. The service and food were excellent; I think we will return to Kenya to stay just at this hotel for a holiday. The following day we moved on to Naivasha Simba Lodge at Lake Naivasha - the hotel was a disappointment and the food was not good either. In retrospect, we should have (and I would suggest you do too) stay this night again at Lake Elementaita and Fina will arrange the safari drive at Hell's gate from here. Day 3 was a very long drive to Masai Mara but this is THE place for the safari to see all the animals, you will see everything here (except the flamingos) so if limited on time I would suggest travelling directly to Masai Mara. FINA was very personable and helpful, she arranged additional trips to the Giraffe sanctuary in Nairobi for us and booked other hotels for either end of our stay. She also had us picked up from the airport at 3.30am. She will be as flexible and helpful as possible, and we had her number so were able to call her directly throughout the safari. Our tour guide was DAVID - the nicest, friendliest gentleman and ever so knowledgeable. He was very conscientious in ensuring we had plenty of sightings of our favourite animals (hippos for me / lions for my husband) and he was fantastic with our 3 young sons. His knowledge of all the animals and birds is extensive, we learned so much from him and he kept it all very interesting.
The driving in Kenya can be erratic and dangerous, we were very thankful for David's considerate. smooth and safe driving throughout!
I would definitely recommend Across the Wild Tours and Safaris, mostly for the personal service you will receive from Fina that makes the trip hassle free and flexible. And if you're able to choose the guide, David was fantastic. He has 2 children whom haven't been on Safari with him, astounding given his experience and knowledge. If we had have known this we would have welcomed them on the safari with us, the company for our children would have been welcome also. Note that alcoholic drinks are not included in the price, nor bottled water at Masai Mara.
MX
Email Liliana Quijano | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
They can do your perfect safari
We loved the itinerary that was tailor-made for my sister and I, we had a great experience booking everything with Fina and the safari was amazing with our guide David, he knows a lot about animals and plants, I can't recommend enough to book your safari with across the wild.