Team Hyrax Safaris
Hyrax Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2018)
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $80 to $400 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
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for a custom tour
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Reviews
AT
Email Max | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Hyrax Safari a solid choice ( Mount Kenya & 5 days Safari)
I wrote several safari operators before travelling to Kenya. I was keen to fix the departure dates for the hike and safari so I made a reservation well in advance (2 months). In retrospect I could have easily made a suitable booking 2-3 weeks before the trip.
I chose Hyrax as Emma was answering my questions via whatsapp and email quite quickly. The price was within my budget and other operators offered similar trips at similar prices. My guess is if you want better accommodation & transport you increase your budget, the experience on safari and hiking is more or less the same. A lot depends on your specific guide, but this is impossible to know beforehand.
About the trips:
5 days mount Kenya:
Daniel picked me up on the first day in Nairobi at the office in Nairobi centre. We took a matatu to chogoria (4-5h drive). There he gathered his crew of 5-6 porters while I was having lunch. Then we went drove to the national park gate and further to the first camp (Bandas) including a short hike on the road.
The highlight of the trip was definitely the hike in the early morning to watch sunrise at Point Lenana around 6 am, Daniel was a reliable tour guide and all the porters (Simon,Daniel, Douglas,Kim, Daniel) were friendly and cooked more than enough dishes (the food was good, the portions were more than enough).
Apart from the fourth day the hikes took around 3-5h, so the afternoons and evenings I spent camping in a tent, talking with the crew and a second hiking group of New Zealanders and South Africans.
After the hike I'd say 4-5 days is a good time to hike to the summit. For me 5 days were a bit too long, but there is not so much room for shorter hikes (even though the hiking itself is quite easy for experienced people) as the altitude sicknesses poses the highest risk. Therefore taking it it slowly is the right approach ("pole-pole") going up that mountain. I recommend also to hike via chogoria as that sight of the mountains offers a nicer panorama than the ascend from the west (Nanyuki/Sirimon).
What I did not like was the fact that I did not now until the first day who my guide was, how we would get to mount kenya (you are going with a Matatu; that's absolutely fine once you get used to it, I just did not know), the last evening we camped next to Old Moses camp instead of being accommodated in Old moses (as the description would have implied) and the fact that I went alone to Nairobi and someone should have picked me up from the bus station, but that person wasn't there when I returned to Nairobi (with a working phone during the day it was easy to find my way back home myself). Furthermore I had to pay 5% extra as I did not have the money in cash (it was mentioned in the word description of the tour somewhere, but I did not notice)
However those are minor points, I would have wished more transparent communication beforehand. Also I guess similar issues might have occured at a different provider. I had luck with the weather and enjoyed really nice,easy short hikes, everyone was very polite, maybe not always completely open.
The 5 days safari
I was in a group consisting of 3 Germans, 2 Italians, 1 English, 1 Chinese and me. Our guide was Robert, he was an excellent guide, good sense of humour, trying to show us as much as possible during the days in Mara, telling us a lot about the wild life.
Personally, I recommend everyone to add Nakuru to the safari trip. Masai Mara is certainly the most impressive one, but also the most popular.
The accommodation was really good for its budget. Slightly outside the mara National park accommodated the first two days, we would then stay in nakuru in a nice hotel. Certainly you get better accommodation, but for that you need to pay roughly double to have camps closer to European standards and within the national park.
The game drives are for everyone the same, it probably depends very much on the guide and more importantly on the season. We had great luck to have Robert to show us all the animals!
One minor detail that I did not like about the safari was the departure on the last day. As our group was slightly mixed in the last two days (our group booked via different safari operators partly different long safaris 5 days, 6 days, 7 days) we lost time waiting for at least 2h overall. Not unusual in Kenya, but if you plan to return to Nairobi until late afternoon and visit Hell's Gate in the morning the same day, 2 hours matter. Here, from my understanding, the different operators failed to coordinate the different schedules of the participants. The guides/drivers of at least 3 different groups not knowing whom to pick up from the other group when caused confusion that let us make wait that last day.
Here again more transparency would have been fair. Apart from this incident the safari was amazing!
Long story short - Hyrax is a solid choice (among others), but don't have expectations of a perfectionist. Otherwise you start bothering about the little things that did not go as planned.
Email Ella | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
This was a great budget tour and our guide really went above and beyond.
Thank you to Irene for being so helpful with my booking and communicating all the details with me timeously. Our guide Moses was amazing as he really went out of his way to make sure we had the best view of all the animals, it was such a fun trip and I met other wonderful people as I was traveling solo. I would highly recommend it.
QA
Email Alwin | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Reliable
Thank you Hayrax Safaris. Our trip was short but we made the most of it. Within 3 days we had 1.5 days of game drives where we saw a lot of animals and live cheetah hunting, Visit to Masai village and Naivasha lake along with nature walk with Zebras and Giraffes
DE
Email Wolfgang Schray | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Professional guided tour
Very professional local Guide
Good value for money.
Very simple accomodation without comfort, at Amboseli no warm water
Breakfast and meals enough, always the same.
At this very cheap tour, you must not awail comfort and good meals, but you go for the trip to see all African animals and so it was. We've seen more than 50 different animals within 26 sorts birds.
Therefore the tour was marvelous!!
ES
Email Alberto | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unique experience.
I booked the 6 days safari with Hyrax. A unique and incredible experience.
Roselyne always ready to answer any possible questions. The first camp was worse than I expected, but the second was much better. The hotel was acceptable.
The best thing about the tour was the driver guide Simon. Always ready for any question, always attentive to the animals and the road.
NL
Email Saskia | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Safari
We've had a great safari with Hyrax. Roselyne was quick in here response and is trustworthy. Dan was our driver, we had lots of fun with him. We found him a very pleasant personality, always doing his best to make it the best day. The only problem we've faced was that Roselyne that the start date was misunderstood. The guide was in our hotel, two days early. This problem seemed solved professional. All hotels were rebooked, however the trainticket was not rebooked. That was a bit of a pity, since we lost a day due to this incident. I would recommend to request a solid personalized planning, with overview of dates, hotels. If this was organized by Hyrax, that could have prevented this mistake from happening. However the trip was great, so all 'problems' are relative!!
Reply from Hyrax Safaris
Posted on Nov 11, 2022Dear Saskia,
We are glad to hear that you enjoyed the safari and had a wonderful time.
We sincerely apologies for confusion of rebooking the train ticket. It's important to note that we refunded the full amount as agreed.
We take full responsibility for this and endeavor to improve moving forward.
Thank you for booking with us.
Best regards,
Roselyne
Email Kelly Strong | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Hyrax Safari- May 2022
Overall, our Hyrax Safari was great. Travelling with 3 little ones aged 6, 4 and 3 is always an adventure, but Evans our driver helped our family to manage the schedule. It’s our 3rd safari and this one was done on a much tighter budget than our other safaris. We noticed a difference travelling in the matatu vehicle, instead of a 4x4 safari vehicle. It was definitely not as comfortable but it was a fun experience and we enjoyed the bumps and being thrown about the roads (genuinely). The game drives were fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed each day animal spotting. We like the campsite, very hospitable and friendly (staff were fab!) even though basic. The only downside to the trip was the vehicle did feel a little full at times, we would definitely prefer to have a vehicle to ourselves next time. Ultimately, Kenya is absolutely stunning and we love the wildlife and wilderness, there’s just nothing quite like it.
IR
Email Arash | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
They have responsibility of what they are doing
She organized everything door to door and even if there was some few problem in pick up time, but she was available early in the morning at 6:00 and took care of everything. I like the way she was responsible even in bad situation.
DE
Email vertical integrator | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tom the tour guide was a legend! - amazing experience, good value for money!
Communications:
The communication was very good! Our agent responded very quickly and answered all of our questions. Also, the agent was very flexible about the payment and met us at an agreed-upon destination to collect a deposit, which saved us a lot of effort. We paid the remaining amount upon arrival. Great!
Service:
The service was satisfying. We got picked up at our hotel (even though they were a bit late). We arrived in time at the Masai Mara and had a very nice chat with our fellow travelers on the bus. Another big benefit was that not all seats on the safari van were taken which was splendid if you are a dutch boi with long legs (or any other national with long legs). At our arrival at the camp, we were served lunch, which was really tasty and then rested for an hour after. Then we headed out for an evening safari, which was an amazing experience. However, it was much shorter than described in the description and we spent a long time waiting to be granted entrance to the park. Dinner was also very nice, however, there were not many veggy options.
The second day was a full day game drive. It was amazing! We saw long bois, bouncy bois, bity bois, sleepy bois, many stripy bois and emo bois. We also saw parts of the great migration! It was great and was a dream come true. We also went to Tanzania for a photo stop, so I can cross that country off my bucket list ;-).
On the third and last day, we headed out very early (6 am) to meet with a Masai. We went to an amazing place to watch the sunrise. Then we headed to their village and they gave us a tour. They were very welcoming, they even allowed us to wear the Lion Head hat, which is a traditional thing in their culture. Afterwards, they tried to sell some souvenirs to us, but there was nothing special so we didn't buy anything. After that, he brought us back to the camp and we drove back to Nairobi.
Point for improvement:
First, I think that more time in the park on the first day is a must. We only spent 1-2 hours, which was not what we were promised. Also, we had to explicitly ask for the tour to the Masai village, and our driver initially planned that we sleep in on the last day to take us back to Nairobi. That was not the plan!
Second, we had to go with a different van back to Nairobi. Not only were the people not amused to host us in their van, but the driver was also mad at us to have to drop us off and initially insisted to drop us off somewhere in Nairobi and that "we can take an Uber back to your location". In the end, he dropped us off at our place, but you could feel that there was a hostile atmosphere in the van. Not our problem...
Lastly, more time in the park (as described) would be great. At least living up to promises.
All in all, it was an amazing experience for good value! I suggest this safari to everyone who doesn't have much money but would like to do a big safari!
Email Martine | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good Budget Safari
Had a great few days in the Mara, Peter our guide was friendly & knowledgable. Rhino camp was good, food not the best but it was fine, it is a budget Safari after all! The price went up just days before we travelled but we were given the option of a different camp for the same price. Overall we enjoyed ourselves greatly and would recommend.