Melvin and Ann from our office during a game drive
Africa Marvel Tours
- Office In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2014)
- Member Of:
- Kenya Association of Tour Operators
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $80 to $800 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
NZ
Email Nicola Burrows | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Disappointed by last minute changes and miscommunication
A wonderful safari was let down by a last minute accommodation change and miscommunication between the tour office and my guide.
I'll start with the positives. Communication with Perminus at Africa Marvel Tours was quick and easy. He was helpful with making itinerary suggestions. I was able to call via Whatsapp before I left NZ. He was quick to let me know that my guide was running late for my initial pick up - which I appreciated.
I loved my stay at Tsavo East Voi Safari Lodge - the view overlooking the plain below was MAGNIFICENT!!! I highly recommend staying there. I have never seen so many elephants before. They were everywhere!
Amboseli had incredible contrasts between the dry landscapes and marshes. Overall Amboseli seems more affected by the current drought than Tsavo East. But I have no idea what they were like before the drought, and I was still able to see many animals at both. There are lots of carcasses at Amboseli due to the drought.
My guide was mostly good. He was knowledgeable and professional and I felt very safe as a single woman.
My disappointment came when my accommodation outside Amboseli was changed the day of arrival. I was most disappointed as I was moved to accommodation that was more basic than I had expected. I communicated my disappointment to Perminus, who said his supervisor would be in touch with me. That never happened. This last minute downgrade of accommodation left a sour taste in my mouth.
The other disappointment was a miscommunication between the Tour office and my guide. My guide told me that I HAD to do a full day in the reserve as I would have had to pay for an additional entry fee, if we wanted to enter again. So I agreed, even though I would have preferred a morning and afternoon drive. Full day drives are tiring and less enjoyable. (At this point I had forgotten that my itinerary specified that I had a morning and afternoon game drive.)
At the end of that day, as we were confirming plans for the next day, my guide told me that we wouldn't be able to enter the park again on my last morning as we didn't have an entry. This time I remembered that my itinerary specified that I had a game drive that day, (and lunch in the park). I had to contact Perminus to get this cleared up and was able to have that final game drive. I wish I had done this the previous day.
Make sure that you get what is written in your itinerary!
I had my hot air balloon ride moved to another day, as the day it was scheduled was already booked. This was mildly frustrating, as I had booked this months in advance, but Tour Office only booked it a few days before. The one positive of this, was that I was able to see 5 cheetah the morning I would have been on the hot air balloon ride.
Going on a safari is a wonderful thing to do. Both Amboseli and Tsavo East are very different. The accommodation at Tsavo East, probably means I rate it more highly.
Unfortunately the accommodation downgrade, lack of follow up and miscommunications between the office and my guide, means that I would not book with Africa Marvel Tours again.
Reply from Africa Marvel Tours
Posted on Apr 4, 2023Jambo Nicola,
Thank you for entrusting us to do your safari to Amboseli and Tsavo. Glad to hear that you had a great safari and that you managed to see all the big 5. Great that you enjoyed your stay in Voi Safari lodge at Tsavo. Again accept our sincere apologies for the disappointment with the accommodation change in Amboseli and not getting back in time. This occurred due to the closure of the original camp booked which was a mid range type of accommodation and when you made the call to Perminus there was an agreement for a free upgrade to a luxury type of accommodation. However due to the changes happening close to safari start date we could not confirm the upgrade due to the luxury camp being fully booked. We had to look for an alternative which we got at another mid range type of accommodation which is the same level as the initial camp(closed camp).
Its great to hear that your guide was mostly good, knowledgeable and professional and that you felt safe as single a single woman traveler.
As for the game drives the options are either a morning and afternoon game viewing drives or alternatively a full day game viewing drives, this is always agreed between client and driver guides depending on how the previous day was, some clients prefer full day while other prefer morning and afternoon game drives. With either of the arrangement there should not be an issue of extra park fee, so we are going to look into this and work on the same.
For the balloon safari while doing the reservation there was no enough load(people) to fly on the original date of booking and we could only get the same the following day hence the move to the following day. Glad that you had a chance to see 5 cheetahs on the morning you should have been on the balloon safari.
We appreciate your feed back and going forward we guarantee working to improve on our services to ensure seamless safari experience for your next safari expedition with us.
US
Email Madi J | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
He could have provided more information on ALL the animals.
Great safari! The location was great. We were able to see all big 5 animals! It was timed out just right where we were able to rest for a bit after lunch. The hotels/accommodations were very nice. The food was very good while at the resort and they had excellent service. However water was not provided on our trip and we had to purchase drinks if we wanted them. And the tour guide was very short and didn’t provide us with very much information about any animals. After 3 days of drives he didn’t even bother to ask our names or get to know us on any sort of personal level. The experience would have made a difference if our driver put in some effort for us to have a good time.... As far as location and number of animals we saw in tsavo west and amboseli they were great!
Reply from Africa Marvel Tours
Posted on Apr 9, 2021Jambo Madi,
Thank you for entrusting us to do your safari to Amboseli and Tsavo. Glad to hear that you had a great safari and that you managed to see all the big 5. Great that you enjoyed your stay in the lodges and camps we had booked for you. As for the water, we always provide bottled water on the safari vehicle just like we did however the hotels and lodges do not include drinks(including water) as we had mentioned on our email communication.
Its a regret that the driver guide did not meet your expectations, as a company we promise to work on this by continuously training our driver guides to ensure every one of them meets the highest standards possible and make every safari a great experience for all our clients.
Many thanks for the feed back and hope to see you again on another great safari expedition.
US
Email Lakesha Bell | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Maasai Mara Safari
This was a great tour for the value. Perminus was able to give us all the information we needed during our months of planning. The driver was prompt and we (4 women) felt safe for the entire 3days of our trip. The driver made sure we were able to see as much animals as possible on our outings to the park. We stayed at Enkorok which was very rustic and a great experience of ‘glamping’. The staff at the camp was pleasant and very accommodating. We also enjoyed the balloon ride and the visit to a nearby Maasai village which was also planned by African Marvel.
Email Robert | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Very organized 5 days safary by Perminus!!!
Perminus made me an offer with many different options and gave me a lot of details about the safari!
He recieved me in his office in Nairobi an took a lot of time to planify these 5 days!
I would have given 4 1/2 stars but I could only give 4 or 5 so it was 4!
If I rate my experience with ‘only’ 4 stars it’s because of my driver! He was always on time and just nice but that was it! He has not given me the impression that he was really passionate about his job! I have done several other safaris (Tanzania,..) so that I could compare! I spoke during my stay in the lodges to other guides who impressed me much more an he was so much on his phone (while driving, lunch, when I offered him a drink) that it was a bit annoying!
FI
Email Cecilia | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Really good value for money
We really enjoyed the safari and saw the big 5! It was easy to negotiate with the company and the tented lodges were amazing! We saw many animals in action and could warmly recommend.
I hoped for the guide to tell us more about the animals on his own initiative, now we mainly got answers to the questions we proposed. Always good to check the correct exchange rate by yourself.
The safari was really good value for money and the company is really trustworthy!
Email Mercy | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
They are simply the best!
They are fast when planning your tour ,I needed one organised on a short notice of less than 24hrs and Perminus tried his best to make sure it was well organised :)
EE
Email Linda | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Definitely recommend this company
We took the 4-Day Tsavo East, Amboseli and Saltlick Mid Range tour option for the two of us. Communication with Africa Marvel Tours was excellent and we were able to pay partly in cash at the beginning of the tour.
Our tour guide Robert picked us up from train station and off we went. The safari exceeded my expectations - we saw so many animals, enjoyed 4 PM tea every day and were overall excited. The accommodation was always inside national parks or a kilometre away from the gates. The food was great, too.
Taita Hills was breathtaking, and the Salt Lick Lodge was definitely the highlight of our trip, with comfy rooms and elephants coming to the artificial waterhole next to the rooms. Kibo camp offered very cosy tent-houses and was very pleasant overall (it was the one outside of the gate, but that in itself made no difference). Ashnil Aruba was inside the park and animals would come all the way to the camp fence (we could watch them through the windows), but our room lacked proper air conditioning, it was too hot to sleep and massive grasshoppers kept intruding through the drain grates in the bathroom.
The company offers half a litre of water per day and hotels provide water bottles as well, however there is definitely a need for more - we recommend to take extra bottles yourself. We had a safari van and it was perfectly fine, but a short person might have trouble reaching to see over the roof (165 cm was comfortable).
We highly recommend Robert - he took great care of us. He promised I would see hundreds of elephants and he delivered. He had no problems staying put for an hour because I saw elephants very closely and just wanted to look at them. He always made sure we had the best place for taking pictures and really took extra care to make sure we could see even rarer animals (like rushing to see lions mentioned in the radio or looking out for animals and spotting them for us). We also enjoyed that he was polite - he left space for elephants to cross and made sure other tourist vans also would get a good view. He was accommodating for our needs and took us to the pharmacy when needed, and didn't see a problem in an early morning ride after a long driving day and a short night. We overcame our English barrier (I am not native) easily as well.
Overall, it was a great experience and we definitely recommend this company, especially Robert as the guide-driver.
NL
Email Sabrina | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience in Tsavo East and Tahita Hills.
Thank you Mercy and Francis for making this experience just great! Communications with Africa Marvel Tours was perfect, after checking many other we definitely trusted Mercy and team for her availability and fast reactions.
First hours in Tsavo our driver Francis brought us to a spot where lions could be and we were so lucky to see a lioness right in front of us!!!
We slept at Sentrim camp on a beautiful open view builded tent, food was amazing and the private environment really resonated with the experience.
That day we also spotted very close by hyenas, buffalos, zebras, giraffes, elephants.
Second day we begin seeing 3 sleeping lions and many others before going to Tahita Hills where we really enjoyed the more green areas and variety of landscape. But the best part was on our last day where another lioness crossed our path and was so close to our jeep.
Highly reccommed to upgrade on a open roof Land Cruiser and to have a private safari experience,
Email Hana | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent
It was very easy to book our safari with Africa Marvel tour. Mercy responded quickly and provided all the information about the Safari. Our guide Francis is excellent. He has great knowledge and expertise. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the safari.
LT
Email Luka | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Reliable
I chose Africa Marvel Tours after contacting multiple providers because their communication was the most professional. They provided a detailed itinerary which we stuck to. The safari was a 5-day trip during which we visited Masai Mara, a Masai village, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli.
Our guide Joe was very knowledgeable - he answered all of our questions about tons of different animal species and the Kenyan culture. He also provided additional suggestions during the trip (we added a boat tour to an island where the movie Out of Africa was shot) and fought traffic to get us to Amboseli in time before the park closing. Overall, all communication was clear and we felt like we were in good hands, so we would strongly recommend this company.
On the itinerary itself: it involves a lot of driving, so if I were to do it again, I would consider either adding one more day to the safari, or skipping one of the national parks (probably Amboseli because it is the farthest one and the Lake Nakuru Lodge is just amazing, so it would be nice to spend another night there).
Note: all safari land cruisers (upgraded vehicles) are customized, so even if they technically have AC, those ACs were designed for smaller vehicles before they got expanded, so it won't be of much use.