Reviews

Average User Rating
4.8/5

Rating Breakdown
  • 5 star 156
  • 4 star 9
  • 3 star 4
  • 2 star 2
  • 1 star 2

Sort By: Date Most Helpful Rating 1-10 of 173 Reviews
Ian   –  
United States US
Visited: March 2023 Reviewed: Mar 24, 2023

Email Ian  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Ian and not that of SafariBookings.
I got scammed out of my deposit by this company.
1/5

DO NOT BOOK. "Silas" scammed me. I communicated via the email initiated on safaribookings.com . He told me his credit card machine was down and to wire the money (not uncommon for African safaris to wire money). I double checked other people were satisfied with his safaris, everything seemed extremely legit (they also wired money)

When I wired it he said he never received it then said I should have sent it via credit card on his website. When I showed him the email thread, he confirmed that was indeed his email, but said the invoice never came from him. Yet he denied his email has been hacked.

I'm not sure what's going on with this company and I'm hoping my bank can stop the wire. I'm happy to share the screenshots of my conversation back and forth so you can protect yourself.

When I asked what had happened he immediately shut me down and told me he doesn't want my business. It seems odd to me that a legitimate business isn't concerned that their email has been hacked.

I will update this review once I have reached conclusion on this event. But I wanted this warning published ASAP so other people don't get scammed.

Reply from Apodiformes Adventures
Reply from Apodiformes Adventures
Posted on Apr 13, 2023

I want to bring to your attention the issue of Mr. IAN SEWELL

Ian sent a direct enquiry regarding a tour he was interested in booking with us. We shared all the information until it reached a point he was to pay.
We receive all our payments through the website where payments are made through the link below:

https://apodiformesadventures.com/pay/


We shared this link with Ian but he purports to have received another email instructing him to pay through some funny bank account . The Bank whose account number he claims to have paid through is in Nigeria while we are based in Nairobi, Kenya.

I have asked Ian several times where he found the invoice but he cannot answer amicably. Ian claims our emails were hacked of which I have requested him to cooperate with our IT SPECIALISTS to find the source of the hack. This has been in vain since IAN doesnt want to cooperate . He nolonger responds to whatsapp messages and emails, a clear indication that he has not taken this issue seriously.

From our own preliminary investigations where we involved highly trained IT personell, It is clear our emails were never hacked.
We value our clients so much and for this reason we take issues raised by IAN seriously. We will continue digging deep into the issue and still urge IAN to cooperate with us in the investigations if it is true he was genuine in his allegations.


SILAS OWITI - DIRECTOR APODIFORMES ADVENTURES LTD

Andre   –  
United States US
Visited: January 2021 Reviewed: Jan 13, 2021

Email Andre  |  35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Andre and not that of SafariBookings.
So and so
3/5

I did a slight variation of the 12 day safari that the company offers in January 2021 as a solo traveler. I paid $2820 + 3% credit card fee. The trip included 3 nights in Masai Mara, a day at Lake Nakuru, a day at Mt. Longonot + Hell's Gate, a day in Amboseli, and 3 days in Tsavo (1 in West, and 2 in East). I had previously done a safari in Tanzania in August 2017 for 8 days in Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngororongoro, and therefore I will compare this safari with the previous safari experience. There were both good and less good things about this safari in Kenya.

First, I think that visiting Kenya out of the high season in Masai Mara, which is July to October, may not be a good idea. I knew that the wildebeest will not be in Masai Mara in January, but I was expecting that there would still be many other animals. The wildebeest also had left Central Serengeti when I visited it, but there were still many other animals left there. In Masai Mara in January, though, there were very few animals with the exception of a small area near the gate. You could drive around sometime for an hour without seeing any animals. On the other hand, the animals migrate much less from the other parks, so the experience there was probably as expected.

The second issue to consider is that while the safari was advertised as 12 days, and there was some sort of game drive for all days except the last when we traveled from Tsavo back to Nairobi, the actual number of 24 hour periods for which permits were purchased was in fact 8. This is partially due to the long distances that need to be covered between parks, but also because the company wants to minimize the number of permits it has to purchase, so it includes quite a good amount of downtime in the itinerary, which is not evident when booking a trip. For instance, in the first day starting from Nairobi at 8AM, one could do a half day game drive in Masai Mara starting maybe from around 1-2PM at the latest. Instead, because of several stops along the way, including a half an hour stop a tourist shop right before the 1 hour stop for lunch, and also a stop at the lodge right at the gate of the park, one enters Masai Mara only at 4PM, for a relatively quick game drive. Similarly, on the day when we entered Amboseli coming from Naivasha, we could have entered the park at about 1PM, but instead, we entered at 4.30PM (we got to a lodge right at the park entrance and then stayed there for 1.5 hours). That was so that the next day, which was supposed to be a full game drive in Amboseli, we would not have to exit the park too early, because the company only wanted to pay for one 24 hour permit. These are just some examples - the whole schedule is affected by this. On top of that, the driver further cut the available time in the park. For instance, for the full day Amboseli game drive, he exited the park at 3.15PM, although the permit would have allowed exiting at 4.30PM. And he cut other days short as well. These being said, it is likely that other companies use the same strategy when setting itineraries in Kenya. What I can compare with is the itinerary that I had in Tanzania, where out of the 8 days I paid for, we actually stayed in parks for 7 days because they were very close to each other, and once we entered Serengeti, we stayed there for several days continuously, with the camps being right in the middle of the park.

Third, the accommodations that were offered varied quite a lot in terms of quality. The lodges where I spent 5 nights near Amboseli and Tsavo were very nice, while the rest where I spent the first 6 nights were much less so, with the hotel in Naivasha barely meeting the minimum for a tourist grade hotel. The food at the good lodges was good, but for instance, at the hotel in Naivasha, the breakfast was one fried egg, two pieces of toast and a little bit of fruit. This is very poor for an almost $3000 safari. In general, for the first 6 days, the food was quite poor in terms of quality and quantity, and I had to buy myself more food even though I don't usually eat a lot. The packed lunches during these 6 days were also insufficient. For instance, in Masai Mara, they were consisting of a small chicken leg, a banana, and a small vegetable sandwich the size of a closed fist.

Fourth, the van that was offered, while not a 4x4, as stated in the tour description, was relatively new and reliable. And since there were Land Cruisers to get us out when we got stuck a couple of times in Masai Mara, I would say that it was perfectly fine. In Tanzania all tours are run by Land Cruisers.

Fifth, the experience with the company's manager, Silas, also had good and less good parts. The communication prior to the trip and during the trip was very efficient, most times with almost instant responses. However, there were some things that were not as expected. For instance, he agreed that I would make the payment with the credit card upon arrival in Kenya never mentioning that he would expect me to pay a 3% fee until right when I had to make the payment, even though there were plenty of opportunities to do so during our prior communication. Normally, if the seller expects the buyer to pay that fee, that is clearly stated when agreeing on a price and payment method. Second, while he promised prior to the trip that I would be able to set my own game drive schedule during the trip since I had booked a solo trip, in practice that did not happen. As mentioned above, that was partially to avoid paying too many park fees, but also because the driver, Nelson, did not really care about what Silas had promised even if I mentioned that to him, and exited the park when he wanted to exit it even when I explicitly said that I would want to stay more on that day. The driver basically said that whatever I discussed with Silas has no bearing on him and I should talk with Silas if I have anything to discuss on that topic, that "this is Kenya and promises don't mean anything", and so on. While I can say that I did see enough of each of these parks, maybe except for Amboseli, I would have liked to make the most out of the time in Kenya and spend it in the parks even if sitting around looking at some animal, rather than in lodges. In Tanzania, I had no problem accomplishing this, unlike this safari in Kenya. However, for people who are fine spending more time in lodges, this may not be an issue.

As for the guides/drivers (I had two of them since the first one had a family medical emergency after the first 5 days), they also had good parts and less good. They were both very knowledgeable of the parks and of the behavior of the animals, and while in the parks, did their best to show me the animals and the various landscapes. The first guide, Jackson, was also perfectly fine to interact with. The second guide, Nelson, was quite weird. Much of the time, he was a perfect guide, but when contradicted or disagreed with using some objective facts, he was starting to say some really unpleasant things that I had never heard on any other guided trips I was on. Like if you were to tell someone that 1+1=2 instead of 3, as they claim, and then hear him telling you some unpleasant personal things because you dared to contradict him even if you do it in a casual way. I tried to not be too affected by these and I was mostly able to accomplish that, but it may ruin the trip for people who would be a little bit more affected by such discussions. Also, worth mentioning that both drivers were saying at times things that were clearly not true when it was serving their purpose, as I could tell from other sources of information, like asking other people there. But probably this is not too surprising.

Overall, I obviously enjoyed this trip through Kenya, although it could have been better on several dimensions. However, for people who think that they may do only one safari in their lifetime, I would personally recommend to do that in Tanzania in July-August, with time in Tarangire (which is a really special park even if less known), Serengeti (including a day in the North part at the Sand River to see the wildebeest crossing) and Ngorongoro Crater. You can do that in 8 days for less than the cost of this 12 day Kenya safari. That safari I did in Tanzania was perfect - it couldn't have been better - and was probably 10 times better than the one I did now in Kenya. On the other hand, if you have already been to Tanzania and want to also see another country, then Kenya also has interesting places and somewhat different landscapes and it is also definitely worth visiting if time and money allows you. As for the operator I booked with, it may well be that in that price range, all companies offer similar services, but just prepare yourself to be a little bit disappointed every now and then relative to what you would expect or was promised. However, you should still be able to enjoy the trip eventually if you can get over these issues.

Julia   –  
China CN
Visited: September 2023 Reviewed: Sep 27, 2023

Email Julia  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

Apodiformes ahead of others
5/5

Great safari experience ever!!!
We booked an eight day Safari tour by Apodiformes. We were so lucky to have Sebastian as our guide during the whole trip I would definitely recommend and choose Sebastian again and recommend him to everyone who would come! It’s our biggest luck to have him by our side. We were amazed by his patience and superb driving skills. Thanks to his excellent performance and experience we collected the big 5 so quickly. He can drive the van with greatest skill that no one else can compare. You would not regret choosing him and we were happy and feel safe because he is trustworthy and we can rely on everyday. He had become our friend and we will miss him from now on. Apodiformes is the best

Sarra   –  
Netherlands NL
Visited: October 2023 Reviewed: Nov 4, 2023

Email Sarra  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

Love, Care & Attention, we had the best time!
5/5

We traveled with the 2 of us on a private safari and our driver Sebastian was an amzing spotter and tour guide throughout the whole trip.
He picked us up straight from the airport then we met the tour operator Sillas shortly for breakfast & final payment before we headed on our journey. Have seen the big 5 already by Day 3 and lots of other animals and birds, just mesmerizing. As two women travelling through Kenya we felt very safe & welcomed. He even went out of his way to invite Ken a member of the Maasai Tribe to spend a whole day with us, tell us about his culture and have lunch in the bush with us with huge birds roaming around us waiting to get a share from our lunch boxes. For our last days on the beach he dropped us at a train station where we traveled 1st class to Mombasa where our kind driver Joseph was already waiting for us, who also picked us up again to drop us at the airport once our vacation came to an end. Just a great package overall.

Organization:
Silas has a very quick turn around time from quotation to connecting with us via whatsapp and arranging all the details.
He was flexible in incorporating a balloon safari, too. Only a few small hickups on the accomodation booking for our time on Diani beach and a pre-arranged massage which was included in our package upon arrival after the taxing safari ride. I would recommend after paying the 30% upfront to pay the rest in local currency once there as you can easily withdraw Kenyan schilling if you are not from an origin country that has USD.

Accomodations:
All accomodations picked were a great build up from family run to high class every following accomodation brought the customer experience level one stage up and kept us in awe. The staff in all accomodations was exceptionnal.

People:
Kenya as a travel destination is remarkable, the saying every Kenyan is a happy Kenyan i have experienced myself. In addition to their long working hours being resilient to fatigue while staying kind and friendly not only towards us but also towards each other was a great sight. Lots of take away's for me coming back home. Please remember to always have sufficient Schilling cash in your pocket for tipping the staff.

Our Tourguide:
I recommend Apodiformes to everyone wanting to have a transformative amazing experience in Kenya & please do ask for SEBASTIAN as your driver & tour guide as he made this journey absolutely unforgettable for us. He was well connected with other spotters and made sure we have seen from Leopards, Cheetas, Rhino close up's, Elephant herds, Lion prides in action to lots of Pumbas, Gazelles, Zebras, Wildbeast & Buffalos etc. Simply more than we could have imagined. We even discovered our love for birds as there is such a big variety.
Patient, knowledgeable, fun & caring he handled the situation when our car temporarily broke down very professionally & even stopped to help somebody else change a tire while we were watching the crocodiles in the water. Nice to see & observe and fully immerse into Kenya's every day life :)

5 stars for the tour organizer Silas, our driver in Mombasa Joseph & of course for our amazing tour guide during safari Sebastian!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Vimal   –  
Netherlands NL
Visited: September 2023 Reviewed: Sep 22, 2023

Email Vimal  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

The review below is the personal opinion of Vimal and not that of SafariBookings.
Professional and helpful, Tanzanian side not very good!
3/5

We had a 11 days private Kenya and Tanzania safari. Silas is very professional and helpful. He was in his car in the carpark when we arrived. The flight arrival was delayed by one hour but after contacting him on the phone he promptly arrived to get us to our hotel.

The Kenyan part of our safari was excellent. The driver/guide Samuel is a very knowledgeble and a nice guy. But the disaster started the moment we crossed over to the Tanzanian side. We were made to pay $50 each to get the yellow fever certificates at the border. The person just took cash in Euros and filled in the yellow booklet. No vaccination was given. Upon asking for a receipt they gave some vague reasons saying that the internet was not working and that we shall get it by email, which, of course never happened. A Tanzanian driver received us and we started our Tanzanian journey to the Serengeti park. Within about one hour the left rear wheel of the rickety Toyota Land Cruiser just came off while we were driving! Luckily no one was hurt. We were in the middle of nowhere on a village road. The driver managed to change the wheel with the help of few villagers and we resumed our journey. After every 15 minutes of driving the driver had to tighten the screws of the wheel. This happened a few time. Then suddenly that newly changed wheel had a flat tyre! The driver just could not change it. He had to arrange an alternative private transport for us from the nearby village, who was kind enought to take us till the Serengeti gate. In the process we lost many hours. Ultimately we could reach our camp site after 8PM, eight hours after the border crossing!

The new Tanzanian driver gave a very unprofessional and unfriendly impression. The game drives in Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater were excellent. On our fourth night in Tanzania we were dumped in an extremely low level hotel near Lake Manyara. A very depressive place indeed. Certainly the lowest level of acommodation we had during our entire trip. The driver did not know that we needed to make a game drive in Lake Manyara National Park. There was no time for that any more. The next day we had to leave for Tangerine National park. The only solace on the Tanzanian side was that the national park game drives were really worth the trouble.

We had a sigh of relief after crossing over to Kenya without much trouble. The last two days in Kenya were very good with game drives in Amboseli, and transfer to Nairobi for our return flight home.

I requested Silas to reconsider his contract with his Tanzanian partner "Seven Wonders Safaris" in Arusha, Tanzania, which prompted him to end his contract with them. Thank God.

I hope this small review is helpful.

Piotr   –  
Poland PL
Visited: December 2022 Reviewed: Jan 16, 2023

Email Piotr  |  35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

If you want to see the whole BIG 9 then only with Apodiformes
5/5

We were on safari with Apodiformes beginning from Nakuru and Masai Mara in Kenya, then Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tsvangirai in Tansania and then Amboseli in Kenya. We can only advise doing safari, specially require Tom if you want to animals from close distance. You will have to wake up early but morning is the best to spot the animals. We had excellent communication with Silas (the owner), quick and proper. We have chosen Apodiformes from top 10 companies on safaribooking.com and can only recommend. Everything was on time and on schedule, suggested lodges (Serena and Sarova) were totally ok, good food and comfortable accomodation.

Ryu   –  
Japan JP
Visited: December 2019 Reviewed: Dec 9, 2019

Email Ryu  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

They are the one who you need. Communication, hospitality was excellent!!
5/5

We went to the 6 days Kenya group tour (Masai Mara, Nakuru and Amboseli).

Both the communication before the tour between SILAS and the safari experience led by our driver STANLEY was amazing.

If you are looking for a budget tour, they are the one who you should choose. Price is good, the safari experience is amazing and the staff are professional.

SILAS who seems to be the representative of the company responded our inquiries really quickly via WhatsApp. If you send him a message in a Nairobi working hours, you will most likely get a reply in a few minutes. His company is young, but he seems to have adequate experience in this industry. He picked up us at Nairobi Airport and sent us to our hotel on the first day. He sent us a driver the next morning, and the driver took us to a meeting point where we met our driver and our fellow travellers. SILAS was there too. We met him again on the last day of the visit when he took us to the airport.

STANLEY, who was our driver was a real professional. He woke up very early every day to inspect the safari environment, communicate with other guides and get information and to clean the van. It seemed that he was really wanting us to satisfy. He used radio as other guides and guides cooperate to find big animals, like lions and cheetas. We could see all of the BIG FIVES. We could also see two cheetahs eating an antelope which was really amazing. He was knowledgeable about the animals and explained to us how to distinguish them. He has good eyes and could find the animals from far where we could barely see even when we were told it was there.

Suggestion for the budget tour.
- Accommodations were okay. But don't expect a clean place like a hotel. It is a tent with a bed where you sleep and a hot shower is not that hot. Bugs may come in. It may black-out at midnight. I enjoyed it.
- On a budget tour, we will move by a van (e.g. Nissan URVAN). Sometimes more than 7 hours. Seats were okay but not comfortable like sedan cars. If you don't want to do this, you need to fly with a Cessna from Wilson Airport to the Park.
- Food was okay. But not what you expect in your country.
- Flying into the clean hotels/lodges near the Park may triple the price.
- You can't choose who you will be with on a group tour. We were really lucky to have great people with us. We talked over a beer every day after dinner.
- No place to wash your clothes. I washed my clothes on the first day but it didn't dry.
- I bought a Safaricom SIM card at the airport. We got an internet connection at the campsite with this SIM. No WiFi at the campsite.
- Don't forget to tip the driver.

Bring:
- Portable charger for the phone
- Fleece or a windbreaker. It is quite cold, especially in the rainy seasons.
- Flip flops. Something you can wear at the accommodations.
- If you want to take a close photo, lense no less than 200mm. Sometimes 300mm is not even enough.
- Shampoo and body shower. There is none in the accommodations.
- A compact hairdryer. It is quite cold in the evenings and you might want to dry your hair. You also might want to dry your shoes, especially in the rainy seasons.
- Tissues and wet wipes.
- Binoculars (at least 10*30)
- If you have enough space, I would bring an extra pair of shoes.


All in all, the safari experience provided by Apodiformes Adventure, SILAS and STANLEY was really amazing. I will recommend them to my friends.

April   –  
Canada CA
Visited: September 2023 Reviewed: Oct 8, 2023

Email April  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

Overall an excellent experience!
5/5

There are 2 ppl we like to thank for this tour: Gibson (our driver during our 8 day adventure) and Silas ( for helping us arrange this tour).

If this is your first African safari and you want safety, knowledgeable, professionalism, ask for Gibson! It's not easy being a driver for safari, especially when the landcan sometimes be bumpy and we experienced a hailstorm during one of our game drives. Gibson acted very calmly under unpredictable circumstances and made my husband and I feel very safe during this process.

As for Silas, I am very impressed with his communication abilities and how he was able to accommodate everything we asked for on our trip. Something tells me this won't be the last time we work with this company.

Bianca   –  
China CN
Visited: September 2023 Reviewed: Oct 3, 2023

Email Bianca  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

Very experienced and professional, patient and friendly
5/5

we all very enjoyed the tour,our guide is really experienced, we like Michael very much, I will introduce your company to all of my friends,when they come here will contact you.welcome to china,see you next time

Sharon   –  
China CN
Visited: October 2023 Reviewed: Oct 3, 2023

Email Sharon  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

Excellent trip.I would definitely recommend this agency to my friends.
5/5

The first impression was the consultant was so passionate that he replied to my emails very quick even on weekends.Also,Fredrick took every single requirement I told him when making the tailor-made itinerary.That was why I chose this company among all other agencies.During the safari,our guide Tom also did a wonderful job,giving us surprises consistently.I will no doubt refer them to my friends who'd like to travel here.

Average User Rating
4.8/5
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