Meet the Team - eTrip Africa
E-Trip Africa
- Located In:
-
United States
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Member Of:
- ATA, IATAN, IGS, KPAP & CODE
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $200 to $1,500 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
CA
Email Fred | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent Experience
E-Trip Africa provided excellent service from start to finish for our trip to the Serengeti. They responded quickly to all questions we had prior to booking, and they also responded quickly when we had to make changes to the travel itinerary. Good suggestions were made along the way. All bookings were done perfectly and transfers were well handled from the time we were met by E-Trip Africa reps in Kilimanjaro until we left two weeks later. The quality of all aspects of our trip was very high. The price we paid for the trip was also very good value compared to others.
Email Ellen | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Experience...Truly the Trip of a Lifetime
My family just returned from a two week trip to Africa under the careful planning of eTrip Africa. Our journey included a five night safari and a side trip to Zanzibar. Our guide, Alladin, was deeply knowledgable, funny, engaging, and a delight. We were in such good hands! I also appreciated Ben and Aurelie's work planning our time. They listened to our needs. They coached us through decisions. They gave us an experience of a lifetime. Their choices for where we stayed were spot on. The way they planned the pacing of the trip was logical and magical. Their commitment to their staff and to the communities in which they work was deeply evident. I just can't wait to go back! When we do, we will book with eTrip Africa...without a second thought.
DE
Email Kirsten | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari of a lifetime, with the best guide possible!
1) The preparation
The organization of this trip of a lifetime was superb! I contacted more than half a dozen safari operators and E-Trip Africa’s was the only reply which was really personalized, with sound advice.
Aurelie was incredibly helpful, very knowledgable and very patient with all my requests and questions. Her advice was absolutely invaluable for us since we had no experience whatsoever with planning a safari. This was how it all started:
„We (a couple) plan to go to Northern Tanzania in July 2019 and go on a safari to Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire, and maybe Manyara and/or Lake Natron.
We’d like
-to see lots of animals incl. birds on the safari
-experienced guides pointing them out
-to experience Serengeti and Ngorongoro (these are on our bucket list) and other parks in the area
-preferably accommodation with bathroom/shower (can be basic but we'd prefer not having to camp — those safari tents with beds and bathroom would be OK though)
-vegetarian food for one of us
We plan on spending approx. 5-7 days on a safari“
Aurélie then sent me a first itinerary, with helpful advice (against Lake Natron, for Tarangire). On this basis we then wrote back and forth for several times, tweaking the budget a bit.
E-Trip Africa is the only company I contacted where the costs are completely transparent and with Aurélie’s advice, I could easily find alternative (and very good!) options for our budget.
Finally, we settled on a 6 day safari taking in Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Endoro Nature Trail Walk, Serengeti, Oldupai Museum and Ngorongoro.
2) The trip
Everything was absolutely perfect, from pick-up at JRO airport, our stays at Researcher’s Rest (it felt like home), the delicious food cooked by Eddie there, and of course the flawlessly organized safari through some of the most beautiful landscapes we have ever seen, with incredible wildlife. Which leads me to:
3) Our guide David
There are not enough superlatives to describe David, our guide.
He is super kind and has a great sense of humour, which makes him the perfect travel companion for a trip of over 1000 km.
But most importantly, he has 25 years of experience as a guide and he knows EVERY animal (mammal, bird, reptile) and plant you come across, plus history, geology, and whatever else you may want to know about.
He also knows exactly which animals to find where and when in the vast expanses of the parks. He would tell us that in this area one can find a certain animal, and after a few minutes, there it was!
He has an incredible eyesight, discovering tiny birds or lizards completely camouflaged 10 meters away in the grass.
Additionally, he seems to have 360° vision - or he is a witch doctor :-) (we still don’t know how he spotted animals which were halfway behind us!). Thanks to him, we spotted the Big Five, plus cheetahs, jackals, serval cats, hyenas, etc., and well over 100 species of birds!
We really appreciated that he is very respectful of the animals - in central Serengeti there were some quite ugly scenes with multiple cars chasing a lioness trying to stalk prey just 2 meters away from the cars. David made sure to keep a distance so as not to disturb the animals - which for us, was the whole point of the safari: seeing animals in their natural habitat, with their natural behavior.
I could go on and on and on, so to cut it short: David is THE BEST.
Asante sana for this wonderful experience!
NZ
Email Judy @ waiheke | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari 4 parks on Serengeti
Great company to deal with, easy comms, well organized. 4 camps, 1 night lodge and 6 in tent camps (which we preferred), good food and service, well appointed ensuite tents. Great itinerary saw so much and up close, exceeded expectations.guide was excellent. We have hadfamimy and friends also do this trip so it came recommended to us and did not disappoint. Highly recommended.
Email Claudia | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Incredible experience
Our safari trip with E-trip Africa was just wonderful. We were lucky enough to have such a passionate and knowledgeable tour guide in David who ensured our experience was fulfilled to the max. We were lucky enough to see the big 5...yes we saw a Rhino on our very last day! We know how lucky we were but we truly believe our guides tenacity and experience allowed us to see all that the different ecosystems had to offer! The variety of organised accommodation was great and the all round communication from our initial enquiry to our closing emails was super. The trip was truly tailored to us. Thank you!
Email Alejandro Gordillo | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An amazing experience
From the beginning we had an outstanding experience. When we were quoting prices and organizing the trip; Ben always reply in a timely manner. We could tell everything was well organized.
When we Victor, the guide, picked us up we met someone that we will always remember. He made our experience amazing! Very kind, very profesional.
The Jeep, the organization, the lodges we stay were great.
They only think I believe it can be improve are the lunch box; specially the one in the Serengeti. Ironically the food prepare at the Serengeti was by far the best one of all our stay in Tanzania.
I already recommended E-trip Africa to 2 friends and I will continue doing it.
Thank you for an experience we will never forget.
CO
Email Alejandra Serna | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excelent service, our guide Victor made our trip perfect!
We have so much fun in our trip, have no problems with communications, the services in every hotel was perfect, but the lunch boxes could be a little better.
Our safari tour was perfect, we have the opportunity to see every animal we were curious about, and by far the company of our guide Victor made the trip even better, he was polite, respectful and very attentive with us!
PL
Email Daniel Duda | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent experience!
E-Trip Africa definitely exceeded my expectations.
The communication before the start of our trip was excellent. As a result of the fact I was admitted to a hospital before the original date of our trip, their team did their best to reschedule the dates.
The proposed itinerary was very nice. The company is very transparent as regards the costs of the trip - the price is broken down into the various components. You know exactly what you pay for.
Prices are reasonable.
Guide Victor was very pleasant and knowledgeable about the birds and animals of the area.
If I were you, I would look no further.
AE
Email María Marta Viana | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very bad experience
We hired their service for people over 50 to climb Kilimanjaro on the Lemosho route. From the beginning the guides were annoyed because were not fast enough for their expectations. They gave us no kind of support and even treated us condescending. We made the claim to the company but they didn't give us any answers. In short , if you are over 50, forget about this company
Reply from E-Trip Africa
Posted on Aug 13, 2019Thank you for taking the time to post your feedback and sharing about your experience. Let me start by apologizing that eTrip Africa was clearly not the right fit for you, due to your expectations from our guides which were not in line with our safety and security procedures and policies.
I do sincerely hope that both of you do value that you were able to accomplish a feat that many will never achieve, with one of you making it all the way to the summit and the other to Stella Point. I know you may feel that you have failed, but this is a huge success in itself.
As this is the first complaint that we have had, I would like to share some more information. We do have many clients that did not make it to the summit, but of them they all agreed that it was in the end the right choice not to proceed further. We have taken nearly 1,800 people up Kilimanjaro and more than half of them were over 50 years old. Older climbers are actually our preference as they go slow and don’t try to rush up the mountain like the 20 year olds…
Our company ethos places great importance on safety, which means that reaching the summit is not our measure of success but rather keeping our clients and crew safe is our first and foremost priority. Of course it can be frustrating and disappointing when you work hard and don’t reach the summit, but the reality is that not everyone makes it to the summit and sadly there are people every year who lose their lives on Kilimanjaro because the guide allows them to push too far.
We keep very detailed daily records on each of our clients. Twice daily medical checks are recorded along with general state of being of each climber. Further the guides report any and every incident no matter how large or small. Further we use InReach satellite trackers for each trek which allows our office to monitor the progress of the trek. It alerts us when a team is moving too fast, as this can be one of the biggest mistakes that can be made on Kili. Our guides know very well that the slower the pace the better our bodies adapt to altitude.
As I mentioned in our many emails back and forth immediately after you emailed us (before you posted this review), our team has gone through all the records and the InReach track in great detail. From the full review we concluded that the guide and assistant guide followed all policies and procedures correctly. When I told you this you were clearly not satisfied and requested to see our policies and procedures, which I shared with you. From that point we did not have further response from either of you.
Of course, without being on the mountain as an eye witness it is impossible to determine if there was a personality conflict between the two of you and the guide and assistant guide. We did also follow up on this assumption and spoke to several members of the crew and received the report from the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project monitoring porter as well. Of these the most we can ascertain is that there was never a bond made between the two of you and our team as the two of you kept to yourselves not communicating much with our team and speaking in Spanish between you most of of the trek. This not a problem, but I hope that you can understand if the guides seemed distant (or un-supportive as you put it), as they believed you did not need them in that way based on your limited interactions with them during the full trek. Needless to say we did not find any reason from our team nor any specific information from you that lead us to believe that the guide or assistant guide acted in an unprofessional manner towards either of you.
Lastly as I mentioned in our emails and you read in our policies, it is forbidden for our guides to carry, push or pull someone and allow that person to continue up the mountain. If someone is in need of such assistance, they must descend. It was reported in the guide log that at one point during the summit attempt it was requested by you to carry or pull one of you up the rest of the way to the summit. The guide and assistant guide refused due to safety issues. Again, I believe we were not the right match of a company based on your expectations and you would have been better off trekking with a company that does not take safety as serious as we do.
On the positive side I am glad you had a great safari with us after the trek. I wish you would have taken the time to include that as part of your review as most readers on this site are safari goers…
Email April Pierce | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not enough good words to describe it!
We just returned from a 7 day safari planned with Etrip Africa and I could not have been happier with every aspect! From the beginning, Ben and Aurelie did a very thorough job of planning. The reasons I finally decided to book with them was because of the promptness of responses, details of cost breakdown, and route/accomodation choices. There is always apprehension upon finalizing your choice because there are so many options, but I would use them 10/10 times again.
Upon arrival into JRO, we were promptly picked up by our guide Viktor (even tho flight was delayed from Kigali by four hours) and taken to our first hotel. Ben met us at our first stop to meet us and deliver our printed itinerary for the week (very nice touch).
I cannot say enough good things about Viktor either. He was so knowledgeable, patient and a true friend by the end of the trip. If given the chance to request a guide, I would highly recommend asking for him by name. Just an example of how attentive he is- I requested that my water be put in the fridge after a hot day in the Serengeti...since it would take awhile to chill, Viktor stopped every other guide he knew until he found me a cold water. One other time, my hat flew off as we were in a hurry to make it to a lion kill. To keep from missing the action, I said forget about it. Five minutes later, another vehicle pulled up and delivered my hat to me. He doesn't let ANY detail go unnoticed. You could tell he is very respected by other guides and a smile never left his face the entire time we were with him.
We realized very quickly that our route was the perfect combination for us. We started with a day at Lake Manyara, next few nights in Serengeti, night at the Crater, and final night at Tarangire. Our accommodations got better and better as we went along and ended with the most luxurious of all (Lemala Mpingo). We all appreciated different aspects of every park and each of us had a different favorite. I would highly recommend every one of them. We spotted the Big Five, lions mating, tons of chases, and so many animals we couldn't count. I'm so glad that we trusted the recommendations that we were given.
Overall, please do not hesitate to use ETrip. You will be nothing but pleased with the communication, service, vehicles, guides and accommodations. We almost never repeat vacations because there is so much world to see....but I am already trying to find dates to return!