Team in Tarangire National Park
Gecko Adventure Tanzania
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2005)
- Member Of:
- TATO & TATONA
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $195 to $950 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent door to door service
The communication and driver were excellent. The recommended lodging was also fitting. Overall it was a great value for the service.
DK
Email lotte usinger | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The best Safari..
We would hereby give Gecko Safari, Rama Mo and Said Nganga our beset recommendations. We travelled to Tanzania in July 2014. Before our departure we contacted Gecko Safaris the email correspondence was very easy and Rama Mo very fast understood our wishes and put together a perfect program for our safari. We went to Udzungwa Mountains and Seleous nature reserve. Every question we had regarding the trip was swiftly answered by Rama Mo. The price for the safari was very reasonable compared to other tour operators. When we arrived in Dar es Salam everything was exactly as planned, we had Said Nganga as our guide and driver for the 6 days. He was an excellent guide with an enormous knowledge about his country; plants, animals, history geographic and politics. He was friendly, professional, funny and very good company during the trip. Furthermore he is the best driver; Fast, but all the time safe driving on dirt roads, with crazy African traffic. On the safari we saw any animal you could expect, even several lions, all due to Said´s knowledge and skills. Accommodation and food on the trip was all very nice. All in all a perfect planned and fantastic trip thanks to Rama and Said.
Best regards Lotte, Tyge, Oskar and Stine
Email Neil Murray | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing safari/beach honeymoon with the personal touch you can only get from a local company.
Being from England we thought long and hard about the risks of going with a local agent, it was the best decision we could have made. The holiday was perfect with clear information and english speaking drivers meeting us at every point. I was also told that Gecko phoned to check we made it to each location.
I gave Gecko an idea of what we wanted to do and was offered various packages at much better prices then were available in the UK (we did book our own international flights). We stayed at Selous River Camp and Hakuna Matata in Zanzibar both of which were amazing.
I would highly recommend Gecko to other travellers, the communication and overall service was perfect.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very friendly, sensitve, humerous, god nose and nice anton (leader)
Very friendly, sensitve, humerous, god nose and nice anton (leader)
Unfortunately Short but Great Safari Experience
We had a short safari tour by Gecko Adventure to Mikumi. It was all smooth and nice. Our tour guide 'Afra' was very heplful and friendly. Even if we do 2 days safari, our game drives were very good. We saw almost all the spicies on the park. Thank you again for everything!
Salim
DE
Email Robert & Antonina | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Safari experience with a reliable, commited and friendly team
We had booked a 4 days Safari in Mikumi and Udzungawa Forrest with Gecko Adventure from Germany. As we did not want to travel with that much cash, we wired the money upfront. All passed very well. The communication with Rama was perfect; we were picked up as agreed from the ferry port in Dar and then taken to Mikumi in our own big Jeep by our own guide. Especially our guide, Saiid, was a real treasure. He was always friendly, reliable, very knowledgeable regarding country, flora and fauna and always good to have around. He did not tire until we had seen all animals possible during our Safari, was a good driver and a real nice guy. I cannot recommend him enough.
US
Email sj | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
awesome
We were a bit skeptical about booking a safari ourselves over the internet, but Rama answered many questions for us through direct emails before we made a final decision. We were very happy with the experience. Samir, our driver/guide, was quite knowledgeable about all the animals, a skillful driver over "washboard" gravel roads, and willing to answer our cultural questions as well. Each day I thought must be the highlight of the trip; it just couldn't get better, and the next day we'd see something new and unexpected. Samir was very diligent about trying to help us see the animals in which we were most interested. We marveled at his ability to spot a leopard lying on a limb three football field lengths away and point it out to us. His love of all the animals was evident. We started at Ngorongo the first day and spent the night in the Rhino Lodge. The lodge was the only disappointment of the trip. It was nearly impossible to flush the toilet, there was no bottled water in the room, and the food was mediocre. The stay at the Kati Kati tented camp the next 2 nights was delightful. The tent was roomy and very clean, and for our safety, guides walked us to and from our tent to the eating tent. I heard lions "talking" one night: quite a thrill. The food was good and taking a "gravity shower" was actually a fun adventure. We spent 2 days watching elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, leopards, and more wildebeests and zebras than we could count. Because we went from the Serengeti to Tarangire the fourth day was largely spent in travel, but we still saw many animals and Maasai herding their cattle, sheep and goats along the way. The last camp, Maramboi, was luxurious. The tent was huge with a wooden ceiling, floor to ceiling screening and a small wooden porch for viewing animals. We awoke the next morning to the sound of zebras munching the grass right next to our tent. We wished we had another night to stay in this camp. It was a wonderful experience.
Great
The guide was good. We've been in north serengeti and everithing was perfect. Lot of animals of different kinds!!! Food and camps very good.
Email Hitesh | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Everything as promised
Rama and his team did a great job - all the way from picking me up from the airport to dropping me back after 10 days.
All the arrangements were as planned and the safaris / accommodation lived up to expectations.
I would recommend Rama without hesitation and am already thinking of using him for my next adventure!
AE
Email Adele | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We had to get the bus back
First I would like to point out that out driver was Brilliant the whole way through. He could not do more to help us (his 7 month pregnant wife picked us up from DAS bus station to take us back to our hotel.
Booking was very easy and effective, the booking agent came to our hotel on the morning of pick up to collect the money from us (I think it is expensive, especially with the quality of car we were provided with).
The car was ancient (it never made it back from the trip) we got a flat tyre 2 hours into the journey (fine, it happens) then another few hours in, the car breaks down and take 2+ hours to fix (meaning the journey ended up taking 10 hours to reach the safari).
Lunch on the way to the Safari (not the modern looking stop) was lovely. It was a traditional buffet lunch.
The hotel at the safari was basic but clean and quite close to the Mikumi National park.
The safari was a great experience, our guide was knowledgeable and made the safari a lot of fun. The guys could not explain things enough and went out of their way to make sure we saw as much as possible.
Unfortunately, our trip back was a disaster!!
Our car broke down again in pretty much the same spot it had been fixed the day before. Except this time we were taken to the local mechanics place (off the main road) and were left in the car for 3 hours only to be told it would be $90 USD to have someone else drive us back or we could get the bus or wait another 4 hours for another car to pass on its way back to DAS.
We were not offered any refund from the company and I suspect that much of the cost of getting us back fell onto our driver (not the company we had paid $400USD EACH to). Both these point I find unprofessional and unacceptable. Only when we demanded did the company offer us a 'free' taxi back to the airport the next day'.
So all in all our experience was tainted (but not completely ruined) by poor quality transport provided by an expensive safari provider!
I hope the driver was not punished for the mishap (I suspect he was).