20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Guides Skilled at Finding Animals
Tanzania was a life changing experience! We did a five day safari with our guide, Gama. He knows an incredible amount of information on the animals, birds, and culture- any question we asked he knew the answer or found out. He has a good eye and finds the hidden animals that all the other drivers completely missed! He also knows how to set up the perfect shot for your wildlife photography. The guides all communicate during the game drives to share locations of where the animals are so you get to have some very cool experiences.
We felt very safe, taken care of, and learned an incredible amount. The car was cleaned every day, with fresh water, beer, and wine always available.
Lion King overall was awesome to work with, and answered all our questions quickly. The drivers transferring us were friendly, punctual and provided amenities such as water and charging stations. We did a mid range safari, but all the accomodations had wifi, were beautiful, comfortable and friendly.
We would love to come back and do another tour, definitely with Gama and Lion King.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Serengetti : A mindblowing safari with Mountainwarriors
Mountain Warriors , what an amazing company!! The safari that was organised blew us away. Serngetti and Ngorongoro crater were the highligts . We could not have asked for a better expereince . Special thanks to Rehma , their customer representative who was with us every step of the way . The management went an extra mile to make us feel comfortable . Their quick reaction ,when a room was not upto the expected standards and to resolve it with an alternate hotel really imppressed us.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Asamba the tour guide was very patient and answered all our questions very confidently.
An awesome well organized team. Robert helped us settle on a great option that fitted our budget comfortably. Communicated effectively. I would use Blends of Africa again. It was worth my time and money. Very reliable service.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Friendly,Professional and full of experience
Our tour guide was Collins. What can I say what a great guy inside and out . He had a varied group... age wise and preference wise but dealt with the excursion with competence and patience and was very professional. I and my partner have visited a safari excursion before but Collins helped to make this experience a fantastic "First time" going above and beyond to make our holiday a one to remember and his knowledge of the area and the animals were second to none
Thank you Collins you are a total credit to Safari excursions
HU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Guide John was professional, good driver and had knowledge about the nature.
It was great! Guide John was professional, good driver and had knowledge about the nature. In the three days we saw basically all the animals including big 5 like rhino, elephant, leopard, buffalo, lion. The food was always fresh and tasty and the accommodations were superb. Thank you Wildplus Escapades limited
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience!! Collins our guide was fantastic!
We had an amazing 4 day safari to the Masai Mara and Lake Nakaru. Our guide was Collins and he was absolutely fantastic from start to finish.
He explained in detail all aspects of the national parks, the recent floods, all the animals and some background information on each animal.
He picked us up earlier than advertised and dropped us off later than we expected to ensure we got the full experience of the safari. I could not fault the experience and would recommend Collins to anyone wanting to book this.
Thank you, you name me & Lyndseys honeymoon utterly memorable.
Sam
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Collins was amazing. Very friendly and professional and informative all the way through the tour.
We have never done a safari before and decided to book one for our honeymoon and it was absolutely the best choice we made. We have loved every minute and the experiences we have had have been amazing and memories that will last a lifetime. We would definitely book another safari and our tour guide Collins was amazing. Very friendly and professional throughout. Always made sure we checked into our hotels with no problems and was very informative throughout the safari. Amazing experience.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Masai Maara Safari - Shanjoy Tours
Pros:
- People within the Tours are reachable
- Excellent stay provided
- Safe driving
Cons:
- No Game Drive provided on the last day (while it was promised on the quotation). Basically, your last day of Safari is only transfer to Nairobi without any Game drive (even if promised)
- Full day Game drive ends super early. During our Day 2 of game drive, it started at 7am but ended by 4pm (while the park is open till 6pm and the sun would still be up till 6.30pm). Was disappointed to miss out the last 2 hours of Game Drive
- Was able to see only 3 out of 5 (Big5) while other Tour operators promises to shown all Big5
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing! Definitely use suricata. So so amazing and helpful and importantly knowledgable.
Firstly let me just start by saying book with suricata, it was amazing, we did the 5 day safari, we saw the big 5 plus so much more. If you’re hesitant, don’t be, just book. Also ask for Mandela, he was UNREAL as a guide, such a nice guy!
A more detailed review is below.
Accommodation
We had a really strict budget so we went for camping. Overall it was fine, functional and for how cheap it was, you can’t ask for more. At each site the tent was already put up for you (on our last day we witness another company come in and the guests put up their own tent so in hindsight we were spoilt). The tent itself included a sleeping bag, a very thin mattress and a pillow. It was really sturdy and had enough space for two people easily. Regarding each site;
Twiga
Honestly this is absolutely fine and actually quite good. As we did 5 days we stayed here twice. It’s basically like a patch of grass off lodges itself and it’s like gated off. The bathroom in my opinion was really well kept, had lighting, no toilet tissue (this is common) and the showers were hot (maybe too hot haha) . This was probably not really camping, it’s actually well run and kept, it’s like the perfect very low cost way to sleep for a night. There was WiFi here too (though too slow to use like instagram or even read emails, you could WhatsApp easily with it)
Serengeti
Serengeti and Ngorongoro this is real camping. Serengeti itself, again as before patch of grass and tents already up but there’s literally 0 electricity. Bring your torches and head torches. You are sleeping in area that animals can get to so just be smart. It’s safe, it really is but we were advised if you had to go to the toilet at night, just don’t (or pee outside your tent). The toilets were a little worse but again fine and useable. No hot showers here. The pay off for all of this is that you get an incredible sunrise and sun set, plus we saw giraffes and elephants from our tent so it is incredible.
Ngorongoro
Again similar to Serengeti, but there’s hot water. Apparently you can walk to a nearby site and get WiFi but we didn’t try. There is electricity here and plenty of sockets to charge your devices. There was a distinct increase in bugs at this campsite but again fine.
Suricata themselves were brilliant and made camping as easy and enjoyable as possible.
Food
Honestly incredible. I really don’t know how chef did it. Every morning he would cook up the following; fresh crapes, toast, egg dish, sometimes fresh fruit and all the condiments you would desire. For lunch which we had during safari, there would normally be rice with 2 curries/stews and veg, maybe banana for desert. And in the evening it was more of the same but maybe a different carb of pasta or macaroni. The food was always really good, and plentiful, we were never left hungry after a meal and often did not finish the portion. If you’re a picky eater, grow up, for everyone else you’ll really enjoy it. The fact the team whipped up a meal in the middle of the Serengeti with no electricity is crazy.
Safari
Our guide Mandela is a TOP TOP man. He’s so nice, always smiling and so so informative. He will constantly stop and tell you about things you’ve never even thought about, the amount of facts he has and the range of facts was honestly incredible. My partner and I learnt so so much. I felt sorry for him as our group was quite international and therefore quite quiet and I know he wished we asked him more and more questions because hes just so passionate about what he does, he wants to talk about it all the time. Because of him we got the see the big 5, cheetahs, warthogs, hippos, the lot really. It was a magical experience. Mandela also made sure we had a fresh 1.5l cold bottle of water each every day, so you were always well hydrated. There is also stops to use the loo throughout and he warns of you long drives where there won’t be one so you can make sure you’re all good beforehand. The toilets in the actual park are actually so well kept, far better than any U.K. public toilet, not even close.
Logistics
We flew from London and arrived at KIA at 930am. We were picked up straight away with no wait by a very friends Mr T, who drove us to the hotel the other clients were staying. They very kindly waited for us and we started the safari that day. This is not what they recommend/ usually do as they usually recommend staying the night before so you are fresh and helps with logistics. Honestly if there’s a way you can maybe fly into Arusha airport (it’s closer) or get there at maybe 8am, I would 100% recommend the way we did it. Or just arrive super late. But it is possible.
There’s U.K. plug sockets everywhere so be wary of that. There’s plug sockets in the safari jeep itself but my partners fast charging plug wouldn’t work so I’d opt for like an older USB U.K. 3 pin plug
Make sure you take wet wipes
Would recommend bug spray and repellent.
Make sure you have torches
We took a sleeping bag liner and I would recommend this. We actually never used the sleeping bag itself, we just slept in the liner. The ngorongoro campsite was the ONLY time we felt cold at all and therefore I’d also recommend something warm for this day. Lots of people wore proper jackets but a good hoodie and joggers would suffice.
One day we finished a little early (2 members of the group did the 4 day so left), and because of this Mandela and team organised a little walking tour of the village we were staying at as we had the evening. Little touches like this show how great the company is.
Would I use suricata again?
1 million percent yes
Would I recommend them?
I will be telling everyone to use them forever!
Would I do a 5 day safari?
This is such a tricky question. We were incredible lucky (lucky and Mandela is just amazing at his job) so arguably we saw everything in 3 days (2 Serengeti days and ngorongoro). So maybe we could’ve done 4 or even 3 day safari but the more days of sari you do the more of a chance you get to see animals. So maybe if I hadn’t seen a certain animal and I’d only done 3 days, I’d 100% wish I did 4 or 5. I think I’d honestly do 4, I think Lake Manyara though absolutely beautiful is not on the same level as Serengeti and ngorongoro (though we were surrounded by elephants at the lake so there’s always going to be memories by doing more safari)
Would I camp again?
Again this is such a tricky question. Sleeping on the Serengeti is once in a life time and really cool. But it’s obviously not the most glamorous thing and not having a proper bed or shower for 5 days can be a little annoying, but for the budget it’s more than enough. If you had a little more maybe spring for the lodges (which were apparently really good - 2 of our group stayed in lodges) or maybe do less days and lodges. But I could fault the team for the camping. It is what it is, you get to do an unreal experience at an affordable price.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A wonderful 3 day safari experience with Kilimanjaro Safari's!
We were delighted with our decision to choose Kilimanjaro Adventure Safari Club for our 3-day Safari in Tanzania. The communication was superb; they consistently replied to our emails within hours and even accommodated a last-minute change in hotels due to our flight schedule changing just two days before our trip. Our tour operator, Justin, was exceptional. He was knowledgeable, always punctual, kind, and seemed to know the best places to visit along the safari routes. He ensured we arrived at our destinations on time and kept us informed about the daily plans. His expertise regarding the plants and animals of Tanzania was outstanding, providing us with fascinating information about everything we encountered, including the local people and cultures. We felt we received great value for the money spent on our safari trip. Everything, from the accommodations to the tours and attention to detail, was top-notch. I wholeheartedly recommend Kilimanjaro Safari's to anyone considering a trip to Tanzania.
