35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic 9 day trip - Rwanda and Uganda
Bonita and our guide Elisa ensured a wonderful 9 day trip! They were very willing to adapt the itinerary to the things we most wanted to see: Nyungwe national park for the chimpanzees, Lake Kivu, Volcanoes NP for hiking and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to meet the gorillas. Forest elephants, bush buck, buffalos, sun birds and various monkeys were a bonus! The trip exceeded expectations in every way. We were fantastically taken care of, with incredible, warm hospitality and very tasty food at all of the lodges. Including excellent vegetarian options.
We would recommend early March, whilst there were a few hours of heavy rain here and there, it was quiet season, meaning that we could get park passes at short notice and we were often the only guests in the lodges. In Volcanoes NP we did the Mount Bisoke and Dian Fossey hikes, both of which were fairly physically tough thanks to serious amounts of mud in rainy season, and Bisoke is steep, but absolutely worth it.
Both the chimp and gorilla tracking were wonderful and we had a lot of time to observe the animals and their surroundings. The tracker teams do everything to make sure it's a success and it's great to see their skills and knowledge of the animals and know that the park fees go back to the local community and protecting the habitat.
Lake Kivu was an unexpected highlight. A beautiful place and great spot to relax and watch many kinds of birds. It was a truly special experience to see the teams of fishermen going out at sunset and coming back in - singing - in the morning.
All in all a magical trip. It was my first time in Africa and I loved every minute and will be back! We highly recommend Explore Rwanda Tours. Thanks again, Elisa and Bonita for everything!
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Incredible safari to Tanzania , Nurdin our safari guide made it
Incredible memorable experience
Our trip has been nothing but faultless. The itinerary was planned to perfection and suited the time and budget we had. We requested Nurdin Adam as our guide after being recommended him. He was incredible from start to finish, sharing information about Tanzania, the animals and so much more. We visited Ruaha national park , within over four days we saw lion, leopard and saw an abundance of wildlife - again Doto was fantastic at helping us with spotting the animals. As a group of three couples we all agreed the hospitality of everyone involved in our trip was top notch and felt Tanzania was one of the friendliest places!
I will DEFINITELY be recommending others to go with Wild Gaze Safaris and the best safari guide Nurdin Adam. Thank you for the unforgettable memories
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing and incredible services with good knowledge of hotels, parks and reserves in Kenya
This was an incredible safari thanks to Explorer Kenya Tours & Travel and mostly to our driver guide Simon Kagiri who was of great help. His knowledge about animals, trees and locations of different lodges within the park was just amazing. Thanks Mr.Robert and the entire Explorer team for the quick response and the great arrangement. My friends and I will recommend your company
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Their services were excellent
Booked a 2 days safari to tsavo west with Explorer Kenya, our diver guide Simon Kagiri was exceptional his driving skills and know-how of the wildlife was top-notch. Would definitely recommend Explorer Kenya to my Friends,Thanks Robert for the good arrangement
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Everything was good and enjoyable Just one thing- car should have AC
Excellent.Everything was good and enjoyable Just one thing- car should have AC
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Balule Nature Reserve by Enrique Del Castillo
Didn't get to see the Big 5, but did see many lions, elephants and buffalo. Missed out on the leopard and the rhinoceros. Amazingly didn't see a single giraffe.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful First Safari Experience
I would definitely recommend South Africa as a first safari experience. Pembury Tours did a fantastic job...highly recommended!
BR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very reliable. It is not a big company, but they personalize your safari as you want
We got to know it by one friend who had experienced them 2 years ago. George answered my email promptly and we built all the safari days together. Sometimes even by whatsapp calls. At the end, we got a very good plan, in a reasonable price for my family of 4. George suggested us some good tips and was very helpful. Our guide JACOB was there to meet us at the hotel as arranged and he was really an excellent profissional. His knowledge about the region and the animals was very important to our visit. We had a wonderful week together and I do suggest him to anyone looking for safari adventures. More than that, at the end we realised it worked out to a good friendship.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Elias was always one step ahead of us. I'm sure that he could read our minds.beyond my expectations.
Topnotch . great people.always available if we had any questions.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent, professional
Safari Trip Review: Angose Travel Limited
We had an excellent experience with Angose Travel Limited (Angose) and highly recommend that other people book through this company. Overall, they were very clear about exactly what we should expect and they delivered exactly what they said they would. The staff were very friendly, helpful and clear.
Here is a resume of our experience with Angose:
Upon arriving in Arusha (in March –the low season), we spent an entire day shopping around for the best/cheapest safari tour to Serengeti or Ngoro Ngoro or both. We are traveling on a budget so the price was the most important factor and we wanted to do a three or four day trip.
Price: We reserved a safari with Angose for $150 USD/day for four days (this was the cheapest price we could find in Arusha). We visited about 10 companies and this was the best deal. Other companies were offering $150/day but not visiting both Ngoro Ngoro and Serengeti and we wanted to visit both.
Signing Contract at Angose Office: The Angose Office is located in central Arusha close to the clock tower on India street. Note that if you search for the building on google maps, you may not find it. IF you google maps search for Angose Travel Office you will also not find it (as of April 2019). We were hesitant to go to the office since they were not located on google maps. However, we found our way to the address on India Street, next to the YMCA Hostel (KKKT Building). It is easy to find. Arusha is small.
Staff: We met with a very helpful and professional young woman called April. She informed us very politely (and in very good English) about the different prices and availabilities. She was very kind, and not pushy about selling her safari over others. When we did the safari, we had an excellent guide called Jonas who was also very kind and informative. We also had a cook who was extremely kind.
Contract: We signed a contract at the Angose Travel Office stipulating clearly when we would leave, when we would return and where we would stay each night, what would be included, etc. It was nice to have that as a back-up. We got a copy of the contract.
Safari: We were picked up at exactly the time they had promised and brought back when we said we would be brought back. We had excellent food and an excellent trip visiting the animals and beautiful parks. Everything that was supposed to happen, happened.
Unpredictable: The one thing we couldn’t predict was the people who would be on the trip with us. We got paired with a schizophrenic loud American man who was extremely unpredictable and rude. It was very unfortunate that we got “stuck” with this unpleasant person within our jeep. We soon realized the most dangerous animal was not outside the jeep, but actually the one inside our jeep. We did our best to try and be decent and polite and manage his erratic behavior. Our guide and chef who were also in the jeep also quickly realized what we were stuck with and they also managed the situation very well. Jonas, the guide, tried to de-escalate conflict and encourage the American man to control his behavior and outbursts. The chef also kindly accommodated us by allowing us to eat at a different table or in the chef’s kitchen so that we didn’t have to eat at the same table. I was very impressed with how our chef and guide managed the very unfortunate situation. I want to reiterate that this was not Angose Travel's fault - it was just our misfortune and that I was impressed with how the Angose Travel staff managed the situation.
Return: Upon return, April (From Angose travel) came to meet us to make sure everything was ok. She also kindly arranged our accommodation that night and our bus tickets to Dar Es Salaam. April went out of her way to wake up early, serve us some fruits upon our return, etc. These extra small acts of kindness went a long way. The food was also excellent and of course the animals and scenery were amazing and what the trip is all about. We appreciated that the guide always consulted us and stopped for photos as we wished. Jonas was really kind and informative.
Overall: I would highly recommend Angose Travel because they were professional, signed a clear contract, delivered exactly what they said they would, and the staff were kind and nice people. Thank you Angose Travel and April for all your efforts!
There were a few small downsides that I will mention:
1 - I would note that we were delayed at the entrance of one of the parks (but only about an hour so it wasn’t a big deal) to enter one of the parks because apparently they didn’t have enough money to pay the fees and had to call to transfer the money.
2 – We were told we would be joining a group of Dutch but in the end got the Schizophrenic American. I am not sure why the group changed at the last minute.