NO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great safari, driver, trip and service
We had a great safari with Tanzania Pilgrimage Safaris. Easy to communicate with during planning and very professional and service minded during our safari and interactions. Novatus is a great manager and our driver Mariki was an experienced guide which was a joy to be around for four days. Great people, will recommend
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Chloe is fantastic and I plan to use her for all my future Africa safaris.
This is the email I sent to Chloe when we got back home:
Chloe,
Thanks so much for organizing the most extraordinary vacation we have had. Everything went well without any issues. The camps/lodges were excellent and provided a different experience for each, The guides and camp staff were just wonderful, treating us so well and providing for everything we needed. The new Karangoma camp was awesome and provided a more remote area and animals not used to humans which was very different I believe and exciting. We just loved it as it was a more remote safari adventure as opposed to Chobe Park. Chobe was great though also of course. I can't go into all the awesome experiences we had because it would take all day. We will recommend you very highly to all our friends. I'm sure some will be going in the future after talking to us and seeing all our pictures and videos. We will be calling on you soon in the future I believe. I'm not sure we want to vacation anywhere else. We just fell in love with Africa !! Let us know where we can provide reviews. We will be happy to provide our experience and happiness received from the vacation.
Warm wishes,
Mike and Steph
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Thoughtful and professional Safari Club
Kilimanjaro Safari Club really paid attention to detail, was thoughtful, flexible, and professional! From the planning of our trip, to the moment we were picked up from the airport, until dropped off at completion of our tour they thought of everything. We felt comfortable and in good hands with our driver, Justin as well. The company made delicious and healthy foods for our game drives and took us to the most beautiful national parks. Justin also informed us about the animals we saw. He kept in contact with other guides and was able to drive us to locations where there were animal sightings (especially in the Serengeti where it is SO vast and spread out). We saw elephants, lions, hippos, hyena, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, and many more! I even saw a leopard! It was the BEST experience! I really want to go back to the Serengeti some day to see the actual migration! Make sure you check times on that because I was told we were early by less than 2 weeks, even though I read it started in early July when we arrived. I would go later in July next time and spend a longer time in the Serengeti. It’s too big to see in a mere day and a half.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An unforgettable experience in the nature
After some initial troubles in picking us, due to a misunderstanding at the office, the guide called Great showed up and took us among this beautiful trip. The Company did all they could and more to apologise for the inconvenient, we really appreciated it.
The trip in the van is very comfortable and the spots that you visit are amazing and worth the money. Places like Three Rondavels, Luck Potholes and the Falls are unique and will leave you speachless for the bigness and power of nature.
Great, the guide, is such a nice guy and he explains all you need to now about the places and he’s ready to reply to every question that comes up to yout mind.
Lunch in Graskop was very good too.
We firmly believe that you should do this experience!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The best trip of our life
Thank you very much Denis! It was a great safari with you. We couldn't have had a better driver. We felt very safe. You were able to answer all our questions and there were many questions! You always responded to our wishes and were able to show us all the animals. The accommodations were perfect. Everything just fit.
RU
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent
The trip was fantastic! We saw a lot of animals in parks. The guide and the team was great. Everything organized in a perfect way!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing day, really well organised
I booked the Radisson package with moafrica and it was lovely. The hotel is amazing and the coordination to get me everywhere was incredibly smooth. I always know where to be and when, and they even called the hotel to have them remind me in the evening.
My Kruger tour was lead by Stan and he was amazing. Really cheerful and found so many animals! I really recommend the company and the package.
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A perfect safari with sightings of all the big five thanks to knowledge, contacts and efforts.
The Kilimanjaro Adventure Safari Club (KASC) made all efforts to provide the best possible safari experience through a very knowledgeable guide, Justin, who seemed to know all the other guides and thereby obtained tips about sightings of animals through continued contacts. Justin was also very responsible and helpful to other Safari participants who had run into problems like flat tyres, which I suppose contribute to being on excellent terms with so many other guides. As a result we saw loads of animals, both the ones easily visible in very good perspectives and the most rare and difficult to spot, like leopards, including all the big five.
Justin and the KASC were also extremely helpful and saved no efforts in getting my suitcase, which KLM /Air France had lost on the way from Europe, all the way up to Serengeti from Zanzibar.
In our programme (mid range/luxury) some of the hotels were more luxurious than others but they were all very nice and situated in a wonderful environment. They all also made great efforts to adapt to food intolerance etc and the staff was very nice.
CH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Marvelous trip thanks to Lion King
We made a marvelous Safari! The organization was perfect. Gama, our guide, give us the chance to discover the african nature. He was very prepared in fauna and flora and ready to answer all our questions. Thank for the amazing experience to lion King
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly disappointed in our guide!
My partner and I hired Apodiformes Adventures as our guide group for our 5 day Safari in Kenya during the end of July through beginning of August, 2024. Overall our experience with the company was ok, but there were a number of things that came up during our trip that were less than ideal. I have never written a critical review before but felt obliged to do so after reading the review from a group that hired Apodiformes a week or two prior to us, which mirrored our trip to a near uncanny level. As a point of reference, this is my tenth trip to Africa, second trip to Kenya, and I’ve spent a cumulative 8+ months working around the continent. The challenges of running a tour business are not lost on me, but there are certain items that could be easily remedied, and tour guides should be held to standard.
First, we had outstanding communication with the company during the planning process of the trip and were very pleased with the level of attention to detail provided by Fred who handled our booking. We received notice of the name of our guide the day prior to arrival and arranged a pickup at 7:30 am. Our guide assigned was Ken who picked us up and took us to the parking lot of a nearby shopping center 15 minutes from our hotel to meet up with the representative from Apodiformes and pay the second half of our fees in cash. This is something that could easily have been handled in the hotel lobby from the standpoint of making things feel more “professional” but not a big deal. We then started traveling to our destination of the Masai Mara where we were anticipating a half day game drive to start the trip. When we were first picked up from the hotel I noticed that the back tire of the vehicle was very low, but not fully flat. An hour into the drive, we pulled over into a side street and a guy began to change the tire. During this time, Ken never mentioned that we needed to get the tire fixed or even that we would be stopping. While this only took about 45 min to an hour, this cut into the time of our game drive and is something that easily could have been remedied the day prior to pickup since it was clearly noticed, or at least we could have been notified of when we first started the day and we would have been very understanding. These vehicles take a beating and things often break, it is understandable.
On the way to the Mara and throughout the vast majority of our trip, Ken was continuously on his phone with various calls and texts to the level that if I were to ask a question after he got off the phone, his phone would ring again before I could even get the question out. I’ll not belabor the point, but Ken would answer questions when directly asked (at times with a one word answer) but would very rarely offer information, guidance or discuss plans unless we brought it up first. This was the theme throughout the course of the trip.
Eventually we made it to the Mara and had a great evening drive. To his credit, Ken is an incredible driver. He was always able to get us right in the action, was able to communicate well with the other drivers, and could find us a variety of wildlife. I really appreciate his efforts in making all that happen and led to us overall having a positive experience on the various game drives.
Our first night stay we were told that the lodge we were to be staying at overbooked and that we would be moved to a new lodge – not a big deal however this was not communicated until we were almost at the replacement lodge. Overall the accommodations were good and seemed to be of similar quality to the intended location, but just raised an eyebrow. Either way, the accommodations that night were ok.
The next few days followed this general course with limited communication from Ken minus a few good conversations we were able to engage him in with some prodding. We were never really asked about our preferences, what we wanted to do/see, but when we directly asked he was accommodating and was generally good natured.
On our 4th of 5 days when we arrived at our last lodge we were told that we could have lunch and then go on the intended boat ride. Of note, the boat tour included a 45 minute walking tour through a preserve off-trail which neither Ken nor the staff let us know about. Thank goodness we wore boots rather than the sandals we were considering wearing because it was a “boat tour”. When we met up with Ken for the boat ride he told us something about a “terrible problem” that had happened to the vehicle and that it would need to be in the shop, meaning he could no longer drive us. He arranged a driver the following day to “take us back to Nairobi in the morning,” not mentioning the fact that we were planning to go to Hells Gate for a tour before returning. Because we had assumed we were getting back in the vehicle after lunch we had not fully cleaned/removed our goods from the safari vehicle, I thought that I had left my hat and asked him about it. He said he would give it the the driver for the next day and though I found the hat in my bag the following day, he never messaged or communicated that he did not find it in the vehicle. Given that the previous group on the review boards experienced the same “sudden vehicle trouble”, this is either a habit of Ken or Apodiformes in order to free the vehicle up a day early.
The driver who picked us up the following day was AWESOME. Great guy, very personable, super helpful. Went out of his way to help us have a good experience and even drove us around Nairobi looking for fabrics. A+ overall. Of note: His vehicle was a standard hatchback van and not a safari vehicle, so if we had planned on a driving safari through Hells Gate the following day rather than opting for a bicycle tour, this would have significantly diminished the experience. Finally, we had been told on the first day that the rep from the company would meet with us back at the hotel when we returned to Nairobi to close the loop, but never heard from them again after the first day. I was hoping to provide this feedback to them in person but did not get the opportunity.
My purpose of posting this review is to note that overall, we had a good time because my partner and I enjoyed each other’s company in the beautiful natural wonders that Kenya has to offer, and all of the lodges and parks we visited had outstanding staff that were exceedingly warm and welcoming. It seems that Apodiformis Adventures has a few quality improvement points to work on with their team. While I much prefer to provide feedback directly to companies rather than posting on a public forum, the similarities to the previously posted experience tell me that this is something systemic that needs to be addressed.