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50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A vast wilderness where at some points you can see the curvature of the earth.
A vast wilderness where at some points you can see the curvature of the earth—grass plains that extend to the horizon.
Serengeti National Park is one of the gems of the world, a vast wilderness populated by all the animals that you expect to see in East Africa. My party and I were there in Mid-January. We got to see the incredible migration of wildebeest and zebra coming down from the North to the great plains of the Serengeti. The came to the water in the Hidden Valley area, thousands of thousands of animals; quite a spectacle to see. If you love wildlife and nature, the Serengeti is a must destination. We also saw many leopards in the Serengeti’s tree lined river valleys. It is also a great birding destination as well.
We stayed in the Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge, which is centrally located in the vast Serengeti ecosystem. I had a beautiful view of the southern Serengeti from my room. The people at the lodges are very friendly, and our Wildersun guides were excellent—extremely knowledgeable not only about the wildlife, but also knowing where to position the vehicle for the best photography. For, I am a nature photographer, and I came to see and photograph the birds and wildlife. I loved every moment of my stay, for I love the earth and its wildlife. Every moment is unique and special in nature, and that’s especially true for Serengeti National Park.
With my photography, I try to capture the sacredness and individual spirituality of each species. You can see some of my African photographic work from this trip on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/brucefinocchio/
I really did well with lions, and I have a blog post you might enjoy reading on the Ndutu lions at https://brucefinocchio.wordpress.com/
The Serengeti one of the jewels of natural world, and a must destination for anyone who loves wildlife and nature.
A remarkable place in Botswana
Okavango Delta (Botswana) offers amazing and varied vistas with incredible wildlife diversity for the avid photographer. The photos captured at Okavango Delta are second to none and favorable weather makes days very productive. The sights are highly memorable and a global treasure.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve by Val and Simon
Highlights were Semliki Lodge and a boat trip to see the shoebill on lake Albert. The lodge is superb for food and hospitality. Wild chimps also seen, but not a great variety of other wildlife. Tsetse flies a big problem
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Wonderful scenery and an incredible amount of healthy wildlife with trips on water and land
We saw four of the big Five there easily. Weather was fine and very hot. Stayed at Nile Safari Lodge. Rooms rather basic and little light in evening. View from room though was over the Nile for lovely sunsets. Food was plentiful but not very exciting. Our guide Wilson from Volcano Safaris accompanied us throughout Uganda and Rwanda and was one of the best we've had. Our vehicle had removable roof panels so we could stand up for photography. Highlights were seeing a leopard in a tree and another stalking an antelope, and a spotted hyena on the track in front of our vehicle. Scenery enhanced by the Nile flowing through the savanna
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park by Bird Brian
This is one of South Africa's top parks. Not only are there vast herds of grazers, there are a large number of predators. One would be unlucky not to see one of lion, cheetah or leopard on a visit. It is a large park, with a wide variety of camps and accommodations, of high quality.
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50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Tanzania by Bruce Finocchio
I have also been Kruger National Park in South Africa in 2005, and our Tanzania guide kept saying that Tanzania is even better for viewing and photographing wildlife, and at the end of our trip I had to agree with him. Kruger is great place, but the Serengeti ecosystem is even more spectacular.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Uganda by Val and Simon
Such beautiful scenery with terraced fields on all hills and in Murchison Falls and QE National Parks, a wealth of game. Very friendly people and lovely lodges in scenic surrounds. Few other tourists so got very private views of the game
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great help with planning our trip and excellent arrangements.
Nyati Travel listened to what we wanted from our first ever trip to Zimbabwe, made some excellent suggestions and great choices on our behalf. The 17 day trip went like clockwork. The driver provided, Cranius, was thoughtful and careful, and tried to make happen whatever we wanted to do! Even visiting a coal mine!
We started at Vic Falls, went to Chobe, then on to Hwange (Sable Sands and elephant tracking with Roy Aylward - ask for him by name .....all superb), then to Matopos and rhino tracking with Andy , (again ask for him by name). Then on to Great Zimbabwe, and finally to HIFA in Harare.
Nyati even booked tickets for the festival as soon as the festival programme came out.
Zimbabwe leaves us full of smiles, sunshine, colour, gentleness, grace. Not once did we feel uncomfortable or concerned.
It's not a cheap destination, but tourism brings jobs for local people and we were always made to feel welcome wherever we went. If you have the chance to visit, don't let it pass you by!
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35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Extraordinary Journeys is the best!
Extraordinary Journeys is the best! Planning a trip to Africa can be a daunting experience if you try to do it on your own. There are so many options and price points to decide on and enlisting EJ to plan all the details is the best decision I made when planning my trip. They got to know me, my interests, my budget and put together the most amazing trip that was completely customized for me. No trip detail was overlooked. Pre-trip I received advice of what to bring and a detailed itinerary. While traveling, at every transition point someone was waiting for me and I was warmly welcomed at the lodges. I had no travel “hic-ups” but if I did I had an emergency EJ contact just in case. I can’t wait to go back and explore more of Africa and EJ will definitely be planning my next trip.
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35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great six day safari to Samburu, Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru
I rarely write reviews but BigTime Safaris gave me an excellent trip and there aren't a lot of reviews for safaris, so I thought it would help people by seeing a review. I did a six day safari to Samburu, Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara. Martha was extremely responsive to all my questions and always replied back to my emails within day. She scheduled my pickup to and from the airport also. Martha was phenominal. Rarely have I had someone be so responsive and helpful. Animal (or Animo) was my guide and driver and was fantastic. He was extremely knowledgeable about the animals we saw and had a great personality. Big Time Safaris was priced well. Lucky for me, no one signed up for the Samburu portion of my trip, so it was just the guide and myself. The fourth day we picked up a second tourist for the Masai Mara portion of the tour. Even though I went in April and in the rainy season, it only rained two days. One day it rained 20 minutes, the other day it rained for 1.5 hours. So even if you can only go in April, still go as the weather was gorgeous and I had no issues. Also, Samburu was better than the Masai Mara in my opinion. There was a higher density of animals and the landscape was a bit more hilly/picturesque. Lake Nakuru was nice to see rhinos and rock hyrax.