GR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Amazing trip and service by Blue Crane Safaris!!!
I have been traveling the world for the past 15 years, and the trip in Namibia, arranged by Blue Crane Safaris, was one of the best trips we 've ever had -- and, by no exaggeration, that is largely owed to the amazing excellent organization of Blue Crane Safaris!
I decided to write this review because they are worth it, and I do believe that it would be great for everyone else to know this agency and use their services, as they offer amazing service by global standards, and at reasonable prices, and the agency is owned by a true Namibian, Derek Jacobs, with tons of years in-field experience in the tourism industry!
I have no words to express here my gratitude to Blue Crane Safaris for this dream-trip. Everything, down to the last detail, was organized with excellence.
Blue Crane Safaris as an agency did an impeccable job in organizing this trip, and at a reasonable cost too.
After having reached an absolute bottom with other agencies and the crazy prices they were offering, or the really slow (!) action they were taking, as soon as I sent the request for an offer to Blue Crane Safaris, they responded within a couple of hours with an amazing trip program, at a reasonable cost that was lower than all other agencies (for the same program/lodges/hotel inclusions), and they managed to organize our trip very last minute within 6-7 hours from the moment we sent the request, and finalize everything to the last detail.
Blue Crane Safaris gave us excellent advice and insight on the schedule we should do for the days we were there, and they treated our trip as their trip, meaning they cared for us before us -they treated this as if it was for them and not for strangers -and this personalized approach is what made it count so much.
They provided alternative options for different parts of the itinerary that proved to be a lifetime experience for us (Nhoma Lodge for the authentic San Tribe experience up north, instead of the very commercial Fiume Lodge - and Okonjima Reserve instead of other less important options that other agencies were insisting on, just and only to pump up the price of the trip offer, and which would cost a fortune and wouldn't add much to what we would have seen already by that time. We are grateful that we went to Nhoma Lodge and to Okonjima and that was information that only Blue Crane offered to us and none of the other 10 agencies I had asked for information!).
We were given an excellent private suv car, and an amazing person that was our driver and tourist guide, Richard (who is also a professional photographer!!!!), who also became our friend.
Blue Crane Safaris and our guide Richard are, for us, the best hat can guide your trip in Namibia. They are truly Namibian and their hearts beat for their clients: They will do everything they can and everything you need from them for this trip to be an unforgettable experience for you.
I have rarely seen such dedication and excellence by an agency or a tourist guide, giving so much of themselves to their clients and to the experience offered to them, to make it truly unforgettable for them.
We stayed in amazing lodges and hotels, we saw everything we could possibly imagine because our agency and our guide catered and cared for us to see everything, and we did amazing activities that were organized in the frame of our trip, all of which remain unforgettable.
Everything, from the time we would go to see a sunset or a sunrise, and when to be in the locations to avoid big tourist crowds in order to take amazing photos, to the particular lodge we would stay or the restaurant we would eat, and from the route we would take in order to spot/see animals and sceneries, to the particular activity we would do each day and each time, everything and all details were organized to the dot with excellence.
I have traveled, lived and worked with my job in more than 60 countries of the emerging world until now, ie. in Africa, the Middle East, Eurasia, Latin America and Asia. Namibia really became a dream trip because of the amazing way Blue Crane Safaris organized our trip:
They understood the kind of travelers we are, they echoed what experiences we were looking for, and they adjusted everything to fit our budget, still including all the amazing resorts and lodges that we wanted to stay at and not cutting down on these at all -they beat everyone else's crazily high prices because they are obviously more reasonable with the profit they are seeking to make, and they don't have the mentality to rip you off.
In terms of lodges, we recommend the ones we stayed at, for those seeking similar experiences at a reasonable cost: Sossusvlei Lodge, Sossus Dune, Atlantic Villa Swakopmund, Camp Kipwe (take the Suite if you can, the price difference is very small!), Grootberg Lodge, Etosha Okaukeujo, Etosha Mokuti Lodge, Nhoma safari camp, Okonjima, Windhoek many options (we stayed at Safari Hotel).
I recommend Blue Crane Safaris 100%. They can arrange any type of trip you wish, be it low budget, middle-level budget, or even a luxurious one, as they have all contacts and details in place.
Our experience with them was excellent -spotless service and great insight from their side to make our trip unforgettable.
Thank you Blue Crane Safaris, Derek and a big thank you also to our star-guide Richard who did an amazing job, for 12 days with us on the road!
Best,
Rania
Flying to Amboseli 2 nights honeymoon
I can't say more just the best tour company to deal with while in Nairobi. I dint know more about flying in parks, but this blew my mind. I recommend John and Cheetah Safaris
under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
rwandan tour review
Kuamka tours is a wonderful touring company with a wide range of services. My class and i recently went to Rwanda to learn about the Rwandan genocide. kuamka tours provided us with what we wanted and even more. They went out of their way to make us, the client as happy as possible. They moved the travel plan around to accommodate our needs,like shopping,going to the local market,visiting some of the famous hotels,and even helping us retrieve misplaced items. The over all experience was great and i would do it all again in a heart beat.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing and good organized by Kanuth adventure Safaris
We booked the safari only one week before we went, but because it was low season that was not a problem at all. The good service started with the payment, because we got the opportunity to all pay separate and in different ways. By the time we arrived in Arusha we got picked up by Kanuths brother, who dropped us of at our hotel for free, so we didn't have to worry about finding our hotel for the night. Then the next morning we got picked up for the safari by our driver Vumi and our cook Eric. We were supposed to go to Tarangire National park, but because of the rainy season Vumi recommended us to go to Lake Manyara National Park, because he expected us to see more animals there. Vumi was a excellent and really experienced driver, who knew all the good places in the parks to see all kind of animals and also gave us a lot of information about the animals. The food our food Eric profited was also really good! For breakfast we got pancakes, fruit, eggs, toast and tea and coffee. For lunch we got a lunchbox every day which contained different things every day. For dinner we started with soup, after that we got a very tasty mainmeal (like spaghetti bolognese, rice with beefstew and chicken and rice). For dessert we got fruit. They also made sure we had enough water with the whole safari. We did a 4-day safari, so the first day we did Lake Manyara, the second and third day Serengeti and the last day we did the ngorongoro crater. After all it was amazing safari and we saw almost everything! We saw elephants, zebra's, girafs, lions, hippo's, rhino's, a lot of different kind of antilopes, crocodiles, leopards, flamingos, wildebeasts, buffelos, monkeys and hyena's! Kanuth was very helpful and the staff knows what they are doing. I can recommend everybody go to on safari with this company!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Best safari experience ever!!!!!
Me and my friends visited a bunch of places in East Africa but tell you what our best experience was uganda..we conducted a tour with wild jungle for three amazing days and it was the best experience seeing all those new animals me and my friends had a good time..which makes uganda the most beautiful country in eastafrica...tell you what do not be afraid they call white people muzungu and they just love it that way so don't be scared if u identified by that...the local places that we visited had people that welcomed you with amazing dances..the muchison falls was great to see too and the animals lions, elephants and gorillas that we feed with bananas..the operators too where so sweet not to mention but a few, the one dark skinned guy named twaha took us through everything from finding a place with in the mweya that we stayed where to all the places we visited with in and outside kampala...am coming back for you in Jan 2017 uganda..hope to see you again twaha
At the waterholes in particular we had some great animal viewing.
We very much enjoyed our time in Etosha National Park. The park was easy to get around in, and the people we met were kind and courteous. Animal viewing was terrific. Although we didn't see the numbers of animals we've seen elsewhere in Africa, the dry climate and associated waterholes made for some great, concentrated sightings, with some unique poses. We highly recommend this park as an animal viewing destination.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bestday Safaris Exceeded our Expectations
We planned our safari in short period of time and initially thought about using a tour group until I read about the private tours. We requested information from six different companies and Bestday (Peter) was the most responsive through the information gathering process. He quickly responded to my inquiries and adjusted our itinerary to give us what we were looking to do in terms of accommodations etc.
Freeman picked us up at the airport in Kilimanjaro and took us to our hotel the first evening. We wanted to stop and get water on the way and he had no problem doing that for us. He was very friendly and personable.
Godfrey was our guide and he exceeded our expectations in every way!! He always made a point of getting us up as close as possible to the animals. He was very patient and I never felt rushed. He has such a keen eye for spotting animals and we would have missed many animals if it weren't for him spotting them and pointing them out. He was very knowledgeable and informative about the animals, their habits etc. We saw more than we ever dreamed we would see including many lions, black rhino, a couple of cheetah and a leopard. We even saw a lion kill a wildebeest! Again, fully exceeded my expectations and I would highly recommend Bestday Safaris!
The only thing I would note is that you do need to wire money which was a bit scary as we are accustomed to using credit cards but everything went off without a hitch.
Thank you Peter, Freeman and most of all, Godfrey for making our trip the most amazing experience. We appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Carol & Mark Stanley
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A Terrific 10-Day Safari
Overall
- The entire safari experience was terrific. This was my third safari and certainly no letdown from the others
- Dickson was friendly, knowledgeable and did a wonderful job. We loved having him as our guide
Camps
- African Tulip is gorgeous and a wonderful boutique hotel
- Maramboi and Simba Lodges were great
- Lake Manyara Wildlife was very nice
- Kati Kati and Ngati were good
- The camp in Lake Eyashi was poor although the staff was wonderful
- The staff at every camp was friendly, helpful and always made us feel welcome
Game Drives
- We saw the big five plus Cheetah and hippo so could not have asked for more
- I would recommend all of the parks- Tarangire, Manyara, Crater and Serengeti with no reservations
Tribes
- Loved the trip to the Hadzabe and to the Datoga
- Hated the stop at the Masai as they were pushy and it was a total tourist trap
All 6 of us heartily recommend It Started in Africa and would use them again in a minute
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful experience
In the midst of the raining season, we asked the company's founder Ravi to take our family (including our 3 year old son) on a game drive / safari. He strongly recommended Mikumi national park (one of the smaller, lesser known parks in Tanzania)) as this would be the place the animals would gather around this time of the year, and he was right; we had a great experience! Ravi was reliable, friendly, and most helpful. Our son - now eleven years old - still remembers Ravi and our safari adventure!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome tour guide, awesome safari!
I had a very special and unforgettable time! Booking was easy. Service was great! Our tour guide was really nice and did everything to make this trip memorable. He took us to wonderful places. My expectations have been exceled! I would definitely go on safari with surewaytours again!