35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exceptional Safari Experience
Asili is the Swahili word for nature, and it's not surprising Joe chose this for his business - he's love, respect, and wonder of nature is evident from the outset and an integral part of the Asili Safari experience.
After working as a guide for many years, Joe started his own safari business, and is as committed to growing it as he is to ensuring you have the best safari experience possible. His knowledge of the Serengeti and other game parks, the animals, their habits and habitats meant we saw an abundance of animals, and gained precious insights to their world.
I highly recommend choosing Asili explorer if you want a genuine, local experience by a highly driven, enthusiastic and knowledgable expert.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Outstanding service and planning - amazing company and safari!
Wow! We can't recommend Safari Specailists enough. Nadine helped us plan and organize the most memorable trip of lives. Nadine was always super responsive to our many,many questions during the planning phase and we even skyped a bunch of times (we are in California) to discuss options and help us understand how to build a custom made safari that was perfect for us. Her knowledge of botswana and the camps was outstanding. The trip was perfect - from road transfers, flights and accomodation everything worked like clockwork. We fell in love with botswana and so please we got to work with such a wonderful local women run company. We can't wait to back and can't wait to work with Safari Specialists again.
Incredible, memorable vacation
My wife and I just finished an 8 day safari with Awaken to Africa and couldn’t be happier with our experience. We had never been on a safari before and had a lot of questions. Grace did an amazing job helping us pick out lodging, counseling us on what to expect, and providing a detailed packing list. Once on the ground in Tanzania, our guide David Mshana led us through the experience of a lifetime. We visited the four major northern parks (Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti) and saw more wildlife than we could have hoped for. Highlights included 47 lions in one day (>70 overall), 5 rhinos in one day, leopards on 4 consecutive days, and the “Big 5”in a single day! It soon became evident that David’s spotting ability was second to none. In comparing our daily experiences with other tourists on safari, ours was always significantly better. In addition David’s easy-going and kind manner made the trip essentially perfect, and saying goodbye felt like leaving a good friend.
We would recommend Awaken to Africa without any hesitation and hope to experience Tanzania with this wonderful company again in the future.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Comfy car, great accomodation & experienced driver
We had a Safari on our bucket list and decided to book via Safari bookings. We were happy with Safari hub's review and found them responsive to communicate with and extremely knowledgeable about Tanzania. In the end we opted for a weekly group departure as the itinerary looked good and more importantly fit within our budget (Flights are expensive to Kilimanjaro). The vehicle, driver and accommodation was as per itinerary and comfortable. In the beginning we were rather apprehensive about this trip, but are now looking forward to a similar adventure in the future.
Parks visited: Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti.
June 2015.
Experience level: over 5 safaris
There's no one better to set up your safari for you.
I've been on safari 17 times, visiting S. Africa the majority of those trips. I was fortunate to meet Marianne and her husband at lunch at one of the reserves I had been to many times. Since then she has set up several safaris for me in whole or in part and answered questions to the point where I sign off as "The Pest. " I'm normally reluctant to recommend anyone for anything , but with Marianne I don't hesitate a nanosecond before giving her name and email. Just referred a wonderful client and Marianne set up a safari for seven which they absolutely loved. Hope to go again in the future and there's only one person that will be handling my trip. I've dealt with the "big" operators and they can't compare as far as knowledge, working with you and response time. She started as my travel agent and I now consider her a friend, as well.
CA
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic!
Our trip to Uganda was to be the trip of our lifetime, so we needed a good safari operator to make our dream come true. Did we get lucky. We started working with African Big Five Safaris ten months in advance of our 24-day visit. Our trip was to be more than a safari - we wanted a "total" African experience. Meet the people, experience the culture, learn the history, and of course, see all the animals.
The staff of African Big Five patiently worked with us to create a tour package that exceeded our high expectations. Geoffrey responded instantly to every request and presented various options to us. Our package was based on a moderate budget, somewhere between budget and luxury. We were pleasantly surprised.
Our driver and guide, Musa, was exceptional. His personable, easy going manner, extensive knowledge of his country and its wildlife, and superior driving skills, were appreciated by all four of us. He had a very very thorough knowledge of all the game parks, and provided close encounters with every game species, including hundreds of bird species, his specialty. From our well equipped Landcruiser with pop top for game viewing, we saw countless elephant, giffafe, hippo, buffalo, lion, antelope and primate species. Not to be missed, if course, was the gorilla and chimp treks.
Our accommodation never disappointed. African Big Five constantly monitors the lodges it uses, and drops any that don't meet expectations. We are vegetarians, and were impressed that each lodge was prepared in advance to meet our dietary needs. All meals, for the most part, were very good, and service from lodge staff exceptional.
African Big Five Safaris is a small, Ugandan-owned company that, in our opinion, provides big service. Their approach seems to be - look after the details, provide a package tailor made to the client, and build a reputation to ensure their future success.
Because of the length of our tour, we were glad that we had planned for enough rest time in our itinerary so we didn't wear down from the busy schedule.
Uganda is truly the Pearl of Africa. We highly recommend this rich and diverse country as a destination and African Big Five as your tour company.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The best among many I contacted
Kathy Simon was incredibly attentive, responsive, and on top of all details for our safari spread across two different game preserves. I contacted about 8 different operators and solicited quotes from all of them, and Kathy's was quite competitive, and consisting of well-reviewed properties. More importantly, she was the MOST responsive agent of all of them, always getting back to me right away with answers to my questions. This was decisive for me. She even made a last minute adjustment to some of our transport, arranging things while we were on vacation in the bush. In the end, I actually found a better deal for this than she did by searching a bit online, but when I told her about this, she booked it at the same price, which I really appreciated. Outstanding service, reasonable prices.
NL
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Guide is extremely knowlegedable, knows where to go, sharp + good sense of humor
The guide Hansa has a broad knowledge about Mother Nature, not just the animals. He is able to spot them before you see them under almost 180 degrees. he's very patient and stay at a place when you want it. On top he is very flexibel with respect to wishes of his clients. And the last important thing is, he has a good sense of humor - quite important when you go on vacation!
All in all, we had an extremely pleasant experience with Hansa
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
well exposed to the wild.
It was my first trip to Kenya and it was made memorable by this company. Bush dinner made me feel come back to Kenya and also the beautiful landscape of samburu national park. Would love to go back for more experience
KR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An exciting safari trip that really allowed us to embrace the African culture and wildlife!
My husband and I booked a safari through Odyssey Safaris for his 40th birthday and we were very happy with the trip! Not only did the company cater our travels around our personal requests and interests, but they also added some great recommendations. We had a very memorable time and would definitely recommend Odyssey Safaris to others!