SG
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good overall but 2 bad experiences! Do your research before booking
We booked a 4D3N midrange safari to Maasai Mara and lake Nakuru with hyrax. We had a great time with Hyrax Safaris and both my parents were extremely satisfied. We saw the Big 5 and our guide Solomon went the extra mile to show us the animals. He did all he could to show us a leopard and we ended up being the first ones to see it. He was also very knowledgeable on all the animals and shared interesting facts about each animal. He was also quick to rectify any problems that came up along the way. On the first day we had a flat tyre and Solomon took care of it quickly with the help of his other Safari guide friends. He also placed my bag in the wrong camp but quickly realised and had it brought back to me without 15 minutes. With the above being said, we had 2 BAD EXPERIENCE which you should read before booking Hyrax
Roselyn agreed to provide us Jambo Mara lodge and Saravo woodlands in her original quote. After we made the down payment, she told us that saravo woodlands is no longer available and instead proposed another accommodation. However, the other accommodation is much cheaper and there was no mention of discounting the price difference until I brought it up. She also did not apologise for her lack of oversight in accepting down payment before checking availability of hotel. After I brought up the price discount, she quoted us a discount which definitely did not seem enough. True enough, when I checked the hotel price online, the discount was supposed to be greater. When I brought this up to Roselyn, she did some calculations to show us that she was right. However, in her calculations she calculated the hotel price per person instead of per room, so the total cost was higher than what it should be. I pointed this out to her but she didn’t agree. In the end, I made it a point to call the hotel and recorded our call with them showing that we were right. Afterwards Roselyn told us that the hotel told them the higher price at first and that she will check with them and in the end she gave us the correct discounted price. While I do appreciate that she finally gave us the right price, it should not have been after such measures from our part. Also, it’s extremely hard to believe that a tour company which has been booking hotels for their business does not know that hotel prices are usually quoted per room and not per person. I do suspect that it was an attempt by Hyrax to take a larger profit but I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
Secondly, before our safari Roselyn provided us with an itinerary. However, during our Safari, our guide changed the itinerary without asking us first. To be specific the change was as follows. We were originally supposed to have a pre-breakfast game drive on Day 3. However our guide changed it to Day 2 and on Day 3 we did not have the pre-breakfast game drive. Yes, in the end we got the same amount of game drive. However, I want to point out that entrance fee to Maasai Mara is on a 80 USD/24 hour basis if you are staying outside the reserve. By doing this shift, Hyrax is able to pay only 80 USD for entrance instead of 160 USD. However, they were not transparent with this information. I believe this is done so that when unsuspecting customers such as ourselves ask for the safari price breakdown, they can quote the entrance fee as being 160 USD but get away by only paying 80USD and hence have an extra 80 USD profit. We would have been okay with this had they been transparent. It is not professional to change an itinerary after we paid for it.
The above experiences might not be unique to Hyrax and might occur with any tour companies possibly. So for anyone reading this review, please do your research beforehand and do not let them get away with your money! If the review is confusing but you want to understand more, feel free to contact me.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari was great! However, we had some problems on the 3rd day and missed two planned game drives.
We booked a four-day safari in Masai Mara and Nakuru. The 3 out of 4 days went as planned. On the third day, however, we had problems. We planned a morning game drive in the Masai Mara, but our driver refused to take us there and instead took us to visit a Masai village (which we did not request and which we did not like, being an extremely touristy and rather sad activity ... and with a surcharge of $10 per person!). Also on that day a "game drive en route" was planned, which we did not have. So basically the day was wasted, with one hour at Masai Village and the rest of the day driving back to Nakuru. We were quite disappointed. The good thing is that we managed to contact Ann, who was very helpful and gave us back 3000 Ksh each (which was the equivalent to one entrance fee to the park in Masai Mara). Still, we missed something we had booked. So be careful, try to defend your rights with the driver, and in case contact the agency while you still have time! (from what we have heard is a very common thing that has happened to many).
Apart from this, we can overall say that it was an amazing experience and we really enjoyed it! The parks are beautiful, we saw so many animals. The lodge in the Masai Mara was also really nice, and we liked so much to be in nature for a couple of days. The people working there were also really friendly (also the food was great!). Ann was always helpful and stayed in contact with us before and during the safari, which was really much appreciated.
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Mkomazi National Park
The tour guide Thomas was so nice and we had a really good time with him!
Sadly we were not informed before we paid that the animals in Mkomazi are very shy. Therefore the animals were far away. That wouldn‘t have been a problem if the tourguide had provided a binocular, but on both days we had none eventhough we asked…
But to see the rhino was a once in a lifetine experience!!
FI
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A budget safari with some challenges
We booked this safari well in advance with Donatus from 'selousrufijihippoadventure' who works with Ngalawa Camp. We tailor made the safari to be 4 days including a boat safari, 2 days of game drives in Nyerere, a visit to maasai village and a walking safari. Our day 1 drive from Dar Es Salaam to the camp took about 6hrs. It had rained the night before so our car got stuck in the mud twice and had to be pulled out with some help of locals. We also spent 2hrs just getting out of Dar as the "guides" went to do their foodbuy for the trip after picking us up. The person who was our driver was also told to be our "guide" but throughout the whole 4 days he did not give us any information and was purely the driver. In Ngalawa we got another local expert who joined us for the boat safari and the game drives. The boat safari was really nice and we enjoyed it a lot. On Day 2 we got a bit unlucky as it was raining and we didn't see so many animals during the game drive. In the morning we got stuck in the mud again and had to be pulled out with some help. To be noted, our safari car was not a 4 wheel drive so it got stuck very easily and our driver wasn't experienced with driving in mud. After lunch our driver headed to a route where we specifically told him not to go as we had seen the condition of the road. Immediately after we got stuck in the mud and spent the next 3hrs trying to push the car out of it without any success. Our local guide didn't have a radio to call for help and the mobile reception was coming and going. This part especially felt quite unsafe. He told us that some help was coming but didn't know when and after 3hrs trying to push the car out of the mud we ended up hitchhiking 50km on a truck to get to the gate of the park and to get out before dark. During the Day 3 game drive we told our driver to stay only on routes that didn't give us a chance to get stuck. Of course this limited our chances of seeing all possible animals. In the end of the day we visited a nearby maasai village. This visit wasn't really planned beforehand and the maasai didn't seem to know that we were coming. On Day 4 we did a morning walking safari with Didi who was a great character! He really made the walking safari very interesting and fun! The Ngalawa Camp itself was nice and the staff were friendly. It would have been nice to have a choice of dishes for meals instead of set plates. Our drive back to Dar took about 5hrs and in the end we had to renegotiate the price of the safari due to the circumstances.
FI
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An average operator who needs more experiences to organize tours
In our safari there were too much sitting in the car and the car was not very comfortable. We even had to take some luggages inside the car and the space there was very limited.
For vegetarian the food was very similar almost the whole trip (beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, rice and eggs for protein source) and usually same way prepared.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tshukudu ROARS, Hamala closed, Seasons Resort NOT!!!
Our tour started off poorly when we were met by our tour guide to find out that we would not be travelling to the Humala Lodge. We understand “things” happen, but we were surprised, as was the tour guide, Thabo, that we were not informed by Touchdown Tours in advance. As luck would have it, thankfully they decided to move us to the Tshukudu lodge for 7 days. A simple email in advance from their customer service department certainly would have been appreciated. Not a good way to start a trip!
The Tshukudu lodge is beyond words. The accommodations, the people, the food, the “bush” bar, the game drives, simply put, how about 10 STARS!!!! Karmin and her staff made sure everything was perfect. Our game guide, Tyler, was INCREDIBLE. His knowledge of the animals, the bush and even the dung beetles was AWESOME. I could have listened to him forever!! The staff at the lodge were great, especially Dolly, Bongani and the young lady who made the BEST eggs on the morning buffet!!! We did 6 days of drives, early morning and evening. No 2 drives were alike. We were able to find the BIG 5 and then some. Again, Tyler made these drives SPECTACULAR!!! During our downtime, our tour guide, Thabo made sure our time was occupied with side trips. We were saddened to leave this lodge, especially with what lied ahead.
The Seasons Resort is NOT a resort, a major disappointment. It is a timeshare community with a couple of townhomes reserved for guests. The rooms lacked WIFI, phone to contact the front desk and no safe to lock up our valuables. The room we had was the furthest from the lodge as you could get. Add to that, the pathway was dimly lit, you walked on cobblestones and the walk to the street was at least a 20% incline (wet weather made this dangerous). We complained about this unacceptable situation and spoke with Touchdown Tours customer service. We were told they would look into this and we even asked to be moved to a hotel. Sadly, our complaint fell on deaf ears as NO ONE FOLLOWED UP ON THS!! The side tours that we went on were really nice. 2 of them were advertised as ½ day tours, but realistically, they were only 2 hours each (Walk with the Elephants and Monkey Sanctuary). Had we known about this, we could have flown home a day early rather than being sequestered at this “resort”. Luckily, our tour guide, Fabian, tried his best at making a bad situation better.
The people really made this tour!! Thabo and Fabian were AWESOME tour guides. The entire staff at Tshukudu made our time there EXTRAORDINARY. You MUST have Tyler as your game guide!!!! You MUST have Thabo as your tour guide!!!! Yep, we loved these 2 people!!!
So, would we book this tour again? Probably, but minus the time at the Seasons resort. I think Touchdown Tours should quit misleading people by calling this a resort, call it what it is, a townhome community! Our airport hotel bested this resort easily!!
IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Inflexible. We were not able to see the lions and I was another game drive
1. We were not able to see the lions and I was expecting that they will make another effort by giving us another game drive so that we have a complete experience but no effort was made
2. I made a request to change my drop location to my hotel instead of airport but it wasn't approved.
3. It was football world cup final that evening & the taxi was late by 1 hr. As a result I missed the world cup final.
CZ
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Average services, had some issues
We decided to take a safari tour to Serengeti from Arusha. First I would like to say its a nice area and we saw all animals what we could, so we are happy to did this trip. However there are some things that was not perfect as you would expect - safari car did not have A/C (did not work!!) so it was too hot first day so we wear exhausted. Also, the road is very dusty and car not good for dusty roads and the driver had open windows nearly all the time, we did not understand if he likes dust in his lungs. Also we sent in advance some diet requirements that was not met in our lunch box and the boxes were just a little, not a normal lunch. We have seen in picnic points what some other companies could do, so this is a very weak pain point and would expect more. If we would return? Probably not by car to the area, better going to fly and spent days directly at lodges in Serengeti park.
DK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I was looking forward to the safari ending.
TL;DR: The safari is amazing; the accommodations were pretty decent; the company was not great.
My partner and I booked a four-day, three-night safari from Arusha in late December 2022. At first, I was pleased with the constant updates and communication from Marta, my journey designer. We made the first 50% payment, via credit card, and almost immediately we were asked for the 2nd 50% payment. It was a little awkward because we're talking about thousands of dollars here. We had been previously staying in Arusha, so we didn't require a pick up from JRO, and we expected to meet our guide in the morning on the start of our safari.
And that is where my qualms began. I had to reach out to SoT to confirm the guide would meet us at the hotel, I wasn't provided his or her name at all. The morning of the safari, we checked out of the hotel at 8AM promptly, and had to go searching in the parking lot for our guide - it seemed like he couldn't be bothered to actually meet us. In fact, the first thing he said after hello was how much he expected to be tipped at the end of the safari. Off-putting, to say the least.
The car was fine, it wasn't that updated and the charging ports didn't work. It certainly managed across the rough roads and terrain. There was water for us, which was great, but there was also no hand sanitizer or wet-wipes, which in a post-COVID world should probably be standard. Setting out from Arusha, we made a pitstop to "support the local community" and were basically asked to buy trinkets from folks at a roadside gas station. Moving on to Manyara, the animals weren't out but our guide was indeed very good at spotting them and highlighting them for us. There were several times, however when we had an opportunity to take pictures of certain animals (giraffes, for example) that we asked him to stop and he did not, saying we needed to be "kept on schedule". After blasting through Manyara, we made two - two - pitstops at gift shop tourist traps. We expressed our non-interest in doing so, and the guide told us that we would stop because he got credit for how many tourists he brought and would get a present at the end of the year. It was frankly a bit annoying that it seemed like we rushed through Manyara just to spend time at gift shops selling the same things, and yet another Tanzanite Experience, neither of which we wanted to do.
The first night's accommodation was fine. It was us and another solo traveler staying at the Mandhari Lodge as the original accommodation was booked up. The food was fine, nothing to write home about. The bed was comfortable and the coffee was strong. The staff was friendly and I really enjoyed chatting with them. The second day was a long drive to Serengeti which was fantastic. The guide was informing us about the great migration, and how we would see a lot of wildebeests and zebras. However we stopped at **two more** gift shops and were asked multiple times if we wanted to go to a masaai village and make a "at minimum" fifty-thousand schilling donation. We were exceedingly clear we didn't want to stop at anymore gift shops nor the masaai village and it seemed that it annoyed our guide.
The accommodation at the Acacia Central Camp was by far the best of the entire four days. The staff at Acacia was professional, warm, helpful, and just a great deal of fun to be around. We clicked more with the guys at Acacia than we ever did with our guide, unfortunately. The dinner and breakfast at Acacia was wonderful, and the bed and tent were sublime. No notes.
The third day was more Serengeti and the drive back to the Ngorongoro Crater. Ngorongoro was fabulous, however we were slightly disappointed at the accommodation when we arrived at the Pakulala Luxury Safari Camp. This was also the most expensive accommodation (at $740/night) and so I think we had a certain expectation that the food would be fantastic and the place would be comfortable. We were disappointed - the food was fine, but not great. And there was no electricity so we sat eating dinner with a high-powered halogen light in our faces. Not entirely sublime. We don't discount that the remoteness of the camp makes it more expensive, but the camp was also located between two permanent, luxury lodges, that were priced not that much more than the camp.
When we booked the safari, we contracted that the SoT would take us straight from our fourth day at Ngorongoro to JRO for our evening flight. We spent the entire safari reminding the guide that this was something we expected - he very clearly did not want to take us to JRO and in fact arranged for another driver to take us - he drove us to a mall outside of Arusha where another driver picked us up and took us to JRO. It was super awkward.
Finally - the lunches. The website goes to great lengths to say that your lunches will be the envy of other safari groups, with hot plated lunches and wine. We had three plated lunches, all variations of spaghetti bolognese and all stone cold, to the point that I was curious about food safety concerns. The wine was fine, it was incredibly inexpensive South African wine that was served room temp and in glasses that weren't cleaned. The lunch on the last day was a piece of cold pizza wrapped in foil and some cookies and juice. I was really not impressed with the lunches and I strongly advise a potential customer for SoT to manage their expectations.
My partner and I were happy with the animals on the safari and with the people we met - we had a fine time with the guide though it seemed like he was pre-occupied with other things, to the point of watching videos while we were stopped trying to take pictures of animals. We certainly don't discount that safaris are expensive, and that we were in an expensive country. However, we definitely did not feel that SoT, nor our guide appreciated just how much money we had spent to even do this safari - we felt a little like we were treated as an ATM, and it soured the experience a little bit. Our guide tried to even have us agree to stop at the same four gift shops we stopped at on our way out - it was a bit much.
I also got some insight from a friend in Arusha who runs another safari company (I didn't know this before booking with SoT, else I 100% would have). She informed me of the things that she does for their clients (provides a recommended list of packing, reminders for sunscreen, bug spray, etc.,) and I realized that SoT was only communicative when it came to getting the payments - I never received a recommended list of anything, a highlight of what to expect, emergency contact information, nor even the name or picture of the guide so that we could find him on our first day.
Do the safari - it's an incredible experience and you will want to do more. We do, but we will not go with SoT the next time
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Budget safari, with a nice crew, awesome safaris and budget Accommodations
We had a really good time during the safaris. The drivers were really nice. Especially Simon did. a really good job, driving, explaining and some fun moments.
The food was absolutely acceptable for a budget safari. Also the cooks tried to meet our needs, as we had some allergies (worked out 50% of the time).
Some of the lodges we stayed were really budget. Probably still good for tansanian standard on a budget trip, but still a bit less then we expected (windows were not safe at all times, bathrooms not clean …) but Godwill managed to book us into another lodge that suited our needs more.
Also they were really flexible with everything. That made us feel really welcome and good.
The last day we did a coffee tour to a village. The coffee experience was really cool, as we joined them from picking the beans till the brewed coffee. We were just a bit shocked about the „restroom“ which wasn’t really a room at all. But you get a good local kind of view.
So all in all we had a nice budget safari with awesome day trips, safe drives, always enough water and some really Budget overnight stays.
If you don’t expect a mid range hotel, you’ll be good to go with Simon, Godwill and the rest of the crew.