IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good operator, Terrific guide!
This was my third safari, the first just me and my 12 ys old son for 12 days
I should divide my review, one for for the support on booking/ organisation of the trip and another one the trip itself.
On the one hand, dealing with Apodiformes was always very easy; since the beginning, they has tried to find the best combination to adapt my request to my budget.
During the trip there were some issues regarding booking and organisation, but Apodiformes has been able to fix always them.
On the other hand, the safari guide Francis was a nightmare and made the whole trip quite painful!
Examples?
- the land rover was almost missing shoking absorber .. and this is crucial when you spend 10 hours per day on streets full of bumps and holes; the door opened during the trip
- the guide was very Often on the phone texting with who-knows instead of been focused on the drive
- often the tend of the land cruise didnt' close completely ... and at 6 am it's very cold
- lack understanding of the trip schedule ... it was me to tell where we had to sleep every day
- he skipped almost 1/3 of the game drives ... everytime with a different excuse
In each game, he was always far from the animal (we have always been on the back of all the other land cruise), no single explenation about parks, animals, ...never asked if we were taking good pictures/spots and if he could leave or if he had to stop.
One day he asked me to pay 200 US a ranger because of some problems with park tickets .. of course I called apodiformes and they fixed it
in few words ... 1 star is even too much.
To sum up, read the review about the best guide and ask to have some of them.
IE
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Karl Senn
Nothing special, but nice ride
DK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An overall good experience with room for improvement
What we liked
- Our main contact person (Boniface) was super quick at responding and always very friendly and informative.
- The lodge we mainly stayed at (Arusha Farm House) was beautifully constructed, had a nice garden with pool, bar and sofas and a well equipped gym
- Both the safaris at Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro were absolutely amazing and we saw many of the animals that we hoped to see
- Between the two safari days we stayed at Suricata Boma Lodge, which blew our minds with its stunning views over Lake Manyara, friendly staff and authentically designed rooms
- Our guide on the Foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro tour (Balthazary) was happy and cheerful, and very knowledgeable. He shared lots of stories and facts about the places we visited, giving us insights into the life of the Tanzanian people today.
The coffee farm was also an incredible experience. We were given thorough insights into the production of coffee, from coffee berry to processing, and finally, to drinking it. It was the best coffee we have had in years, and the lunch we were given was the best food of our two weeks in Tanzania.
What could be improved
- The food was generally of a low quality. On the last day of our time with Safari Soles, one of us had a severe stomach infection (Campylobacter) because of the food. As we are writing, it has been two weeks since we came home and the infection has still not gone away. No guests should ever experience this again and we hope that this will be looked into.
- Although Arusha Farm House was beautiful on the outside, it was a terrible experience in. The acustics were awful, our entrance card had to be activated every day, the bed was hard, there was no hand soap, only half of the sockets worked, there were no bed lights and in the end, our toilet got clogged. Luckily, many of these things can be fixed quite easily and we really hope that this will be improved going forward.
- Our safari guide (Abouu) was mostly very quiet and did not communicate a lot with us. This was especially present on the first day in Tarangire National Park where he several times drove on, although we wanted to see the animals for longer, e.g. the giraffes, that we only saw once.
After we posted the above review, the owner of Safari Soles got back to us with a long and sincere response. He apologized for our inconveniences and promised to follow up with the relevant parties. Although it does not change the mixed experiences we had with Safari Soles, we very much appreciated the sincerity in this response.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A Poor travel experience
We had a total of six nights, and the hotel was changed three times in the last few hours before departure. The promised room was bad and no refund was given. The morning tour and lunch included in the quotation on the last day were not provided. The driver and guide was okay, but he kept making phone calls while driving, at least ten times a day, which was very unsafe for both him and us.
(automatic translation from Chinese)
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Safari but Poor Management in Tanzania
The complete experience is amazing but the organization in Kenya and Tanzania are really different.
Kenya: everything was really good. Daisy was really nice and careful from the day of the booking in January. Our guides (Derrick and Richard) were really nice and prepared. The camp sites and hotels are low budget but clean and functional. Maybe sometime there is too much hurry during the game drives and the customers are not really warned about the fact that if you don't choose to make the optional visit (as Lake Naivasha boat trip) you have to wait in the car. Total: 4.5/5 stars!
Tanzania: Super Eagles Tours doesn't manage the tour and gives the organization of everything to Seven Wonder Safari. Almost a complete failure. At Namanga border you need to wait (at least 1 or 2 hours) that a certain guy lets you get on the bus to Arusha (you can leave just when the bus is full of people) without any explanation. Our plan was almost totally changed: DAY 1 --> it was scheduled evening game drive safari (at least 3 hours) but instead there was an eternal and uncomfortable (9 ppl total in a van with 8 seats) journey to Serengeti (arrived at the entrance at 16.30) because of several and useless stop in gift shops along the road with a 2 hours rush to the campsite and some stop to watch animals. DAY 2 --> the optional Olduvai Gorge stop was removed and replaced with a Maasai village visit and the people that were not interested had to wait in the car. DAY 3 --> the scheduled plan was at least 6 hours game drive with packed lunch inside the Ngorongoro crater but our experience was entrance in the park at 8.30 and at 12.15 back at the camp site to have lunch. The game drive was done without any radio (the driver couldn't know if there were specific animals in specific part of the crater) for just 2 hours and half, with a very long stop for coffee and rest. Such a shame for one of the most wonderful places on Earth. Besides they probably should inform better the costumers about the fact that customers will camp in tent in public camp sites. The guides were nice and the food really good but the change of the plan really disappointing. Total: 2/5
We booked all the trip with Super Eagles so they need to be responsible for all the journey, Tanzania included. The experience was really amazing but the Tanzanian organization very disappointing.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice safari, but could have been better.
We had a nice safari with Professional Safaris in the Ngorongoro Crater & Serengeti National Park and saw many animals. Our guide was nice, but certain things could have been handled better. For example, it was only mentioned to us in the last three hours of the drive back to the airport that there was a fridge in the jeep. It would have been nice to know this at the start so we did not have to drink warm water for three days and this could have prevented us from throwing away things from our lunch bag that we no longer trusted after lying in the heat for half a day. Additionally, the driver kept his radio (through which I assume he communicated with other guides) on very loud even when we were less than 5 meters from an animal and the noise of the radio was disturbing our experience of enjoying the animals in their natural habitat. Another example is that the guide made us walk around an outdoor art gallery for 10 minutes so he would get some kind of lottery ticket.
Also, do not be fooled by the last day 'early morning game drive'. When you are going to (certain parts of) the Serengeti, you need to drive back to the airport for 7 hours. While we did see some animals on the first part of the drive, it was not the same as an actual game drive.
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good safari on a budget
SCB Tour and Travel offers a safari experience at a price that’s more economical than most other operators. During the planning phase, Salomon was incredibly helpful and precise in recommending the perfect itinerary. We were fortunate to see all of the Big Five, thanks to their expertise and knowledge of the best routes. Having two guides was a bonus—one focused on driving while the other spotted animals, making the safari even more enjoyable.
However, there are a few areas for improvement. Time management could be better, as we missed two sunrise safaris and only saw the Ishasha sector briefly. Communication during the trip was also lacking. It would be great if the guides engaged more with guests during long drives. Additionally, a couple of the hotels didn’t meet the expected standard for European tourists, so I recommend reviewing these and considering changes.
Overall, I would recommend SCB Tour and Travel, but keep these points in mind to ensure an even better experience.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Hakuna Matata Roadtrip Safari
This was our first safari and our first time to Kenya.
I am an extremely exigent client as I have worked for a while in tourism and my husband and I (since we are young adult, we have travel a lot around the world).
Since the beginning, Fredrick (our Apodiform’s account) has tried to find the best combination to adapt our request to our budget.
The travel went smoothly and we really enjoyed Kenya.
However, I should divide my commentary, one for for the support on booking/organisation of the trip and another one the trip itself.
On the one hand, dealing with Apodiformes was not always easy, there were many issues regarding booking and organisation, this could be due to a lack of communication or to the fact they were not fully transparent.
Examples?
- our itinerary pdf reported a lot of mistakes and was not corrected even after having highlighted the discrepancies (wrong arrival time/departure day/activities).
- we had to chase them for pick up time from the airport (they did not reached proactively to give us all the information)
- they told us they could take care of our rigid suitcase when only soft ones were allowed onboard local airplane, but when we arrived at the airport they drop us off and we had to deal with the problem ourselves (the driver has disappeared)
- We were supposed to travel by train from Tsavo to Watamu, but the afternoon before we were informed that plans were changed (they did not book the tickets in advance so the day before the 1st class tickets were sold out! While our trip was prebooked in December)
- They did not include our luggages for another Jambojet Flight so when we arrived at the check in desk they asked us to pay (luckily at the end Frederick sort it out with a live online Payment).
Hence, the tour has been done successfully with very competitive budget (1 full week of safari around Kenya), however we kindly suggest to improve communication/organisation set up to prevent unpleasant situation for the guests.
In addition, I would suggest to share with guests a small guide of extra activities they can do during safaris such as bush breakfast/Bush sunset or dinner or even night safaris. We were interested in that but when we discovered these kind of activities it was too late!!!
On the other hand, our safari guide Sebastian made sure our safari was unbelievable, he was always concerned that we were enjoying every day.
In each game, he tried to catch the information around to get the animals close enough. He was always asking if we were taking good pictures/spots.
Thanks to him, our trip was great!
To sum up, they are really good to adapt to your request and limited budget however they should pay more attention to details and to communication with guests.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing but disappointed with accommodation
6 days safari Masa Mara , Nakuru. And Ambosii
David was an amazing guide he was punctual, knowledgeable and patient . We saw all the big five . He stopped her let us take many photos . Amboseli was my favourite park saw many elephants.
I was able to stay with the same guide which was great however not everyone got the same experience. I was very disappointed with the accommodations because they advertise and claim you will be staying in particular camp sites but that is not the case . It’s pretty much luck of the draw. I stayed in Rino camp which is not mid range more like low range and I paid for mid range I was suppose to stay at enkok camp but 2 people form our group stayed there and the rest stayed Rhino camp. When I realized what was written on the receipt the accommodations I was suppose to be staying at I was fuming . Also last camp I was upgraded them the last night night the manager down graded and the mattress had a huge Dent in the middle i woke up with back pain . I addressed my concerns with the guide and mini and no one said anything. !!!
Make sure you are staying at the correct accommodations because they changes things last min. You should get what you pay for !!!!!
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
5-night, 6-day safari to the Masai Mara and Amboseli
We booked a private safari for 8 people for 5 nights and 6 days. Starting from Masai Mara, to Lake Nakuru and Amboseli.
My rating (3/5) is due to the difficulty of communication via whatsapp before our arrival, I often had to write several times in order to receive a reply. Also in the program sent to us, for the two nights in the Amboseli there was a different facility than the one where we stayed, upon our arrival at the Amboseli they had overbooked and then moved us to a dirty "fallback" facility without a proper bathroom, the second night in the main facility was no better as they saw cockroaches in some rooms.
However, I would like to point out that our guide Denys was faultless in everything, friendly, helpful and we managed to see all the animals we had in mind.
Thanks to him we were able to have an experience that we will hardly forget.