Excellent safari experience
The wildlife (especially the primates) is amazing and surprisingly accessible. The wilderness is very enjoyable. We've been to other parts of Africa (mostly southern Africa) and Uganda is refreshingly very unique and varied. The drives along the countryside is also a lot of fun. The people are very friendly and almost everyone speaks English, which made it convenient for us. We went in July and the weather was spectacular. We went mostly to the Western parts (Bwindi and QE NPs) and also stayed near Lake Victoria.
Trip of a Lifetime
My wife and I had visited the Welgevonden Game Reserve in South Africa in December 2015 for wildlife viewing. Apart from some wildebeests, some antelopes and some giraffes, we didn’t see much. We didn’t see one lion, we didn’t see one leopard, we didn’t see one cheetah. When asked why we hadn’t seen one of the big cats, both the lodge ranger and the manageress told us that hyenas and jackals had introduced a “mysterious disease” that would kill all big cats. In the whole Welgevonden Game Reserve there was only one lion left.
According to http://www.welgevonden.org/news/2016-news-archives/197-canine-distemper-virus-on-welgevonden-and-the-last-lioness.html, Welgevonden’s last Lioness had died in July 2016:
“On December 10 2015 the carcasses of 3 lions, a large male, adult female and a sub-adult male were observed just outside one of the lodges on the reserve. ... During an afternoon game drive on December 18 2015, one of the western pride females was observed having a seizure and Canine-Distemper Virus (CDV) was suspected. … However, December 26 2015 brought about the next chapter of the nightmare: the first seizures observed in one of the southern pride’s lionesses…”
We had spent a fortune flying from Australia to Jo’burg, pay for a hire car to get to Welgevonden and a stay in an upmarket lodge.
After this huge disappointment, we flew 16 months later to Tanzania. We did a 10 day private tour with Earthlife Expeditions. We had told Deo where we wanted to go and to see the wildebeest migration, when they were crossing the Mara River. We wanted to see Lake Manyara National Park, the central and the north Serengeti and the Mara River, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire National Park and Arusha National Park.
Deo worked everything out for us and it went like clockwork. In the north Serengeti we watched from a hot air balloon hundreds of thousands of wildebeests migrating north towards the Mara River they needed to cross to get to greener pastures. Agri, our driver/guide was spot-on, when he told us, that the wildebeest would cross the Mara River in 5 minutes. And it did! In total, we have seen 5 or 6 crossings. We even watched a crocodile attacking a wildebeest.
We saw everything, we hadn’t seen in disappointing South Africa, everything we had desired to see, including lots of prides of lions, leopards and cheetahs. We saw herds of elephant mothers and their babies. We had seen hundreds of Hippopotamuses. Agri has a keen eye. He sees everything. In Arusha National Park, Agri spotted even “Colobus monkeys”, we hadn’t seen and wouldn’t have noticed had we been on our own.
Compared with South Africa, we would give Earthlife Expeditions 100 out of 100. We should have got into contact with Deo 16 months ago and gone to Tanzania in the first place!
CA
Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Absolute fabulous time
There were 4 of us from Canada and all of us loved our safari... and especially our guide, Xavier. I had met Xavier in 2011 when 3 of us went on safari and he was our guide. We've all reminded in contact with him because of becoming good friends. He goes far above to make sure that his clients have the best safari they can have. We saw so many animals that Xavier seems of have an innate sense of where the animals may be; we had SO many laughs and great times. We had such a great time that we're (12 of us this time) are going on safari with him again in 2018.
Would very highly recommend Xavier and Wild Trails Safaris... the perfect driver/guide.
SG
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Safari experience
Firstly thanks Elias for well organised our Safari tour , all in good communication with prompt reply . We decided to go 3 months before our trip and booked our tour only few days discussion. We would wholeheartedly recommend.
Focus (John) , our incredible guider !He is knowledgeable of everything ! Yap , everything about animals , region ,culture and history. We are 3 gals group and after 9 days together he becomes our big Bro ! Really appreciate that we met him , we feel good to spend everyday with him ! Our dinner talk and all the chit chat time and unforgettable game tour , he really make us surprise and delight !
Lastly , We miss you Fokus ! Greetings from Singapore ! Thanks for taking care us so so much !
CN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They arrange very well ,and the driver is very kind.
Imrran reply to me very quickly and carfully , he recommend a good safari line to us.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari in Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro !!
We had a great experience with Suricate Safaris. We have been recommended the company when arriving in Dar es Salaam. We contacted them and get answers really quick and all the information we needed.
The safari in itself was really well organised and matches what was described and agreed on.
Our guide was friendly, attentive, always smiling,doing his best to make us enjoy our experience and knew a lot about all the animals .
Thank you again for this good time.
We definitely recommend Suricata Safaris !
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
They are very good. their services are fast and for sure will like to continue using them.
They are very good indeed. There services are Excellent and everytime they try to increase there services
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Their timely communication and appropriate advise gave us a great itinerary,quality meals &lodgings
I am so happy that my groups' expectations were met
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Fantastic service and a great experience
I first came accross Niq and his company in Nairobi many years ago as I visit Kenya frequently with my wife who is Kenyan, on every visit we always take a safari, and have always used Africa Vision Safaris. Their service is first class, from being picked up to start the adventure to finally arriving back, wherever we wish, at our apartment, hotel or airport. On our last safari we were picked up at our apartment right on time by Anthony one of the guides, and driven to Lake Nakuru whee we stayed overnight and then had an evening game drive where we saw a pride of lions playing with the cubs right next to our vehicle, it was Anthony's sharp eyesight that spotted the lioness's head barely visible to us in the long grass. We also saw several varieties of Giraffes, plus hippos, buffalo's, and abundant birdlife at the lake. The following morning after a hearty breakfast and game drive we set off on the long journey to Maasai Mara, the journey itself was very interesting.
We stayed two nights and had some fabulous game drives managing to see the big five, and thousands of wildebeast that had migrated from the Serengeti.
On our way back to Nairobi we stopped off at Lake Naivasha and took a boat safari around the lake, where we saw abundant birdlife, such as kingfishers, comorants, ducks, fish eagles, all close up.
Anthony dropped us off at our apartment where we had dinner and prepared for our flight back to the UK, and Anthony called back later to take us to the airport.
We could not have wished for anything better to end our visit to that wonderful country Kenya and it's people, and thanks to Africa Vision Safaris we have fantastic memories and images.
I would thoroughly reccommend this company for your Safari, you won't go wrong with them.
JP
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic 3-day tour
I highly recommend those who want to see wild animals as many as possible in 2 nights 3 days tour. First of all, you can get the response back in a flash with nice information, which is very important for people like me constantly traveling. Our great driver named John has high motivation to entertain us to find many animals. Picking up at the hotel was very precise and smooth. He drove us to find the big five animals with many others, especially I am so happy to find a huge Rhinos, and Leopard. Accomodation is a just OK, it often stops hot water, but I don't expect that much. Overall, if I come back for the tour, I will chose this again with the driver. Many Thanks