ES
We have seen a lot of animals and spectacular scenery
We have booked two different tours:7 days Etosha Explorer Tour (Wild Wind Safaris) and 4 day Swakopmund and Sossusvlei Adventure with Chamelon safaris.Weather was very good,dry and a lot of sun, no clouds.Our guides (Leslie Joseph and Griffith) were excellent.We have seen a lot of different animals, the accommodations have been very confortable and the food delicious.We will recommend these safaris to our friends and family.
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.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Nice destination with lots of wildlife and variety of parks
We had a fantastic trip in Tanzania and will remember it for a life time. Travel is all about the "stories" that are created...and we have wonderful stories to tell our family and friends. We structured this trip in as if we would never be back - we wanted to see a variety of things in the time we had and not just zeroing in on one type of experience. That has now changed...we definitely want to go back to Tanzania for another adventure. The three very distinct stages of our trip (safari, beach and Stone Town) all offered unique views into Tanzanian culture, land and wildlife. The safari offered wildlife viewing that was beyond anything we expected. We saw loads of lion! Wonderful accommodation and the weather was very pleasant for that time of year and no where close to the temperatures recorded on the internet
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!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Francois de Bruin
Good variety
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Ngorongoro Crater by Francois de Bruin
Nice experience and saw the most blue crowned cranes together ever
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Serengeti National Park by Francois de Bruin
Nice time - we spent 3/7 there and it was magical
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Tarangire National Park by Francois de Bruin
Nice start to a tremendous holiday
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 !