65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Operator excellent 5 star but guide in our case poor 1 star
We booked a luxury Safari in Tanzania, and Nyemo was dry helpful and efficient in planning and organizing our trip. Very carefully planned our itinerary to visit a set of luxury lodges and it was a good value. The camps and lodges beautiful and the wildlife experience great!
Disappointed though in the guide and the vehicle which was in poor condition. The biggest concern was that the seatbelts were broken, and not usable. This made us very uncomfortable being that we were traveling in remote areas far from medical care and safety and prevention of injury so important. The vehicle also had electrical problems from the day we were picked up necessitating midway through the trip a stop at a garage for half a day and lost safari time.
The driver also was unfamiliar with any of the camps we had chosen, and in every instance was lost trying to find the next camp delaying our arrival by as much as one or two hours each time we changed camps. We chose luxury camps so we could also enjoy the camp ambience at end of day, but the delayed arrival left us feeling rushed.
I believe this experience must be an exception since in all the other reviews, the guides are outstanding. Also I would have thought there would’ve been some follow up from the company at the completion of our tour, but we were never contacted.
RS
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Satisfying, but somewhat disappointing
We (my partner and I) were part of a safari tour that lasted 6 days, 5 nights in Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru (we were supposed to go to Naivasha but we didn't) and Amboseli.
Let me start with the positives first... during this tour we managed to see all the big 5 and ugly 5 animals, as well as many other ones, met interesting people along the way and managed to take pictures and record content that will serve as eternal memories of these wonderful places. While I don't regret doing this tour, I have to leave my honest comment and complain about the following… Our guide Dennis made this trip less than perfect with his inappropriate behavior. From the very beginning, he did not get off his phone, he was not in the mood for a friendly conversation (on the contrary, he made rude comments on several occasions), and when he did talk, he was so quiet that if you weren't sitting next to him, you couldn't hear him. At some point I gave up trying to hear him altogether and just watched what was going on outside the vehicle. On top of that, on the third day of the safari, when the optional boat ride on Lake Naivasha was planned, Dennis decided not to tell anyone that we would skip this ride due to the alleged bad weather. Although optional, this would've been our only activity on that day. Later, I found out that people from other tours were actually going on boat rides during this day. Dennis preferred to talk on the phone during the lunch breaks, which were taking too long for no reason. So long, that upon arriving at the hotel in Nakuru, after a 7-8 hour drive from Masai Mara, the hotel pool was not working because we arrived too late. Even though we had no other activities on that day. So on day 3, we were pretty much just driving in the vehicle with no activities. On the following day, after doing an early morning game drive in Nakuru, we were informed that we had to change vehicles and continue our tour with another group. At the place where we were having lunch and where we were supposed to change vehicles, Dennis was rushing us while we were eating (literally 5 min from the start of the break). The other guide was more friendly but was driving like a mad man, and we felt quite unsafe in the vehicle driving for another 7 or 8 hours from Nakuru to Amboseli. So on days 3 AND 4, we were just driving around doing nothing except for an early morning drive in Nakuru.
Only later did I find out that most of these budget safari companies work together and that in case one company does not have enough passengers on a certain day, it will use the services and employees of another company, and mix their passengers with people who booked through another company. Which is something that we would not accept and agree on, if we had known in advance.
Axis did offer us a tour of lake Naivasha free of charge at a later date, but we couldn't accept it because our schedule did not work. The communication with the company in general was clear, but we had to remind them of a couple of things during the booking process and later.
I would repeat a safari tour with a budget company only if I were staying in the same place for several days (Masai Mara for example).
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very much garbage (plastic and other rubbish) next to the roads
The safaris are certainly not animal-friendly. For example, 25 safari jeeps around one single leopard. Of course, I chose this myself, and I'm complicit.
The people in Kenya are generally very friendly. I enjoyed my trip to Kenya.
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It was okay
Most of the tour was average, as was the lodging. On the return back to Johannesburg, though, we had an excellent driver. Carson was very knowledgeable and loved sharing info about his country. He was also a very skilled driver and made the long trip ho quite quickly. He was very courteous, personable and well-spoken.
IL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing mountain crew, but dishonest and poor management
I would like to share my experience with way2tanzania. While the climb itself was successful thanks to the incredible guides, porters, and the chef, the management by Godfrey was highly disappointing and unprofessional.
The Pros: The mountain crew was outstanding. Special thanks to the chef who prepared delicious meals despite the very limited supplies provided by the company.
The Cons (Management issues):
Shopping scam: Instead of taking us to the city center for gear, Godfrey drove us to some outskirts to his "acquaintances" where there was zero variety. A total waste of time.
SIM Card issues: We were told a price of $8, but were taken to a suspicious place where it took over 2 hours to process 4 cards, and we were charged $10 each. It felt like a small-scale scam.
Food supply: Our group is vegetarian (Kosher). We expected the lack of meat to be compensated with other proteins. Instead, we were given 30g of cheese every other day. Compared to other groups on the route, our food supply was very poor.
Tipping manipulation: This was the worst part. Godfrey told us to pay $200 per person in tips, while telling the head guide we owed $300. Meanwhile, their own website states $20/day ($140 total). This lack of transparency regarding the hard-earned tips of the crew is unacceptable.
Conclusion: Great crew, but I cannot recommend this company due to the management's dishonesty. If you book with them, be very careful with extra costs and "recommendations" from Godfrey.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tour company was ok with changes and not descriptive itinerary but their driver Israel was amazing
Tour company is ok. We had a Lodging cancellation for Ndutu during the migration season and had to recommend staying closer to Ngorongoro created to even have the opportunity to see it on our last day (it was in the itinerary for the last day but because of permit times we would not have been able to see it otherwise). So we had to sacrifice time in Ndutu or crater when both were in itinerary for day 6 and 7. With that being said our driver Israel was amazing and loves and respects the animals in their habitat. Even when others were breaking the rules in Serengeti he maintained the respect of the land and animals. It is nature so there are no guarantees but we saw so much, the big 5 and cheetahs. I give 3 stars because our driver and that side was perfect but company can use improvement in itinerary, permit knowledge to clients (because sometimes we had to leave first thing in morning to be out of parks in time), and responding to clients on changes when they said they would even if they are already on safari.
CZ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beautyfull nature, lot of animals.
We saw a lot of animals, even very close up, the Massai Mara, Tsavo and Amboseli parks are really vast. Traveling between them is really time-consuming, given the condition of the roads. The condition of the Jeep we had at our disposal, which was probably the oldest compared to the others, certainly had a big influence on this. The windows could not be opened, the seats were almost in a lying position, we even had to deal with a brake defect, which meant an unpleasant 2 extra hours during a full-day journey. The driver Peter was very nice, he drove slowly but safely. Unfortunately, he did not familiarize us sufficiently with the prohibitions during the Safari, so we received a $150 fine from the Rangers for taking photos from the roof of the Jeep.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Nice but improvable value for money
Good-meaning agency, especially Silence who took a lot of care of us pre-departure, and we went during the green season
Overall a few critical points we observed:
1. the list of payed add-ons has low value for money, and we believe it catered specifically to a particular type of (red, white & blue) tourists
2. We don’t understand why so many meals were excluded: they could add it on top of the Safari package price for an additional +10% difference, a risk we feel not worth the major extra bother of autonomy imposed onto the customers itself.
3. WhatsApp comms with the agency didn’t work while on tour, relied on agency guide on tour (when available). Had to arrange to a cab ourselves go for dinner in VFalls, owing to miscommunication.
4. Little proactivity from agency guide on tour, available mainly when prompted, clarity with briefing can improve significantly.
5. Overall, it’s quite poor in terms of game drives, we added 2 extra bringing the total to 4 drives, to extract maximum wildlife exposure time. The game drives plan per se needs revisiting, as they planned a jeopardisingly-late departure at 8am instead of common practice ~5.30-6am for a morning game drive. We also felt that 2 days in VFalls were too many as we only cared for the falls there.
6. On the bright side, the Hwange Safari Lodge accommodation was magnificent and highly recommended for a stay, and the last-mile guides (on game drives, at the falls, on the Zambezi cruise) were very well prepared, kind and available.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
3 days masai mara safari
Excellent safari organized by Dream Voyage Safaris!
We truly enjoyed our 3-day safari in the Masai Mara and would highly recommend it to anyone planning a safari to this amazing destination.
The budget lodging option was excellent, with friendly staff who were always attentive to our requests. Our driver-guide, Jackson, was outstanding—his knowledge and dedication made the experience unforgettable. Thanks to him, we were lucky enough to spot many animals, including the Big Five.
Overall, it was a well-organized and memorable safari experience.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Depending on the guide if ypu have a good or bad experience
The first part with Samuel as a guide was very good. I can highly recommend him!
Unfortunately we had to shift car and guide after 4 days. From then on the organisation was bad. We had different programms in the group, so they wanted us to compromise. I had to call the agency to clarify what we booked.