35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Pilanesberg Game Reserve by Sumarie Slabber
The hide is fantastic for birding!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was okay...
My partner and I are budget travellers, but decided to spend a little extra money to make a safari with Northern Adventure Circuit because of their glowing reviews, unfortunately, we did not get what we expected for the money.
Let's start with the positives:
1. Our guide Dennis was lovely and did all in his powers of a guide to give us the experience we wanted. We told him we were very interested in seeing the big-cats, and he absolutely delivered. We saw countless lions, 3 separate leopards, and even 3 cheetahs (one within 2 meters from our car!)
2. Moussa our chef, did a great job... Some of the time.
Now for the things I'm not so happy with...
1. Moussa our chef seemed to preform worse and worse as the safari went on. There was less food, the food was obviously not as well prepared, and some of it so salty that it was hard to eat.
2. Though I had made a point of asking multiple times about our tents ability to withstand the rain and was assured that it was a good tent and that the rain would not plague us - this was rainy season - when we got a little bit of rain one night the inside of our tent was wet, including our matresses and the bottoms of our sleeping bags. The rain soaked right through the seams.
3. Though I had asked multiple times about binoculars - pretty important on a safari - though we did have a pair... They were broken and only one eye worked. They were pretty terrible and made viewing difficult, especially in Ngorongoro. And not very high quality to begin with.
4. We met up with another couple halfway through our safari, which we of course did not mind, but we were assured that meeting up with them would not cause us to miss anything... Well... We did miss something. Because of how this was planned we were only able to have 4 hours in the crater not the full 6, and we didn't make it to the crater until almost 10, because the other couple was driven up that morning instead of the night before.
5. I also asked about the outlets in the car, and was promised that they would be there and working... They weren't and never did the entire trip.
6. We were constantly waiting at the gates for extended periods of time, and the excuses we were given for this were quite lame. We waited almost an hour to get through the gate to the crater, another hour to get to lake Manyara... And other groups were passing us going in, it was only our group waiting.
So, while we did have a pretty good wildlife viewing experience, I can't say that I would recommend northern adventure circuit over a cheaper budget option that also has favourable reviews online.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Addo Elephant National Park by Gary Longshaw
Perhaps Ive been spoiled, but the diversity and abundance of WIldlife here isnt as good as some of the other reserves.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by ssilberman
The hippo park was the highlight of this park... And, boy, did we see hippos! There were also storks and buzzards. No climbing lions, despite signs.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Booking made in name of agent, not us,thus creating stress when we could not access park
Safari tour ok, other time spent great! Booking was made under agent's name, and not our name. We therefor struggled to convince gate personnel that we did book, as they could not find our names.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve by piazzi1969
This was the final park visited. Overall very similar to the other destinations mentioned above and below, but staff in the park seemed less friendly.
Less animals and birds seen here and during one of the drives our car was packed with 10 people although other cars were almost empty. The weather was dry.
We stayed at the Rhino Ridge Safari Lodge. Very nice rooms, good food, less friendly staff although our guide was very friendly and knowledgable, and overall less wildlife sums up the two nights w stayed here.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
3 day masai mara
Safari was good but had unexpected and unexplained cost of visit to Masai village. Our guide was knowledgeable but a bit disinterested. Note that vehicle was not 4wd, and got bogged on rough roads in as was during the wet season.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good experience after initial mishap
Day 3 and day 4: We had a good experience at the Mara, our driver Peter Kimani is knowledgeable and made sure we saw everything there was to see.
We received and accepted an apology and awesome complimentary dinner at the Carnivore restaurant, from our booking agent.
My husband and I in the end, are pleased with our overall experience and will consider using Palbina for future travel.
Thanks.
Lucy.
Review about South Africa by ianh3000
You probably don't get the wilderness experience you would get elsewhere - unless you go for the smaller lodges & private concessions.
A bit lacking in atmosphere.
Staying in one of the larger lodges with lots of other people around & driving on tarmac roads a fair amount of the time with a number of private vehicles on the roads then I did think the actual safari experience was a bit lacking. (Private concessions & smaller lodges would be completely different). You do get close to the animals - closer than in a lot of places as they are used to the vehicles so it really depends what you go for. Having only spent a couple of days in one area then again it would make sense to go to different areas for slightly different experiences (although obviously if you drive down the same road an hour later you might see different things). Guides & vehicles are good. Weather wasn't particularly good when I was there - so this probably tempers the review !