SG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Ngorongoro Crater by Basudev Padhi
It was a breath-taking view but not much wild life seen.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful trip
We joined two days Bogoria tour. The driver was great! The Whole tour was going to Bogoria to see the flamingo, it was so beautiful there. Me and friends all like it!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Happy to have been. An abundance of animals and viewing spots, barren landscape and bumpy roads.
I visited the Etosha National Park from a campsite outside the main gate. Even before reaching the first Lodge inside the park I had seen two lions. The roads were quite drivable, even in a two wheeled car. There were plenty of watering holes and an abundance of animals. You really didn’t have to look too hard. I saw in addition to the lions, giraffe, rhinos, wildebeest, elephants and many others. My only criticism would be the hopelessly inadequate queueing system to buy the park entry permit. One person dealing with these requests and two other people sat idly beside her. Not their job.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful experience, rough around the edges
My wife and I are Americans in our late 20s who spent a week in July 2019 in Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park.
Overall, we had a wonderful time. Everything was very safe, the people are quite friendly and helpful, and the wildlife and falls were spectacular. Travel here takes a bit of planning, however, as cash and fuel are in short supply and power cuts are somewhat frequent (twice during our stay). In this part of the country I wouldn't worry about safety, I would just make sure to make as many arrangements ahead of time as possible.
SG
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good but can be better ...transparency is the key !
When we decided to experience the much famed African Safari, stumbled upon the online market place “Safari Bookings” which has thousand over African Safari operators offering either standard packages or some of them can customise according to traveller needs. It is quite overwhelming to choose from the list of operators – in spite of applying certain preferences. We wanted to cover Masai Mara, Serengeti, Amboseli, Ngorongoro and Lake Nakuru. We saw the standard packages from 3 operators offering these and one of them was TripAdvisor Africa Safaris. We usually rely Trip Advisor reviews but we couldn’t find any review for “TripAdvisor Africa Safaris” which created a suspicion if this could be a scamster operator. But their itinerary was definitely better than others we compared; while Safari Bookings assured that they do verify the tour operator licenses, they cannot guarantee things cannot go wrong with the operators listed under their wings. So we took a chance with TripAdvisor Safaris as Vincent Seth assured us that we wouldn’t regret taking up a package with them. I should add, we mentally prepared ourselves to expect some disappointments based on the past reviews and hoped we weren’t one of those who had to face severe disappointments. Our 11 nights 12 day (Jul 13 - Jul 24 2019) African Safari in Kenya and Tanzania definitely met our expectations though we there were some items of the itinerary had to be skipped – the distances between the national parks are very large and it is not possible to jam pack so many. We had to skip the baby elephant and welcome dinner at Carnivore on day 1 – this I guess depends on the arrival time. We had to skip the Hells gate national park on day 3 so that we shall be able to reach Masai Mara before the stipulated park closure time. Our major gripe is about the accommodation in Masai Mara – we were put up at Sun Lodge which is very far off from the game viewing areas, though it is located inside the park. While the location of the lodge is exotic, the difficult terrain and the long drive makes it very a very demanding. Contrary to the itinerary we were booked for 3 nights here and we were the only family in the entire lodge – that made us wonder if Sun Lodge was so infamous such that even in peak season no one prefers it. I guess this was booked pretty cheap compared to any other lodge in Masai Mara. But it would be bad on my part if I don’t appreciate the service of the most friendliest staff I ever came across in Africa and the sumptuous dinner they had prepared for us. It would have been perfect if not for the difficult terrain and long travel to the park every day. The game drives in all the national parks were very good; the guides were knowledgeable, pleasant – Jacob in Kenya for Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara; Ezekiel for Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Richard for Amboseli. Lion Hill lodge at Nakuru, Kati-Kati tented camp in Serengeti (best experience of the entire trip and sumptuous dinners), Ngorongoro Wildlife lodge, Amboseli Sopa Lodge were all very good and matched our expectations; again in Tanzania, we had a terrible experience at the Twiga camp site – this was not as per the itinerary and a rundown place; food was not good as well. We were supposed to travel to Tarangire and accommodation was Tarangire Safari Lodge but ended up in this Twiga camp site. The border transfers were smooth with the drivers/guides waiting on time – I was quite apprehensive if things would be smooth after reading some experiences. Overall except for the accommodation mess up in Masai Mara (since it was 3 nights high level of inconvenience) and 1 night at Twiga camp site, we had an excellent gaming experience. I am thankful that Vincent made sure that the gaming drives were good, sent us reasonable drivers/guides and most importantly border transfers were smooth with the drivers waiting there on time to receive us. Vincent Seth seems genuinely interested in improving the quality of tours he offers; he can definitely achieve that provided he tweaks his itinerary not to over promise and to be transparent about the accommodation if in case its different from that of the itinerary. One more vital point is to communicate the agreed itinerary to the drivers/guides and stick to it.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Akagera Park
The guide was very kind and helpful and we drove a long time so that I could see different animals.
The park in Akagera is beautiful and kept in very good condition.
IN
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Quite reliable Punctual, Stay as per the program sent by Martha. Guide Joseph was very enthusiastic
Communication was prompt and Martha was always available for telecom. Last day we could have gone for half day Safari as per the program. Food at all the lodges except A A Lodge Ambosali was good. Sopa Lodge at Naivasha was the Best. A A Lodge Masai mara was good.
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Gorilla Tracking in Uganda
The Encounter Africa Safari communicates efficiently when I reached them for the information of the Gorilla Tracking Tour. They provide enough genuine information about the trip, and the service is exactly as described in their e-mail. They provide airport pick up, hotel drop off. The driving to national park takes the whole day, and they can arrange the meals, accommodation and the local guides for the Gorilla tracking.
It is recommended that you should book the Gorilla Tracking trip in advance as there is a restriction on the number of visitors to each Gorilla Family every day. The trip requires good physical ability of hiking, especially for certain families happening to occur in high mountain on the visiting day. It can be labor-demanding to reach them but when you find the silver back family, it is totally worth it.
TH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tour Operator is very helpful and respond on time and professionally. We had great great fun.
The staffs work professionally. Our tour guides are super nice. The safari was one of the best travel experience we have.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A whole lot of fun
We had a great time on safari and our guide John was very accomodating and would stop for us if we wanted to see something or take photos. Communcation with admin was great too as we booked everthing online and via email and they were able to secure us two permits for the gorillas when other companies couldnt. Unfortunately our safari 4WD broke down about 4 times and we had to keep stopping and waiting for repairs but i guess it sort of added to our adventures...maybe a better working 4WD is needed with a good service before the next safari.