DE
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Georgeous look at the remains of african wilderness
Pleasant hilly landscapes or wast savannah-like plains. We travelled at the beginning of the rainy season, and found temperature-range very enjoyable. We admired the sublime unrestraint of the nile valley, the rwenzory hights, the easy access to chimp- and gorilla habitats. After making peace with the salt poverty of the food, we gained 2 kilos each within 3 weeks. Seducing sweet and ripe fruits, some of them we had never seen before, excellent meat and fish, tasty side-dishes. All you can eat, and more. Shame on me. Never got a stomach egg though. Almost no moskitos. Tsetse-flies only on the people around me dressed in blue and black just like the insect traps . Thrilling Boda-boda rides, allegedly even more dangerous than hippos. Drivers were true reliable acrobats, so was our tour guide. Intelligent, always friendly, never tired, very communicative, competent. Felt like travelling with a friend. Safari-van in best shape to survive african massage. Commod way to get around. Wonderful wildlife experience, getting as close as that elephant sniffling at the porch of my tent. Accomodation viable. Sometimes no warm water, sometimes broken tent zippers, sometimes mosquito-tents only useful as decoration. Had not seen a single water tap properly bolted to the sink, however this is a mysterium to be found all over east africa. Opined Uganda with its vivid chaos much more attractive than almost suisse-like rwanda. This may however change with the soon expected doubling of population, meaning the doubling of dwellings, infrastructure, traffic. No more space for wildlife of any kind (please refer to Germany). No more rain forests. No more rain. Do your travelling now!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing experience!
Great variety of wildlife, beautiful scenery, great weather. Accommodations were average, East Africa tends to be less westernized. Food quality varied but was generally decent. Our guides were not as knowledgable as we would have liked but probably would have been fine for people with less questions about animal behavior, etc. Serengeti is incredible, Ngorongoro Crater is amazing as well. Tarangire is great for elephant lovers. Lake Manyara was a bit disappointing compared to the other parks.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
6-day fly-in safari
Overall, we had a great first-time safari with TravelPartners. Arranging the safari from London was very easy - I was able to tailor our itinerary over Whatsapp and email quickly and efficiently. We paid half upfront by SWIFT transfer and the rest on the ground. Be aware that taxes can be added on to credit card payments, so cash is better.
We flew into the Serengeti on effectively our own charter flight, which was fabulous! We were then picked up by our driver in the Central Serengeti and managed to see a live cheetah kill in the first hour! Our jeep was great - a Landcruiser with a pop-up top. We spent the next few days in the Serengeti seeing all of the big 5 (aside from the rhino) and chasing the migration. We didn’t quite get a river crossing (it was a bit late in the year for that), but had amazing experiences chasing leopards around in the rain and listening to hippos grunting outside our mobile migration camp in the Northern Serengeti.
We drove out of the Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater, where we saw (at a distance) a black rhino - finally! Our accommodation was mid-high end and was therefore pretty impressive.
The national parks have strict clock-in and out times, which we were unaware of, and this affects how much time you can spend in them on safari, so it is very important to ask for this information up front. As a result, we had an extra day of safari time which we wouldn’t have been able to use if we had not negotiated (while on safari) to include Lake Manyara national park - which worked out well in the end.
As you are now not allowed to go on walking safaris in the Serengeti, you spend a lot of time with your driver, so it’s important to establish a rapport. Anderson, our driver, was very knowledgeable and accomodating. When asked, he was able to offer up lots of interesting facts on what we were seeing.
All in all, we had a great safari experience covering more or less the entire Northern circuit. Flying in saved so much time, allowing us to fit more in. Thank you to the team at TravelPartners!
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very well organized Safari !
From the beginning communication with Roberto was very good. He gave us all info and details request and propose to us a "tailor-made" itinerary very well prepared. We really enjoyed our Safari at Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire with a nice guide (speaking good Italian).
NO
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Masai Mara National Reserve by Rolf
It was sad to see that the Mara river had so little water.
NO
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
US
65+ years of age
nice trip
Our 6-days safari of veterinarians with Safarihub through Taranagire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti NPs and through Ngorongoro crater conservation area was a wonderful, stunning and breathtaking experience.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Greatest experience with value for the money paid
The services were on point, the tour guide was always good at communicating to us with my teammates and all we liked most was that we were served everything that was in the itinerary.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
very professional
Very professional !! They fulfilled our wishes and even more! The guide was well informed and very friendly, we had an amazing time!
Professional wildlife safari with a good dose of adventure
My wife and I arrived mid-morning at Skakusa Airport unaware that our travel consultant had made an error in not having us fly to Hoedspruit given our destination was Arathusa Safari Lodge, part of the Sabi Sands Game Reserve annexed to Kruger National Park.
This error made little difference to our activities for the day. We were met at Skakusa by our pre-booked driver who alerted us to the apparent error but decided that he'd turn the situation to our advantage and take us for a drive through the southern end of Kruger National Park.
We quickly encountered elephant, giraffe, impala and zebra.
Our departure from the park was through Paul Kruger Gate where we were met by a small band of vervet monkeys who kept an eye on what we were doing but perhaps looking for an opportunity for a 'grab and run' easy feed, not that we were eating anything at the time.
Leaving Paul Kruger Gate, we crossed the fast flowing Sabi River observing a couple of jousting hippopotamus then stumbling upon a cunning 2.5 metre Nile crocodile waiting patiently below the bridge for unwitting (or perhaps already drowned) prey to be swept past.
We traveled west to Hazyview in Mpumalanga province then turned north towards Acornhoek where along the way we saw the impressive rise of the Drakensberg Range. We took in the sights of busy townships and even busier local markets. Leaving Acornhoek, we traveled east along a sealed road that we thought was in worse condition than some of the dirt roads we'd be travelling and then south to Gowrie Gate and onto Arathusa Safari Lodge.
We'd just made lunch and there was a commotion on the other side of the waterhole ... a pack of a dozen or so African wild dogs had pulled down an impala so it was quickly into the 4WDs armed with cameras to witness this hectic episode. The wild dogs didn't waste any time and ripped the impala apart within minutes. It all came and went very quickly with our guides telling us that hunts of this size happen a couple of times a day as there is simply not enough in an impala to sustain a pack of this size.
And so started 3 days of evening and morning safaris. We were allocated the same driver and spotter for our time at Arathusa so it was possible to build a rapport with these guys and have a bit of fun along the way. Be warned, the early morning starts and evening safaris are quite cold this time of year so take plenty of warm clothing. The 4WDs also have woollen blankets available.
This was our first trip to South Africa and it became clear early on that certain wildlife was easier to find than others. Considerable effort was put into locating leopards and after talking with other guests and continuing our travels through Botswana and Zimbabwe, our total of 5 at Arathusa was special. Even better, two of these allowed us to get some very special pictures early one morning - a female and her well-advanced cub. Our driver was also acutely aware of where to stop the vehicle so as to get the best possible photographs.
The accommodation, food and beverages were first class and the staff were polite and made our stay very comfortable. We wanted for nothing other than perhaps better light for taking photos.
On to Hoedspruit (not Skakusa) Airport to continue our journey.