35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Overall good, but a couple of issues.
I booked the 4-day Small Group to Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater. The booking process was easy and all my questions were answered.
The driver, Julius, was very nice. He ensured we had enough water, communicated with the other drivers to find out where the animals were, ensured the truck was in a good position to take photos and that generally everyone was okay.
We were extremely lucky with the animals we saw; I think even Julius was surprised how lucky we were.
Overall the accommodation was excellent, especially the camp in the Serengeti. The food was delicious and plentiful, though there is a restrictive choice.
Two issues stops the rating from being Excellent is that the trip includes a free hotel stay in Arusha at the beginning or at the end of the trip. The hotel I stayed in was basic, though for the rest of the tour the accommodation was excellent. The other people on the tour booked their accommodation independently and it wasn't great. I think that generally accommodation in Arusha isn't a high standard.
The second issue was I had requested for a pick-up from the airport to the hotel, as part of my booking. It was not until the last day of my tour, in the middle of a game drive, I was told that I had to pay an additional US$90 for the pick-up/drop-off at the airport. Though, it was cheaper than arranging a taxi, I did not appreciate finding out on my last day, on a game drive, that there was still a significant payment to be made. There is no mention in the Price Excludes list of the airport pick-up/drop-off; my tour in Uganda picked me up and dropped me off at the airport at no additional cost.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Day walk through Isalo National Park
Spent a full day walking through the park, including a visit to the Piscine Naturelle and through canyon. Very pleasant any enjoyable, though very hot and with not a lot of shade. With a good guide, as we had, we saw a good amount of wildlife, including some wild lemurs very close up. Highlight was probably the scenery, which was quite spectacular and really quite varied. The Piscine Naturelle was nice and very welcome for a swim in the heat, but not the highlight. Some ups and downs, but on the whole the walking was not too difficult and made for a good day.
CI
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
an easy and rewarding trip to Maputo Special Reserve
The Maputo Special Reserve is an important link in the regional wildlife conservation efforts and great efforts have been made to re-establish wildlife, virtually extinct after the civil war, and infrastructure. The combination of the shore with beaches and the park with ist wildlife make it especially attractive. There are resorts and campsites and one finds many weekend/holiday visitors from SA with their boats and tents.
Our visit was a short one from Maputo in between work, on a Saturday. Arranged by the owner of our bed and breakfast with her own 4WD. Costs were US$ 200 for the two of us, including park entrance fee. Renting a vehicle or have a travel agency do the trip will be more expensive. A 4WD is needed, the area is mostly very sandy and a normal vehicle will get stuck in no time and isn't allowed in the park. The new Maputo-Katembe bridge (opened end of 2018) and the completely renewed road from Maputo south to Punta de Ouro and the SA border make that the trip from Maputo to the park entrance only takes just over an hour. We spent some two and a half hours in the park, mainly driving to the Lagoa Chinguto, the largest lake in the park. On this short trip, we saw elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, hippo's, impala, southern reedbuck, natal duiker, greater kudu and crocodiles. Birds were abundant, especially waterfowl with both resident and migrant species: spoonbills, yellow-billed stork, egrets, herons, various terns and waders.
The park is espcially interesting for those with little time to spend but still want to see wildlife, and for those who have more time to spend and combine a beach-park-camping/lodging trip.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Breathtaking
The scenery is unbeatable and the experience is something I would recommend to everyone in a heartbeat. The company was good considering it was a budget travel company. The quality of some of the meals could have been a little better. But overall, the company's hospitality was great - they gave us a bottle of red wine to welcome us which was a nice touch! I would recommend these guys for all budget travelers. We actually ended up going to all the places and lodging exactly where all the more expensive groups were. Richard and his team are professionals and will take care of you to the best of their ability.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Mixed bag.
I already passed this onto our tour rep at mufasa tours.
The trip was mostly good.
Read on:
I note there's no star rating above for accommodation?
The driver (Joe) was great. No complaints there, he did a fantastic job, very happy with him.
AA Lodge Amboseli was not good. Badly run. So many things wrong with the place, mostly at the restaurant such as
- starting one meal an hr late with no excuse or apology given
-bones in the pork stir fry
- running out of food (specifically bacon and pancakes) 20 minutes before the end of breakfast service
-napkins always damp
- sometimes we had napkins, sometimes not. I saw one table with 7 places have one napkin in the table
- cutlery laid out randomly, I once had 2 knives 3 spoons and one fork.
-swimming pool not nice at all
- WiFi available only at cheetah bar, and very slow
-in our packed lunch there was a sandwich with one Slice of cucumber.
-no butter anywhere, only blue band
-OK selection of food but no chapatis or kachumbari
-waiters were often slow to ask us for drinks and to clear our table
-the layout of the restaurant meant it was difficult to get from our table to the food stations, as we had to squeeze through tables
-poor level of English spoken
On the plus side, the room was big and the bed comfortable.
I would recommend new management or remove them from your package tours.
In one game drive we stopped at serena lodge to use the bathroom and have a coffee. And the difference between the 2 places is simply _ridiculous_ .
Amboseli Park itself was great. Very enjoyable.
In Tsavo east the hotel we stayed in (name? ) is a bit old but the service and staff were MUCH better, and the restaurant was much better run.
Despite being older, and needing some refurbishment, this place was simply better in every way. And we managed to see a leopard.
The manager (Dennis) and all the staff were attentive and spoke good English.
Only recommendation for this place, other than refurbishment, is to use insecticide more liberally, as the insects are numerous. Not a problem for me but my partner hates insects. Also, new mosquito nets.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Kenya1
I saw 4 of the Big 5 here in Kenya, the tour guides were very well versed on the wildlife there. The Lodges were excellent.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing trip
We enjoyed our Murchison Falls National park.I enjoyed the dusty roads ..I reccomend one to book with Bazanya safaris Uganda.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good Safari
We saw many animals. Three days were enough because you cannot leave the Jeep and the tents are not the most comfortable. There they set up shop for you. They have everything, tent and sleeping bags although we prefer to take ours. The bathrooms were not clean.
The cook very well although it took an hour to serve the food ... The lunch of the first day is a meal box that was not very good but the rest very rich and cooked.
The good driver guide and informed us of the birds and animals. The first day we wait about two hours to go out to the Safari.
TW
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable Wildlife Experience
Overall the safaris were great! We saw and learned about many animals, and the sceneries were beautiful. We went in summer, but the weather was relatively cold, as it was our first time to safari, I wish someone could've told us that the Kruger safari would take the whole day, jacket, sunglasses and sunscreen are a must for a more enjoyable ride. The accommodations were very African style and the food was tasty, we really enjoyed them. It's a pitty that we didn't get to see all the big five, however, we heard there was a bigger chance of seeing rhinos, leopards and buffalos at the camp site we were staying, which we weren't arranged to see during the three days we were there, maybe the tour package we bought were too short. Nevertheless, we still had an amazing wildlife experience and we would do it again in the future!
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing when you don't get ripped off!
We booked a Safari tour with Crater Explorer on Safari Booking.
Exchanges where nice but only by WhatsApp, we didn't receive any receipt, anything confirming us the booking, but anyway, we thought it was quite normal in Tanzania.
Arrived in Arusha, the guy from Crater Explorer (Emanuel), ask us to pay the globally by cash a day before the safari without giving us any receipt (what is suspect).
Hopefully we were with a local Tanzanian at this time, who thought it was a scam.
And actually he was right! During the day the safari was very nice, we saw many animals, parks are extremely beautiful BUT for the accommodation it was the opposite of what we paid for. We were supposed to sleep in tents IN the park and actually we slept in a dirty lodge outside of the park, in a city center very noisy! We were very very disappointed, and we didn't get any refund, anything.
Just as advise, please verify safari agencies that you promote on your website, and make sure they do what they sell!