CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
More Expensive for More Information but Not Neccessarily a Better Tour
I went on the 14 day Combined Kenya-Tanzania Safari. I chose Inspired Feet because of their positive reviews, excellent e-mail communication and detailed itinerary. Fiona was professional and answered all my questions. I had multiple guides but Francis and Godana in Kenya were the best and deserve a shout-out for their service.
I thought I would be with one group the whole time but I was not. This was disappointing to me as a solo traveller. Unless you are on a private tour, you will be on "joining safari" which means you share a car with multiple people from different tour companies. People may have different itineraries. I changed cars 3 times in Kenya and 2 times in Tanzania. It was nice to meet new people and have different drivers but it made it harder to form a bond with people. This was because I had a longer itinerary than most people (it was the extra day in Kenya compared to others that threw things off).
The value for money is OK. I met people who had the same itinerary as me but paid less. I thought I was getting value out of a more detailed itinerary book but honestly it was not worth it. When you get on the safari everyone is figuring things out as they go anyway. Go with the tour company with the best price that hits the destinations you want. The extra information about the destinations in the book and about the hotels was not worth paying what I estimate was 10-15% more than what others did (at least). I would recommend upgrading to the jeep for Kenya though - it is essential and I didn't see any vans in the parks.
Inspired Feet did not communicate with me after I paid the deposit. I was on my own for my visas and had to message them about scheduling the transport from the hotel to their office. Other tour operators did this for their clients so I would have liked more communication.
I was recommended the 14 day itinerary because it was "the most popular option". This was not my experience. During my trip, I did not meet anyone doing the same itinerary (with Inspired Feet or another company). Most people do Kenya OR Tanzania. I did 7 days in Kenya but most people I met were doing 5 days. In Tanzania, I did 6 days but most people do 4. If you want to go to Kenya and Tanzania and want to save money/time, do the 10 day itinerary - it skips Lake Naivasha, Lake Manyara and Tarangire Park, which aren't as popular or good of parks. I preferred Kenya over Tanzania so I would do 6 days in Kenya (having 2 full days in Masai Mara was worth it). The drive to the Serengeti in Tanzania included 4 hours of the worst roads I've ever seen. I thought the Masai Mara was much better for wildlife because it is more dense part. Only go to the Serengeti if it is a bucket list item. The Ngorongoro Crater was highly underwhelming - cool landscape but it really is just a hole in the ground with few animals. Despite this, I enjoyed having a longer trip because I did see new things everyday and could appreciate all the parks at a slower pace. The 4 day run doing Serengeti and Ngorongoro is absolutely brutal - I am glad I had 2 extra days to break it up.
Would I recommend Inspired Feet? Yes and No. Their service was quality, the tour was great and I had a good time. It was expensive for a budget safari and I don't think I should have been recommended the 14-day tour.
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
KR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not bad
The flight time was changed, which was inconvenient, but overall everything else was fine.
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Nice Safari
We had 5-days trip with this tour operator. Our guide was very nice and and he gave us a lot of info about the animals and the places we saw. The accomodations selected for us were all very beautiful and comfortable. The only bad part of the story was the car with poor mantainance: the tires did not have any tread, there was no wi-fi inside and no a/c.
PT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Overall a Average Safari
Overall, the experience was average. There are some important points that need improvement.
Negative aspects:
The main issue was the scheduling and travel times. According to the itinerary, on the first day we were supposed to arrive at Masai Mara around lunchtime and have a game drive in the afternoon. However, we only arrived at 4 PM, and the park closed at 6:30 PM.
On the third day, we travelled from Masai Mara to Amboseli Park, and the journey took much longer than expected. The proposal mentioned we would arrive around lunchtime, but we only got there at 6 PM, with the park closing at 7 PM.
As a result, on those days we barely had any time for safari activities, even though we paid the park entrance fees. At one point, we were even advised to go straight to the accommodation instead of entering the park, but the entrance fee would not have been refunded.
This was quite disappointing for us, as we were expecting plenty of time for game drives, but ended up spending too much time on the road instead.
About the organization:
Peter, who handled all the arrangements, always replied quickly to our messages, which we appreciated. However, at the same time, it often felt like he wasn’t fully attentive or dedicated to our questions. During the trip, he was not flexible when we raised concerns about the limited time we had in the parks, which added to our frustration.
Positive aspects:
Our driver and guide, Songe, was good. He really tried his best to make up for the lost time and to follow the itinerary as planned. As he mentioned, the people who design the itineraries are in the office and don’t really understand the reality of travelling on the ground.
The accommodations were also very good and matched our expectations. And, of course, the safari itself - the game drives - were fantastic. Our driver worked very hard to show us all the animals, and that made the experience truly memorable.
TW
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We felt like John lied to us, the rest are good
Our trip in Kenya at 8 days. First three days we went to Amboseli, the guide is Reuben. He was really great, actively looking for animals and finding locations to take photos for us. Then we went to Masai Mara , the guide change to John and our nightmare started.
John lied to us He wanna deceived us for additional $400 Maasai Mara park fee. We called Dume’s boss-Henry to check there was no extra fee, then John started felt angry and maliciously shortening the Safari time and treat us very bad like verbal threats and provocations and rejected any service like pulling up the Safari car roof, taking our luggages and so on.
John never actively searches for animals during safaris (he doesn't even have his own binoculars). He told us to searched the animals by ourselves. He simply drives around, and only finds animals by following the group of parked safari vehicles.
On our way back to Nairobi from Naivasha, John, without prior notice, took a stranger (John claimed to be his wife) into our safari vehicles and brought her back to Nairobi.
We talked to Henry twice to report John's malicious actions. Henry repeatedly insisting that John was "his friend and a good person" and simply saying he would discuss the matter with John. So we simply requested that John behave in a normal so that we could complete the rest of our trip smoothly. But still disappointed us, he still not change.
After the trips, Henry finally called us and we repeatly told him about John's bad behavior from the first day. He finally apologized to us and treated us a lunch to make amends.
When we got back home, Henry called me again, saying that Dume have two John. And he already fired John. So be careful, maybe he will go to another safari company. （The photo is John）
Except for John, Reuben and Naivasha Hill‘s gate bicycle guide Sammy (He had his own planned path which is very beautiful and he took really good care of us) are great! All stars were given to them but John minus all the stars.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Gerjanne Bosman
If you want go to Lake Manyara, please let this be your first Safari park. Compared to the other parks, this park is not that exciting for me
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Joseph our driver was great. The organisation however was awful
We booked a private transfer from Johannesburg to Krueger. This was booked for pickup at 07:00. The transfer was for 2 pax and we paid 4,500 Rand. We booked through MoAfrika tours but the transfer was with SafariLink (the vehicle we were picked up in had branding for both).
We were contacted by SafariLink on WhatsApp to reconfirm the booking details the day prior. The re confirmation stated a pickup time of 09:25 which was incorrect. We confirmed the correct details with SafariLink via WhatsApp on two occasions during the day and were told the booking was updated and we would be collected at 07:00 as expected (on both occasions).
On the day of pickup we checked out of our room early, missed breakfast and were ready for a leisurely drive to Krueger. We were ultimately picked up at 08:30 after lots of calls and messages to try and work out where our driver was.
Unfortunately the administrator at SafariLink who had confirmed the 07:00 pickup via WhatsApp had not passed the details onto Joseph. This meant we had to drive directly to Krueger with only a 5 minute stop along the way in order to ensure we did not miss any of our safari activities. The drive is c6 hours with no stops.
Joseph did a great job of making the best out of a bad situation. He made time up, he contacted our lodgings to make sure they were aware of our arrival time and kept us updated on progress along the journey. The organisation by the team who sit behind Joseph though left a lot to be desired.
The transfer vehicle was clean, modern, good WiFi capabilities etc. Joseph was also a very safe driver and pointed out points of interest along the way.
I have provided a 3* review as we paid a lot of money for the private transfer and all it led to was extra stress and inconvenience (we should have just taken the shared transfer that was included at not extra cost). Were it not for Joseph this would be a 1* review. Was the pickup on time then this would be a 5* review.
If using this Company I would suggest triple checking your booking confirmation well in advance and in the run up to your journey.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Joseph was 10/10, but organisation from Safarilink lacking
We experienced an issue whereby our transfer was recorded on the system as being at 9am, however it should have been booked at 7am. We confirmed this with Safarilink the day before we were due to travel and thought it had been corrected. On the day unfortunately the driver was only able to pick us up at 8:30am due to the system error.
Thankfully, we had Joseph who kindly made up as much time as he could in a safe manner - he was brilliant, telling us about our journey and made time for a comfort break without leading to a delay. He did everything he could to get us to our destination quickly but safely which we appreciated.
Safarilink were contactable by WhatsApp and phone which was helpful. It’s a shame about the delay.