DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great Trip but ....
First, I can't emphasize enough how beautiful and scenic landscape and wild-life watching is! Our Tourguide showed us great places. Since all tour operators do more or less the same (travel plan, camping sites, food) its maybe important to know how Trip Advisor Safaris works: Its not an operator, but it provides your booking to sub-contractors. For example, the woman who took our payment was from Seven Wonders Safari, other people in our group booked at Hekima Safari... I don't say it's not good or bad, it's just not transparent and you feel that it doesn't matter at all which organisation you choose (at least in this price range). We definitely got a good deal with Trip Advisor Safaris, since they charge less than other organisations.
What I didn't like so much was the communication. Before we paid the deposit communication was fluent, after having paid, questions weren't answers anymore. This doesn't raised my trust but in the end everything worked out well and we were picked up at the airport as promised. The second thing I didn't like that much was our tour guides attitude from time to time. On our first day Umar guided us. He was really great and told us a lot interessting things. Unfortunately, he had to leave after the first day (for personal reasons as he told us) and was replaced by Amani. For my impression, Amani seemed a bit rude and not very motivated. One day he had our binoculars in the trunk and refused to get them for us even if we pleased him several times. As you can imagine... being on a safari without binoculars is not that helpful ;-) The worst thing for me was when he got off road once to get closer to a group of cheetahs (in his defense, a member of the group coerced him to do so) but it's forbidden to leave the trail and the protection of animals should weigh higher than annoying tourists. I know, a lot of tourist want to get as close as possible to the animals but Serengeti is not a zoo and I expect guides to follow the parks rules.
Even if I complained a lot it was an unforgettable trip and I can recommend strongly to do it - no matter with which organisation. By booking Trip Advisor Safaris you get the same quality as by any other organisation as long as your willing to deal with some intransparencies.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge and Safari was amazing; Kanyezi not so much.
The Sabi Sabi staff and accommodations were absolutely amazing and first class. The ranger and tracker made our trip! We saw so much more than we expected - up close and personal! The food, service, and villas were 5 star. However, I would book direct rather than use Kanyezi in the future. Chris and Michael were with us only in Capetown. In Sabi Sabi, they had their "friend" act as our guide. We really didn't need a guide in Sabi Sabi because the lodge takes care of everything. In Victoria Falls, we were all basically on our own with a local guide who we had difficulty understanding. The accommodations in Vic Falls were far less than the 4 Star advertised.
Air travel was arranged very late despite emailing and calling on several occasions. We only received our international flight arrangements/tickets 2 weeks prior to our departure day! Given we were required to wire transfer the full payment months before the actual trip, this made us very nervous. Most all guests in our group had similar issues. Some did not get airline tickets until days before departure.
Lastly, Kanyezi threatened with legal action a guest in our group who posted a question online about their lack of responsiveness. They upset one couple on our trip and told them they should have booked the trip themselves! While generally nice people, they are highly unprofessional at times. This is marketed as a luxury trip of a lifetime ....
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
welcome to the jungle
The safari itself has been fantastic. Good food, good driver/guide (Emmanuel), accomodation in tent as expected. We passed a very good time with the animals and the wild saving a lot of money. We only have had 2 misunderstanding with the hotel for the 1 night accomodation and for the way back to the airport, so we suggest to be preparated and maybe to organize yourself to save money and to avoid surprises. We suggest Twinkle star tour for your tanzanian trip.
US
Animals are amazing but don't use BIGMAC Safaris
Nothing can beat the wildlife of Kenya, however we had the WORST tour guide, John and would not recommend BigMac safaris or John as a guide. He rarely spoke to us and quite honestly barely acknowledged us. He put us in danger by driving insane speeds on the roads and with broken seat belts. He was on his phone ALL of the time, if not talking then texting and looked like we were bothering him anytime we asked a question. He was frequently late for us sometimes at the expense of us missing meals. Go with another company, ANY OTHER company has to be better. He only spoke to us at the end when he wanted to explain to us what a good guide he was and if we didn't believe him we should "check trip advisor".
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Poor communication but ended up with an amazing experience.
Communication started off good early into the planning of the safari but ended up poor. After a while the responses i was getting were vague. What really annoyed me was when i was told that once i got to my hotel in arusha the night before safari someone would be waiting at the hotel to collect the remainder of money that needed to be paid and an intinerary of the next day would be given. Arrived at the hotel with no one from the tour operators to give any information. Spent half an hour trying to get through to them to get some information with no answer. Eventually they called the hotel back to give us our pick up time and no apology or explanation of why they were not there when they said they would be. If your gonna say your going to do this then i would expect this to be done. Other then that we had exceptional service due to our tour guide Oscar. Great guy who provided us with a great knowledge of the all the animals and history of the serengetti. Overall i was happy with service that was provided but the lack of communication was rather annoying.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Hell's Gate National Park by Luanne
We rented bikes to ride in, entrance fees for non-Kenyans are way too high! Bikes were not safe, however, sand on the road and no tread on the tires of the bikes. Hike in to the Devil's Bedroom was more than I was ready for, but beautiful once we got there.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Okay
First things first, I prefer dealing with only one person while planning a trip from beginning to the end but this was not the case I ended up dealing with Sam then Chris then Francis which was a bit concerning because information was lost in translation and I ended up having to repeat myself quite a few times.
I would have loved a detailed breakdown of the itinerary in terms if what clothes to carry for rafting what kind of clothes and shoes to carry for the gorilla trek including the fact that porters are a necessity for the hike, the different levels of the trek in order to be well prepared..We had enquired from Martin our driver if we could stop to buy hiking boots and rain coats but he said there would be no need since we can hire these from Bwindi which was not even the case! But he managed to redeem himself by signing us up for the medium level trek which we thoroughly enjoyed. It would have helped if we also had a breakdown of the rafting itinerary in terms of breakfast is actually provided on site as opposed to us having to rush the hotel to provide a packed breakfast.
It would also have helped if we had been informed in advance that that we would be required to tip as a gesture of kindness starting from the rafting crew to the gorilla trek crew.
Our driver was constantly rushing us and this became borderline unprofessional.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
too basic for my taste.
My guide and the staff at the camp were lovely and very accommodating. The highlight of the trip was visiting the local village where many of the staff live. It was primitive (no running water or electricity to the individual huts) but the women of the community was very cordial, everything was orderly and the children were quite happy. The Delta had the most amazing array of beautiful birds i’ve ever seen. It was fun to see elephants and rhinos peacefully roaming so close to the camp.
However, the accommodations were basically fixed, elevated tents. The cold running spicket and toilet were outside of the sleeping area. It had a gravity feed shower that was impossible to work, so I bathed under a faucet. There was no electricity in the tent! A small solar lamp and lantern were the only sources of lightly night.
IE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Overpriced Destination
Safari was great. Guide was knowledgeable. Balloon was a rip off. Way overpriced at a ridiculous 400 USD/per person for an hour flight. Then poor quality photos were an optional extra 40 USD. Kenya would be great if they didn't automatically screw you and charge you double/triple on everything just because you're white or a westerner. Also there is a sense of entitlement among those providing services, like they deserve to screw tourists, or that you must tip as they feel owed!!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Buyer beware
Great trip honestly. It was catered to what I wanted including, Seychelles, Kenya, safari, hot air balloon over Masai Mara, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Giraffe Manor, Zanzibar! But there was MAJOR communication failure once we were there towards the end on the Mt Kili leg. We stayed anour away from Mt Kili when there was a hotel RIGHT THERE AT THE AIRPORT, we under packed for the cold and rainy Muntain hike. They expected us to practcally rush down (more than 1/2 way up the Mt.) Since we had a 6:00 pm flight to catch. Needless to say we missed, no shower as we rushed to make it to airport. We didn't have enough cash on us, and none of the ATMs worked. Credit card machine was broken so we couldn't book another flight! The guy who was supposed to help us during this trip, Elliot/Yulad dropped the bill, got snippy with us saying 'others make this flight coming off the mountain all the time.' He eventually hung up on us after saying, 'if I make this better, will u not complain about me?' Seriously! This shortened our final stay in Zanzibar which we were going to just cancel because it'd've been too much rushing, but we chose to go since the new agent working with us after Elliot, said she'd coordinate r flights. So again we rushed to the island for 27 hour stay! Which was supposed to be full days! In the end, We were reimbursed Some but it put such a sour end to what could've been an AMAZING DREAM trip. The owner was easy to work with once we were back in the US. Believe it or not, I still referred 2 people to Oddyssey Safaris but told them to run far if they hear the name Elliot/Yulad!
