NL
Nice safari
The safari is really great, only one day of game drive is not that much though. The food was good, the drive between Dar es Salaam and Mikumi pretty long with a guy who hardly spoke any English.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Funny, accommodating, and good at spotting animals
This was a great bang for our buck. We saw a ton of animals and felt taken care of by our guide the entire time. I highly recommend this service for anyone looking for cheaper safaris
NO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
6-day safari. An amazing experience with a highly professional company. Recommended!!
Meru Slopes Tours & Safaris was the correct choice for us from the very beginning. Booking a safari tour in Tanzania is a complex task, full of uncertainty. There are thousands of companies offering a wide variety of safari experiences, but most of the time it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable information about them. We were looking for a budget, more authentic experience, away from luxury lodges in natural areas. After doing some research, we contacted Meru Slopes, as it showed to be a company with a large number of positive reviews on TripAdvisor. To my surprise, and thankfully, Geofrey, the company manager, answered back within one hour, and provided us with all the necessary information, and moreover, answered all our (too many) questions in the following days.
Meru Slopes Tours & Safaris is a really professional and well-organized company. They were able to re-schedule our tour after a two-day delay of arrival in Tanzania due to flight cancellations (not covid-related). Plus, we requested the meals to be vegetarian, to which they agreed and comply in an excellent way.
Speaking of the safari experience, it was everything Meru Slopes promised. We didn’t have to worry about anything but enjoy the trip. The trip started with us being picked up at Arusha airport, and from there a 2 hour trip to Jambo lodge in Mto Wa Mbu (Mosquito River), close to Lake Manyara National Park. There we met the rest (3) of the passengers, And the crew formed by Jacob, the guide and driver, And Rasheed, our cook. They would be with us for the following 6 days. We visited Lake Manyara National Park for the first encounter with the so promised African wildlife. The result did not disappoint: lots of elephants, gazelles,
antelopes, and even the famous tree-climbing lions. After a full day game drive, we headed back to Jambo lodge, where we enjoyed dinner with local food cooked by Rasheed, and experienced some traditional dance exhibitions by the local people from the village.
On the second day, Jacob headed to the famous Serengeti National Park. After 3 hours, we entered the majestic landscape of Serengeti, and spend the afternoon on a game drive before stetting our camp in Nguchiro campsite. The camping place has everything you need to enjoy a good time in Serengeti (kitchen, closed dining area, bathrooms with WC and shower). The camping experience in the middle of a national park surrounded by wildlife is something unique. Nguchiro campsite is one of the many campsites in central Serengeti, all equipped in the same way. We spent 2 nights there, for a total of 2 complete days of game drive in Serengeti (afternoon – full day – morning) from day 2 to 4, something that I personally recommend a lot. Spend 2 days in Serengeti, it is worth it. No need to describe our game drives here, pictures are self-explanatory. But in short, we saw 4 out of the big 5 within the first 24hs in Serengeti, only missing Rhino, which is easier to spot in Ngorongoro.
After lunch on Nguchiro camping site on day 4, we left Serengeti NP, and visited the Serengeti Visitors center, where we learned a lot about the history, ecology, and geography of the Serengeti Ecosystem. Later that day, our adventure took us to Simba campsite A, just outside Ngorongoro crater, where we set our camp again, not before stopping by a Massai Village (Massai Dorf in google maps) to enjoy a Massai cultural experience with the local pastoralists, and buy some of their artisanal work, which help them to maintain their lifestyle. Simba campsite welcomed us with some elephant crossing in between the tents, buffalo grazing, and even hyenas scouting for food leftovers from the kitchen :P.
Day 5 took us to the famous Ngorongoro crater, famous for its high density of animals in a confined area protected by the largest complete crater on earth. Here, the rare and elusive Black Rhino showed at last, allowing us to complete the big 5 (lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, and rhino). Ngorongoro also allowed us to witness predatory animals (hyenas and lions) feeding on early-morning hunts. After leaving the crater and packing our camp, we headed back for a well-deserved chill night at Jambo Logde (yay, hot shower again). That afternoon, Prisca, who works for Meru Slopes, took us for a cultural tour in Mto Wa Mbu (Mosquito River, the local village where the lodge is located), and showed us the local lifestyle, agriculture production (banana, cassava, jackfruit, bread fruit, mango, rice, etc.), the local, artisanal wood products and paintings, and most important, the banana wine, which we enjoyed together. Thanks so much Prisca, for your dedicated and complete explanations about the life in Mosquito River.
Our 6th and last day took us Tarangire National Park (River of the Warthogs, or “pumba” as everyone in Tanzania call them since 1993), famous for its large number of elephants (and also warthogs, though they are not so famous :P). Indeed, there were a lot of elephants, and we got a couple of really close encounters. We also spotted some beautiful baobab trees. Another interesting fact is that in Tarangire we got to see a large number of carcasses being scavenged by vultures and stokes. The dryness of Tarangire during December makes it hard for wildlife to survive, and sometimes animals die from droughts or stuck in the mud while trying to reach the remaining water in the drying lakes. Beware of the monkeys here during lunch break. They’d steal your lunch, phone, keys… and you might mind a good repellent because it is full of tse-tse flies hehe…
After 6 days, we were taken back to Arusha where we spent the last night, all arranged by Meru Slopes, which also arranged our transport to the airport the following day, to close a 6-day amazing experience.
One last mention for the company Staff, who behaved incredibly professional, we have no other words than a big “THANK YOU”. Thank you to our guide Jacob, whom with his “pole pole, hakuna matata” style, drove us for uncountable hours every day making sure we were comfortable and enjoying, and was so kind to stop every time we wanted to take pictures, explaining us everything he knew about the East African wildlife, while teaching us some Swahili in the meantime. And also, a big applause to our cook Rasheed, who prepared the best imaginable breakfasts everyday before we even woke up, and delicious local meals for lunch and dinner. We really enjoyed it, everything was perfect. Thank you so much! Asante sana!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Perfect safari and very reliable travel agency
We wish to say thank you so much for organizing our trip to kenia. It will be one of our lifetime memories and dream come true. All the itinerary from airport pick up in the morning was highly followed so time keeping we rate you highly. Samuel was a very good drive at Nairobi and a good guide at masai mara. Seen the cats and big 5 is still on our minds. The guy was the best guide we have ever had on all our trips in Africa. The lodge at masai mara(Kichwa Tembo)was one of best recommendation you made us chose was nice.The overall safari it was excellent and i will be recommend your company to all my friends and anyone coming to kenya.
TW
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great experience
Great experience with safari soles tours! The views in Ngorogoro and Serengeti are amazing. And they organized the tour quite well - good food (actually I was too full every day) and experienced driver
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Very professional, super good organised,very fast in communication, great tour operatator
I would like to start my review with the first contact I had with the booking office from Speke Uganda Holidays.
Actually, we had planned to make a family trip (5 people) to Madagascar but due to the COVID situation we had to change our travel plans.
Just 3 weeks before departure I contacted Speke Uganda Holidays and asked them for a tour proposal and within 24 hours I received a first suggestion for an itinerary and it was almost perfect, just some small changes and we were happy.
Payments towards Uganda went fine, I was always informed about the status of my payments by the finance department at Speke Uganda Holidays and the team from the booking office answered all our questions very fast and professional.
We got picked by our guide Mr. Jotham Kasamba and we immediately had this connection beween him and the group. We had a very good and clean Safari Land Cruiser which included a fridge and offered enough space for us and our luggage. The itinerary was very well planned, all accommadation were well chosen and we enjoyed grreat food after long drives.
Our Guide, Mr. Jotham Kasamba was very care taking, reliable, in time. Mr. Kasamba is an excellent driver, has a great knowledge in the field and about the wildlife but also about the history of his country. He did very good briefings and was open minded to our input, feedback and wishes. He made our trip special and he managed to make us feel comfortable from the start.
All in all, we were very impressed about the professionalism of Speke Uganda Holidays. At the beginning of the tour we received a tour book which included a drinking bottle to reduce plastic and also the owner, Mr. Mulinde, called us to welcome us in Uganda.
At the end of the trip we received another call from Mr.Mulinde, he wanted to hear if all went well and if we had any extra wishes.
All in all we can only speak positive about the tour, it was perfect!
We enjoyed the tour very much and we will recommend Speke Uganda Holidays to our family and friends. We have actually fallen in love with Uganda and we will definately come back. We have seen lots of cuntries in Africa and we have done lots of Safaris but htis country and the Tour Operator are very much on top.
Thanks to ther team at Speke Uganda Holidays!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent in there services.
I don’t have much to say really because my breathe was taken in every step of the Safari as in from the tour guide, to the guiding and in general service during my safari. I have taken memorable photos that I will cherish until the next time I choose to travel with Trust Tour and Safari Tanzania.
CZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable life-time experience!
We booked 5 days’ safari Mikumi, Udzungwa and Selous/Nyerere np.
It was the best experience we had in our life! Our guide, Said was really awesome! Many thanks to him for this wonderful experience.
He always tried to see as much as possible. He is really a professional and a person in the right place! We learned a lot of interesting information not only about animals, he was always willing to answer our sometimes stupid questions. He always informed us and planned for the next day and also offered alternatives.
Seeing animals from such close proximity is a unique experience. Lion was less than 2 meters from us! We were fascinated and enchanted by so many things! For example, a picnic in the park overlooking the reservoir, where the animals went to drink, a walking safari with a bushman and lot of others.
The accommodation was always very beautiful and clean, we especially remember the truly magical accommodation in Selous! The food and service was excellent, sometimes quite large portions for us. :)
It was our honeymoon and we even had a room with decorations ready. What a lovely suprise!
It can be seen that everything is done with the heart and with love!
We also thank you Jacob for organizing this tour.
We highly recommend booking the trip with Smile With Us Tours, if you do it then you will definitely have an amazing time!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very professional experience
We are moderately experienced hikers with most of that experience being in the American West so hiking at Kilimanjaro's altitude was a different challenge for us. Our guides had our complete confidence the entire trip. We were very comfortable with the crew personally and professionally. It was important that the entire crew, guides and porters, were friendly and always willing to help. It was clear that the crew cared about our experience. They were very attentive and fun to hike with. We would recommend Almighty Kilimanjaro to others. We were very impressed with the crew and the front office