US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bright African Safaris gave us an EXECTIONAL safari experience.
We just completed - Sept 1 to Sept 14, 2022 a 14 day private tour with Bright African and were over joyed with the results. I liked the idea of working with a locally owned company and was not disappointed. Bright African is a professional, organized and extremely pleasant organization to work with. I had no problems with communication in the planning process and Salim in the office was more than happy to make adjustments we requested and answer our many questions. The pricing for the tour was reasonable . I also liked the idea they were not demanding about the timing of the final payment- a small point but shows their integrity.
Our guide Albert Mungre was a delightful person and excellent guide who had a great grasp of the plants and animals we encountered. In addition to the flora and fauna, Albert gave us a good insight to the people and country of Tanzania . We were able to see all the bucket list animals in the various parks we visited and got to see 4 migration crossing at Mara river which was an amazing experience. We traveled in a Toyota Land Cruiser with a pop-up roof for each game viewing. Considering how bad most of the roads are in the parks, the ride was fairly comfortable.
Here was the itinerary for our private safari. The lodging we selected was all mid-range type accommodations- and this can be adjusted to fit your particular tastes and requirements.
Day 1: Kilimanjaro airport/Arusha. Overnight at Kutoka lodge
Day 2: Arusha/Arusha N.park. Overnight at Kutoka lodge
Day 3: Arusha/Tarangire N.park. Overnight at Tarangire osupuko lodge
Day 4: Full day in Tarangire park. Overnight at Motto cottages
Day 5: Manyara area/Lake eyasi bushmen. Overnight at Hhando coffeelodge
Day 6: Full day in Ngorongoro crater floor. Overnight at Ngorongoro lion paw
Day 7: Ngorongoro/Serengeti N.park. Overnight at Zawadi serengeti tented camp
Day 8: Full day in endless plain of Serengeti. Overnight at Zawadi serengeti tented camp
Day 9: Another full day in endless plain of Serengeti. Overnight at Zawadi serengeti tented camp
Day 10: Central Serengeti/Northern Serengeti (special day for migration watch). Overnight at Heritage Mara migration camp
Day 11: Full day in Northern Serengeti area. Overnight at Heritage Mara migration camp
Day 12: Early morning balloon ride and Another full day in Northern Serengeti area. Overnight at Heritage Mara migration camp
Day 13: Serengeti Kogatende/Arusha airport Under the shade safari lodge
Day 14: Arusha/Kilimanjaro airport. Fly out
Each area had its charms- I would especially recommend the Lake Eyasi bushmen as something truly unique to see.
If you have the time and money take the balloon safari it offers a unique perspective and the experience is well organized and fun; plus you will have the best breakfast of your stay.
In conclusion, selecting Bright African will be the best decision you make
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The best safari
The best safari we have ever had was with Hello Tanzania. Tarangire and Ngorongoro safaris are very professionally organized. We would like to thank Sylwia and her team for great experiences and their work. We highly recommend their services. Thank you very much
SE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Valuable and trustworthy experience of a lifetime
If you’re looking for a once in a lifetime experience and want to feel secure about that your money actually goes towards, not only the expenses of the tour and everything around it, but even environmental benefits and protection to keep this beautiful area alive, Tanganyika Travels is the way to go. Because they did just that for me and my family! We’ve never been more satisfied with the service and our exceptional experience!
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Dana was extremely busy. There were questions we had that we needed an appointment to have answered.
We were met at the airport by Joseph, who was very professional and friendly. Our accommodations at Seasons were nice and included a wonderful breakfast.
Humala lodge was a wonderful adventure with good food, excellent staff, and our game driver Tandy was excellent! The Boma Zulu dancers were really fun!
James transported us to Tshukudu via the Panorama route and was very helpful, answered questions and took care of transfers and accommodations questions for us for our Victoria Falls excursion.
Our Tshukudu cabin was nice, but there were ants everywhere. The food was excellent! Our game driver Tyler was excellent as well.
Our accommodations at Victoria Falls at the Ilala Lodge was magnificent! Beautiful room, excellent food and wonderful staff. Lucky picked us up at Victoria Falls airport and transported us to Victoria Falls and the Chobi river package. He was excellent and very helpful.
Our Victoria Falls accommodations only included breakfast. We were surprised that we had to pay for lunch and dinner!
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Booking a lodge and a car made easy, safe and pleasant.
Jacky from East Cape Tours was amazing. Her communication was always prompt, so friendly and competent, she even rang me once so we could have a quick chat to get to know and trust each other. Jacky quickly understood our needs and responded to it perfectly. What she found for us was just 100 percent what we had been looking for. Jacky made booking our SA experience really easy and pleasant.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Incredible experience with a 5* tour operator!
A wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience, organised and led by a very professional, reliable and well-run team - Mufasa Travels! We are so pleased with how everything went with Mufasa and couldn't recommend it highly enough. I'll try to outline some of our experience in the hope it helps others.
Communication with Joseph:
We started planning our safari dream holiday 9 months before flying out. We emailed around 10 different suppliers and eventually decided upon Mufasa for several different reasons.
Most of it came down to the communication we had with Joseph via email. From the very first email, he was prompt, polite and extremely helpful with his responses, information and suggestions. Some other operators were also good in this regard, but it felt as though Joseph always went out of his was to make us feel comfortable and gave us personal suggestions on how to make our trip the honeymoon of a lifetime. Very importantly, it never felt like he was trying to over-sell us anything - it was all very much about me and my wife and what we wanted - he was happy to just assist! He was also very patient, as I think I ended up sending him about 100+ emails over the course of 6 months! Each one replied to with an articulate and thorough response.
Joseph really is a credit to Mufasa team and he is the reason we ended up choosing Mufasa and planning what ended up being such a wonderful safari together.
We went for a private tour which we highly recommend if your budget permits. You can take your time, are never rushed, can decide what animals to focus on, can decide how long to stay at any given spot etc etc. It just gives you so much flexibility. We also went for a luxury option with all three of our camps being top quality accommodation. At two of them we even had our own butler!
Masai Mara:
What a wonderful Park this is. Being our first safari, our objective was to see the Big 5. We ended up seeing that and much much more! Our guide Julius was excellent. He is extremely experienced and has being around the Masai Mara (and other parks) for most of his life - even his father was a guide! He was attentive, funny and knowledgeable and we recommend him highly! Everything went smoothly and it felt like he was always one step ahead in the planning.
The only thing we would note is that on the last day we had a bit of a hiccup and weren't provided with the required packed lunch from Masai Mara, when handed over to the Tanzania side - so we went a bit hungry! Other than that, everything was perfect!
We also decided on a hot air balloon ride over the savannah for sunrise on one day, followed by a breakfast out in the open plains. We highly recommend this if it is in your budget - one of the best things we've ever done! Also a special shout out to out driver for this (Pesi) who during the game drive back to our lodge managed to show us a Leopard for the first time!
Serengeti and Ngorongoro:
As we had seen the Big 5 in Kenya, we wanted to match that in Tanzania but also wanted to focus on big cats as well. Therefore, our guide (named Saidi), had a big task ahead of him! In short, Saidi delivered everything and more! He was amazing! We saw the Big 5 but also our request to focus on the big cats led to us seeing dozens of lions (hunting, courting, in trees, sleeping etc), 7 Cheetahs (3 different sightings, one of which they were hunting), and several Leopards. We also saw some smaller rarer cats like the Caracal and a Serval twice! It couldn't have gone better.
Saidi was deeply knowledgeable and was able to immediately answer all of our questions with ease. On top of that he made sure to point out everything he could and taught us so much about the endless plains of the Serengeti. What we loved most about him was that he used his radio so effectively. Communicating with other guides to find specifically what we were looking for every time, it was great! If you go to the Serengeti/Ngorongoro - be sure to ask for Saidi!
Accommodation:
In Masai Mara we stayed at Neptune Mara and it was incredible. The lodge overlooks a river where we saw giraffes, hippos, gazelle, crocodiles, zebras and baboons - all while having breakfast!
In Serengeti we stayed at Kubukubu Lodge which was great. There is an amazing view over the savannah and an awesome outdoor hot shower!
In Ngorongoro we stayed at Acacia Farm Lodge. This place is wonderful and very sustainable as it makes use of the farmland to produce its own foods! The staff also organised a wonderful surprise romantic dinner with a bonfire for us!
Overall:
Long review (sorry!), but to sum it up, it was the experience of a lifetime and we could not have had that without Mufasa Travels, Joseph, Julius and Saidi. Communication was very prompt and thorough throughout all of our planning, we were given countless ideas and suggestions, there was also a lot of flexibility to do exactly what we wanted, and the delivery from the guides was pretty much flawless!
We highly recommend Mufasa Travels, Joseph, Julius and Saidi!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Experience with Amazing Company!
My husband and I had a fantastic time during our 10-day Uganda tour with Africa Adventure Vacations! Our tour guide was Najib, and he was so helpful, friendly and fun (and put up with our constant questions). This was our first visit to Uganda, so we were eager to explore as much as possible, and had a jam-packed itinerary. Some days we spent quite a few hours in the car, traveling to our next destination, but we enjoyed Najib's company and the scenery and snacks (Rolex!!!) along the way. It is hard to pick just one highlight of our trip, but mountain gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest was incredible and so rewarding. With such a busy itinerary, we stayed in quite a few different accommodations (maybe 6 or 7?) and each one was fabulous!!! The Ugandan people truly were so welcoming and friendly, and I really don't think we could have had a better time. We would absolutely recommend using Africa Adventure Vacations as your tour booking company - shout out to Robert who made getting booked and sorted easy! And a huge shout out to Najib - best guide/driver ever! Genuinely cannot wait to return.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Every day stress
The experience is fantastic, seeing animals every day is amazing. The problem is that we never knew what was going to happen that day or the next, the guide had no information. Every morning we would leave and we didn't even know in which hotel we would sleep. Everyone in the group had different itineraries with different hotels and different activities (many of which we didn't do). We made the reservation and payment with them more than six months ago. But then we found out that nothing was paid for. Neither the hotels, nor the entrance fees to the parks. We have had to pay our entrance fee to the Serengeti park and we don't know at this point if we will get our money back, the other people in the group don't even know if they will be able to travel tomorrow (we suspect that the company Capture Tanzania has not yet bought the tickets). The whole problem seems to be one of the owners, who seems to have had an accident (of which we have three different versions) has not been able to send the money to his partner who does nothing but lie to us on the phone saying that we will get what we paid for and at the end of the day we are still staying in hotels that were not in the offer, of lower quality and every day we have done less hours of game driving. If you are thinking of doing a tour with them we recommend looking for a serious company, because so far the only thing I can say is that we feel scammed by this company.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful trip
We knew it was going to be a trip of a lifetime, but our 2 weeks safari exceeded our wildest expectations!!!
The experiences we have had were unforgettable. Thank you for the great planning, the beautiful accommodations and of course the best dishes we enjoyed.
We saw the big 5, gorillas, chimpanzees and many more animals. Many moments that we will never forget.
I can't recommend Private Trip Uganda enough.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Mikumi & Udzungwa NP Tour with Tony
We had a fantastic Safari experience in Tansania! Justine was very accommodating with the contact beforehand, and made sure we would already have ferry tickets for after the Safari, as well as a transport on Zanzibar to our hotel - so even services beyond the Safari were provided to us which was very assuring for first time travelers in Africa :). Tony was our guide for the Safari and he is a very friendly person with good humor and did an excellent job! Quite an adventurous route in the mainland but with Tony‘s driving skills I felt very secure. Having him with us was also great in the National Park as he is very knowledgeable about the wild life around and gets just as excited about all the animals :) in order for us to catch the ferry to Zanzibar on the last day, he started driving very early in the morning - 10/10 recommend his dedication to get us there in time! We will be back for another National Park for sure :)