US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well organized and accommodating operator with excellent guide/lodge
I did a 5 day safari (mid-range, private) at Selous National Park with my family, which included a short boat trip on the first day, two full days of Jeep safari, a boat safari, and then a bushwalk and Maasai village visit on the final day. We had an absolutely amazing time. Between the flight, lodge, guides, and different activities there are a lot of moving pieces to manage and Uwanda tours was able to organize what we requested and be flexible with last minute changes. When planning, be sure to triple confirm dates, travel times and activities as there are multiple emails/messages back and forth. We did have some last minute mix-ups with dates, but Uwanda was able to resolve everything smoothly.
Our guide Mr. Martin and our driver Mr. Ramadani made our safari experience exceptional. They both have many years of experience working at Selous and it shows. Mr. Martin knows the animals' typical habits and where to best spot them, allowing us to see amazing events like a wildebeest herd's daily migration to drink water, a zebra/giraffe/gnu hangout spot, and baboons howling around a lion to warn other nearby animals of its presence. Mr. Ramadani is an expert at navigating the off-road conditions of Selous, and gets you closer to animals than you would think possible. They will also go above and beyond to give you the memories of a lifetime, for example staying in the park later than typically planned in order to catch a mother lion and her three cubs resting and playing under a tree.
We stayed at Africa Safari Selous lodge which was run by an exceptional manager, Mark, who knew our schedule better than we even did and made sure we were always in the right place at the right time. Again, being flexible is key- there was an issue with room availability for our first night and they only had one hut available instead of the three we had booked. We were offered housing in another lodge for that night. Instead, we chose to sleep in the two tents they had available both for the fun of it and to avoid the hassle of going to another site just for one night. In the end, everything worked out (it seems to work out for everyone) and we had a truly unforgettable experience.
NL
under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent Safari!
Amazing company. Good communication and an wonderful guide. The places where we have stayed are incredible. We saw the big 5 and a lot of other animals.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Knowledgeable, kind and creative
We did a 4 day birding tour with Empirical Tour across northern Rwanda and along the coast of Lake Kivu. Eraste and his team have a deep knowledge of locally owned hotels and birding spots many of which are certainly off the regular tourist routes. Joseph, our guide was phenomenal. He has an eye for birds, their sounds and their behavior. It was our second tour in Rwanda and we are experienced birders but everywhere we went there was something new and often in unexpected places, many of the hotels and restaurant gardens were excellent bird-spotting locations in themselves. This is local knowledge that added real value to the trip. One of the most memorable experiences was the ability to expand birding hikes through wetlands into serious frog-spotting safaris. You've just got to know where to look and the Empirical team certainly does.
AR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Human warmth and kind attention along with the adventure.
We couldn't have choose better ! Since the first day I request a budget, Jemimah has talk to me personally and helped me with all my doubts. The people from the office even helps us storing our luggage when we arrive at Nairobi and finding a Uber. They take such a good care of us.
I also love both tented camps in Mara and Amboseli. The personal was very kind, and the food was great and abundant .
About the drivers I give a special mention to Martin. He clearly loves his job. He haves much fun in the Safari and that makes the game drive even more fun to us too. He gets us to see the big five and many other animals. Including rhino and leopard.
I highly recommend Alphadean for his human warmth and kind attention.
TR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Over expectation
We've booked a 2-day safari trip for 5 person right after a successful Kili climb. Lazarus met us and took to Arusha, helped with accomodations, money exchange, shopping and so on. Next day he took us to Tarangire. At the very first day we saw 2 lionesses! After a hot day in the park we arrived in a magical place for night stay. This place exceeded all our expectations! A pool under a big baobab with a spectacular view to the lake valley... Marvelous! And the dinner cooked by our chief was nice too!
The next day was even more mind-blowing! Ngorongoro is a real nature's masterpiece. Dozens of spieces in a closed caldera... Lions,marabu, gazelles,hippos - I felt myself a child in a toy store)) Pure happiness!
The next morning we had a flight to Zanzibar and Lazaru was very kind to take us to the airport at the early morning.
I highly recommend this company!. This safari was one of the memorable pages in our Tanzania story.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Anoying
In the middle of the safari they change us of group,van and driver.
The driver didn't stop in naivasa lake when we had to do It...
The driver wasn't worried about us any moment.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A flawless experience start to final
We (familiy) did a 16 day flight safary with Desert Air Namibia that proved to be a dream holyday from start to final. Planning was well in advance, but Namibia is heavily booked - at least the very fine resorts that were on our bucket list. It needed a bit of flexibility and amendment we were assisted in with some smart changes suggested that made it work. The time in Namibia was pre-arranged perfectly, and it went perfectly. Doing all the hot places in relatively short time was not trivial in planning, but we saw everything we wanted - going from Windhoek to Etosha to Damaraland to Kaokoland to Purros to Swakobmund and Walfish Bay to Fish River Canyon to Lüderitz to Sossuvlei. All the lodges were cool, but the friendlyness and attentiveness of all people we met surpassed it all. Going by plane (Cessna 210, pilot+4) is not the cheapest way to go, but sure the best if you want to see a bit more of this quite big country without sitting in a 4x4 all day. All our family member agreed that this was a vacation you think of for quite a while.
As for Desert Air Africa Safaris, it´s a pro Air Service provider with airplanes in good shape and professional pilots (I am a private pilot for 30 years myself, so it is fair for me to judge). Our pilot took care of everything you can think of and conducted pleasurable rides all along. Besides, he was a cool and fun guy we had a good time with. Mrs. Rall, responsible for all planning (and obviously for monitoring her clients when on the way and arranging for nothing to go wrong and making sure that for ex. items we forgot in a lodge surfaced a couple day later in another one) definitely knows her job very well and obviously loves it ;-).
Bottom line: This was my first vacation ever I wrote a note to the tour operator (re. Mrs. Rall) after it was finished to assert our satisfaction. And once we will consider Botswana I know whom to call.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing experience.
We had a great experience in Uganda and Rwanda with Silverback expeditions. We totally recommended.
Everything was spectacular (Lodges, food, landscape, wildlife, companies support).
Our Driver is called David ! The best ever. We loved him. We were so happy to have him as our guide. He has been super kind, always trying to fulfill all our needs (Safari, Market, Money exchanged, City Tour, Food, etc).
The Trip wouldn't have been what it was if it hadn't been for him ! So with this we would like to highlight how happy we were to have him as our guide.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great guide, we had a wonderful trip
We saw a lot of great things, despite November not being the best month for activity. Our guide was great, he had a really good eye for finding things we didn't spot until we were right onto of them, and he got us out of the way well in time when we met a grumpy elephant who charged at us! We had a great experience :) I think we got good value for money.
The Masia Mara camp was very quaint. Really good food, a bit basic accomodation but had everything we needed and was reasonably comfortable. The Amboseli lodge was more fancy and comfortable, but at the expense of the quaint feel we had in the camp with the Massia
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
basically they are liars
They put 8 of us in a van when the budget clearly said 7 maximum (and 7 is already uncomfortable). Also, far from apologizing, they told us that we had been lucky, that we could have been up to 9 (and they don't care what was in the contract). They also try to force you to go to the Masai village instead of going on an early safari, because for them it is much cheaper, it cost us some very serious discussions to be able to go on safari on the last day (although it also says so in the contract). Do not let an unforgettable experience be spoiled by going with these people, there are many companies that do what they say.