20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A once in a lifetime experience!
The initial correspondence with the tour operator Joshua was very good - efficient and professional, as well as informative! Making sure that the tour fitted our needs and payment through PayPal was very easy!
On the day, Joshua met us at the specified location as agreed, and was very friendly. He introduced us to our guide and driver and told us he would meet us again on our arrival back to Nairobi.
Our guide and driver, James, was incredible! His knowledge of the Masai Mara and its animals was astounding - every question we asked him, he knew the answer to. Throughout the 3 day safari, he made huge efforts to locate the different animals using the CB radio to communicate with fellow guides. We ended up seeing 4 of the 'big 5', including a rhino, which is incredibly rare!
The accommodation and food was really impressive and well organised, as was the whole experience. A bonus visit to the Masai Village was humbling and a truly unique experience, and for a very reasonable additional cost!
Upon return to Nairobi, Joshua met us as he had said he would and took time to accompany us to various places around the city, helping us to arrange our immediate future plans!
A fantastic company, fantastic experience and a fantastic review well deserved! Would highly recommend!
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
great safari with very good Gide/driver and amazing cook.
We just had an amazing safari in selous-mikumi-ruaha (7days). The driver (William) drove really safe and had al lot of knowledge about the animals and provides answers to every question. He's really experienced, knows the parks and the surrounding areas. Even when the car broke down he made sure it was fixed as quick and possible and that the safari wasn't compromised. The cook (Amos) was really friendly and happy all the time. He made delicious food (even for us vegetarians). We loved his veggie pies and he even made bush pizza! He made a lot of delicious food (often more than we could eat) and enjoyed taking care of us.
All the places we stayed where good especially the one in Ruaha which was inside the park! Because it's a rather new company we didn't really know what to expect. Just make sure to check beforehand if you sleep in or outside the park!! There where some small misunderstandings in our case but the company is open for feedback and we are happy with the way they solved the issue.
The only thing we didn't like was the walking safari. You won't see any animals and it outside the park. We also didn't like the way the bushman acted out all the things the local people did in the past. Some of the information was interesting but he was pretty loud and he was pretty focused on elephant dung (drinking from it, smoking it etc).
Concluding: great safari with very good Gide/driver and amazing cook.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Fantastic experience and tailored road trip
We have been traveling around Zimbabwe with Off2Africa in January 2017, visiting Harare, Bulawayo, Matobo Hills, Hwange and Victoria Falls by car. Thanks to Beck Edwards, we had the true African experience. He helped us schedule our entire road trip, pick the most beautiful spots across the country that are only known to locals, while also making sure that we were welcomed at every place we visited. Off2Africa and its staff were available to us around the clock. They helped us manage not only last minute questions via the phone on the last day of our departure, they even helped us find the right garage after we accidentally fuelled our petrol car with diesel half way through the country. We can only recommend Off2Africa's services to anyone visiting Zimbabwe, whether acquainted with the country or a true beginner.
TH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Lot of Lies & bunch of frauds even the new management
I have booked the safari with another of my friends to go to Uganda through this tour agent & Damien asked us to pay fully to book the hotels & Gorilla permits as it is high season. We paid since December 2016. And when we ask for the Gorilla Permit he send only the booking. Without paying for the permit it is not valid. And the hotel reservations also didn't send. When we ask around April, the new management Patel Shah replied us after many follow ups that they are having difficulty in booking & if we can help him by paying $1950 he can confirm the booking. As we refused him he came back that he was able to get discount from the vehicle & now the amount is 1550. Evangelina the girl whom I have been WhatsApp from the beginning confirms that Patel is genuine & we decided to pay $1550. At the end they couldn't arrange our tour as the hotels now providing any credit facilities. So at the end our trip is cancelled & i couldn't get my air ticket refunded as well because till last minute Patel was saying that they will arrange it. And then we ask to refund our money he send e-mail that it will be refunded. But till now no refund or even no reply to our follow up e-mails or WhatsApp chats. They put the blame to Damien, but not only Damien, this new management Patel & also Evangelina are running a fraud business, misleading their customers & to steal money from the customers. Do not trust this company or the new management as well.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We had a fantastic safari!
All in all I'm really pleased with the service provided by Amazing Memories Safaris, with only a couple of minor issues encountered (hence why I felt I couldn't honestly give the full 5 stars).
Right from the beginning in the planning stage, Anne was super helpful, replying to all my emails and giving plenty of information. We ended up doing a 12 day tour of Kenya and Tanzania. When we arrived at the airport the driver's were already waiting for us and were very friendly and welcoming.
Our driver for the Kenyan part of our trip (9 days) was Joseph, and I cannot speak more highly of him! He was incredible! He was so friendly, always chatted to myself and my partner on the long drives between national parks, was extremely knowledgeable and very good at spotting wildlife. He was very patient and worked hard to spot the wildlife we wanted to see, and as such Kenya (the Masaai Mara in particular) was the most successful part of our trip, providing sightings we will never forget.
Our driver for the short Tanzanian part (3 days) was still very good, a nice guy who did his job just fine, but we felt he lacked the passion and enthusiasm of Joseph so that part was not quite as enjoyable for that reason.
All the accommodation (except one night) exceeded my expectations as we had just booked a mid-range tour. The lodge/permanent tents were very clean and comfortable and some in particular were in such beautiful locations, with the food always amazing and all the staff extremely well trained with brilliant customer service. The only night we had an issue was our third night near Lake Naivasha/Hell's Gate. We were only told that morning that our accommodation had changed from the original plan as Anne had wanted to give us an "upgrade". Obviously after hearing this we were quite excited and expecting something lovely. On arrival at the hotel, we found it lacked that "African bush" feel all the other lodges had as it was part of a small but busy town and was set up as a normal hotel with rooms in buildings rather than separate permanent tents. We were greeted by the only other tourist in sight (it seemed to cater more to locals) coming up to me and warning us to be careful as she had her wallet, phone and passport stolen the previous night, which instantly made us uneasy and worried about this leg of our trip. Our room was clean and comfortable enough, but the food was absolutely shocking, almost inedible! Furthermore, whereas all the other lodges welcome tour guides and accommodate and feed them, this place would not take our guide Joseph who then was forced to leave and find his own accommodation elsewhere, which we felt was very unfair. Upon further investigation we learnt the lodge we were supposed to be booked at was currently under renovation, so we would have much preferred the honesty of being told this rather than being told we'd been "upgraded". In the end it was only one night of the trip and not a huge deal, but it perhaps would have been nicer to have been told more in advance and offered to upgrade to one of the nicer lodges in the area (of which there were a few), even if that meant we paid a bit more.
The only other issue we faced was when we left the Serengeti we questioned whether a single day there was really enough. When we later looked at our itinerary we discovered we were supposed to receive an additional evening drive (usually 4pm-6:30pmish) on our first evening there, which was never given as an option. We also were never given the optional activity of a night drive, which the camp offered, and were not told the camp had no ATM facilities which meant we weren't able to book this ourselves as we didn't have enough cash.
I will counter these small complaints with a couple of ways in which Anne did go out of her way to provide us with good service, though. Our last day I asked to visit the Giraffe Center and the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, which was not included in the original itinerary of the trip. She provided these extras to us with not additional charge, even though it meant a whole extra day on the tour, with us just paying for the additional nights accommodation.
On our final night we were supposed to stay at the Hilton, however due to the controversy with the Kenyan elections Anne thought it was unsafe for us to stay directly in the city with all the protests happening, so last minute she managed to change our accommodation to somewhere equally as nice, but further out from the city so much safer. We really did appreciate this.
Besides the couple of small issues, our safari really was amazing and myself and my partner are extremely grateful and generally very happy with the experience. Thank you very much, we definitely would consider booking through Amazing Memories Safari's again, especially if the itinerary is able to be followed more closely!
Thanks again,
Mel and Jared
Go to Peter!
Recently, I went to Kenya to take a vacation. The highlights are of course to see those wild animals in Africa.
I took a "6 days 5 nights safari" with a company called "Africa Flash McTours & Travel". The manager, Mr. Peter Macharia, did a great job, looking after his customers, although there are circumstances that are a bit beyond his control.
A convincing example is that all the tour companies appear to have a system that tourists are told to hop on different buses at a set of places where they stop for lunch. This system initially confused me a lot as I thought that I would be always staying with one group, once a group has been arranged by a particular company prior to the beginning of your program. But, that was not the case. So, to me what Peter did most impressively was that one day, when he could not organize any other driver to pick me up from Nairobi to Amboseli, he sent in a car to just take me there. Of course, a single passenger would cost his company slightly more than letting his customers sharing with others. But, to me this is the convincing moment that his is a trustable manager.
I also want to mention in passing that a young driver in his own company, John, has done a great job! His English is excellent and he appeared to try to do his job properly, rather than trying to "cut corners".
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Fantastic 7 days Tanzania safari
I contacted Amazing Memories Safaris encouraged by the extremely positive reviews found on Safari Bookings: they were truthful, since, from the very beginning, Anne gave me a great help to arrange cleverly a 7-days safari that included Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara National Parks.
She promptly answered to all my questions in a very professional way, giving me several alternative options where choosing the accommodation from. That’s how we experienced from the basic tented camp to the luxury lodge.
Our guide Donald was really a skilled person: using the radio and exchanging information with his fellow drivers, he always succeeded in taking us in the right place at the right time: in Ngorongoro crater, for example, we ran into a rhino that crossed the track just behind our jeep!.
I can recommend Amazing Memories thanks to my positive experience.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Every thing worked how a tourist could wish it in a country like Ugand, Ruanda.
We had a very good guide with Paul and a very nice driver with Moses. Both gave us savety, help, informations, safarispots, fotospots, happy and friendly time together. Lodges were all very nice, but we wished to have good roomsaves available. Safari was wonderful, also off course the gorilla trekks. We hope they have a good future and also the whole nationalparks with landscape and other animals alwell. But also we wish the best to all the lovely people we met in Uganda and Ruanda. It was a wonderful holiday. Thank you all!
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Wonderful experience with Savannah Explorers. Very patient, competent and helpful staff
all very well, above our expectations. In particular the choice of accommodation, tour stages and punctuality
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The best ever tour operator!!!
Actually this is my third review of the Spirit of Kenya. I simply cannot resist writing things about them. From the very first email to the last day of safari this experience has been engraved in my heart. If you ever need to chose a tour operator for Kenya, I strongly encourage you do use Spirit of Kenya. Their operators, they tour guides, the vehicles the suggestions was simply awesome. If you need additional information you can email me ulana101@yahoo.com for further reference checking. I went for 9 days Kenya Safari, it was so spectacular and magnificent. Thank you Siprit of Kenya, thank you Simon my dear friend for life. Thank you Carlos our tour guide another friend for life. I cannot wait to see you again, I will visit Kenya soon.