US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great guides and easy to work with
Our contact, Duncan, was always very responsive to any questions we had. It was easy to adjust the itinerary to exactly what we wanted. Our guides, Paul and Emmanuel, and our pick-up day driver, Michael, were all incredible. We would definitely use this company again.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Overall excellent value and highly recommended
I just came back from an 11-day / 6-park safari in Kenya and Tanzania. I found the safari on this website, and corresponded exclusively with Dennis Solomon. Dennis owns Baboon Budget Safaris in Nairobi and apparently takes bookings under several different entity names, including Explore Africa. Even though all correspondence came from Explore Africa, the actual company behind it was Baboon.
Communication with Dennis by email was excellent starting with my very first inquiry. Everything was explained properly and although there was little room for customization of the schedule or vehicles, he made that clear upfront and did not try to upsell me.
Once in Narobi, I was met by a company rep at the airport and taken to a hotel I had booked separately. In the morning, the same friendly gentleman, George, took me to Baboon's offices in the center of town. It is best to book a hotel near city center, or at least between the airport and city center as traffic in Nairobi was really bad in the early morning. I made the whole payment for the safari in cash at Baboon's office. I didn't know it but it’s best to make the payment in $100 bills, as pristine as possible. I paid in $20s but fortunately I had enough bills in a good condition.
I spent about an hour at the office, and together with another couple was taken directly to Masai Mara. It was a long journey, about 7 hours net of stops. Our driver/guide was Simon Kanyi, and he was excellent. The accommodations in the 3 parks I visited in Kenya (Masai Mara, Lake Naruku and Amboseli) were excellent for the price. Two of those were in permanent tents with bathrooms, and at Lake Naruku it was a decent hotel. Masai Mara to Lake Naruku, and Lake Nakuru to Amboseli were both about 7 hours. From Amboseli's south entrance to Namanga was about 2.5 hours net of stops.
The transfer to Tanzania went without a hitch, with Simon dropping me at the border, and a Baboon-contracted agent, Abaz taking me through the border point into Tanzania. Yellow fever certificate was required but the vaccine can be had at the border for $50, and there was an even cheaper alternative. At the border, I boarded a little bus to Arusha that had been prepaid by Baboon. I spent about 2 hours at the border, and then the journey to Arusha also took about 2 hours. The bus dropped me off at the hotel, Ambassador, which was really excellent and the best accommodation on the entire trip. The next morning, a van picked me up from the hotel and drove me to a camp at Lake Manyara, about 1.5 hours, where the Tanzanian driver/guide, Spear, was expecting me together with 5 other tourists. After an hour at the camp, we departed for Seronera in Serengeti, a 6-hour long trip net of stops. We also visited Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara. The rest of the overnights in Tanzania were spent in field tent camps, without permanent tents. There was warm water at one of those camps, but no towels at any of them. The Tanzanian driver/guide, Spear was friendly but drove too fast through the parks and was reluctant to stop or wait for people to enjoy the sights. As a result, the safari experience in Tanzania was not nearly as good as that in Kenya but still acceptable for a budget safari.
On the way back, Spear drove us all the way to Arusha and dropped us off at the hotel. The next morning, I was picked up at the hotel by a van, driven to the bus station in Arusha, and onto a little bus that took me all the way to Nairobi airport, all again prearranged and prepaid by Baboon. The journey from the border point at Namanga to Nairobi took about 2 hours.
Overall, I was very impressed with the organization and punctuality of Dennis's operation. It took a lot of people to make everything happen, and absolutely everyone was there and on time and there were no glitches. My expectations in that regard were far exceeded.
Since it was February, everything was green and the dust probably much less than in June-August (it was still quite dusty). I liked the people we met, including the people from Baboon, as well as the camp personnel and locals in towns and cities. Without speaking the language, Kenyans and Tanzanians appeared similarly friendly, but it seemed to me that Kenyans were more outwardly happier. The roads were better in Tanzania. Both countries have some extreme poverty and corruption, examples of which I witnessed in traffic police interactions with our drivers. Of the 6 parks I visited, Serengeti had the most animals, Masai Mara and Ngorongoro were most picturesque, and Amboseli did not have as many animals but great views of Killimanjaro. However, I personally liked Lake Nakuru best, as it was small and packed with animals and birds. Sunrise on the lake was amazing. For photography, best time was between sunrise and 9 am, with haze becoming a problem later. All six parks, but especially Amboseli, Nakuru, and Manyara were great for birds.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Enjoyable safari with friendly, thoughtful driver/guide!
From the first enquiry, Joseph was always very prompt to reply to email queries and kept us well informed. Nelson, our driver/guide, maintained his Toyota Hi-Ace 4WD pop-top safari vehicle in good order and proved to be a competent, safe driver, both on-road and off-road. Nelson was also very resourceful: due to an oversight, my wife and I had left our passports in Nairobi which might have meant being refused admission to the Masai Mara game park because we were unable to prove our identity. However, Nelson was able to provide the authorities with a plausible excuse for the absence of our passports and we were granted a 24 hour entry pass to the game park! We did a short game drive on the afternoon of our arrival and a full day's drive the following day. We were lucky with the weather which was warm and dry and we saw lots of wildlife, including lions and lionesses. The dirt tracks in the game reserve make for quite a rough, tiring ride, so we appreciated the luxury of the Sopa lodge at the end of each day. However, the approach road to the lodge was probably worse than any in the park and it took 15 - 20 minutes to cover the short distance between the entrance gate to the park and the lodge. On the return journey to Nairobi, a lorry with a broken axle rendered a bridge impassable so that the safari vehicles had to ford the river it crossed. One vehicle had failed to ford the river and had to be towed out, losing its front 'bull bars' in the process. Nelson had no trouble fording the river and, in the spirit of mutual assistance between safari drivers, we ended up taking the severed bull bars from the other vehicle to a meeting point on the road to Nairobi. Nelson got us safely back to Nairobi to round off an excellent 3 days in his company and he even taught us a few words of Swahili! We would recommend Mufasa travel for their attention to detail in the arrangements they made and for the excellent driver and vehicle they provided.
AR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Pefect recommendation for a tour…ever !!!!
Based on recommendations from friends who have already travelled with them and reading reviews we chose Kaara Adventures to organize our trip to Uganda for our family of 5 with three kids of age 13, 7, 5. Already prior to our trip Jose was very helpful in advising us on an itinerary that would best fit our interests and duration of stay. He was very professional with exceptional customer care. We stayed in the comfortable lodges during our safari. Arrangement of lodge and Gorillas were the safari highlight. We shall definitely recommend your services to everyone coming here.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Excellent First Class Safari from the day we contacted Wayfairer to the day we return home.
Wayfairer was easy to work with, pricing was good and the Safari experience was wonderful!
We have been to Africa many times but your Kenya (Saruni Samburu and Saruni Wild) adventure ranks among our favorite Africa experiences. Thank Cat von Bredon for recommending Saruni Lodges where we were treated like special guests from the time we landed in Narobi to the day we left Saruni Wild. The wildlife is varied and plentiful.
John and Carol Broderick
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari with friends
My experience with Wildlife Oasis Tours was amazing! They take care of us from the beginning until the end. Specially Francis, our driver, how make everything to show us all the animals!! He is amazing ! I can see from km of distance! Not joking! The food was great ( also the vegetarian options) and the camp confortable. I wish I can no come back soon!
SE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great camping safari experience
As a family adventure, this was a perfect trip. The whole booking procedure and all the arrangements with first night hotel, transfers and the additional walking safari worked perfectly. Our adult daughters happily stepped up at half past five in the morning ready for morning safaris. We visited 4 national parks in 6 days and camped in public campsites. Ben, our guide knew a lot about the landscape animals and animals behavior. He was also great at finding the animals and also getting along even though it was very flooded in both Serengetti and Ngorongoro which was unusual for the time. Isaak our chef was also very good and attentive and so we got good food throughout the trip, breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you like campinglife then this is a perfect way to make a safari trip.
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
AVOID !!! .... you must pay a deposit and then he runs away with your money and no safari !!!
in the beginning (before payment deposit) , he answers very quickly .. everything looks okay, but 2 weeks before start, you can't reach him anymore..
we paid already a deposit of 2.000 € and never see it back...
nothing was booked (no car, no lodges) .. so bye bye safari
please don't book this touroperator ... he is a swindler
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Friendly, efficient and very helpful in all aspects of organising our safari in Botswana.
Right from the initial enquiry we were given useful advice on the type of trip to do in Botswana in February, the booking was handled efficiently, and all contact was of a friendly and courteous nature. We had some issues with our international flights, but our consultant (Judy Burrows) helped us to resolve these despite not having been involved in the booking process. The safari itself ran very smoothly, from being met off our flight and assisted through the airport in Maun by representatives of the charter flight company (Moremi), through all the transfers between camps, and a final meet and transfer to our hotel at the end of our trip. The camps were all of an excellent standard, and we had many memorable sightings of animals and birds. The guides were very knowledgeable and skilled at tracking predators in particular. The food was excellent, and rooms comfortable and clean. It was good to see that the safari company (Kwando) employed mainly local people at all levels including management, and the inclusion of a short session of singing and dancing by camp staff before dinner one night was a highlight of the holiday. I would definitely use Discover Africa again for future trips.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Machame 7 day
Great experience. There were no surprises. Wilfred was a great guide. He prepared me well for the final push and in the end I felt satisfied. Communications prior to the tour were adequate and I got what I needed. The guide came to my hotel the night before and made a list of items I needed and the following morning I was given the items. The trek itself ran smoothly and my trust in the guide and his professionalism ensured my success.