FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great organisation, kind explanation through the whole trip. Recommend
Great organisation, kind explanation through the whole trip. Recommend
IE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Truly Once in a Lifetime
We travelled, a couple in our early 30's from Ireland to South Africa in July 2022. I booked a 4 Day trip with Wild Planet Safari which included 3 nights in Kruger and 1 night at Blyde Canyon. Thale in the office looked after every aspect of the trip from suggesting itineraries, moving the accommodation to suit our wishes, transfer times, sending packing lists and so on. Nothing was too much hassle and everything was sorted via email without difficulty. From an admin point of view my experience was faultless.
When arriving in Kruger we met our guide Chris who we will always remember for honestly giving us the trip of a lifetime. He was such a friendly, kind and helpful man who felt like an old friend after just a few hours. The game drives were exceptional and Chris really tried his best to show us everything Kruger had to offer. He was a wealth of knowledge on the trees, bushes, birds and of course the animals. Despite never being guaranteed to see the Big 5, it was clear that Chris really wanted us to see as many of the 5 as possible. Luckily we spotted 4/5 on Day one, but spent day two and day three without a glimpse of Rhino. Chris changed our day three itinerary to add more driving time in a final attempt to see a Rhino, and he was relieved when we found not 1 but 5. Each night was spent having a Braii at our camp, cooked by Chris (who should he loose his passion for tour guiding, most certainly has a cheffing career ahead). There really are no words to sum up our Kruger experience, but the memories will stay with us forever and we will be eternally grateful to Wild Planet Safari for making it so special.
For our final day we ventured through the breathtaking Panorama Route towards Blyde Canyon and spent the night there after some spectacular sight seeing. In hindsight, we probably would have preferred the extra day and night in Kruger - but that was my choice!
I cannot recommend WPS enough, every aspect from booking to being dropped back to the airport was exceptional, friendly, and easy! I would love to say I will do it again, who knows!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Travelling creates Memories
I found booking with Bonfire very convenient and they tailor make it to suite ones needs at an affordable cost. We got the best room and service at the hotel we stayed and the journey was smooth! Thanks for making me create lovely memories with dad this time round!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing, Safe & Unforgettable Luxury Safari. Thank You to my Incredible Guide, Abu Shabani!!
Hands down, Lion King Adventures is an incredible local safari company. Stop researching all the safari companies and book with Lion King Adventures - you will not regret it, I promise you! If you are from the USA, they deliver that “Chick Fil A/Disney World” highest level of customer service. From booking, pre-trip communications, airport pickup, hotel check ins, lunch accommodations, evening chats and storytelling, safari adventures all the way to airport drop off - everything was perfect!
If you are ready to book your once in a lifetime safari adventure, 100% definitely request Abu Shabani as your tour guide. Abu is literally the best safari guide my dad and I could have asked for. I cannot say enough how amazing, kind, friendly, funny and incredibly knowledgeable he is. Abu has the utmost professionalism and knows how to make 7 days of safari the best experience ever. He also made me feel extremely safe even when we had close up animal encounters. I completely trusted his guidance. He has extensive knowledge about all the animals, terrain, parks and plants. His customer service was top notch, ensuring he excellently delivered on all of our requests. He definitely made it feel like a VIP high end experience and personalized it to us. This was my first trip to Tanzania and Abu taught me a lot more than I expected to learn, not just all the fantastic facts about all of the animals we encountered, but he taught me the history of Tanzania, gave me Swahili lessons so I could better interact with local people, introduced me to local music and artists, shared some local cuisines, shared a lot about the Tanzania culture & traditions. He also taught me the “Jambo Song” - a traditional “Welcome Guest” song in Swahili which all tourists seemed to know, love and sing! He was also very kind enough to snap a lot of photos of me throughout the adventure. Thank you so much, Abu!!! You are the best!!!
There were too many extraordinary experience to capture here but some highlights from my experience:
Day 1 - Arusha (Accommodation: Arusha Plant Lodge) Amazing night out in Arusha with guide, Nelson! We were able to have a local Arusha experience by eating local food in the town, shopping at the supermarket and getting a tour of the city.
Day 2 - Tarangire National Park (Accommodation: Manyaras Secret). We saw at least 35 elephants, 100 zebras + 100 wildebeests all drinking at the same watering hole which was awesome!
Day 3 & 4 - Serengeti National Park (Accomodations: Four Seasons & Lahia Tented Lodge). Literally saw thousands of all kinds of animals. Had close up encounters (and selfies) with a pride of lions, giraffes, elephants, wildebeests, 20+ hyenas and so much more. In our accommodations we were also able to hear lions roaring and hyenas laughing throughout the night. On top of that, we had a leopard pass by our tent which was a really immersive experience. Luckily our guide, Abu gave us all of the knowledge we needed to feel safe during these close up, immersive experiences. Also, we had the most incredible experience meeting the local Maasai people, visiting their village, dancing with them, chatting with them in their homes and learning about their traditions.
Day 5 & 6 - Ngorongoro Crater (Accommodation: Ngorongoro Serena Hotel). Literally had 250+ elephants cross the road in front of us (which was selfie heaven). And literally watched a clan of 8 hyenas and 1 lioness hunt a group of zebras and Buffalo.
Day 7: Lake Manyara National Park (Accomodation: Manyara Kilamamoja). Saw 100+ cute monkeys and got amazing views of the lake.
Next time I’ll be sure to book an extra day to explore Arusha and include Zanzibar as part of my trip. The 7 days of safari was a great amount of time to see everything we wanted to see. There was so much to see so I never got bored. There was an appropriate number of breaks to walk around, stretch and use the restroom. I’d definitely recommend breaking up the safari with some cultural experiences like the Masai Village experience, a night on the town, bush walk, etc. Also, the Tanzania people are soooo friendly, you’ll see many people smiling and waving to you on the streets as you pass by. I felt completely safe throughout the trip and did not encounter any problems whatsoever.
The team at Lion King Adventures definitely provided a sense of community and family. I was lucky enough to meet and interact with many Lion King Staff during my journey - which made my experience even that much better. It was so nice to connect/chat with Pendo, Nelson, Mwita, Emmanuel, Ozzy and Petro. Across all of my new Lion King Adventure friends I could get all of my hundreds of questions answered and learn more about Tanzania culture. You can tell the Lion King Adventures staff really enjoy their work and most importantly putting a smile on their customers’ faces. Thank you to the whole team for making my experience incredible! I hope to see you again soon! I had so much fun with Abu and my new Lion King Adventures friends I didn’t even want to leave!!!! I’ll definitely be coming back and will be sure to bring all my friends on another safari adventure with Abu!
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing!!
Pangea Adventures are an amazing group who can help you have a beautiful travel adventure!!! They are friendly as well as knowledgeable.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Professional and amazing experience
In general absolutely professional and an amazing experience! Especially the communication beforehand was great for example personal contact via WhatsApp. Accommodation choices were excellent. Godson led the tour himself, he's absolutely reliable and knows everything there is to know about wildlife and the surroundings. Ask for his wife's samosas - they're just delicious!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Mr Bg is the most knowledgeable guide you will find around
Best safari experience in savuti and chobe national park with moonlight safaris. Saw all of the cats and all the animals you could think of from elephants to lions to leopard and even found a pride of lions feeding on an elephant .Mr BG was extremely knowledgeable and went out of his way to accommodate us and all our needs. If you are ever in botswana or the chobe area don't miss the opportunity of using moon light safaris you won't be disappointed
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Responsive and personal
I went on a 2 week trip that included a trek up Mt Meru and a safari (Tarangire, Serengeti, Manyara, and Eyasi) through JIWE. We were interested in booking through a local Tanzanian tour operator rather than a foreign run one.
This ended up working great as Edgar was very responsive and helpful both in the planning stages and then while we were visiting. He showed in person to pick us up from the airport, get feedback at the transition from trek to safari, and at various points along the way (like helping us get COVID testing). He was also very professional in dealing with some last minute airline flight cancellations and made my trip much less stressful.
The guides he picked for us for the trek and safari were both knowledgeable and very friendly, important when you are spending so much time with them.
Our Meru team of guides and porters we're great. We had multi course meals and lots of food. We didn't have any gastrointestinal issues like of the other tour groups on mountain. We reached the successfully and saw the beautiful sunrise over Kilimanjaro.
We saw all the big 5 on our safari and had the privilege of seeing a lion pride hunt and catch prey in the Serengeti. We were also continually impressed by how nice the lodges we were staying in were .
The trip was very smooth and I can't recommend JIWE enough.
CZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Always there for us
Great communication before and during safari tour. Everything was safe. The airport changed our flight time, but thanks to African Trails we still managed to see what we wanted because they started the tour very early in the morning.
Our guide was also amazing, he gave us some information about the animals and the places we saw, he offered other places to visit on our way to accomodation. I'm happy we chose this safari tour company.
