AR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Uneven service, with great things mixed with defficient aspects
We bought a 3-week package thru Uhuru with my family of 5 (me, my wife, and 3 grown-up children (27-25-23), from December 28th to Jan 17th, 2020. It included 12 days in safaris, and 8 days in Zanzibar. We chose the mid-range option (other being budget & luxury).
Positive side:
1. First, Margaret, our contact person throughout the trip, was there for us 24/7, constantly attentive to our needs, and ready to solve any problem that could arise. It was great to have her reachable in Whatsapp at all times!
2. The organizational part was impeccable, everybody was waiting for us in the right places, at the right times, rooms ready in hotels, guides and drivers ready to take us where we were going.
3. All the lodges in the safari part of the trip, also great, meeting or exceeding our expectations!
4. Having a vehicle and a guide/driver exclusively for ourselves the entire trip was also great.
5. The guides: superb! Perfect I’d say for Charles in Kenya, and very good Godwin in Tanzania. They of top importance, you get to spend most of your day with them.
On the Negative side:
6. Major problem: the vehicles! Transport in safaris are 50% of the experience. In a trip like this, we spent 8-12 hours a day on the transport, either as a game drive or in between Parks (several of the game drives were planned to occur during our inter-park trips, with all our luggage inside the vehicle, and it cannot be done in any other way). And we were 5 adults with luggage for 3 weeks. The quality of what we got was absolutely terrible, not up to standards. And that after much complaining from our part, Uhuru refused to change the vehicle, is really incomprehensible. It ruined our experience. In every lodge, every park entrance, every stop to watch animals, where we saw other tour vehicles, ours was by far the oldest, most decrepit, and overcrowded of all! I happened to read on several Safari.com reviews that other passengers also complained in the past about the same issue with Uhuru, and also read in disbelief that management from Uhuru replied that Uhuru assigns the small Jeeps for up to 4 passengers, and the extended Jeep for up to 6, and we were 5 adults and Uhuru had us crammed in a small Jeep for 8 days (the Tanzania part)!!! So Uhuru did not even respected its own established standards. It is really lamentable, this was meant to be the trip of our life, but it gave us reasons to complain every day we had to endure such bad mini bus/Jeep. On top of that, since the conditions of the roads are so bad, the famous "African Massage" turned out to be torture for us due to the bad conditions of these very old vehicles. Advise to future travellers: find a way to know ahead what kind of vehicles you will be given during the safaris!
7. As compensation, Uhuru offered a free half-day tour in Zanzibar (we chose snorkeling in Nmemba Island). Although this was a nice gesture: 1) it was not nearly enough to compensate the problems we had during the safaris, and 2) the tour itself was bad, the service was mediocre, and the facilities at the point of departure of the boat were just terrible. I’d strongly suggest Uhuru to not use those guys anymore.
7. Airport hotel at arrival: 67 Airport Hotel at Nairobi was horrible, and in a terrible location! My daughters arrived at night and were so scared when they saw their airport transfer entering the streets where the hotel is, it is like a slum. And the arrival hotel is the first impression one has of the whole trip, the country, and the tour company. It is at least three levels below the quality of the safari lodges. It is clearly not “mid-range” level that we chose for the whole trip, and I’d say it does not even qualifies for “budget”.
8. Nungwi Nmanari Cottages in Zanzibar: the hotel is OK, I’d say more budget than mid range, but acceptable in terms of rooms, services and general facilities. But it is on the wrong side of the island!!! It has no beach!! We spent 6 nights on a tropical paradise island in a hotel with no beach. High tide: no beach, low tide: the sea retreats to 800 meters away, and impossible to get to because there are stones, coral, and see urchins. We could not believe it when we went to the other side (just a 10’ taxi ride away) where a lot of other hotels are, and saw such beautiful beaches, enjoyable in both low and high tide. My son and daughters, who love the beach, complained day and night, and I felt that I let them down organizing this trip in such a way that didn’t let them enjoy Zanzibar’s world famous beaches
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great 6 days Safari & Kilimanjaro Trek
After having checked many options, I booked my safari tour with Wildlife Oasis Tours and I am very happy about my decision. They offered affordable prices, with great guides, food and a personal support from the beginning till the end of my stay!
I've booked a 6 days Safari Tour and I did really enjoy it! You have to be prepared to spend many hours inside the Jeep, but this is a part of the experience, as you are not allowed to go out of the car, because you are visiting national parcs with wild animals.
That's why after the Safari, I've needed some action and decided to climb the Kilimanjaro! As for the Safari, Wildlife Oasis Tours organised the 6 days Kili climbing (Machame Route) and it was a hard, but a unique experience! During the hike be prepared for all kind of temperatures hot and cold, sun, wind, rain and snow! Bring a suncream with a high protection, and wet wipes ;) and be sure that your backpack is waterproof or just put your stuff within plastic bags!
As for the Safari, the food was excellent, each day we had a different meal (soup, fruits, vegetables, rice, potatos and pasta). The guides did also a great job by motivating us to keep going and all the 3 of us reached the summit and that's was an unforgettable feeling :)
Thank you again to Humphrey and Ally for their support and help!
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
unforgetable 10-days-trip thrugh the west side of Uganda
It starts in december with a very good planing... thank you so much Teresa and Silvia.
Everything went well... pic up at the Airport... and the complete tour. With Twaha, we have had an very good guide... he always finds the animals on the gamedrives, when other guids failed. The lodges where really good, comfortable and clean.
That was the second safari in Uganda with wild jungle trails... and I am sure I will come back.
Best regards Henry
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was fun, relaxing and enjoyable. I had a lifetime experience and wish to experience that again wS
The services were way better than my expectations and the tour was awesome
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The most amazing experience!
We booked our fantastic 10-day Uganda experience with Kevin who answered all of our questions and concerns before we left.
When we arrived in Entebbe we were met by Keven, Bex and Brett who talked us through our trip and we had a lovely dinner and nights sleep.
On our first morning we were met with Kamye who was our guide through the trip. What he didn’t know about Uganda, it’s history and it’s wildlife isn’t probably worth knowing! He made all the journeys between stays enjoyable and knowledgable, with little stop offs along the way and interesting detours to our destinations.
We went to the Kibale Forest and the Gorge for chimp trekking, Queen Elizabeth park for game drives, stayed in Mweya lodge, and did the boat trip which was beautiful-I’ve never seen so many hippos! This was a definite highlight for me.
We also went to Bwindi and did the gorilla trek which was just the most amazing and humbling experience I will never forget!
I could go on and on about this holiday (and also our honeymoon). The company is brilliant and for anyone unsure about Uganda, I (Vicki) am not and ‘outdoor’ person at all, worried about creepy crawlies, trekking...everything, but once I was there I needn’t have worried. Thank you Experience Uganda team for such experience.
IN
fantastic journey and awesome experience with our guide Mr.Peter and Sadguru tours & travel service
Communication fine, service excellent . Overall it was a good experience
LK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent Safari Experience
We had an excellent safari experience in MAsai Mara with Africa Travel Waves Safaris. It was very easy for me to plan my Kenyan Safari trip with Mrs. Edwina as she provide sufficient & clear information, prompt responses, flexibility & reasonable pricing. Even she helped me to buy train tickets from Mombasa to Nairobi as it's bit tough to buy train tickets online without a local's support as it accept payment only by MPESA.
Although we went on game drive Safari only for 2 days, she had arranged it very well & especially with safari guide Mr.John, we were able to see many animals within that short time as John knows every inch of Masai Mara park very well.
I can recommend Africa Travel Waves Safaris to anyone to have a trouble free tour.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Scammed out of $3000AUD
It pains me to leave such a negative review on what was actually an excellent tour. Myself and my husband took a 6 day luxury tour using right choice safaris in December/Jan and had an excellent time. While the tour was as hoped, all accommodations were excellent and the driver very good unfortunately I have to leave this company a negative review as we were scammed out of thousands of dollars when making payment to this company for our tour. On arrival we were informed we needed to settle final payment I advised that we had already made final payment and had emails from them and confirmation from the bank, they then informed us that their email had been hacked and the person I had been communicating with and who I had transferred money to was not them. Unfortunately they informed us they had suspicions that this may be the case and neglected to contact us using another form of communication to inform us of this suspicion knowing that this had happened to them before when their email was hacked on a prior occasion. We were forced to make another payment at the office of $3000AUD. While they attempted to contact the bank to make amends we have unfortunately not at this stage been able to get our money back and I have no idea whether their email really did get hacked or whether they were part of the scam. If using right choice safaris I advise make payment at the office on arrival not via bank transfer.
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Just perfect
I with friends had a great 3-days safari with an excellent experience! Everything has been done on the highest level, from preliminary communication up to transfer to the airport. Hotels selection was very good. Both hotels were comfortable, cozy, with a lot of tasty food.
But the best part of this safari was tour guides. Friendly, always with good mood, they began to be perceived as friends almost instantly. And that guys were so professional, all of them. They can participate in friendly conversation or be silent when it was needed, provide information about almost everything around, and even teach us a local language. Just awesome!
Also, I want to notice the timing. The company was flexible to adapt to our late flight arriving and rework our schedule. Everything was on time, without any delay. Mark of high quality!
I hope I'll have a chance to come back to Africa someday. And I am definitely want to travel with African Sunsets Travel again.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari experience with more types of animals than I had expected!
I booked a 7-night, 8-day safari with Bluerange Connect to see Masai Mara, Amboseli, Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha. The experience was fantastic and unforgettable! I had 2 guides over the course of the week, Jackson and Jeffrey. Both of them were very professional as well as being fun and eager for everyone to have a good time. While going on game drives, the guides do their best to find and get close to animals doing what animals do! I was able to get great photos since we got very close to many animals. We saw the "Big 5" (elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos and buffalo) as well as many other animals such as cheetahs, hyenas, giraffes, crowed cranes, ostriches, jackals, hippos, zebras, impalas, gazelles, crocodiles, monkeys, baboons, warthogs, pelicans, storks, vultures, flamingos, and more that I can't remember! Three meals each day and accommodations each night are all taken care of by the company so all you have to do is just enjoy the experience.