65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unforgettable safari experience
We have experienced an unforgettable time in Tanzania on safari with our guide Semle from Savannah Explorers. We found it was so easy to find information from their website and all our preliminary enquires with the company were handled promptly. Everything was a lovely surprise. The car was comfortable despite the sometimes rough roads, the accommodation a delight and our driver Semle a gentle, patient, experienced and informative person. He went out of his way to find the best spots to see the animals and we marveled how he was able to anticipate and maneuver the vehicle to the best vantage point to view and photograph the activity. The tented accommodation at Kifaru that we spent 2 nights in was new and we really loved this place. The panoramic views from the restaurant at Mbalageti lodge were stunning. It captured the magnificence and vastness of the Serengeti. We definitely recommend Semle and the company for Safari.
IN
Very Professional
Our family of 4 had the most unforgettable experience in Tanzania thanks in no small part to the Masai Wanderings who curated a mix of fine hotels and tented bush experience to give us varied experience in Tanzania. Special shout out to our guides Abu and Mohamed who made our games drives and overall experience even better with their in-depth experience about the best routes and animal behaviour which helped us predict their movements leading to some surreal moments.. they were extremely patient with our boys who threw all sorts of questions at them but they patiently answered all of them. The most unforgettable moment was when we had coffee watching the Serengeti sunset in a picnic setting outside the car right in the middle of the jungle.. was not sure if our kids would have the bandwidth to do a week of safari but to our pleasant surprise they were left asking for more..
CH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A great tour operator
Brilliant Safaris organized a perfect 6-day safari for us. It started with the booking, where Julieth was so reactive and helpful and spent several days going through various changes for us. We were given a great level of information to help us with the choice of lodges and trip schedule. Then, from the moment we arrived to Kilimandjaro, we were taken in charge by our amazing guide, Joshua. He really made our safari perfect. Joshua is so nice, extremely knowledgeable, a great driver, knows everyone in Serengeti and was always able to find the best wild life scenes for us. The tour was organized for 2 people, and we were in a super comfortable jeep, with much more leg space than in the other jeeps we were seeing during the game drives. Value for money was super competitive. We will absolutely go with Brilliant Safaris again if we ever go back to Tanzania.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Professional, highly responsive and very competent.
Our Six day safari with Soul of Tanzania to Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, Central and West Serengeti was superb. Marta did a great job with the planning . The thing that really made the safari excellent though was our guide, Wilson .
Any safari is only as good as the guiding, and in Wilson we had one of the best.
Highly knowledgeable about all the birds and the beasts, but also culturally astute. Wilson’s maturity and depth of experience was evident and contributed in a big way to the success of our safari and enjoyment of it.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Brilliantly organised camping tour to Serengeti, Tarangire and Ngorongoro
We contacted Zamunda Tours through safari bookings.com and immediately knew we had made the right choice!
Throughout the booking process, Salim was professional, friendly and informative. We got a prompt response to all our questions, and he provided a useful briefing the day before our safari at our accommodation. As a former park ranger, his passion for Tanzania's wildlife was clear to see.
For the safari itself, we were merged with another small group who booked with a different company (as is normal on group joining safaris) with an experienced guide and great cook. 100% recommend.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
5 Day Gorilla Trekking Tour
My wife and I had an amazing experience with Home to Africa and Karim as our tour guide. He was knowledgable, smart, funny and a joy to be around. We felt safe and in good hands as soon as we were picked up from the airport and dropped off at the end of the tour. All of the accomodations/lodges we stayed in exceeded our expectations and were very comfortable. Everything was organized perfectly for a smooth tour. We booked this tour to mainly do the gorilla trekking but all the other days were amazing. We saw chimpanzees, elephants, hippos, lions, crocodiles, water buffalo, impala, wart hogs, many species of birds, and even a leopard in a tree in Queen Elizabeth National Park! I 100% recommend Home to Africa as a tour operator and ask for Karim to have an adventure of a lifetime.
SG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Worry-free all-inclusive trip
We went on a customized 9-day safari in Tanzania with Lion King Adventures. We are a group of two families with four adults and fours little kids. Our experience has been excellent. Itinerary proposal was clear and easy to understand. Communication was convenient and timely. Instructions were comprehensive and helpful. The overall experience with the company was pleasant.
Our driver and guide Salehe has done a wonderful job. He is friendly, patient, accommodating and possesses enormous knowledge about the animals and local culture. He also has this incredible “eagle vision” that can spot different animals from far away with naked eyes. Thanks to this ability of his, our vehicle was the first one to spot, on different occasions, lions, cheetahs, and even a wild rhino. The conversation with him in the car has been quite enjoyable as well.
From pickup till drop off, the safari trip is indeed a worry-free experience with everything taken care of by the company and/or Salehe.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Experience and Vacation of a Lifetime
We took a 14 day customized tour of Tanzania and Kenya. The experience was unbelievable. Starting from the customization of the trip through Alex, to visiting the parks and spending time with the tour guides, to the accommodations etc - it was surreal. Alex is an excellent owner and he communicated with us from day 1 when I first reached out to them thinking about the tour. He would communicate via WhatsApp and/or Email and customized the tour based on our interests. He even came to meet us personally on the first day. The accommodations set by him were breathtaking - luxurious tents and lodges in the middle of the desert, great food, to waking up to seeing the animals in our backyard. The actual tours were even better and magnificent - we had Hassan in Tanzania who was very polite and knowledgable. Knew the parks and areas very well and was able to show us all the animals. We had Sammy Brio in Kenya who was just as good. The overall experience was just amazing. Definitely one of our best vacations yet. Would highly highly recommend Alex and the team of Mama Savana.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great wildlife, Great Service!
We went to the Chobe National Park in March this year and joined Kalahari Tours on a 2 night mobile safari.
Nothing beats camping out in the true wilderness of Botswana, and Kalahari Tours made sure we experienced the best of it.
Apart from the exceptional game viewing in the park - it was fantastic to arrive at our campsite, already set up with a fire burning - and a more than welcome glass of wine!
Nothing beats falling asleep to the sounds of lion roaring, and the exhilaration of knowing they have the freedom to walk right past us!
The food prepared for us was of the highest standard, the guides knowledgeable and patient, and the camp hands cheerful and helpful!
Definitely will be going again
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
How Uganda ended up as our favourite ever holiday…
I rarely get round to writing reviews, but our trip to Uganda was so fantastic that the chance to relive it a month later in a review was too good to pass up.
My girlfriend and I were looking to travel to Uganda principally to see the Gorillas in Bwindi, and then to see as much other wildlife as we could while we were there. We requested a number of quotes from a variety of highly rated operators, but Home to Africa stood out for the responsiveness of their communication, the clear detail in their general itineraries (where you could actually look up all the lodges they were recommending on trip advisor, unlike some other providers), they were also very competitive on price. We settled on one of their stock itineraries that would take us via Kibale-Queen Elizabeth-Bwindi-Mburu to do a variety of different wildlife experiences including the chimps and gorillas, then finishing in Jinja with some rafting down the Nile. They were very responsive in answering any questions both before and after booking. I have to say I did feel slightly apprehensive about making the quite large payments, but I was able to do this on a credit card (for a small additional fee) which gave me the confidence to send this off to a company I’d discovered only a few weeks earlier. I probably needn’t have worried.
When it came to our tour itself, I think it’s safe to say pretty much everything exceeded our expectations. We were collected promptly from our hotel in Entebbe by our guide Derrick, who then stayed with us for the remainder of our 8 day tour along with the 4x4 vehicle that was our private vehicle. Derrick was genuinely fantastic and really made our trip in so many ways, he was very knowledgeable about all the things we did, and managed some of those animal spottings where you just don’t know how someone with regular human eyes could’ve possibly spotted them, a pair of lions in a cactus tree in QE national park was a particular highlight. Derrick also did a great job of making everything in our trip run super smoothly, from pulling strings with local contacts to ensure we had nothing but private groups for the externally guided tours, to seamlessly rescheduling activities when one of our plans was changed by the Uganda wildlife authority. He really made it so we had to do very little thinking throughout the week.
In terms of the other elements of the tour, all our accommodation was in the “nice budget” category, and these were all to a good standard with most having some real wow factor. Particularly the view from the Eagles Nest lodge in Mburo, which was the eventual winner of our favourite lodge award, in what was a pretty close contest. There were a few instances of cold showers or absent electricity in the places we stayed, but these were generally short lived issues and were what we had expected in this price category, so didn’t diminish our enjoyment! The food everywhere we stayed was plentiful, tasty and had enough variety to keep us happy, but probably isn’t what you’ll be reminiscing about.
I will just finish by noting that whilst the tour we did, did involve a lot of driving 4 or 5 hours every other day on average, the whole itinerary generally felt really well paced and we were driving through such beautiful scenery down the western side of Uganda that the drives really felt like a big part of the experience. The only part that felt at all arduous was the drive across Kampala and out towards Jinja where we did the rafting, that was a bit of a slog in the holiday traffic, but overall we felt it was worth it to finish our trip with a trip down the Nile.
So all in all a genuinely fantastic experience, and I would recommend home to Africa without any hesitation. We will definitely use them again if we return to any of the 4 countries they cover in East Africa. Oh and go direct to their website for the best prices, as I noticed the costs seem to be much higher elsewhere.
