US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very professional guide and such a fun adventure!
We went to ngorogoro for a safari and to stay in the Castle Lodge. The entire experience was amazing and our guide, Wilson, was very professional and knowledgeable and made sure that we were taken care of and had a fun time. The castle was incredibly beautiful and the safari was so cool! Would definitely recommend.
TR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Dream Vacation with Beacon Safaris
Masai Mara was our life time dream and thx to Robert and Anthony it came true. Our trip was initially planned for August 2020 but due to pandemic we had to postpone it. During the entire year we stayed in touch with Robert and finally completed the tour in August 2021. Robert was very helpful at every stage of planning. You can rely on him 100%.
Special thanks go to Anthony who was our driver and guide for 3 days. He is an excellent onroad / offroad driver and very kind man. He has great knowledge about the animals and birds. He was in communication with the rest of the guides during our entire journey so that we see the most we can during the game drivers. He was very helpful and patient when we had special requests such as 4am visit to hospital for PCR test OR drinks to buy from local shops in Masai Mara...
Overall, I highly recommend Beacon Safaris. You won't be disappointed...
FI
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Absolutely reliable
We vere one month in Kenya Masai Mara in april 2009. Newton from Afrique Calabash Safaris take very good care from us all the time. We didnt have to worry anything becose Newton fix everything. I loved Newtons humor and wisdom.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari tarangire ngorongo lake manyara
for our first safari in africa we had a really unforgettable moment thanks to professional safari africa and his team. Medison the boss is a really nice person who is always available to answer our questions and to put us in the best possible conditions, we had a French speaking guide for this safari named good luck, such a nice and pleasant guide, he He made us laugh and we really had a wonderful 3 days thanks to him, he came directly to pick us up at the airport to then start the safari, we were able to see almost all the animals of the African savannah, in particular thanks to with his ability to find animals hiding even in the distance, he even taught us a lot of things about the animals living here as well as the Tanzanian people, we really recommend. we stayed in a lodge the night where everything was included, meals etc, the guide also slept on site so that he would be available the next day to go on an expedition! It will remain a truly magical experience for us! thank you again to them all!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Claudious tours did an outstanding job on our trip.
(Sorry if I repeat, I ran out of superlatives)
Our adventure began at the end of 2019. My wife gave me a list of her preferences, and suggested I find the perfect African safari. which I felt I did, with Claudious Tours and Safaris. The right places, the right excursions, the right objectives, the right time (early sept) a good price. We booked it for sept 2020. We made a substantial deposit. Then Covid struck. Hope against hope it cleared up soon. To no avail. Sadness. We had to push the trip out one year. How would this year-long delay effect our tour company? Our hotels? Our excursions? Would they still be in business after a year shutdown? Claudious Tours stayed in touch regularly, (They probably grew tired of my regular emails) and we ironed out all the last-minute details.
In July of 2021 I bought the British airways airline tickets, Seattle to London, London to Nairobi, and back, from Ovago. Everything looking good. Two weeks before the trip I went online to print out our itinerary paperwork, only then, did we find out that our flights to and from Nairobi from London had been canceled by British airways. It might have been nice had someone informed us. Ovago claimed they could fix this, if we were willing to move our vacation to the end of the month. (F___ __u Ovago.) A mad scramble to try to resolve this issue resulted in new tickets through Priceline.com. Cost a little more, changed our arrival/departure times, and raised my blood pressure several points, but we managed.
Leap of faith, take a chance, Covid tested, then we boarded our plane. Claudious’s representative Francis Ojok, met us at the gate with a placard with my name on it. Overwhelming relief. This just might work out as planned. On the way to the hotel, we were informed that Covid would influence small parts of our itinerary, some minor rearrangements and hotel changes. (Mostly upgrades. Read on to get our review of “The Ark”, at the end of this piece.) We arrived at the first Hotel, The Nairobi Serena hotel, An opulent 5-star hotel in the heart of Nairobi. Spacious comfortable room with all the top amenities. Dining poolside in their magnificent Café Maghreb. What a fantastic breakfast spread. Apple fritters to mangos, macadamia to pistachio’s, Pawpaw juice to waffles. Crepes and omelets to order. Impeccable staff, very eager to please. Truly a perfect start.
Our first day began with a trip to the elephant sanctuary, where young injured and orphaned elephants are taken care of. While she was taking photos, a baby elephant tried to gently hold hands (trunk) with my wife. Simply, utterly, mindbogglingly, Amazing. Then off to the Giraffe sanctuary. Where we experienced giraffe handfeeding (read- “got slobbered on” by) these unique and truly incredible animals. Next it was off to Kazuri Beads located in Karen. Their mission Is to provide and sustain employment opportunities for disadvantaged members of Kenyan society, especially Single Motherhood women, and to achieve this, they produce top quality Ceramic Jewelry and Pottery. And it is, truly amazing. I bought three pieces for my sisters, and a beautiful bowl for myself. Then we were off to the Carnivore restaurant. Carnivore is an open-air restaurant in the Langata suburb of Nairobi, Kenya. Carnivore's specialty is grilled meat and features an all-you-can-eat grilled meat buffet. They serve a wide variety of meat and were famous for their game meat. I found the Ostrich tasty and the crocodile a little dry. The ox balls were unusually unique, and surprisingly, to me, very good. We literally rolled out of there. And that was just the first amazing day of 14. During this trip, It seemed to me that, each and every day we reached a new and unique milestone, that made it as good, if not better, than the day before.
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Day 2 found us on a game drive in Amboseli game reserve. I absolutely must interject here. If you are in Nairobi, or on the great northern road, it is smooth and wonderfully paved. With simply the occasional sleeping policeman. (Speedbump) If you are just about anywhere else, the roads are washboard and rutted. I cannot stress enough, the necessity of a sports bra, a jock strap, and a dentist, to repair your rattled fillings. My wife also referred to the trip as “dust and smoke.”
We stayed at the Amboseli Serena Lodge, another 5-star hotel Featuring a perfect Mount Kilimanjaro backdrop.
Day 3 Full day Amboseli game drive. Amongst other things, We also ran into a pair of lions on their honeymoon. Doing what honeymooners usually do. About every 10 minutes or so. Our guide said they would keep that up for 7 to 10 days, then stop to eat. (That sounded like how my honeymoon went.)
Our guide Alfred was able to flawlessly recite facts about any game we asked about. He also could identify any bird, or flora. He was able to espouse about the different types of giraffes, based on their pattern, or the way you can tell the sex of a leopard by how they lay on a branch. Any bird and how they are different from each other. Did you know that flamingos are not pink? That that is a result of the algae that they eat. The difference between white and black rhinos? (Actually, they are all gray.) What a Pencil tree is? Or a Candelabra cactus tree? A truly remarkable guide. We were truly lucky to have him.
Day 4 Transfer to Tanzania. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful lake and had our first closeup experience with 6 hippos. (Many, many more hippos later.) Our guide laid out a perfect lunch on the water’s edge. Kenyan sunsets are almost always spectacular.
At the border, social distancing in customs is unheard of. Most of the people in Tanzania eschew facemasks. They are required in official buildings, and at all hotels though.
A trip into Ngorongoro crater, the world's largest inactive, intact, and unfilled volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610 meters (2,000 feet) deep and its floor covers 260 square kilometers (100 square miles). The clouds cascading and rolling over the rim dissipate before reaching the caldera floor, this gives the illusion of an ocean wave breaking. It was absolutely gorgeous.
We watched as 3 elephants, spooked 11 lions, that were stalking 3 wildebeest. Remarkable. Several herds of wildebeest, buffalo and zebra crossing in front of us as we traversed the floor.
We arrived at Manyara National Park Tanzania, Just in time to watch some lions resting on a hillside, with their cubs, and chewing on the days meal. we ran into a baboon traffic jam. Dozens of them blocking the road.
We stayed at t he 5-star Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge perched atop Tanzania's towering Mto wa Mbu escarpment, overlooking the Serengeti.
Day 5 The Serengeti. The name might elicit hazy memories created by movies like Hatari, But the vast enormity cannot be described in its one-word name. We were very fortunate that our guide knew what he was doing, because we became hopelessly lost within the first hour. You can drive for 40 minutes without a change of scenery, or any kind of reference point on the horizon, other than the occasional wild animal. I personally believe that for the first time, we were experiencing the true curvature of the earth. If you drive for another hour, you might find a tree or two. Drive for another hour and you come across a water pond FILLED with hippo’s, my wife lost count at 90 hippos, keep going and suddenly you have majestic, stacked boulders reminiscent of New Mexico. It was upon one of these boulders that My wife spied a lioness sunning herself. 50 meters away is where our guide set up our table and chairs for lunch and we enjoyed a fabulous picnic. Yes, with the (sated) lioness right there. (Absolutely, totally, surreal).
We stayed at the five-star Serengeti Safari Lodge. A quasi tent with some canvas walls and a sliding glass door leading to your raised private balcony overlooking the Serengeti plain. The wildebeest, zebras, dikdiks, buffalo, gazelles and giraffe all right there. The hotel requires that after dark, all guests are escorted when outside their rooms, for their own protection.
Day 7 An early start, but a small hiccup at the border had us make a late arrival at Masai Mara. The Mara is the Kenyan extension of the Serengeti, we found it to be similar in many ways. The broad plains, the few patches of trees, the mounds of boulders. At the Mara we ran into herds upon herds of zebra and wildebeest, the occasional group of buffalo and giraffe, and four cheetah brothers, stuffed to the gill’s.
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They were kind enough to each mark their territory right in front of us. Yuppers, imagine that, pix of them each pee’in an poo’in, every photographer’s dream. We stayed at the Keekorok Lodge a four-star hotel, that was ok.
Day 8. We awoke at oh-dark thirty and climbed into a bus to drive for 30 minutes to our sunrise launch sight. A 16-person hot air balloon ride (one of 3, with 4 smaller balloons) over the Mara. Fabulous.
From the air, we could see how it got its name, It is named in honor of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area, who migrated to the area from the Nile Basin. Their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara" means "spotted" in the local Maasai language, due to the many short bushy trees which dot the landscape. Once on high, we watched a wide variety of animals including an aborted hunt, as a lion tried, but failed, to catch an antelope. Surreal. When we landed, we enjoyed a Champagne breakfast at the landing sight. Magnificent
While out on safari that afternoon we stumbled across two lion brothers, with their harem of lioness’, Laying in the grass. The ladies got up and started sniffing around for dinner, while the men simply yawned, stretched, and moved into the shade. Stupendous creatures. What a life.
Day 9. We drove to the Lake Nakuru National Park where we stayed at the Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge. This lodge is primarily a bird sanctuary. But while out on safari, my wife spotted a leopard up a tree. The staff at the hotel were amazed. People hadn’t seen the Leopard around there in a long time. Everyone was looking for them. Score!
Day 10. We drove to the sprawling Ol Pejeta Conservancy, one of Kenya's most noteworthy conservancies and home to the 'Big Five' elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo and leopard. On the way in we saw about a dozen white rhino. We stayed at the Sweetwater Serena Camp. An actual canvas tent in a raised structure that brings you off the ground and is attached to a full bathroom. No room keys, just zippers. This was where we had the opportunity to get up close and personal with a black Rhino. He was blind and would have perished in the wild, so was kept in a protected pasture. We also met a camel.
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Day 11. More sightseeing and driving. We checked into The Ark Hotel, this dated, (built in the early 60’s) cramped, ill amenitied hotel, lacked many of the comforts I had grown accustomed to on this journey. The 15-minute wait for tepid water in the shower, the small dining room with a poor selection of moderate cuisine, the overpriced bar, the overwhelming pungent reek of smoke throughout the building from the open fireplace in the lounge, (which was enough to trigger an asthma attack, and on a personal note, the 7,500 foot altitude level, which affected me badly.) These attributes should, and will, all be completely overlooked, while I pontificate about the truly spectacular wildlife viewing opportunities. The hotel is situated next to an extremely well-used watering hole. There are four levels of open and enclosed viewing platforms that either include comfortable chairs inside, or a magnificent outdoor viewing balcony. On the ground floor there is a stone Bunker from which you can experience the animals literally, from mere feet away. Shortly after arriving we went to the fourth-floor observation lounge, and within minutes I watched in fascination as a male water buffalo, enforced his territory, and drove another buffalo away. Then I watched a family of elephants frolicking and taking a bath. The herd extremely protective of a new calf. I watched a mountain warthog rummage around, and some zebra off in the distance waiting their turn. All within the first ten minutes.
* * *
A pack of hyenas had brought down a wildebeest one or two days prior and returned that evening to finish their meal. The herd of elephants were having nothing to do with it, and kept chasing the hyena off, trumpeting all the way. (The spectacle could not have been staged any better.)
Day 12. We drove back to Nairobi and checked into the Serena hotel again. An afternoon to unwind and relax, peruse our photos, and videos. Eliminate those that were out of focus, etc. My wife went down to the gift shop and upon returning, commented on a pair of Tanzanite earrings she had seen. I went down and purchased them, for a tenth of what they would have cost in the U.S.
Day 13. Francis Ojok picked us up and took us to the Nairobi Hospital, where we received our Covid test for the return flight home. After that my wife decided that she would like to return to the Kazuri Bead factory, so we did. Then off to the Nairobi Museum, A quick passthrough and then my wife and guide conceded and allowed me to visit the snake park. There were black and green mambas, hooded spitting cobras, gaboon vipers, the African puff adder. (Africa’s most dangerous snake) Outside, after you’ve gone past the puff adder and some other snakes, the corridor descends to a few larger enclosures which house bigger species: Leopard tortoises, soft shell tortoises, a Nile crocodile, and an American alligator among them. I loved it. (My companions humored me, but were bored)
We had takeout in our room that night and repacked for the trip home.
Day 14. My wife and I relaxed by the pool at the hotel after checking out, and Francis picked us up and drove us to the airport. Every aspect of the trip executed by Claudious Tours was well within the realm of exceptional service. I would highly personally recommend them to anyone looking for a perfect African safari. Thank you Claudious tours. (One very minor caveat: Work with Claudious to secure a two night stay in a hotel halfway to 3/4 of the way through your tour, to ensure sufficient time to address laundry issues, (Enough time to wash and dry clothes. The dust will get into everything.)
An in·ter·mi·na·ble time later (39 hours , with an 8-hour layover at Doha Qatar.) we arrived home, safe and sound.
* (5 of the photos used here, as marked, are stock photos, the rest I, or my wife, took.)
** it appears that none of the photos remained attached to the file. I assure you its much better with them.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
You must visit this country, it’s amazing I was in 59 countrys, but this take on first p
I was so amazing, it’s wonderful driver JEFF! He was from 4 th September to 7 September of 2021, he shows to us a lot of animal, he help for us a lot!
PT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect Safari Experience!
We had 5 days of safari, traveling between 3 parks (Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro).
Everything was booked before with Sandy via e-mail with all the information shared clear and easy.
The guide was perfect, professional and very well trained.
We highly recommend that you choose George to be your guide also!
The jeep was comfortable, well maintained and clean.
Cooked food at every meal.
For the safari itself... no words can describe the feelings and the views lived during one safari.
So we can only say that everyone needs to make one!
CO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
EPIC!!!
Much better than what I expected!! I really have no words to describe the service, the experience, the level of professionalism of this tour agency
That took care about me, they gave my the best experience ever, I couldn’t have chosen better. The food, the hotel, the tour, the guide, the driver, everything was amazing!
The gorillas were so close! It was truly magical
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was awesome
It was awesome to travel/tour with kubwa 5 safari in my life, I recommend kubwa 5 safari to All people who wish to tour/travel to use kubwa 5 safari.
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HR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An amazing service I highly recommend!
We booked our tour on a last minute notice and the luck was on our side. Edi being an experienced guide led us to see all the nature beauties from Masai Mara and lake Nakuru. We even expended our tour for a day to visit Park Amboseli. Afterwards, he even took us to Namanga border and connected to the local guide who helped us with crossing the border and took us to Arusha Tansania.
Highly recommend
Ana
