US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Book Now! The most amazing honeymoon came true with Lauren and the team at Ker & Downey Africa!!
If you are wavering even a bit about booking with Ker & Downey Africa- stop reading and BOOK RIGHT NOW!!! Seriously, I promise you will not regret it! I cannot say enough amazing things about working with Lauren Barnard and the Ker & Downey Africa Team. It was truly the most incredible trip and Lauren made that possible for us.
While I consider myself a planner, my husband is more go with the flow, so we found ourselves incredibly behind in planning our honeymoon. It seemed impossible to pull off honestly. We then found Ker & Downey Africa on Google and reached out. Lauren responded quickly and didn’t seem phased by our short notice. I think perhaps she remained calm for my benefit, although it had to add stress to her plate. Lauren designed the most incredible itinerary. She made it seem possible, and not only that, but one thousand times more amazing than anything I could pull off. She was such a calm presence throughout the process. She met on multiple zoom calls with me, each lasting over an hour. She answered every question with patience, optimism, and professionalism.
However, I won’t lie, it was pretty nerve wracking when it came time to pay. Here we were about to send a large wire transfer to a company we randomly found on Google. Were we crazy? We couldn’t find many reviews, other than their website, and it was scary to take that leap of faith.
That fear was quieted once we touched down in South Africa. We were in a fairy tale for the next two weeks, a dream that Lauren had brought to fruition. Here I was getting to experience the most spectacular trip I have ever taken. We stayed at the most beautiful places; luxurious, wild, and perfect. The hospitality of everyone we met is truly unmatched, a hospitality that I hoped to bring back home. We ate wonderful food, often more than we should have. We experienced so many different aspects of South Africa, and fell in love with the country more with each stop. It’s hard to express the awe I hold for this trip, even after returning home. Honestly, all words fall short of what this trip was to us. Without a doubt, I will use Ker & Downey Africa whenever I can plan another trip to Africa, and I would encourage everyone else to as well!
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best Vacation Ever!
This trip has been a work in progress since 2019. We originally started planning this for our 50th wedding anniversary and then Covid hit. When we first spoke to Matthys we were not familiar with anything in Africa. We told him we had to see the “Big Five”, but other than that we didn’t know what we really wanted. Well let me tell you everything was absolutely perfect. We flew into Cape Town and enjoyed 5 days of perfection. A tour to the wineries, table mountain cable car, down to the southern Cape of Good Hope, and Robben Island were tours that he arranged. Then it was on to Victoria Falls. Our next stop was Sabi Sabi Little Bush Camp at Krueger National Park where we stayed for 3 nights. Not only did we see the big five but we also saw, giraffes, cheetahs, ostrich, hippopotamus, zebra and so much more. Matthys recommended we split our time between two safari camps so our next stop was Leopard Hills. Both lodges were above and beyond our expectation. We even got to see lions mating. The last leg of our journey brought us to the Mauritius for a relaxing beach vacation. We had a long layover on our return trip to the states so Matthys arranged a day trip to Soweto.
Every stop on our vacation was perfect. There was always someone to meet us and escort us to our destination. Matthys listened to our wants and delivered a vacation that surpassed anything that we expected. Africa truly is life changing
CN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
PROFESSIONAL
Murchison Falls have very large water volume in July, so it is very magnificent. During safari we found many giraffes, elephants and beautiful birds. We enjoy saffari so much. We will come Murchison again.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best of the Kenyan parks
My daughter and I had such a great time with our guide Alex for 3 days in the mara. We didn't manage to explore the entire mara but what we did was extensively done.
CZ
under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect holiday
The best Africa experience with EBS company, without our guide and driver Shafik we would not have the same feeling right now, thank you EBS!
BO
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Loved the Tanzanian Adventure and Company
We, a family of 4, obtained Bahati Safaris' contact from a friend who recommended it. We wrote via Whatsapp and got an immediate answer from Siya Matemu, the owner and guide. Once we could give him dates of arrival and departure plus our expectations of the visit to Tanzania, he was swift and efficient in providing different alternatives for an 8-day safari… In addition, once we settled in a trip, Siya did all the reservations, plane tickets, and other expenses with us only sending him a copy of our plane tickets to Tanzania: airport pickup and hotel in Dar Es Salam, plane tickets to Arusha, hotel reservations in Zanzibar + transportation, etc. From a logistics point of view, everything worked out perfectly.
The safari itself was so much more than what we were expecting: Arusha, Tarangire, Hatzabe and Datoga tribe visits near Lake Eyasi, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, lake Natron, and the climb to Ol Doinyo Lengai with reasonable driving times and as many stops as we wanted with a good balance of camping and hotels. While in the parks we often realized that we were among the first to arrive at interesting animal sightings which tells a lot about the guide’s instincts.
Siya was our guide and driver during the safari, and Hamad was our cook. We had a great time with both of them chatting about so many things about Tanzania and our own country. Siya’s English is very good and his knowledge of the local fauna is huge.
Every day before hitting the road we would have a full breakfast which included fruits, pancakes, and eggs, and after a full day, Hamad would have some meal for us which was often local.
Overall, we loved Tanzania and this is due greatly because of Siya and Hamad; we are looking forward to going back and we will definitely hire Bahati Safaris again
MX
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Stella Spaulding at Giltedge did a great job making all the arrangements needed for a great trip!
Stella at Giltedge answered all our questions quickly as we planned the trip and then made all arrangements to carry out our wishes. She added details that we never would have considered, but that we found delightful. Our trip could not have gone more smoothly. We had great guides and marvelous accommodations throughout the trip. We could not be more pleased with the services we received! We recommend Stella and Giltedge to everyone!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Silverbird is the Best!
We had such an amazing time touring Rwanda with Silverbird! Peter, Faith, and the whole team were so knowledgeable, communicative, and kind, and we couldn't have asked for a better experience! We saw Akagera National Park, Volcanoes National Park/gorilla trekking, and a Kigali city tour with Silverbird, and I absolutely recommend all of them! Thank you so much to the whole team at Silverbird for your incredible tours and kindness!!
NZ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Exceptionally helpful and knowledgeable.
Delighted with the service, advice and support provided by Discover Africa Safaris. Highly recommend them.
US
Experience level: first safari
Great teamwork between sales group and safari guides
We were a group of 9 doing the 7-day Mara River Migration Safari in July'23. Our ages range from 23 to 59 and we all loved the safari.
Amina and Hellen helped us organize the trip. It was a two-year process with many emails exchanged and they were always professional and pleasant in their responses. Importantly, everything they committed to happened as they said it would. From picking us up at the airport at 1:50 am to allowing us to leave large bags in their office and getting them to the airport so we would find them there the day of our departure. They gave us a lovely welcome at their office the first day we were there.
Our guides, Abi and Louis, were wonderful: knowledgeable, fun, flexible, great drivers, and they made every effort to get us to see the animals we wanted to see. We appreciated their openness to speak about their culture, their country and themselves. Their English is extremely good. We were very lucky to have them as our guides.
The lodges we stayed at were a big part of the experience. We picked the comfort level for the lodges, they had tents with hot water, flushable toilets, wash basins, mosquito nets, but also the sound of lions at night and waking up to beautiful views of the Serengeti, lion paw prints on the floor and amazing views of a buffalo herd. The men that work at the lodges are very welcoming. They do dances and sing; some are Massai, and they are very willing to share their culture and the way they live. The food was good, tasty and plentiful.
We went to the Ngorongoro, and North and Central Serengeti. The experience in the 3 areas was different. Ngorongoro had many animals in a smaller area. It was very cold at night. The expanse of the Serengeti was breathtaking, we saw many individual animals in Central Serengeti and larger groups in the north, mainly of hippos, giraffes, lions and elephants. We did the balloon ride in the North over the Mara River, it is more expensive than most balloon rides, but absolutely worth it. Incredible views.
The one minor issue we had was bugs inside the tents at one of the camps, but nothing to spoil the experience.