IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good experience booking with Run wild tours for Masaai Mara
Excellent service, great staff, friendly. Took care of the entire trip from end to end for my family. Easily approachable. Gave us really good deal. Highly recommended.
IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Service oriented operator that aims for customer satisfaction. Will recommend highly!
Hilary was a good communicator from the get go. He was transparent with his pricing and stuck to his word. Unlike other tour operators with whom you feel exhausted after negotiating prices and still come out feeling cheated, Hilary is clear with his pricing and how much discount he can give. He also addressed all our concerns including our dietary preferences as we are Hindu non vegetarians.
Coming to the actual trip, Hilary made sure that the driver came to pick us up at Arusha airport on time. The hotel booked for us in Arusha too (jevas) was neat and clean.
For the safari, we had a vehicle from 7 wonders and Amos as the driver cum guide and Khaya as the chef. Both Amos and Khaya were wonderful. Amos took us on as many game drives as could fit in a day. He was never impatient or rude and was cheerful at all times, even sharing in our excitement although it must be getting old for him. Khaya was exceptional with his cooking skills and his kindness. He always had coffee and snacks ready for us after game drives. The lunches and dinner, whether picnic or hot, were so tasty with a lot of variety and included vegetarian items, eggs and chicken for two of us along with pork items for others. He plated exceptionally well too and every item was a work of art. I will forever remember Amos and Khaya and I thank Hilary and Suricata safaris for making this trip and enjoyable and memorable one for us.
Note: the camps we stayed in needed improvement but these are govt owned campsites so nothing the safari operators could do about it. At the end of the day, you are in the wild so luxury is not an option unless you spend too dollar on lodges.
Note 2: the car hire service Hilary ordered to drop us to JRO airport at end of trip messed up by being late, making us wait and being rude. Hilary made sure he picked us up from Arusha and delivered us to airport himself to soothe our frayed nerves and make up for that bitter experience. Also, he gave us some local currency out of his own pocket to make sure we had dinner at airport as we couldnt have anything earlier due to the delay. If this isn’t customer service, I don’t know what is!
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Personal care all through and extremely efficient.
Prompt, transparent and honest in advice, efficient service, more than expected hospitality standards, always trying to make safaris comfortable and eventful. Expert guidance for foreign tourists. Driver was enthusiastic and friendly.
IN
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent experience since booking till actual safari.
I have been communicating with Lennox for last 2 years. He is very prompt, helpful, reliable. There is no hidden cost. Facilities provided are beyond our expectations.
We have visited lake naibhasa and Masai Mara. I would recommend everyone to book through axis Africa safaris
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing 6 day safari in the Maasai Mara
Just had a 6 day safari with Patrick. This is the second time we have had Patrick as our guide and cannot recommend him and his company enough. He went out of his way to do everything he could for us. He always got us in the best position to take photos, knew when the wildebeest would cross the river and had eyes like a hawk to spot animals and birds from a distance. He would take us on safari whenever we wanted staying out all day with breakfast and lunch boxes some days. I cannot recommend him and this company enough.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
GREAT time, great experience, great guides
Perfect info before departure.
Safari exactly how we expected it... even better
thanks to Peter and patrick
IT
perfect solution 4 safari in Tanzania
a very expert and kind driver move a group of 11 persons arond Serengeti e Ngorongoro. Big five ...seen many times and twice rinos.
Frederic found always best solutions for everything and is the best sponsor for Hakuna Matata
MO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari with quality
The operator Kennedy is responsible and replied quickly. Everything is prepared carefully.
For the animals, we saw big five, lions, elephants, leopard, rhino and buffalo. I recommend stay in Masai Mara for more days.
For the hotel, all the hotels are good, especially the Spirit of Masai Mara. They are closed to tourist attraction. The hotels are with WiFi,water and electronic.
For the car, we use jip in the whole journey. It is a must to use because the journey will be more comfortable and can see more animals.
For the driver Sammy, he is very punctual. And tried his best to look for the animals for us.
At all, the journey is excellent with good quality and it is unforgettable in my life.
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unprofessional as they did not follow the agreed plan
I have contacted Fig Tree for the positive reviews and for the reasonable prices, though, I did not have a good experience for a number of reasons. First of all I was given a program and ended up doing another! So a piece of advise, make sure you are very specific on your requirements, making plenty of research and you get a program confirmed in writing exactly as you have understood it and you want it. I have asked for a 5 nights budget camping safari with 3 nights inside the parks (2 in serengeti and 1 in Ngorongoro) and I got instead a 5 nights with only 2 days inside the parks (1 in serengeti and 1 in Ngorongoro) I never asked to go to Tarangine and we found ourselves spending the first day there instead of Serengeti and slept outside the park. Serengeti is big, if you do not spend at least 2 nights inside you waste a lot of time traveling between parks and you don’t enjoy much time game viewing! In fact out of so called 5 days in reality you do 4 days of which 1.5 days game viewing and the rest is traveling or waiting). Second of all you need to know if you are going with the actual company car and driver for the whole trip or not. In our case they just gave us a freelancer driver with other people from other agencies, sometimes they do this in case they don’t find enough people to fill the car and they don’t have drivers available. Funny enough we were 6 people coming from different agencies and we all had the same program but ended up doing another one. Or we were all stupid or it is common for agencies to be unclear and unprofessional. We got 2 different drivers in 3 days while another couple which stayed longer got 3 drivers in 4 days ending up wasting time and therefore money (we got delayed a couple of times during the trip for missing payments from the company to the driver, literally 2 hours waiting!). Third of all you need to make sure you clarify in advance the amount of tips to give to the staff; we were told we had to give 10 usd per day per person to the driver but we ended up having to give tips also to the cooker, which was not expected. Ref. Tips it would be much better for the company to pay for the drivers and cookers and include that amount in the overall price! It would avoid misunderstandings and uncomfortable situations and leave the customers choosing if a tip is worth to be given (tips should not be forced!). Fourth of all, be aware of the extremely bad conditions of the public camp sites, overcrowded with dirty facilities! I have been camping several times in Zimbabwe and other places and the experience of the camping is incredible, you are immersed in nature, hearing the animals around you after a nice meal cooked on the fire. In Tanzania the experience is far from this; I have never experienced such crowded camps and you loose completely the connection with nature (if you are in a safari for this reason!). You will only hear people talking, and more, all night and no sound of animal! Also, be aware of the commercialization of the safari and expect many cars around; if you are sensitive about animals conservation it can be quite overwhelming seeing how many cars can surround a lion surely disturbing them... Our driver was old school and very sensitive about this matter which I have appreciated. After all I could not recommend this company as after the trip and discussing the program issue they are still insisting they did nothing wrong. And note I have confirmation in writing of the 3 nights camping from them! Literally unprofessional.
RU
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Will Do it Again with You
Staff are very pleasant. I would like specifically commend the services of the Tours-guide Ken. He masters his work, very pleasant and considerate. Best tours guide. Thank you !