BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice safari experience, with an organisation that has room for improvement.
My partner and I thoroughly enjoyed this safari experience. We had a fun group (us and 4 others we did not know beforehand), and each national park visit was breathtaking in its own way. The organisation was adequate in some regards, but did fall short in some others.
- Our guide knew his way around the parks, and managed to make sure we saw a ton of different animals. He answered our questions but did not take a lot of initiative to give us explanations about the animals/areas we saw. He was enthousiastic and playful at times, but overall did not seem very interested in getting 'connected' with the group, with an attitude that can be best described as nonchalant: not to a problematic extent, but not very involved. Adequate, but not great.
- The camping experience was quite adventurous. The tents were ok, but it was not possible to really secure them into the ground. During a storm at night, this lead to some panic with someone's tent flying around the campsite (that had a large number of jackal and hyena visitors). Nobody got hurt in the end, but several people of the group were (understandably) scared out of their minds throughout this all, yet our guide did not seem to care very much and did not give an impression of being committed to helping out, and to keeping the group safe and at ease. "Just keep sleeping" is not an appropriate response if a scared person asks what to do incase a hyena manages to enter your tent at night.
- The food tasted good, but the way it was stored was often quite unhygienic. Of course, while on a safari adventure in Africa you need to have realistic expectations about this, but there's a minimum of effort you would expect a cook to make regarding hygiene and ours didn't always do that. The best example: the fruit and vegetables that we were to eat later on were lying on the ground in the camping site kitchen, with rats and birds running rampant through them. We suggested to the cook to put this food in a box (the least you can do to keep it protected a little better) and helped him do it, just to find the food lying around on the dirty ground again the next day for no apparent reason (once again between the rats and birds).
- On the fourth day of the trip, we were told the plan was to visit the Ngorongoro crater for just +-3 hours and then leave by noon, even though our park entry pass allowed us to stay in the park until much later. The group needed to do some negotiating with the guide to keep us in the park for the maximum amount of time. In the end we had a great day there (and after talking about all this, our guide did put in a much better overall effort in Ngorongoro), but that does not change the fact that that day would have been cut inexplicably short had it not been for the group intervening.
- The Hekima House, were we stayed our last night of the trip, was ok overall but our room was quite unclean. The food, bathroom and staff were nice though.
In the end we got the impression that the organisation was receptive to our feedback and willing to improve, which is definitely a positive aspect worth mentioning. We believe Hekima is a young organisation capable of giving many people great safari experiences in the future, but also that they need to improve in the aspects mentioned above. Even though these things did not ruin the entire experience for us, they very well might for other travelers.
About the parks:
- Tarangire: various types of vegetation, many hilly parts so beautiful viewpoints, lots of animals.
- Serengeti: more flat open spaces, less vegetation, many animals yet more spread out from each other, lots and lots of lions.
- Ngorongoro: unbelievable setting, many different animals close together in a breathtaking volcanic creater, no doubt the highlight of our trip.
- Lake Duluti: definitely not a 'safari' day, more of a relaxing experience on the last day, enjoying some peace and quiet (and birds). A nice day but not comparable to the true safari experiences in Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro.
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing and reliable
I had a safari with Bashiuro. I was really good and reliable. He showed us all the possible animals he could see from really far distance. Tanzania in amazing looking forward to go back and travell again with Myriad Sararis
BE
Great guide, great part: great safari.
My partner and I are very happy about our safari day at Lake Manyara.
Our guide Cosmas was friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. He was good at understanding the way we wanted to experience the safari (not too much rushing - taking our time to take it all in, both the area and the animals), and gave enough explanations without overdoing it. He was incredibly good at spotting difficult-to-spot animals, which is a bonus at Lake Manyara because large parts of the park are tightly vegetated.
All in all a wonderful experience, thanks to Cosmas and the Kili Serengeti organisation.
On a sidenote: we really appreciated the organisation allowing us to just pay the 40 dollars prepayment with the rest of the payment at the start of the safari, as it would have been very expensive for us to get that money across from home (Belgium).
CO
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unbelievable
I have to say that in my 12 days in Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) people from Papio Africa Holidays in special Tabitha were very good with me every time always very attentive and outstanding if I needed something. Safari tour incredible this is the best experience of my life until now. I have to say that I am going to recommend Papio Africa Holidays to my friends and family.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It was an absolutely top-notch experience
Guide: Hamza was amazing, very knowledgeable and willing to share all he knew.
COmmunications: We were very secure in knowig that our trip was being well managed, emails/messages were always answered promptly from the booking process to just before the trip.
It more than lived up to expectations - Bwindi in particular is an experience everyone should have!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful safari
The communication re booking the safari with Simon was excellent- prompt and efficient. We chose Wild Race because they seeemd to offer the same safari itinerary as other companies, but at lower price- which was indeed the case. Despite this, they could offer a range of accommodation from budget camping to good quality lodges. We were doing our safari in Tanzania, and had not realised that Wild Race would use an agent there to operate the actual safari, but this all turned out fine. Since we were doing a safari with other people to keep costs down (and also more potential to spot animals), our itinerary was changed a little at the last minute to fit in with others, but it turned out ok.... albeit a bit of a last minute change. The only thing to be aware of was that the final payment was poorly communicated- we thought we could pay by PayPal, but they wanted cash, so by this stage we had already paid in PayPal... but we did get money back ok, so honest people.
Safari itself was EXCELLENT. Our driver Samuel was good. Accommodation perfect ( the other 4 in our vehicle were camping, so he dropped us off at lodges and them off at campsite) and we saw all the animals we wanted too- Big 5 and many more!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Tanzania & Zanzibar
Perfect service, very responsive and experienced to answer all questions before booking, while our trip and also to make up our mind for further day trips or extra service.
Simon always gave us a satisfying feeling and guided us through several options which we were able to choose individually.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Was amazing
Great african safari with Bimls travel and tours. communication was fast. Reservation and booking was easy. the safari guide and vehicle were good. i will always reccomend them
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari experience in Kenya and Tanzania
We had a great time in Africa (12 days in Kenya and Tanzania).
Our first tour guide, Ben, said that he was there "to make it count". He and the two other guides certainly made it count.
The general organization of the tour was OK, the guides were present on time on every appointment, great accomodations, good food. All this for a reasonable price.
There were one or two problems but they were quickly forgotten thanks to the beauty of the landscapes and the animals. And that's the most important, we did not think to see so many animals so close and that's a fantastic experience.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic, memorable, ethical, responsible, sustainable and one of the best guides we've had in 40
Excellent all round and a complete 10 out of 10! My husband and I have just spent seven incredible days on safari with Saimon as our guide and Abdul as our cook. What an experience that will truly live with us forever! We advocate ethical, responsible and sustainable tourism and they delivered completely. Loving all forms of wildlife from small to large and birdlife we saw the big 5, huge number of birds and so much more. Saimon's ability to spot from a distance was brilliant and his immense knowledge of Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara gave us many advantage points away from others. Abdul was a great cook and we enjoyed a varied menu including lovely local dishes and we certainly didn't get hungry! All our campsites were in beautiful locations and extremely clean so don't discount basic camping as an option. We cannot recommend Saimon, Abdul and Gladiola Adventure enough!