35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Incredible organizers superb guide
Tanzania Choice safaris were amazing.
We went up to Serengeti with them , both central and up to the Mara river and Zanzibar afterwards. Their selection of itinerary and places to stay as well as communication was absolutely perfect
They organized everything including the internal air tickets so we were completely taken care of the whole way . They even handled an error from another company which resulted in a problem with another part of our holiday and saved the whole vacation.
They got us an incredible guide , Leslie who made sure we found an incredible range of animals (all the big 5, hyenas , cheetahs , wildebeest , zebras, hippos , nine species of antelope, several species of birds and a relaxed easy holiday
Recommend them wholeheartedly!
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Reliable fantastic and fun!!
From the beginning to end everything was terrific. Heather was straight forward and helpful with planning. This was a big deal for us and we were nervous about spending so much money. She was patient with all of our questions and reassuring. We were so excited to go. Heaven was a perfect guide, he knew how to read our wishes and could make them all happen. He was great at finding animals as well as pacing things for us so we enjoyed the week completely. We felt so much trust that we were really able to relax and let chasing dreams take care of everything. All the accommodation was great. Food was terrific, we had so much fun! Everyday the keep was clean and prepared. Heaven was super respectful of our time and recognized that we were far away from home and had gone to a lot of expense and he made sure we always knew he was taking care of things. It is quite amazing to have someone so committed to tour enjoyment for a week. It was really special. Heaven and Heather are lovely people and super reliable and trustworthy. We saw more animals and beautiful
Landscape than we ever imagined.
On a side note after the safari I had an injury and had to get medical care. We called Heaven for advice and he made calls and drove me to a clinic for medical attention, after a week together this was not a surprise because he is just such a stand up man. Chasing dreams is a terrific company, they really know their stuff and go above and beyond to make sure your safari experience is professionally and carefully designed and delivered. We are so grateful we made the choice to go write them
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The real deal!
Having so many touroperators to choose from and very much wanting to support local business, I had several conversations and video calls with Gift from Mousebird Safaris. He was very easy to communicate with, reliable, gave me lots of information and responded quickly. I can only confirm that this safari was everything I expected and more. The accommodations, transportation, food & beverage, but especially our incredible guide Lucas made this an adventure we'll never forget.
IR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Thansk!
We did 6 days budget safari as a group with blue mountain company, thanks for Ann, She always was friendly and would answer all of my questions. actually she made us good memory from Kenya and safari in wild life. food and acommodatin also were Good and tasty and acceptable.
Thanks
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience
Amazing experience! The itinerary was well planned with enough action and rest. The accommodations were also great. Our guide, Dominic was amazing and did his absolute best to help us get photos of the rare animals. Would definitely recommend!
BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very good and clear explanation!
The tour was guided by experts. We had a great time! We would everyone to book this tour and have the same experience.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
A wonderful and unforgettable experience on animals tracking with Dav Safaris and Kevin.
We are a group of 5 friends from United States and Canada and had toured Rwanda and Uganda with Dav Safaris during August 22 through August 27, 2023. We had a wonderful and unforgettable experience with our tour guild Kevin on the animals tracking adventure. The arrangements by Dav Safaris on lodges, food, and animal tracking are well planned and we had experienced the adventure better than our expectations. We have luckily seen all of these animals we expected, including golden monkeys, Gorillas, and Chimpanzees. Here I would like to specially thank our tour guild Kevin. He is knowledgeable, professional, and very diligent being with us during the tour. He also is honest and trusted person. One of our tour member lost his wallet when we left Uganda. Kevin found it when he clean the car and he immediately informed us and mailed it to us Late he called us to make sure that we received it. I would also like to thank Reagan, the owner of Dav Safaris. He spend his precious time to meet us at Entebbe Airport. I give Dav Safaris a five star rate and will highly recommend to our friends for their future African Safari tour.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great communication, outstanding guide, and good logistics delivered the trip of the lifetime.
I have always dreamed of traveling to East Africa to witness the Great Migration. I started planning this trip for Summer of 2018. Business interfered so I replanned it for summer of 2020. Pandemic interfered and I went through the whole process again for this year.
Each year I did the same thing. I read months and months of the TripAdvisor forum messages to collect the names of recommended outfitters. I selected 10 that were commonly advised and wrote them asking for quotes on a 15-day safari. Of those 10, I selected the top three most responsive outfitters and started corresponding with them in earnest. Each time I did this exercise, Easy Travel was in the top three.
In the end, I chose Easy Travel because they had the best combination of price and a high level of communication. I started corresponding in earnest with Easy Travel seven months before our vacation began and they responded with detailed itineraries and answers to all of my questions and modifications as I requested them. They responded so fast that I felt somewhat guilty sending a question on a weekend night, knowing that I’d get a detailed response by the morning.
In the end, Easy Travel arranged our entire northern circuit safari, which went flawlessly. We arrived and departed from Arusha, staying at the Kino Palace Hotel. We stayed mostly at Tortilis tented camps, which were excellent “comfort plus” accommodations. I believe the Tortilis camps may be owned by Easy Travel. (You can see my Tortilis reviews by searching.)
I would say that we made two stumbles in accommodation: staying a night at Lake Manyara and staying at a tented camp on the rim at Ngorongoro. Lake Manyara is the second oldest National Park, but the shore has been drastically altered in recent years by the rains, and the amount of open areas in which you can more easily view wildlife has been greatly reduced. The wooded portion of Lake Manyara is beautiful and there were plenty of tracks indicating all types of wildlife, but you can only see 5-10 meters off the road, and that’s inevitably going to limit your chances. It was once famous for its abundant flamingoes, and while there are still some, the changes in the shoreline have apparently ended the large numbers.
Staying on the rim of Ngorongoro was something I pushed for, but was a mistake. You can find my review of Pakulala “Luxury” Tented Camps elsewhere, but basically it was just too cold and too spare.
Beyond that, the trip was so far beyond my expectations that words fail. I took my expectations and tempered them because, of course, you take what Nature gives you. But the reality was so, *so* much more that I still can’t get over, despite 8000+ pieces of photographic evidence. We saw thousands of elephants and buffalo, scores of lions, 8 leopards, and 4 rhinos (including a mother and calf). We saw the “Big 5” *in between* the gate to the Central Serengeti and camp! We saw a cheetah hunt and kill gazelle, a lion pack bring down a water buffalo, and a crocodile take a wildebeest crossing the Mara River.
The main determinant of the quality of your safari is your driver/guide. We adored our highly competent, very friendly, and funny guide Omari. He was very experienced and seemed to be a resource for other guides. That was nice to see because being hooked into the network of guides is a crucial part of finding out what is going on at the various hotspots around the various camps.
Omari had fantastic eyes and continually surprised us by pointing out some distant object that we'd have to use binoculars to resolve. We'd then approach and Omari was great about positioning the vehicle so that we had the best view while staying at a respectful distance from the animals. We were upset to see some other operators causing interference, causing the animals' behavior to change, but I think we avoided that, while having some amazing close encounters (see photos of elephants grazing out vehicle, lions a few feet away, etc.).
Omari was always quietly taking care of us. He was not overly demonstrative like some guides but he always knew what was going on and how to make the most of the day.
The second most important thing to the quality of your safari is certainly going to be the tented camps in which you stay, and for us, as I said, the Tortilis Camps and the others we stayed at were of high quality (see my reviews on TripAdvisor elsewhere).
The third most important thing to your safari experience is the quality of your vehicle. I can't tell you how many breakdowns we witnessed over the course of two weeks but it must have been in the dozens. Easy Travel and Omari maintained our vehicle in top condition and was even in a position to help out a few other folks in trouble. I was confident that even in the face of minor breakdowns, Omari would have known what to do (and was in radio and cellphone touch with others, so I’m sure aide would have arrived reasonably).
The vehicle itself was great for the two of us, would have been great for three, and Omari said that even four was a good number. There are three rows of two seats, so my wife and I mostly took a row to ourselves so that we had the easiest side-to-side vantages. The roof pops up, which was important for photo angles and general visibility, but also provided quite good shade and could be lowered in wooded areas where tsetse were more common or on the main (but still unpaved) roads, where there was a lot of dust. We saw quite a few different types of vehicle and were very happy not to be in some of the alternatives.
The chairs were comfortable enough but not luxurious and the amount of time you spend in the vehicle was *very* significant, often 10 hours or more per day. I have to say that I thought the way it worked was: early AM game drive, back to camp, late afternoon game drive. I literally thought I’d be taking a nap in the afternoons. Not at all. Because the camps aren’t set up right beside the hot spots, you need to range to have the best chance of seeing great stuff. If you were to do out-and-backs twice a day, you’d be throwing away hours of the day and limiting your locations.
Instead, you had long days in the vehicle: breakfast around 6AM, a box lunch brought in the vehicle and generally eaten at a designated rest area with some other vehicles around, and then back at the camp anytime from 5 to 7 o’clock. And when I say you’re in the vehicle, I mean you’re *in* the vehicle. We went on two “walking safaris” in Arusha National Park and in Lake Manyara and, other than those 2-3 hours, everything we saw was from inside the vehicle.
A final thing worth mentioning is that I had a very non-serious intestinal thing that had me skip a dinner and everyone — Omari, the Tortilis camp staff, and Masuma from Easy Travel’s office in Arusha — bent over backwards to find out how I was doing and if I needed anything. I didn’t, but it was comforting that they all took it seriously.
SG
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great and reliable
Did a day hike on Mt Kilimanjaro and my guide Joy was great. Everything went ahead successfully and punctually. Appreciate the amazing experience from Alpine Chat. Will book my next tour with them
SG
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Experienced and reliable
Jocky Tours is experienced in safari tours and everything when ahead successfully due to great planning. Will definitely book my next safari tour with them!