NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
100% recommend
Had a fantastic 15-day trip through Uganda, which was perfectly organized by Sander and with a very pleasant guide Bob. After some research we ended up at Sander's company Grassrootz and we were very enthusiastic from the very first moment. Because Sander lived in Uganda and works with local partners, he has all the expertise to put together a great trip and he is also very accessible by telephone. Together we have been able to put together a program that fulfilled all our wishes. Everything was arranged down to the last detail with beautiful lodges, good food, pleasant guide, you name it. It was also communicated everywhere that it was our honeymoon, so in several places we were surprised with a nice surprise. Our guide Bob was especially good at what you look for in a guide, reliable in traffic, friendly, many connections and continuously concerned with whether our interests were being prioritized. All in all, a beautiful country to visit with a variety of nature, animals and culture, and we can 100% recommend this company to anyone who would like to make an impressive trip through Uganda in a safe and comfortable way!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent Tour Company
We booked our safari tour with Awuor Escapades as they had availability of the dates that we wanted. It is very difficult to find the right safari but we are so happy we picked the right one. Our tour operator named Henry was very helpful. We had issues getting to Kenya as Saudia airlines messed it up. We came a day late in our safari tour but Henry managed to plan everything last minute for us. We really appreciated everything he did, from picking us up from the airport to dropping us off at Maasai Mara. As we missed a day of our safari tour , Henry managed to squeeze us in for a morning game drive which was not part of our itinerary.
Even though we were a day late , we felt that we made the most of it despite our circumstances,all thanks to our tour operator. We communicated with Henry a lot before our trip as it was our first safari , he reassured us and sent us a detailed plan of what we were going to do for our tour. If we needed help, he was there to answer all our questions. The service was excellent and highly recommend this tour company if you want to book a safari. If you are unsure about how many days and dates , please look through their other tours they will happily accommodate a day more or a day less.
We had amazing experience with our safari tour . It was our first time and we would definitely go again with the same tour company.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Service could not have been better - fabulous experience!
My husband and I took a day trip to Lake Nakuru National Park, with a side trip to Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island, with Unscripted Safaris. Lewis responded promptly to all of our questions, and was very clear about pricing - what was included, what was extra, and what wasn't included. Online payment system worked well. On the day of, Philip picked us up at our hotel right on time, and the entire day was a wonderful experience, He was friendly, knowledgeable, and importantly, a safe driver. We highly recommend touring with Unscripted Safaris!
Smooth Operator!
Great service from booking & throughout our safari.
Good value.
Amazing locations & lodges
Highly recommended
KR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great excellence
It's very friendly, good value for money, delicious food, good driving, and I saw all the Big 5!
I highly recommend it! Have a happy safari tour with Suricata!
(automatic translation from Korean)
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
The tour operators were very knowledgeable about the animals and very kind to their passengers .
The whole tour ( 6 days) was incredibly wonderful. We communicated in English through WhatsApp before leaving with an itinerary, they were there when scheduled and informed us each evening what we were doing the next day. The lodgings and food were beautiful and very enjoyable. We saw a lot of animals! I felt very safe and all for a very reasonable price. It was my first time in Africa and the trip of a lifetime!
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Hyrax Safari a solid choice ( Mount Kenya & 5 days Safari)
I wrote several safari operators before travelling to Kenya. I was keen to fix the departure dates for the hike and safari so I made a reservation well in advance (2 months). In retrospect I could have easily made a suitable booking 2-3 weeks before the trip.
I chose Hyrax as Emma was answering my questions via whatsapp and email quite quickly. The price was within my budget and other operators offered similar trips at similar prices. My guess is if you want better accommodation & transport you increase your budget, the experience on safari and hiking is more or less the same. A lot depends on your specific guide, but this is impossible to know beforehand.
About the trips:
5 days mount Kenya:
Daniel picked me up on the first day in Nairobi at the office in Nairobi centre. We took a matatu to chogoria (4-5h drive). There he gathered his crew of 5-6 porters while I was having lunch. Then we went drove to the national park gate and further to the first camp (Bandas) including a short hike on the road.
The highlight of the trip was definitely the hike in the early morning to watch sunrise at Point Lenana around 6 am, Daniel was a reliable tour guide and all the porters (Simon,Daniel, Douglas,Kim, Daniel) were friendly and cooked more than enough dishes (the food was good, the portions were more than enough).
Apart from the fourth day the hikes took around 3-5h, so the afternoons and evenings I spent camping in a tent, talking with the crew and a second hiking group of New Zealanders and South Africans.
After the hike I'd say 4-5 days is a good time to hike to the summit. For me 5 days were a bit too long, but there is not so much room for shorter hikes (even though the hiking itself is quite easy for experienced people) as the altitude sicknesses poses the highest risk. Therefore taking it it slowly is the right approach ("pole-pole") going up that mountain. I recommend also to hike via chogoria as that sight of the mountains offers a nicer panorama than the ascend from the west (Nanyuki/Sirimon).
What I did not like was the fact that I did not now until the first day who my guide was, how we would get to mount kenya (you are going with a Matatu; that's absolutely fine once you get used to it, I just did not know), the last evening we camped next to Old Moses camp instead of being accommodated in Old moses (as the description would have implied) and the fact that I went alone to Nairobi and someone should have picked me up from the bus station, but that person wasn't there when I returned to Nairobi (with a working phone during the day it was easy to find my way back home myself). Furthermore I had to pay 5% extra as I did not have the money in cash (it was mentioned in the word description of the tour somewhere, but I did not notice)
However those are minor points, I would have wished more transparent communication beforehand. Also I guess similar issues might have occured at a different provider. I had luck with the weather and enjoyed really nice,easy short hikes, everyone was very polite, maybe not always completely open.
The 5 days safari
I was in a group consisting of 3 Germans, 2 Italians, 1 English, 1 Chinese and me. Our guide was Robert, he was an excellent guide, good sense of humour, trying to show us as much as possible during the days in Mara, telling us a lot about the wild life.
Personally, I recommend everyone to add Nakuru to the safari trip. Masai Mara is certainly the most impressive one, but also the most popular.
The accommodation was really good for its budget. Slightly outside the mara National park accommodated the first two days, we would then stay in nakuru in a nice hotel. Certainly you get better accommodation, but for that you need to pay roughly double to have camps closer to European standards and within the national park.
The game drives are for everyone the same, it probably depends very much on the guide and more importantly on the season. We had great luck to have Robert to show us all the animals!
One minor detail that I did not like about the safari was the departure on the last day. As our group was slightly mixed in the last two days (our group booked via different safari operators partly different long safaris 5 days, 6 days, 7 days) we lost time waiting for at least 2h overall. Not unusual in Kenya, but if you plan to return to Nairobi until late afternoon and visit Hell's Gate in the morning the same day, 2 hours matter. Here, from my understanding, the different operators failed to coordinate the different schedules of the participants. The guides/drivers of at least 3 different groups not knowing whom to pick up from the other group when caused confusion that let us make wait that last day.
Here again more transparency would have been fair. Apart from this incident the safari was amazing!
Long story short - Hyrax is a solid choice (among others), but don't have expectations of a perfectionist. Otherwise you start bothering about the little things that did not go as planned.
ES
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Un unforgettable travel to Chobe N. & Victoria Falls
Perfect organization and support solving all problems after we lost the connection in Frankfurt and we arrived one day later.
All was rescheduled in order don't lose any activity.
Thanks to Mónica for all support received, we never feel alone and she always helped us.
Great organization of all travel and activities. All of them always in time.
Congratulations to all team and we hope to do another África adventure with Wito.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
TRIP OF A LIFETIME!!!!
We had the pleasure to work with Susan. From the very beginning we knew that we were in good hands. We started off with a list of "wants", that she used to plan our itinerary. After a couple adjustments, she came up with the perfect itinerary, that came out to be a trip of a lifetime. She was very knowledgeable and was always quick to answer any questions or concerns that we had. Susan stayed in contact thru the whole trip to make sure everything was going as expected and to make sure we were having a blast.
We ended up with a 15-day trip, which we stayed 2 days in Nairobi before starting our safari. We stayed at lodges that are part of the Elewana Collection, and we chose to fly as much as possible between lodges to save on travelling times. All of the lodges were beautiful and unique. The staff were always very attentive and took very good care of us. The food was always of a variety and very delicious. We could have spent days at each lodge just to enjoy them and all they had to offer.
However, we were there for the animals, so we took every opportunity to go on a game drive when available. We opted for private drives, which we loved. We could leave when we wanted, stay out as late as we wanted, and request to look for what we wanted. Instead of having to go with the rest of a group.
All of our guides were excellent to deal with and the game drives never did disappoint. Our first stop was at the Masai Mara. We saw so many animals, including a wildebeest river crossing. Then we went to the Northern Serengeti, the Central Serengeti, the Ngorongoro region where we went to Lake Manyara, and the Ngorongoro Crater, then to our final destination at Tarangire. Each location had different landscapes and offered various beautiful scenic views as well as different animals and plants.
It was truly a trip of a lifetime. We saw every animal we had hoped for and more. We saw wildebeest river crossings, lions, cheetahs, elephants, leopards (with cub), rhino, beautiful birds, giraffes, monkeys, baboons, zebras, hyenas, gazelle, impala, warthogs, and so much more.
I highly recommend Discover Africa and Susan for any trip you may be planning. If we ever decide to take another "Lifetime" trip, I'll definitely be contacting her.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent trip; 10/10 would go again
We had an excellent trip with Primate World Safaris, with special thanks to our guide Ash. Jackson was great to work with ahead of the trip - he helped design an itinerary that met our specific needs (length, countries, locations, price, etc) and was very communicative whenever we had questions. During the trip, Ash was excellent at adjusting when natural things happened (for example, one chimp trek went very long, so he got all of our activities that were supposed to happen that afternoon rescheduled for the next day). We also really enjoyed the locations that we stayed at - it was clear that they were very well thought out: hotels that were comfortable and supporting the local community. Meals provided were extremely large and we were never hungry. The safari car was also very comfortable - we appreciated having a radio with the USB connector to listen to music on long drives, and the mini fridge stocked with water and other beverages was very handy.