US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best experience of a lifetime!!
From the pick up and drop off at the airport our two week vacation with Africa Beast could not have been more perfect! We saw and did everything we wanted to see. Simon and team were flexible to our changing needs and were always spot on time and provided everything we wanted (and more). I absolutely love this company and their employees! We had the best scouts for finding all the animals we hoped to encounter, we had an amazing experience camping in the bush (which was fabulous despite my original concerns of camping at my age (58)). We felt like family and hope they will all some visit us in California.
Absolutely wonderful team, look no further!
Dawn
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent safari
Communication was 10/10 with quick replies via whattsapp. Any question I had was quickly answered by Hilary.
The safari was great value for money, we did the 3 day tour in an open top jeep with another 4 people.
This was the right amount of people and we all got on well.
The food was cooked by the chef which tasted amazing, our guide was very knowledgeable and we saw all the animals we wanted to see. I would definitely recommend suricata safaris.
CL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great hosts! incredible house, excellent logistics, amazing place to stay!
If there'd be a 6 stars rating I'd rated them with 6!. Elize and Jugerns start planning and suggesting our trip to Hoedspruit and Krugger two months before we arrived. We even challenge them by adding a third family to the trip! They figured out to acomodated the sixteen people (3 families) in a couple of lodges, and my family, were lucky to stay at Twiga Lodge. The place is beautiful, nice rooms, nice terrace, nice pool. Since we arrive to the airport, they where there to distributed us in the vans, and had all set up for our visit. They organized our visit to Krugger and the H. Endangered Species Centre. They also organized our foods for the 16th.
One must is asking Jurgens to show you their backyard. Is full of animals! amazing!
I definitely recomend Twiga! I would love to go again there and spent more time than we did (only 2 nights). There's so much to see and learn!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent Gorilla Safaris
Me and My whole family planned for a trip to jungles of Uganda
For Gorilla Safaris on our vacations. Our tour organising company was Wild Jungle Trails. They provided us very intelligent and knowledgeable tour guide. He was over our expectations, he knows very much about Gorillas the best visiting places in Uganda. Accomodation was excellent. And, we also captured gorillas picture very closely because of our good tour guide. I would like to thanks Wildlife Jungle Trails for their excellent service. Thank you so much. I highly recommends them...
NO
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A breathtaking experience made possibe thanks to Wild Jungle trails safaris
I didn't book my gorilla permit early enough. Other travel agencies just offered me other dates, while Wild Jungle Trails Safaris went above and beyond to get me the permit for the specific date I wanted.
Communication was great as they always responded to my inquiries with as much details as needed, the same day they received my emails. The service was beyond expectations: Jack the Safari guide couldn't be more accommodating, helpful, patient and friendly. One of those who answered your questions and had a friendly chat when the guest felt like it, and who could leave you to your thoughts when you needed silence: just perfect, especially for a female solo-traveler.
The lodge was amazing, great service, sparkling clean, very good food, accommodation in a beautiful and quiet setting.
The tracking went very good and I was lucky to see all the gorilla family members together, after 80 minutes hike. They were kind enough to drop me off at a more convenient place than the one agreed upon before arrival, which saved me a lot of hassles with public transport.
The agent I booked through, Teresa, has always been extremely helpful and I would definitely recommend her and the company, if you want your experience to be hassle free while you are still in control of all details.
NZ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Be careful if you sustain an injury during one of their tours
Despite advertising that they carry comprehensive insurance, this company will deny any responsibility if during one of their tours you sustain and life changing injury as I did. They arrange all activities and accomodation and therefore it is reasonable to expect that they will accept a duty of care. They do not. Do your research before selecting your tour operator, make sure you are covered.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
4.5 / 5 A fantastic experience, with a few minor - very minor - glitches
From the beginning, Pendo at Benson did an outstanding job communicating with us to arrange our trip just to our liking. This was not an easy task, as we had 2 families with different needs attempting to create an itinerary that would appeal to everyone. She took all of our changes to the itinerary in stride and arranged everything to our liking. Our guide, Kessy, was amazing - we could not have asked for better. When you spend as much time in a vehicle with someone as you do on safari, it's really important to have a good rapport. The first part of our trip was with my husband and me with his brother and family. Kessy was great with the kids, even when they weren't always the most fun to be around. Kessy was very knowledgeable and friendly, and was always open to our whims when it came to animal-watching and our questions about everything. The second part of our trip it was just my husband and me, and having Kessy all to ourselves was wonderful. He even put up with my obsession with watching dung beetles and my husband's need to get just one more really good picture of that giraffe... one more... (As a bonus, he was also very patient with my unending - and at times pathetic - attempts to learn Swahili.)
We did a side trip to Zanzibar, (midway through for my husband and me, at the end of the trip for my in-laws), which was unfortunately a little disappointing. The hotel we stayed in was great, but it was a very busy area and swimming and playing on the beach was not pleasant because we were constantly being approached by folks trying to sell us tours or boat trips. This is of course not the fault of Benson Safaris, but it would have been nicer to stay somewhere where there was a little less commerce happening at all times of day and night. There was some confusion with Benson when it came to the snorkel outing that had been planned. In our itinerary it stated that we were going to Chumbe Island, but when the guide came to pick us up he said that no, we were going across to Prison Island, a much shorter trip and by all accounts not nearly as interesting for snorkeling. After some back-and-forth telephoning with the tour representative in Zanzibar and with Pendo we figured out that the tour was incorrectly represented on our itinerary. It turned out to be too choppy for snorkeling in the Prison Island area unfortunately, so we missed out completely on that. Obviously the tour company has no control over the ocean conditions, but had we actually gone to Chumbe as we thought we were going to, it would have likely been better due to the location of the snorkel site there.
The other minor hiccup came with meals. My in-laws are vegan and we were assured that accommodating this would be no problem. Somehow, however, it was not communicated to the lodge we stayed in for safari, and lunches were not only not vegan, but there was only one lunch packed as vegetarian at all. Also, there were extremely limited options for vegan for the family at the lodge. Kessy did his best to try to fix this, but I think that communicating what vegan means was difficult. Again, a minor hiccup, but if you have very specific meal needs it would be a good idea to double and triple check on this.
Overall, though, an amazing experience! My recommendation overall is Benson Safaris for safari, and perhaps a different, local Zanzibar tour company for visiting the island.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastic Trip with Vimat Safari!!!
Vimat Safari was an amazing experience! The planning with Vincent was great as we had many questions and wanted to make sure our Safari was the schedule we wanted since we wanted to take advantage of every minute. Vincent from Vimat was kind, professional and accommodating to every need. The planning was perfect! We had our guide with Bonaface who was on time every morning he made sure we saw all the animals, personally my dream was to see Lions, cheetah and leopard.. I had no expectations as I know from previous Safari in South Africa that it’s not easy to spot the cats. Our guide did a phenomenal job as we saw 34 lions .. 10 cheetah and 2 leopards up close and personal. It was incredible!!!!!! This was the most amazing Safari experience I have ever had.. the car also had chargers for your the phone, drinks and snacks... super comfortable.. we did the private tour and it was worth every penny. I highly recommend Vimat Safari as they are well prepared, professional, accommodating with great experience to find the animals. The Safari did not disappoint.. they gave us a dream come true Safari!!! Tanzania!!! Wow!!!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
FIVE STAR EXPERIENCE
I had a great experience with Safe Tours and travel,the prices are Fair, they provided transport through out the whole visit, the drivers were very professional, kept time and very tidy. Grace kept communication up to the last day. Their services were beyond my expectations. I would absolutely recommend this company to anyone seeking five star experience at a fair price. ******
YE
under20 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Professional, caring and highly recommended Tour Operator
My girlfriend and I visited Tanzania and had MangiEmpire Tours Co. as our Tour Operators. The team was very professional and prompt right from initial responses and helped us tailor our itinerary based on what we wanted to see/do and our budget. Although we had reached out to 10+ operators, we picked MangiEMPIRE Tours because of their promptness, quoted prices and flexibility in terms of accommodating our preferences.
During the tour itself, the accommodation, the vehicle, the food and the team (guide and chef) were as described in the initial conversations and were actually critical to our having a great trip. The guide was fluent in English, very knowledgeable and most importantly keen to show us the best the Safari could offer which meant we didn't have to push him at any point. The chef was really kind and adjusted meals to our preferences and dietary restrictions.
They were both very professional and polite. Even after the trip, they had us visit the office and give feedback and suggestions, which was a really nice closing touch. All in all, Africa Safari is a wonderful trip and it was great to work with an experienced, professional and committed team that made sure it was all worth it. Definitely recommend them!