US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very hungry to please! Sylvester Sila (owner) is responsible, transparent and reliable.
7byfar is a new start African Safari tour company out of Nairobi Africa. I did a lot of checking via reviews (contacted via email and later by phone) previous clients before deciding to go with 7byfar. My itinerary was 23 days in Africa and 6 days in Madagascar. So As you might imagine I had some concerns about logistics i.e, air transfers from Kenya to Tanzania and from Madagascar back to Nairobi as well as reputable guides, drivers and vehicles in good working order. 7byfar safari company far exceeded all my concerns Owner/operator Sylvester and manager of operations Mr. Johnson along with guides and drivers: Kenya guide Hassan, and and Tanzania guide Casmos were more than I could have asked for. Each represented 7byfar like I would want anyone to represent my own company. Every aspect of my Safari was literally flawless. Both guides/drivers would go so far as to call ahead to my lodges if arriving late to have a hot meal awaiting my arrival. I stayed almost exclusively at Sopa Lodges that were arranged by and booked by Sylvester and 7byfar. Only one incident was a glitch. I hurt my shoulder and needed a sling to assist in healing. The pharmacy ripped me off to the tune of $130.00 USD. Upon hearing of this Sylvester intervened and took care of this indebtedness. He told me "I will not allow one of my clients to be ripped off on my watch." He truly went above and beyond. An that is the kind of experience you can expect from Sylvester Sila and 7byfar.
NO
BEST experience with the BEST tour guides!
Mmilo tours are truly the BEST tour provider in South Africa. They have exceptional, knowledgeable and friendly tour guides, and they are also quite flexible being able to tailor the tours according to your needs and interests. I've had a wonderful and memorable experience in South Africa, thanks to Mmilo Tours - Patrick and my tour guides Anton and Norman.
Mr. Patrick was so helpful in providing me sufficient and detailed information in all my email inquiries about the tours. He was quick to reply and he always answered all my specific questions about the tours. He also helped me tailor the tours according to my needs and interests. My tour guides, Anton and Norman, are the best tour guides you can have. They are knowledgeable, friendly, experienced as tour guides and quite accommodating. They will definitely ensure that you'll have the best and most memorable experience in South Africa.
I have booked 3 tours with Mmilo Tours - a half-day tour in Johannesburg and a half-day tour in Soweto and a day tour to Pilanesberg National Park. Anton was my guide during the two half-day tours in Joburg and Soweto, and Norman was my guide to Pilanesberg. The half-day tours with Anton were exceptional - we were able to visit around 10-12 tourist attractions/landmarks for each day, and Anton had a lot of knowledge about these places - I truly learnt a lot and it made my stay in South Africa more meaningful and fun! He was also quite flexible and would adjust the program according to my preferences.
Mr. Norman was my guide in the Pilanesberg park, and he is the best guide you can have in doing a game drive. He was excellent and quick in spotting the animals, he knew all the names of the animals, even all the types of birds, the type of plants/trees, etc. We have seen lots of animals already during our first 2 hours (out of 6 hours game drive in total) in the park and we have even seen 4 of the big 5 already during these first two hours, thanks to Norman! I have at least listed 20 types of animals (excluding the birds) which we have seen during the safari! It was an amazing experience to see a lot of animals in a short time. Mr. Norman also took me to a quick tour in Pretoria - he taught me a lot about the place.
Both Anton and Norman were very helpful and fun to be with! I would definitely recommend Mmilo Tours, more specifically, Anton and Norman, as your guides. They have made my stay in South Africa truly enjoyable and memorable - such a wonderful experience!
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Experience
Safari was excellent. My guide Patrick was very friendly and informative. No problems getting along for a 10 day private safari. I would recommend this company and this guide again. There were some minor glitches that were out of the guides control but he handled them well and made sure they had minimal impact on the overall experience. No regrets.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good Experience
Tanzania is amazing, and my guide was very friendly and informative. The accommodations and food were excellent. There are only two reasons I did not give this five stars. The first being the truck had five separate mechanical issues within two days in the middle of the tour. The guide did his best to make sure it had limited impact on my experience. I expected some kind of issues given the road conditions. Its part of the adventure. I thought five was too many and the vehicle should not have been on the safari. It was a private luxury safari and the company made no effort to compensate me for the inconvenience, not even a souvenir or something to show their regrets. The second is I was taken to a few shops and felt pressured to spend money. If I wanted to leave before I bought anything I was sent back in with some excuse of the truck needing a rest or something stupid like that. Very tacky. These are minor issues and the animals and landscapes were amazing. I saw everything I came for. Unfortunately, the issues described prevented me from giving them five stars.
NZ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Stunning experience
This trip was our second. Everything about this company is above expectations. The tour guide is one in a million, the tour owner is exceptional, both their knowledge about the trips and the safari tours is out of this world. We saw everything that we thought we would see, the accommodation was above standard the travel was tops. Highly recommend to others. We are now planning another trip.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wonderful weekend in Khwai
A group of 3 friends and I went with Kaiser for an overnight safari and camping trip in Khwai, out of Maun. It was an incredible experience and the service was wonderful. Kaiser is an expert at tracking animals and we saw more than our fair share of elephants, lions, hippos, and various antelopes. To top it off we even came across wild dogs and hyenas in the evening! The hospitality of Kaiser and his staff was very much appreciated; we had delicious meals and comfortable tent set ups. I will definitely be recommending his guide service to others looking to go on an amazing safari for an affordable price.
MX
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Incredible Experience !
Our experience was incredible! We had a 5 Day-Safari trip. The camps and hotels were confortable and the Game drives awesome. We even saw the big 5 in our first day of Game Driving! All our expectations exceeded by far.
Much thanks to Maggie and James for everything they helped us. Well organised trip and great comunication.
We will recomend this company to our friends 100% and we hope to do this trip again soon.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
By far the best safari I have ever been on, with superb attention to small details.
Dealing with Sammy from All Time Safaris was a pleasure from word go. He was recommended by Entim camp in the Mara where I had visited before, so I was confident in his abilities. My husband was amazed with his patience, as I sent numerous emails which were all answered promptly and with a smile.I was arranging a safari for myself and three Canadian girlfriends, so certainly felt the pressure to produce the goods! I needn't have worried as the trip felt effortless and we all had the time of our lives.
We visited Entim camp in the mara......where I lost my soul.....what a very special place; followed by a trip to the Serengeti and the Ngorogoro crater. I had to keep telling my friends how unbelievably lucky we were, as, besides the seemingly constant, incredible sightings, we saw leopard every day of our 16 day trip, bar one.We were privileged to see a leopard, cheetah and lion kill and spent time with a mother leopard and her cub, as well as a lioness with 4 very tiny cubs when driving through Ndutu game reserve en route to the crater.
The quality of the drivers and guides (Henry Asadera and Fidi) was top notch and their abilities, skills and personalities definitely went a long way to making the trip the success it was.
Sammy went above and beyond, arranging visits to the Nairobi national park, the elephant orphanage, the giraffe sanctuary and the 'meat ' restaurant on our first day and on our last day, instead of spending hours sitting at the airport, Titus entertained us by showing us a small part of his home town and giving us girls the time for some shopping.The gifts we were given on our departure were thoughtful and a great surprise.....the icing on an already awesome cake!
It was with no hesitation that I recommended 'All Time safaris' to my friends ,who have also had nothing but the highest praise for the trips that have been arranged for them.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Pearl of Africa Tailor Made
Other reviews have already mentioned the main points that should be covered in any review of this excellent company, but at the risk of repetition I will add my penny's worth!
1. Personal service by someone who knows the country and how to get the best out of the time available for each client.
2. Excellent personal itinerary. Well paced and comprehensive.
3. Great guides, tailored to your characteristics, i.e, funny and jovial, excellent bird identifier.
4. Karibu guest house was a great starting point. Close to airport, small, personal, excellent cottage rooms and great, friendly staff. Food was fantastic.
5. Itinerary explained in detail by operations manager before setting off .
6. Standard of lodges used very high.
7. Vehicles of good standard and comfort.
8. Internal flights comfortable and on time, saving on long road transfers.
9. Gorilla permits obtained well ahead of time (a year in our case) and groups chosen with care. Suggestion of two treks was the right one.
10. Suggestion of Golden Monkey trek in Mgahinga NP was a brilliant one and gave a completely different dimension to trip.
11. Personal contact from Kevin Nicholson throughout planning stages and during tour was excellent and he constantly sort feedback, both positive or not to improve future trips for other clients.
In summary, don't hesitate to use this company. they are professional and very good value for money as on all inclusive basis once in the country and they were significantly cheaper than a UK based firm offering an inferior trip!
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing wildlife and culture experience
As soon as we got picked up at the airport, our trip kept getting better. Amazing doesn’t begin to describe the outstanding wildlife viewings we had when on our 10 day trip with Benson Safari. Our excellent tour guide Amani took us up close to the animals and we had amazing experiences we never dreamed of. Elephants, lions, zebras, (even a leopard!) we saw it all. The cultural experiences were a great alternative to the safari that we definitely enjoyed and will cherish forever. We’d like to especially recommend our tour guide Amani who is not only a great, hard-working man but is patient, knowledgeable and fun to be around for an extended amount of time. I’d recommend Benson Safaris to anyone as they provided us with an experience we will never forget.