ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Always going Beyond expected.
I would like to say that THANK YOU Leopard Orchid Safari for such an amazing experience Of my life.
Taking care Of us, looking for having the Best experience, the Best picture,
The Best position.
Hundreds Of times Thank you Elijah, Thank you Patrick, you are the Best.
I do recomend defenitely this company for your safari.
BG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Magical land of extraordinary wildlife and wonderful people who showed us what Ubuntu means
During our five-day trip in Kenya, we visited Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, and Lake Naivasha. It was an inspiring experience for me and my family.
We landed in Nairobi and started our safari experience from there. Nairobi is a vibrant, multicultural, and fascinating city. Many people told us to be very careful when walking around Nairobi, but we felt safe everywhere and walked around a lot. The people were always friendly and helped us understand Kenyan culture and how things work in the city.
On the safari, we were pleasantly surprised by how everything was organized. No single tourists were wandering around. Only groups with dedicated guides with special vehicles. I think this helps preserve nature as it is now and provides a quality experience for all the tourists. We chose to go on a budget safari, meaning we stayed in ordinary places, not posh ones. They were all very comfortable and showed pieces of Masai culture.
The experience with the animals was unique. We saw everything we knew only from National Geographic videos - elephants, zebras, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, lions, cheetahs, crocodiles, flamingos, and many more. Everywhere we went, some local people helped us understand what we saw, taught us a lot about the animal's behavior and the people's culture, and helped us take excellent photographs
IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Arusha National Park by Barden Deevan
Nice place and we enjoyed to see different animals
ES
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An unforgettable first safari
I went alone on vacation to Kenya and my first 5-day safari through Masaï Mara, Nakuru and Naivasha/hells Gate was full of excellent moments. A 10 for our guide Dennis, who in addition to being an excellent driver, has allowed us to meet the Big 5, to give us endless explanations and information, and to be a very nice person. Good quality/price ratio in terms of excursions, accommodations, transportation... I will surely repeat and why not in Tanzania.
(automatic translation from Spanish)
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well organized, great communication, great flexibility, safe and informative
Basics:
4 people, 11 day/10 night, mid-level, Toyota Land Cruiser, private, cost=below average for same accommodations and itinerary
Itinerary:
Nairobi to Arusha, through Amboseli, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Masai Mara, Lake Victoria, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Tarangire
Tour company:
From the early stages, I worked with George Killas to build what we thought was the most ideal itinerary. He was very flexible, and patient with our many requests and questions. He was able to help meet our budget, and yet ensure we are comfortable on the trip. For anybody new to a safari, I do want to strongly encourage trying to book a guide that uses a 4x4 Land Cruiser. You will be thankful!
Because we went to both Kenya and Tanzania, we actually had two different tour guides/companies with a hand-off at the border. George handled these logistics with a partnering firm from Kenya. This can obviously have advantages and disadvantages, but it was seamless for us as the client.
Mid-level lodging was actually really great. All the places we stayed at were clean, safe, and beautiful. The two camps inside Masai Mara, and Serengeti were less luxurious (still very nice), but these are also the most expensive since they are inside the parks. The food everywhere was included, either through the hotels, or funded by Terrain Tanzania, and all of it was really good. Cold drinks were always available in the car, which was very welcome.
Both tour guides we had were very good: (Dminick in Kenya & Benjamin in Tanzania). They both listened to our requests and interests of animals we wanted to see, they adopted their itinerary, and they were knowledgeable about the animals, the culture, & the landscape. We really appreciated it when they would talk to other drivers as we drove by or use the radio to get information about where to find some of the more unique animals. We appreciated the guides making the most of our safari, by starting the day early and ending late, by searching for animals, and by visiting points of interest. These are long days for them, and they always maintained a positive and professional attitude.
Overall, our experience was amazing! We did not expect to see as many animals as we did! Of course wildlife spotting is very luck dependent, and no tour guide or tour company should ever be held responsible for your luck. That being said, we were very happy with everything that Terrain Tanzania Safaris organized. There are many companies out there, and it can be hard to compare them, but I would strongly recommend anybody to George's company.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An Incredible Experience.
There are no words to describe how incredible our safari experience was with EasyTravel from start to finish. Hellen was incredibly communicative and responsive with all the planning aspects and she and her team greeted us very warmly in Arusha. Abi was the most incredible driver — we have already recommended him to our friends who are planning a trip to Tanzania next year. He went above and beyond every step of the way, often being the first one to locate animals, giving us private encounters before other cars eventually joined us. He is an expert spotter, extremely knowledgeable, and super friendly. We could not have asked for a better trip!
TW
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well arranged
Well arranged with a nice tour guides, will consider your company for next trip next year if plan go Kenya Africa.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Supportive and available
We did the two-days safari in Masai Mara with Patrick. He was very available to provide information to us and answer all of our doubts in the days prior to the safari. The experience was amazing, we got to visit a Masai village and during the safari we encountered almost all of the big five, plus many other animals. I would highly recommend this experience with Mateo Travel and Adventure.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Extraordinary
We climbed Kilimanjaro thanks to Kizambi tours and it was a wonderful experience. The team was very nice, flexible and there for our needs and wishes. For example we decided to go up one day earlyer than planned and it was no problem even though decided quite spontaneously! We had quite a few changes like this in our plans and it was never a problem, the team adapted very well ("hakuna Matata").
So, the communication was very good and not complicated. When we had questions we could always ask our "manager" and he responded us very quickly. I felt safe and in good hands though we also had enough freedom to explore and do things by ourselves.
Thanks for these beautiful holidays!
NZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
10 day Kenya and Tanzania Safari
We really enjoyed our budget safari (6 days Kenya, 3 days Tanzania)and the communication and booking process from super eagles tours was awesome. They even looked into changing our itinerary mid trip. 5 stars for communication
Kenya:
Even though we booked a budget camping safari, the accommodation was really good. We were in a really large tent with a proper bed and private toilet and hot shower. There is not really much point booking anything above budget in Kenya, as you will only really get slightly better food.
For the first 3-4 days we had 8 people in our van even though our tour company promised maximum of 7 and other people in the van tour companies had promised 6. 8 was way too much as not everyone could stand up at one time to look out the top of the van. Everyone was staying at different places as well so with 8 people we spent a lot of time driving to drop all the people off at their accommodation. Sometimes this was up to 1 hour if they were staying in the parks.
There is a lot of driving in this safari, not only doing the safari but getting to the parks. There is more driving on the road than actually driving in the national parks. The tour companies could set it up so that driving is minimised as currently we go all the way down from Nairobi to the Tanzania border for the Masai Mara and then back up past Nairobi to Nakuru and only spent 2 hours safaring there, and then back down to Amboseli near the Tanzania border again. If they started going north of Nairobi to Nakuru first, then it would probably take out at least 1 whole day of driving and we could spend a lot more time at Nakuru as we felt we didn’t get enough time there.
Overall, The guides in Kenya were great and we saw lots of amazing animals. It was really fun, however the driving was getting to us in the middle of the trip and this could be avoided if it was set out better.
Tanzania
We opted for a ten day safari that covered both Kenya and Tanzania. We made this booking in a rush due to other plans falling through, we would probably book differently doing it again.
Since we are a young couple looking for an adventure, and not crazy about photography or animals, we would just do 6-7 day Kenyan safari and then head to Mombasa or Diana beach for few days at the beach. The Kenya side is a lot cheaper and this would take out a lot of driving.
For animal lovers, we would recommend adding on Tanzania, Tanzania is extremely good, It is Kenya on steroids. You see the same animals but just more of them. For example we saw a pride of 20-30 lions in the Serengeti and thousands of wilderbeest which you don’t get in Kenya. The downside is a lot more driving.
Tanzania
The Tanzania safari was great and the wildlife and scenery was next level amazing. We added Tanzania onto our Kenyan safari and spent 3 days on a safari tour.
We chose the budget safari and unlike Kenya the accommodation did reflect this. We were staying tents and had communal bathrooms which is fine for use but something to be aware of when booking. This also meant that the trucks were loaded with food and camping equipment which made it a bit crammed. Even though the facilities were basic the food was still amazing. Note that the chef also needs a tip which we did not know about. A generous tip for this is 10USD per person.
The safaris were awesome, but we felt we didn’t really have enough time to do the Serengeti well, but that is because it is so vast. Ngorongoro crater was amazing but likewise we only had a morning and it was cut short to get some people back to the airport.
For our trip the guide was below average and more of a driver than a guide. He didn’t really talk to us and only did very minimal talking on the safari. We would have liked him to talk about the animals and tell us facts and actually act interested. In Kenya it felt like a group hunt to find the animals which was fun, but in Tanzania is was more just drive and see what you see. The main thing that annoyed us about our guide is that in the last two hours of the trip he started being very friendly and even bought us red bananas, likely because he was about to receive a tip. When we finished we gave him our tip and he preceded to count it in front of us and then ask for more. This was very rude and in our opinion unacceptable, especially when our Kenya guides didn’t even look at the tip but just thanked us.
If there is a set amount to tip then the tour companies need to advise this and be reasonable. It is such a murky territory, and can easily ruin trips for people, when it’s not clear and people have paid thousands to be there.