CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing experience!
Our guide Jason did a great job! Recommend him to anybody!
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Utmost disappointing
I have been on a 4 day Safari in 2015. Same route, same price, different company, amazing experience.
So I wanted to share this experience with my girlfriend but this time unfortunately the safari was not good at all due to very poor organization and customer care.
So I booked with a company called "Goshawk Tours". The Safari they offered sounded quite exactly like the one I did three years ago and it was about the same price (50€ more expensive this time). A guy named Eric sent me a few emails and I told him that we need to be transfered to Kilimanjaro airport on the last day of safari because we already booked the flight. The transfer was another 50$.
We spent the week before safari on Zanzibar and there i got a text from Eric. He said he will not be there next week so his business partner Ibrahim will organize it "just as we agreed".
So we travelled to Arusha and spent the night in a hotel and the next day we were supposed to get picked up at the hotel. We did, around 30 minutes late and then we were taken to the office. I was suprised because it was the office of Angose Travel Limited. There we met 2 other girls who also came with us. So we were sitting in the office and it passed another 1 hour until the driver arrived and we headed to Tarangire National park. It was agreed that we will go there pitch up at tent, go on a quick game drive before we get lunch at the campsite and the head for another game drive after lunch.
This was not the case. Our guide, an elderly gentleman called Adrian who was not the talkative kind of guy went really slowly to the park. All the other cars were overtaking and when we went uphill we hardly moved faster than 10 km/h. But this was not really the drivers fault. Because as it turned out later, the car was in a dangerously poor condition.
So we arrived in the afternoon at Tarangire National Park, we didn't pitch up a tent, we went directly in the park, where we were for only about 3 hours. Very disappointing, because we could have seen so much more. The driver just said "This is enough for today.". We disagreed. We headed for Sunblight Campsite where we got a room. But it was so dirty that we hoped we could've slept in a tent as agreed. Dinner was good. The driver said breakfast 8pm, departure 9pm.
After a loud night with hardly any sleep we had breakfast and then we went to the car. The driver and the cook were already inside, engine running and they said, they will come back soon. So they drove off. A lot of time passed until they came back and when we left the campsite it was already 11am!!
It was agreed that we would have an early game drive in Tarangire Park on this day again but that was not the case at all. When we left, we headed directly to the Serengeti. Going annoyingly slowly we lost a lot of time on the way there.
At the gate of Ngorongoro coservation area the driver had to patch a tire because there was brake fluid leaking out of it.
We were promised an evening game drive after pitching the tent but all we really saw were some animals on the way to the campsite where we arrived so late, that we had to pitch up the tent in the dark. By the way, 2 of 4 tents were broken and we had hardly had any hooks to place the tents so the driver just said "2 hooks are enough".
After that there was no game drive. So we had no game drive in the morning, no game drive in the evening. We had no game drive at all this day!!!
Next day we missed the sunrise in the Serengeti which we were promised because the driver didn't want to start so early. So we finally headed out for our game drive. The driver often took the wrong path and we got lost so many times (he said he was a guide for 30 years which i found hard to believe after that). Unfortunately we didn't see too many animals and when we came across some we had to yell STOP so many times until he finally did so. After a short drive we headed to a tourism center where we got an informational tour. It was nice but not really neccessary. Instead we would have prefered to see more of the Serengeti itself, not hear from it. After that we had to drive directly to the camp, pack up and leave for Ngornongoro Crater. It just felt so unsatisfying because we had so little time. On the way out, the driver asked the chef where to go at every crossroad. So we left Serengeti and headed to the crater at snail's pace. When we arrived at the camp, it was already dark and the guide and the cook didn't help us to put up the broken tents in the dark at first. So we had to tell them a couple of times that we need help until they finally did so. There was again no possibility to take a shower because it was already dark and freezing cold.
So we thought it couldn't be any worse but then the last day of safari came.
We got up early this time to descend the crater so we will be out in time to get to Arusha. On the way we had to get diesel but on the way to the gas station the car already ran out of gas and we stopped in an uphill grade. The car didn't have any hand break so he sent one of us to get one big rock and put it behind one of the back wheels. Then he went off to get the gas. After half an hour later he returned with a maasai who helped us to get the car running again. So we were late once again and I had a really bad feeling about getting OUT of the crater again with this car. So we had a game drive in the crater and left with quite some delay because the driver didn't know where he was going. Remember - we had to catch a flight in the evening.
So on the way up the car broke down again. But this time he didn't get it running again. And again we were standing in a really steep uphill grade with only one rock to prevent us from rolling backwards into our certain death.
So a car that stopped behind us took us to a place called Wildlife Lodge. I called Ibrahim, the guy from the office, a couple of times and he said there will be a rescue car coming for us. I also told him that I want them to refund the money for the flight if we wouldn't make it in time and he only said he won't because he didn't know of any flight (Eric said Ibrahim would organize everything just as we agreed, so he must have known of the flight). Anyway, after about 1.5 hours the car finally arrived and we already had a huge delay and we though we wouldn't make it. Furthermore the driver said he will only drive us to Arusha and from there we will get another car. On the way there we had to stop at the gate of Lake Manyara National park to pick up 2 other tourists from the UK and Spain who also went with Angose. They were also really disapointed with the organization and they also had a bad driver and the car was also in bad shape.
So after around 3 hours we arrived at rush hour in Arusha and we only had little time to get to the airport. We got in the other car and this driver was our rescue! After the traffic jam in Arusha he went up to 160 km/h to get to the airport in time. There could have gone so much wrong. The seatbelts didn't work and he was going really fast over speedbumps, overtaking left and right but we were used to nearly getting killed anyway. But because of him we arrived just in time! 10 minutes later and we would have missed the flight. When we got out he called Ibrahim who told me that Eric and I agreed that the airport transfer will be 50$. Weird. He didn't know of any flight but he knew of the money. We had no time to argue so I gave the money to the driver.
The other 5 guys from our car stayed in Arusha and went to the company to complain and they got 50$ back each. They told us so I texted Ibrahim that I also want my money back. He agreed, but only sent it via Mpesa (mobile phone transaction via local phones). So asked him to send it to my brother of my host family in Dar. There will be large fees now when transfers the money to my bank account now.
Summing up, it is really sad that the one thing you are really looking forward to the whole year is getting ruined by very bad organization and customer care. There could have gone so much wrong and we have been in some really dangerous situations due to non-existent maintainance. I'm asking myself - where does all the money go to? I know a lot goes into the admission for the park but the rest?
Our guide, well, for doing this job for 30 years he shared almost no knowledge with us and it often seemed that he just would not care.
The cook, Zaidi (I hope the spelling is right) was a nice guy. The food was ok. Even though it has almost always been quite the same.
Because of all that all of us were utmost disappointed. And we wouldn't recommend booking with Angose at all.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Well organized, eye for detail.
Good accurate communication, in Dutch. Wonderfull accomodations. We receive a foto album as itinerary, this contained all travel information and documents (car rental, accomodation) and was excellent. Very detailed and accurate. The self drive pack (GPS, telephone and itinerary) was very good.
BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The trip of a lifetime. Great plan great execution!
We left Gregory free to create an awesome itinerary that would cover most of Namibia's Highlights and he did exactly that. Of course you need to understand you'll be driving allot of kilometers but the Cars were very well equipped for the task at hand! Greg has great local connections so every location had allot to offer. You like adventure? Chill? Mix with the locals? Everything is possible..... The trip of a life time!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Super organisational skills and a wonderful safari experience!
Diana was excellent at answering all of our questions, tailoring the safari to our needs, and making sure everything was organised well in advance. We did a 6 night / 7 day safari covering Masai Mara, Laka Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Hell's Gate and Amboseli. It was the perfect amount of time for seeing everything - the animals and foliage were different at each park, so I enjoyed moving around, even if it did mean long periods in the van.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Incredible experience
We returned from our honeymoon in Botswana. I wanted to let you know that it was a truly wonderful experience. We were so impressed with the camps we stayed at and the overall quality of the whole experience.
Sango Safari Camp - an incredibly cozy, welcoming and personable camp with some of the most hospitable people we met. Incredible drives and mokoro safaris which were great. The food was really good. The tent was clean and lovely. We had great sightings and would highly recommend this camp.
Hyena Pan - Beautiful camp with great food. Tent was well appointed. It was a bit more remote than the Sango camp but was great. The guides we had were great too.
Savute under canvas - Such a great mobile tenting experience with lovely staff and probably the best guide we had (Dips) who always got us to the best place to vivew the action. We had amazing food here and how they put up the tent every 5 days is amazing. Probably our best sightings were in Savute including cheetahs and hunting wild dogs.
Flights were also great. Nice 12-seater planes and they always knew where we were supposed to go and the transfers were incredibly smooth.
Liselle was extremely helpful and obliging and always willing to help with a great deal of useful information prior to the tour. Was a pleasure working with Liselle to arrange this excellent tour of Botswana's Okavango Delta and Savute NP.
CZ
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing 4 day safari with a great guide.
4 days of safari, staying in tents with catering, so it was simple, but that's what we wanted. Added benefit was buffalos coming to the camp of Ngorongoro to graze at night. Magical.
Our guide (nicknamed China) was absolutely amazing, spoke good English, explained everything very well and made sure we saw all the animals. Tarangire was packed with animals, Serengeti vast, quiet and magical with beasts (be sure to wake up early and watch the sunrise with animals!), Ngorongoro wet and cold (pack really warm clothes) but stunning with infinite herds of zebras, wilderbeasts and buffallos. We even got to see a pack of lions hunting. I was pleasantly surprised with the visit of Masaai village, which didn't really feel like a circus for tourists as I originally expected.
I had the best time of my life.
HK
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful Kenyan Wildlife Safaris
Thanks James for organizing a 10-day road safari for our group of 9. He’s always supportive - prompt to answer questions up to the point; give useful information about accessible hotels in the city; recommend must-see places and games reserves at reasonable prices. He met us both at the airport and before departure to make sure everything’s fine. He arranged two 7-seater Landcruisers with pop-up roofs, giving us ample space to take shots and videos of the unique sceneries and wildlife while passing the Great Rift Valley, Equator, Lake Nakuru, the snow-capped Mt Kenya, Mt Kilimanjaro (the highest mountain in Africa) and various savannahs, shrubs, the lake and swamp areas.
Our drivers cum guides - Francis and Usuf, in particular, are outstanding and reliable. They’re on time, cleaned the cars after each long drive and kept them fueled. They drove safely and kept to the itinerary schedules. With their sharp eyesight, good networking with other drivers and best efforts to search the vast grassland, we saw the Big Five within the first two days of our adventure. We’re fortunate enough to see leopards twice in two parks, with one resting on a branch early in the morning and very excited to find cheetahs, lions, Grevy’s zebras, herds of African elephants on land and in water, baboons, wildebeest, antelopes, gazelles, hyenas and many other distinctive animals in the following days. Supply of mineral water was more than sufficient. The guides were also knowledgeable: giving us brief yet interesting facts about the country, the locals, Masai culture and Kenya which is famous not just for the exclusive wildlife, tea or coffee, but also timber and pineapples while passing the plantation and farmland.
We’re impressed by the accommodation: a country club in Aberdare, lodges and tented camps within the reserves which made us feel being a part of the Nature. We could within reach with such small animals as dik-dik eating grasses early in the morning or at sunset and hear the chirps and whirrs of birds and insects. The food for most part was good, too.
We’re thrilled to see families of hippos in the water and the lake; crocodiles at riverbanks, many amazing birds: the lilac-breasted roller, eagles, crowned cranes, guinea fowls, hornbills, quails, flamingos, and many more at Aberdare and Amboseli sanctuaries. Never expect to see such a wide variety of distinctive wildlife and birds so closely and safely, credits must go to Usuf and Francis who are always nice and considerate.
A value-for-money private tour package. 5 stars if James could have arranged a bigger van to accommodate 9 travellers each with at least one or two luggage cases for airport transfer at the time of arrival
It is an amazing and unforgettable travel experience. James and his team are great to work with. Everything was executed to near perfection. We highly recommend James and Wildlife Sun Safaris.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best choice if you want to do Safari in Tanzania!!!
KILIMANJARO Trekking Mate is very caring at overall service level, the guide Shirima is very experienced and knowledgeable, with eagle's eye that can easily find out predators hiding in the grass. Everytime after seeing a new animal, he will take several minutes to introduce this species. We not only see the BIG FIVE, but also very very close to the Leopard, Lions and Rhinos which are all very rare, besides, Shirima also make sure we can have good photography spot when seeing the lions with excellent driving skills.
If I have another chance to visit Tanzania, I definitely will choose KILIMANJARO Trekking Mate again, which is the best mate for the memorable trip.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome trek + safari with Barafu Tours
From rainforest to snow-capped peak, each day on Kili was filled with stunning views and incredible experiences. My friend and I made the trek in 6 days on the Machame route and then also did a spectacular 3-day safari all with Barafu Tours. Barafu was super communicative and helpful in the lead up to the trip and took care of all logistics from the moment we landed at JRO until our departure. Their packing list was spot on and all equipment they provided was in great condition. The food was delicious too! Best of all, their guides were extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and patient, and the full Barafu team made the trip an awesome experience all around. I couldn’t recommend climbing Kili and Barafu more highly :-)
