20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Truly a memorable safari.
Firstly I must thank Kenya Walking Survivors and Mr Otieno for helping me and my cousins have the experience of a lifetime. We visited Tanzania and Kenya for two weeks in August and were sincerely amazed by the African wildlife, scenery, and people. We stayed in some of the most amazing lodges and camps and were taken care of well especially by our wonderful guide Fred ( who we called Uncle ) in Kenya.
This was our first ever trip to Africa and our very first safari. We had been researching for tour operators and safari packages for months prior to our trip. We chose Kenya Walking Survivors because of Mr Otieno's quick communication, the ability to customise our itinerary according to all the places we wanted to go, and also according to our strict budget. I was very hesitant wiring a large amount of money to a strange foreign account! Nonetheless, we are still grateful to have experienced so much for the price, but feel that it's important for other prospective travellers to be aware of some aspects of unprofessionalism & problems we encountered. These things whether big or small added up to create an atmosphere of distrust for us. Particularly when everything ran smoothly in Kenya and things went sour as soon as we met the tour leader Mike in Tanzania.
Examples of unprofessionalism:
-Multiple last-minute hotel changes, including changing our tented camp in the Serengeti to a lesser quality one without informing us.
-Mistakes on itinerary dates. Even after reviewing our itinerary before and upon arrival in Nairobi.
-Car problems, wasted many hours which could have been spent on game drives
-Asking for park entrance money from us. This favour was asked as a loan until our driver received the funds. Suffice to say we firmly refused. Unfortunately this resulted in us sitting around for hours at the park gate seeing lots of other people going in.
-Told multiple lies by tour leader Mike in particular regarding our internal flight times, resulting in us having to leave Tarangire Park hastily to drive hours to get to Arusha to catch a so called early flight to Zanzibar. It was only revealed until we had woken up early in Arusha and had checked out of our cosy room, that our flight was at 1 pm! Mike was extremely distrustful as he had changed our accommodations several times without requesting our permission or even informing Mr Otieno.
-Waiting almost two hours to be collected from the Tanzanian Border, resulting in us missing the Giraffe Centre and Elephant Sanctuary in Nairobi before our flight home to London.
I hate having to make this list, because until I began to write this review, I had actually managed to forget all the negative aspects of our trip and only think of the magic moments we had with countless animals up close and seeing breathtaking savannahs, and being looked after by a great driver like Fred in Kenya.
Even with all the drama of our trip, I don't regret choosing Kenya Walking as I'm not sure we could have packed everything into our time and budget with a different tour operator.
I have only the best wishes for Mr Otieno and his company, as he did try his best to rectify the problems that Mike created in Tanzania.
If you decide Kenya Walking Survivors is the best fit for your trip, please be prepared to respectfully advocate for yourself and your itinerary.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about South Africa by duncsboyd
The range of bush / safari options in South Africa is outstanding - there is something for everyone and every budget.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Incredibly diverse safari experience
The Kruger is one of my favourite places in the world. The sheer size of it and all its diversity makes it a treasure and should definitely be on one's bucket list. There is something quite fun about driving yourself around looking for animals and birds - you never know what you'll see and that's one of the positives (or negatives if you only have limited time). The camps are charming but basic - this is not the five star safari experience, and you'll meet more locals in the Park than you would at the private game lodges that neighbour it.
My favourite area of the park stretches from Olifants camp to Shingwedzi as it tends to be quiter than around Skukuza area.
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Experience
We had Just finished our 7 days kenya safari fully organised by Big Time Ltd... Great Experience..They arranged best hotel in our Budget except the one in Naivasha..
Driver cum Guide was highly experienced person, the way he drove the vehicle..
Will definitely recommend to other as well..
CA
Kids loved the trip and the guide was super!
Combined Lake Nakuru with the Masai Mara for a four day trip. Raphael did a great job with the organization, responded to all messages quickly, greeted us at the airport on arrival and saw us off at the end of the trip.
While Lake Nakuru was interesting (buffalo, white rhino, Rothschild's Giraffe), given the distance and lack of flamingos we should have taken an extra day at the Masai Mara. That said, the Flamingo Hill Tent Camp was wonderful and the food was great.
The food and hospitality at the Base Camp Explorer Masai Mara was also super and an extra couple of days there would not have been hard to take. The children (10 and 7) really liked the Masai staff who escorted us while about in the evening and the "family" tent was huge and comfortable.
In terms of the safari, we could not have asked for a better guide than Joseph. With 15 years experience he knew all the best spots to find the animals, knew all about them and was able to pass on the information in an interesting and engaging manner (even the kids listened and learned). We saw lions eating (and mating), the wildebeest crossing (with one taken by a croc), a mother leopard and cub, ostrich's doing their mating dance and _________ , lots of cheetah, elephants, etc. All in all a truly great holiday.
AE
Experience level: first safari
If you wanna experience wild, these guys nail it !!
Am an enthusiastic wild life photographer. Knew nothing about Africa or this tour. But post my trip, i will definitely recommend East Africa Exotic Safari. Got the best guide who knew un and out of the park and wildlife. Mr. Muturi was such a humble person who cared about every penny and time spent. Mr. Manfred ( who assisted President Mr. Obama during his visit - thats what i heard ) and Mr. Samson ( Strong Samson as they call him ) were patient enough to stop as I wanted to click pics. Food - you would luv it. Alfred from wilderness camp will melt your heart.
Over all - The Best holiday in my entire life.
- AJ
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was planned meticulously and executed with precise perfection without any hitches
Services was excellent, Safari lodges provided was superb with on-time room service. Specially safari tour was the moment to remember with guides having splendid knowledge about the terrain and game parks.
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Experience with Big time Safari in our Kenya Tour
Excellent Super Experience of travelling in Kenya.. Kenya tour is most amazing and remarkable holiday of Lifetime. With the support and co-ordination of Big Time Safari, our tour experience has ranked up higher.
Martha is very helpful, she is very responsive. She answer every mail for any query.
Its really enjoyable to work and travel with Big time Safari. Hope to have many more business with them in future... All the best wishes....
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent Amazing trip
Very Happy and satisfied with the services of Big time Safari. They had make all the arrangements in a very organized way... Martha is very informative and very helpful, always ready to answer any question and clarify any query... love their services and greetings...
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
total value for my money.
Hello world
I am writing this to let the whole world know that this company wecam safaris is the best in the globe. They made my kenya vacation a momment i shall never forget. No single thing went wrong. I will use you again and again. Special thanks to Mercy. You were there for us in all aspects of the safari. Once again i was happy with the hotels you chose us. Kenya is blessed with classic parks and spiced it up with wonderful facilities. We will be back.