20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Really wanted to like them, left some things lacking
I went on a 3 day Rwanda gorilla trek with Encounter Africa. While I really want to like them, there are a few things that were lacking.
Pros:
1. The driver was nice and friendly. He also spoke good English and very helpful.
2. The car was good and comfortable for the two of us.
3. Accommodations were but clean, safe and hotel staff was friendly.
4. Price: The price was fair.
Cons:
1. Communication troubles: Not sure what it was but the office was extremely responsive at first via email which I why I wanted to go with them initially. But then fell radio silent. So I followed up on skype and had some challenges getting a hold of them. They said that there were issues with their email, so may that is fixed?
2. Quoted a price, and then told us that they didn't have any more availability at the lodging and then wanted put us in a lower quality hotel. Ended up paying the original price for a lower quality hotel. The hotel was fine, but the experience of that change was frustrating.
3. Finally, the biggest issue was that the driver was 2 hours late for the initial airport pickup! This was extremely inconvenient because we did not have Rwanda phones and had no way of contacting the driver. For a minute, I thought we had been completely scammed. He came in the end, but this resulted in us driving back in the hills in dark, getting to the hotel extremely late, and missing a proper dinner (that we had paid for in our room/board).
However, what frustrated me most was they claimed that it was the Uganda / Rwanda time difference that caused the delay. However, Uganda time is 1 hour ahead, so of anything, they would have arrived an hour later rather than 2 hours late. When I mentioned this to them, they then said that it was because they had to pick up the permits. If that were the real reason, then tell the truth the first time. Do not lie or try to pull one on me.
So all in all, I'm mixed on this group. While the rest of the experience itself was incredible (highly recommend the gorilla trek to anyone), there were logistical things that were a lacking and the lying about being 2 hours late was a huge detractor.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tale of 2 countries. Stick to Kenya.
Our trip was a 13 day trip split between Kenya and Tanzania.
The first half spent in Kenya was amazing. Everything we could have asked for as the guides were friendly and knowledgeable and the accommodations were pleasant. The game drives were incredible as well, especially at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. After the first week, this trip was absolutely 5 stars.
However, the second half of the trip in Tanzania was a completely different story. The guides were unhelpful at best, there was constant mix ups, mismanagement, and miscommunications. And though they were advertised with similar descriptors, the accommodations were atrocious. Too much time was spent at the lesser parks that could have been used elsewhere.
As well, too much time was spent driving and it seems like a better planned schedule could have helped make it more enjoyable. Ngorongoro Crater is without a doubt a terrific destination, but only spending 24 hours there is not worth the rest of the week. Tanzania only gets 1 star.
The saving grace is that David and the Absolute Holiday Safaris Ltd team was willing to respond to complaints and the office in Kenya did their best to alleviate the Tanzanian mess.
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good first time safari experience
We traveled to Lake Nokuru national park and the Masaimara reserve. Both the places were truly breathtaking, full of wildlife. We did have lots of fun. However, our accomodation at lake nokuru was inside the nokuru town - it would have been a much better experience had there been something close to or inside the park. The hotel facilities at nokuru were however excellent. Same cannot be however said for the Masaimara camp. The biggest downside was that power was available for only 4 hrs in the evening and there were no charging points in the tents.
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Hustlers thieves, officials,police,ruin what would otherwise be a wonderful tourist destination
Zambia is a beautiful country with so much to offer, but traveling up from Botswana, there is a stark difference -the official's police and the Botswana people are friendly and efficient, (been several times) , have never been hustled in Botswana -the moment you arrive in Zambia there will be a hustler at your door -the Botswana officials expedite you quickly and efficiently -The Zambian side will keep you for hours -But that we can deal with.Livingstone(Vic Falls,) was empty this year of tourists, one would think they would welcome the ones who do come,but there we felt immediately like we were a mark, and constantly harassed and hustled, beware of the money exchangers and hustlers, do NOT deal with them,even if it costs a bit more, use a bank or ATM, where you are nor surrounded -they will come at you in gangs and try to distract you as others steal from you -this happened to us with our international guests who had money stolen, the police are no help,so don't expect any help there, we did go to the Livingstone police but they laughed at us and said we most probably dropped the money ourselves -so they find it a joke and obviously are not there to help tourists -our guests said it spoilt their experience there, and I doubt will recommend anyone else to go there
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A somewhat nightmarish, yet remarkably astonishing safari experience through Elkan.
My last safari was a bittersweet experience in every sense of the word. What would start out as a suspected long-con ended up being a pretty incredible safari through the ranges of Manyara and Ngorongoro, to the plains of the Serengeti. I even ended up making friends with a couple of lovely people from Spain with whom I had a surreal amount of fun. I am a New Yorker, and I was travelling alone.
I picked Elkan as my operator, not after doing a properly extensive search for a reputable operator, but only because of the simple fact that the response from Victor, the sole owner/employee of Elkan Ltd., was a very welcoming and exciting one. I was offered an itinerary of exactly the sort of safari I had envisaged, and Victor also allowed me to negotiate the overall rate a bit. From the very beginning of our correspondance, I kept growing more and more excited as the safari dates approached.
What was initially meant to be a group of six people on a 7 day safari, ended up being reduced to only 3 people on the day our safari started. Apparently the group had been broken up in 2 to accomodate specific itineraries. There appeared to be a lot of misinformation for all the parties on our safari, including the driver/guides, who apparently had not a single idea of our itineraries, what they entailed, etc. It was at this point we began to suspect a hint of disorganisation and misinformation on Victor's end.
After a glorious first day in Tarangire, where we saw lions mating, a whole world of elephants and the most stunning, yet underrated landscape, we were brought to a semi-decent campsite around Manyara called Sunbright Campsite. It was at dinner that our group, which consisted of myself and the two ladies, and our over-exhuberant narrator/driver Osman, learnt about the completely misguided information from Victor we were all under. Our driver was only going to be with us for one more day-trip to Ngorongoro, before he was to hand us over to another guide, Adam, who was to take us around 3 different parts of the Serengeti over the course of 5 days and 4 nights. However, according to Osman, the Serengeti was only going to be 2 nights. I immediately shot an email to Victor demanding clarification to which he responded everything was status-quo, no changes of any kind whatsoever.
The next morning we received a call from Victor asking us to accept a 2 night safari in the Serengeti and a refund for the remaining 3 days. That was bollocks, and we made sure he understood what bollocks meant.
Needless to state, at this point we knew we were about to be caught in a Tanzanian local tour operators clumsy attempt at conning perfectly well-educated international people, all under the pretence of their sad mentality of "this is Africa", which seems to be the only place on Earth with a licence to be inadequate in everything consumer-related.
We carried on with our safari as we'd planned and had another magnificent day of animal-spotting on the Ngorongoro Crater floor. We saw a coalition of lionesses set out to hunt buffalo end in the most ruthlessly perfect execution, and then each of them returned to collect their cubs hiding in the bushes 5 meters from our car. Our entire engagement with this pride was an incredibly rewarding experience, one that only few people get to experience on that vast crater-floor. And when the other shoe came cascading down from the sky, we were told by our guide that we needed to rush back as he had other Victor-related engagements to adhere to. Our resistance to being swindled once again only earned us a speedy drive passing all variety of animals to the lunch-spot to wolf down our pathetic lunch boxes, and rush back to the rim so as to accomodate Victor's disorganisation. This was when we were handed over to a driver/guide named Adam, who would become our sole Tanzanian assistant in making sure we would not be robbed of our safari, as had apparently been planned by management. Turns out Adam worked for another company called Sunset Africa, who were in a deal with Victor to provide our safari. Turns out they too were having a devil of a time working with Victor, financially.
The 3rd day, according to the provided itinerary, promised to be quite exciting. We were all high spirits as we drove through the Ngorongoro ranges towards the Serengeti. Then we arrived at Nabi gate where you enter Serengeti from Ngorongoro, and shortly after were notified that our park entrance fee had not been paid by Victor and that we would have to bear the cost, until it could be refunded to us later. This is where the whole tide turned against Victor as it had become all too clear that this one-man bad operation was out to flat-out rob us. After an intensely excruciating 3 hours of demanding the services sold to us, the owner of Sunset Africa, man named Ally, stepped in and decided to handle the dealings with Victor, and letting us proceed with our safari. But, not before we were each asked to pay $70 in order to enter the Serengeti for our first day, which would act as a day's fee while the "management" got things sorted in Arusha for the remaining 4 days.
For the next 4 most incredible safari game drive days, very very sadly we also had to deal with going to the extension office every single day during lunch to extend our days as it was not sorted out appropriately since our very first day in the Serengeti, which meant we never got to leave the Central Serengeti/Seronera region at all. For 4 days, we hung out with the same pride of lions, same herds of elephants and even the same Leopard whom we spotted twice. While this was indeed THE most amazing 5 days of hanging out with the lionesses of Seronera and their cubs and boyfriends, and all the other beautiful wildlife in Central Serengeti, for the purpose of the company review it should be stated that we were initially offered a 5 days safari in the Serengeti to several different areas of the park, Center, North and West as it is simply massive. Nevertheless, our 5 days around the central area and nights at the Serengeti Wild Camp (operated by Zara Tours) were just fantastic.
We chose to abandon the toilet of a public campsite arranged by Elkan called Pimbi. Even the animals found it too disgusting to graze by.
Ultimately, this was, without a doubt, a safari of a lifetime for me considering all the wild animal interactions we had, and our stay at a semi-luxury lodge, with abundant wildlife through camp. Although, a lot of it was due to the diligence employeed by our smart, hilarious and jolly-spirited guide, Adam. He single-handedly saved all his co-workers faces by showing that some Tanzanian people do value a good work ethic and will do whatever they have to to deliver.
In the end, Victor was, as you'd expect, quite apologetic and I can honestly say that we were not robbed of anything, except several hours of our safari time. All else was sorted once we got back to Arusha, including our $70 and timely transfers back to the airport. I do genuinely hope that this was just one big logistical/planning error on Victor's part and that he'll do better to avoid such an instance next time, else I can't imagine Elkan Ltd. or any other local Tanzanian tour operators who don't learn from such experiences, would survive too long in this highly personalised and incredibly lucrative business.
All the best, Victor.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Visit to South Africa October 2014 - Wonderful Trip
We enjoyed our trip immensely. But we made clear that we didn't know the areas we were going to and I think our travel agent could have helped us out a bit.
ILIOS is the group that was used for our guide and transfers. They were all knowledgeable, punctual, thoughtful and professional.
Cape Town was beautiful. The hotel was very nice, big rooms and what a VIEW! Staff were friendly and helpful. The breakfast was delicious, fresh fruit every morning just got our taste buds popping. But as much as we enjoyed the hotel since there was not restaurant or bar at the hotel, I think for us, 2 women traveling alone, we would have enjoyed a place closer to restaurants. Maybe on the coast by the V&A wharf, not sure how much those places cost but would be something if I go back I would look into. We were there 3 days but personally, I think Cape Town could easily have been done in 2 days.
I can't say enough about the Safari and Lion Sand's River Lodge. Staff unbelievable, the rooms were huge, food amazing and again what a view, giraffe outside our deck on the first day! We saw all the Big 5. We had early wakeup call off by 6 am each day, we stopped in the morning for a coffee break. Each place our guide picked for a break had a great view, sometimes at the river and others in open plain One morning we had surprise full breakfast by the river! After breakfast we would go out again until about 11 am. We could relax have lunch, watch the wildlife off our deck which was right by a river. The afternoon around 4 we would go back out again, we loved the tracking and off roading. We would stop about 7 pm for a happy hour, Gin and Tonics, wonderful snacks and to watch the sun set. Back later that night for a lovely dinner. I must give a big shout out to Eddie, our tracker, and Landon, our guide, they went above and beyond for us during our stay. Our we absolutely had all our needs and expectations met at Lion Sand’s River Lodge.
Then the last 3 days and this is where we felt our travel agent failed us. We went to a very nice hotel because there was problem with us getting a flight out. The hotel was beautiful, there was a restaurant at this hotel but the food was so-so and again this was out in the middle of nowhere. It was too cold to swim and there was nothing for us to do. But luckily we were there only one night.
The next two nights was off to Zambia and Islands of Siankaba, we were so excited about going to Victoria Falls. Our hotel, Islands of Siankaba, was wonderful, we were on an island on the river! So we were ok with the isolation at this location. Staff was so friendly, food great so fresh. Several things to do on the island and in the evening we would go out on the river in a pontoon boat and have drinks, appetizers and watch a group of hippos and the sunset. Thank goodness we had this wonderful place because the Victoria Falls was such a disappointment! We were there in the dry season and there is really NO Victoria Falls on the Zambia, no one told us this. There was the opportunity to go to the Zimbabwe side which seemed to have some falls, an extra excursion we would have gladly paid for if we had known but we didn't know! We were leaving the next day so we couldn’t book it.
So maybe we can't blame our travel agent, maybe we should have done our own research but is that not why you hire a travel agent? Since you have never been in the area and don't know anyone that has been in the area before, is that not why you hire a travel agent? Lesson learned . . .
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent
We had appreciate very much all regarding our trip, nature, landscape, wilde animals ecc. We would like is better for tourist more restaurant when enjoy dinner. Our guide ( Gomez) was also an excellent driver other a very good guide.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great Safari but not in every places , SAVUTI are for us The Best for Lions and Killing !
Wild life is Chobe at that time we are there ( 12 of June 2019 ) the animals are not so many and Cats we don't see , well many Elephants.
The rest of our Safari at Moremi , Sable Aley and Linyanthi ...it's many elephants , but the cats you must looking for them and some times are not that easy , because of the very thick bushes.
For us if we are favourite of the Big Cats ...exspecialy the Lions we like more SAVUTI ...as this place grear for Lions and Killing elephants !
KENYA and TANZANIA - are for us still The Best for Wild Life , and the p[rices for the accomodations are not so high as in Botswana !
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
One lodge was more than expected but the other was less.
I have seen much more wildlife in the Serengeti and Masaai Mara and even Kruger. I was extremely surprised at that because I thought Botswana was going to have many more animals. My one lodge Mapula was terrific. Great food, staff, amazing tracker/guide, beautiful room. It was 41 degrees on one day and 39-40 on the others and the was little to help the heat. The fans in the room were over the seating area only. That could be improved, but otherwise lovely place.
The second place (crocodile teeth? in the local language) was much lower level. On our orientation in this semiarid place we were told that there were a number of big scorpions seen in the camp and that we were to be careful because they were extremely poisonous. I understand we are in Africa, but I would have thought there would be more responsibility on the camp staff to be watchful to rid the camp proper of scorpions. The tracker/guides were not great; the least knowledgeable and least excited guides/trackers of any safari I have been on. (An I have been on a good number throughout Africa). The food was not very tasty at all, edible but nothing exciting. We had to travel 2 hours from the airport and 2 + hours each way to get to the animals. That was a lot of driving. Also, we had lunch in a place that turned out to have ants in the sand and many of us had many ant bites with very itchy feet that swelled from the number of bites. I expected much more from Botswana given the hype and the cost in comparison to other great safari experiences.
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
too basic for my taste.
My guide and the staff at the camp were lovely and very accommodating. The highlight of the trip was visiting the local village where many of the staff live. It was primitive (no running water or electricity to the individual huts) but the women of the community was very cordial, everything was orderly and the children were quite happy. The Delta had the most amazing array of beautiful birds i’ve ever seen. It was fun to see elephants and rhinos peacefully roaming so close to the camp.
However, the accommodations were basically fixed, elevated tents. The cold running spicket and toilet were outside of the sleeping area. It had a gravity feed shower that was impossible to work, so I bathed under a faucet. There was no electricity in the tent! A small solar lamp and lantern were the only sources of lightly night.