Big Five Classic Safari in Tanzania **Sustainable Approach to Travel

Customer Reviews

• DB

  Diana

  · December 9th, 2024
  Issa was the heart and soul of our incredible safari adventure through Tarangire, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro. From the moment we set off, his professionalism, deep knowledge, and passion for the land and wildlife were evident. Issa has an extraordinary talent for spotting even the most elusive animals—moments we would have missed without his sharp eyes and years of experience. But beyond his expertise, what truly set him apart was his ability to create a connection with us, making us feel like we were exploring these iconic landscapes with a trusted friend. Issa’s leadership and calm demeanor made every moment enjoyable and stress-free, even when navigating challenging terrains. He was always attentive to our needs and went above and beyond to ensure we had the best possible experience. His storytelling and insights about the animals, ecosystems, and local culture added depth to every sighting, turning a simple drive into a meaningful journey. Thanks to Issa, our time in Tanzania was not just a vacation—it was a life-changing experience that we will treasure forever. We cannot recommend Issa highly enough and are so grateful for his guidance, care, and expertise. If you’re lucky enough to have Issa as your guide, you’re in for something truly special!
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  Trip date: December 2024
• 

  Michaela

  · November 26th, 2024
  5 star tour with our German speaking guide Thor and our lovely and really good/safe driver Khalid!! We would do the tour again in a heartbeat. Unforgettable memories and great adventures. Saw soooooo many animals specially thanks to Khalid. The hotels and lodges were great as well, good food, good beds! Only one thing to check before leaving the hotels - lunch boxes were not always complete but maybe that was just bad luck for us.
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  Trip date: September 2024
• VH

  Victoria

  · November 17th, 2024
  The order of excursions was great
  Trip date: October 2024
• 

  Ryan

  · November 9th, 2024
  My wife and I came here on our honeymoon and just wrapped up our week. In short: the week was fantastic from start to finish. Lodges: On this safari, you'll stay at three lodges and basically do an out-and-back kind of itinerary. The parks you see each day are different, but actually staying at the same three lodges was really nice. They all exceeded our expectations in terms of quality. The rooms aren't anything fancy, but they are clean with good beds and all felt very very safe. They also have beautiful gardens and feel like a bit of a sanctuary. The lodge in the middle of the Serengeti was a very memorable experience; you won't believe how many animals there are. Food: There were some negative reviews about the lunches, but honestly we found them to be fine. Nothing crazy, don't expect a gourmet meal; they're packed lunches with sandwiches, nuts, and fruit from the lodges, but they work just fine. We also have basically been full the entire time we've been here because the breakfasts are as large as you want them to be (full English breakfast in most places, omelettes, etc.), and the dinners have been consistently excellent. It's clear that the people who work at these places really want the guests to have a great experience, and the kitchens put a lot of effort into making every guest happy. We've had several moments where the kitchens weren't serving food, and the chefs have come to our table, asked us what we want, and gone to cook just us a meal. Really nice. My wife is also pescatarian, and every location was great about accommodating for that. Safari experience: This was my first time on a safari and my wife's second, and we were both blown away by the animals we saw. We were a little bit unsure what we'd see because we knew that we weren't coming in the peak time, however we saw TONS of animals. My wife said that on her past safari she went on in Kenya, she saw a few of each animal, but this was so different because there were dozens or hundreds of each animal. Zebras, lions, giraffes, elephants, wildebeest, cheetahs, and we even saw a leopard. Definitely exceeded our expectations! We were also happy that we did the 7 day because we really got to get a good sense of how vast the parks are, and we had many opportunities to see the animals do cool stuff. Service and guide: Our guide, Wilfred, was amazing. He was kind, genuine, extremely knowledgeable, a good driver, spoke English well, and kept us feeling safe and looked after for the entire trip. Can't give enough praise for him. Besides Wilfred, we found that every person we interacted with, whether it was a front desk employee, coordinator, housekeeper, luggage attendant, server, or chef, every single person was kind, big smile, and in short: making an effort. Joyce was also great to coordinate with and was extremely responsive. Final thoughts: We feel like we really got lucky picking this safari. We also at first felt that the trip was expensive, but relative to other safaris the price was relatively good, and once we saw what we had paid for over the past week, we now feel like we got a great deal. If you book this and your week is half what we experienced, you won't be disappointed!
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  World Adventure Tours commented on this review

  Thank you, Ryan. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us! We are happy to hear that your honeymoon safari was such a memorable adventure. It’s wonderful that the lodges, food, and safari experiences exceeded your expectations. Your kind... Show more
  Trip date: November 2024
• SH

  Stephanie

  · November 5th, 2024
  Our Tanzania safari tour exceeded all of our expectations. We had a wonderful guide throughout our safari (Abu) who was exceedingly knowledgeable about the wildlife, history, geology and culture of Tanzania and was a proud ambassador for his country. It was such a privilege to visit, in their habitats, the great cats, elephants, zebras, baboons and other wildlife with the stunning backdrop of the Serengeti plains, Ngorongoro Crater and Kilimanjaro. The meals were all included and were buffets. The dishes were from locally sourced ingredients and there were many delicious options for vegetarians and vegans. My meat eating companion reported that the meat dishes were very good. Accommodations were comfortable at Springlands in Moshi and at Highview at Ngorongoro, and the views and comforts of the permanent luxury tents at Serengeti Safari Lodge were a highlight of the trip. Most impactful and important to such an amazing experience in Tanzania are the people we met and who guided us through their country - our safari driver and guide,Abu, with other representatives of World Adventure Tours with a thank you to Joyce for keeping our booking organized. I appreciate the employees and especially the chefs and other staff at Spring lands, Highview, and Serengeti Safari Lodge.
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  World Adventure Tours commented on this review

  Thank you, Stephanie. Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful review. We are happy to hear that your Tanzania safari exceeded your expectations and that you had an enriching experience. It's wonderful to know that Abu, your guide made your... Show more
  
  Trip date: October 2024
• FF

  FRANCESCO

  · October 26th, 2024
  We loved our tour. Everything was well organised and all staff extremely kind. Interactions with Joyce were always effective and all our needs were taken care of, including a last-minute request to organise a day-trip. We could see the Big 5 and many more, taking thousands of pictures. A special word for Zamoyoni, our guide: knowledgeable, smooth driving, great capacity to spot animals, very patient with two demanding photographers, and a nice person overall. Thank you again Zamo. My only suggestion for improving the overall experience is to have more consistency in accommodation levels: Serengeti Safari Lodge was wonderful (even too much) and the second night at Highview was great as well. But we cannot say the same for the first nights at Springlands and Highview (rooms very very small was the biggest concern) To sum up: expectations were high, but this tour went beyond them.
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  World Adventure Tours commented on this review

  Thank you, Francesco. Thank you for your fantastic review! We're delighted to hear that you loved your tour and found everything well organized. We’re glad you had the opportunity to see the Big Five and capture so many great moments. We appreciate... Show more
  
  Trip date: October 2024
• ME

  Marysol

  · October 26th, 2024
  We are choosing to write this review several weeks after our safari with World Adventure Tours has ended, so that we can make as objective and neutral an analysis as possible. Our booking and the communication with our sales agent, Joyce, went very smoothly. Joyce usually responded to our questions very promptly. Our tour guide, Nora, was simply amazing. She drives very well and knows a lot about the animals and the territory. She gave us wonderful insights and we were very happy to have her as a guide! The accomodations were OK. The lodge at the Serengeti Park was wonderful; definitely the best one with super delicious food. In general the food was very good when eating at the hotels. We cannot say the same of the lunch boxes, which were very poor most of the time. There was not enough free water provided in the hotels, and we wound up having to buy a lot ourselves. Since water is a basic need for survival and the water from the taps is undrinkable, more water should be provided to guests free of charge. The reason that we are giving World Adventure Tours only 2 stars is because of the chaos that insued on our final night, which wound up impacting the next four days of our trip. The agree-upon itinerary should have had us spending our last night in Tanzania in the city of Moshi, with an early, half-hour drive to Kilimanjaro airport, which we selected at the recommendation of World Adventure Tours (There were also available flights from Arusha, but since the last night of the tour was in Moshi, I booked our flight from Kilimanjaro). During our safari, our final hotel was changed to the High View Hotel, which is a 5.5-hour drive away from Kilimanjaro Airport. Since we are not from Tanzania and don’t know the country, we trusted that the tour company knew what they were doing when they made this change. However, when we arrived at the High View, it became very clear that a mistake had been made. First of all, the hotel staff had not at all been aware that we were spending an extra night there. At the buffet, almost all of the food was made with carrots; something that the staff at all of the hotels avoided cooking with when we were there since I am very allergic to carrots. Nothing else had been prepared for me, and they basically just gave me a piece of chicken and some rice. Once we had connected to the wifi at the hotel we could research for ourselves how far away we were from the airport: 250 KM, which is very far in Tanzania at night as you must drive slowly and carefully to avoid animals. Only at 8:30 PM were we told that we would need to leave at half past MIDNIGHT to make our flight at 6:45, not at 4 PM as had originally been planned. Since we knew it would be impossible to sleep that night anyway, we insisted on leaving as early as possible, and ended up departing at 9:45 PM. When we got to the airport, we discovered that our flight had been cancelled, and we lost a day waiting for a new airplane to take us, only arriving at our destination on Zanzibar at 11 PM, a full 25 hours after leaving the High View Hotel! Although the cancelled flight is not the fault of World Adventure Tours, the fact that we could not sleep for 41 hours due to the fiasco with the hotels and the long night drive SEVERLY WORSENED the impact of the long delay at the airport. In the end, it took us four days to recover from our exhaustion, and we lost a bag at the airport along the way because we could not think clearly. In accordance with the terms and conditions, the tour company refunded us the equivalent of one day from our safari. We sincerely hope that no other guests have to endure what we went through due to this mistake.
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  World Adventure Tours commented on this review

  Dear Marysol, Thank you for your review. We appreciate your thoughtful and detailed feedback about your experience with us. We’re glad to hear that your booking process was smooth and that you enjoyed your time with Nora as your guide. However,... Show more
  
  Trip date: October 2024
• KR

  Kathleen

  · October 25th, 2024
  This was a GREAT tour. The local company, Zara, has decades of experience in the Tanzania tourism industry. While I would describe only one of the three hotels on the tour as "luxury". The other two were comfortable, clean, and quite beautiful in their own right. Our tour guide/driver, Atanas, was engaging and knowledgeable about all aspects of the three national parks, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and Tanzania as a country. He brought us to some truly unique experiences of wildlife and culture. We actually saw all the Big Five and then some, including some quite rare animals.
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  World Adventure Tours commented on this review

  Thank you, Kathleen. Thank you for your wonderful feedback! We're glad to hear you had a great tour with us. It's fantastic that you found our accommodations comfortable and beautiful. We acknowledge that only one met the luxury standards, and we will... Show more
  Trip date: October 2024
• CP

  Cindy

  · October 22nd, 2024
  Should be on everybody’s bucket list.
  

  World Adventure Tours commented on this review

  Thank you, Cindy. We're delighted that you found the tour so memorable and worthy of being on everyone's bucket list. It was a pleasure having you, and we look forward to welcoming you on another unforgettable adventure! Best regards, World Adventure... Show more
  
  Trip date: October 2024
• RC

  Robert

  · October 22nd, 2024
  It was very fulfilling tour with partially changed itinerary by me and my wife to make it more interesting for us. WAT didn't mind accepting our changes with extra payment. Please read and do your own research about the places in Tanzania that you would like to visit and then negotiate everything with the tour representative. Ask as much questions as you can to get all needed information to avoid disappointment. I was not told that Lake Manayara's water level increased drastically getting deep into land and killed a lot of trees and get rid of most animals who lived there before. Therefore, park became not interesting for me at all. Even our guide was surprised that we did not know that. If you love animals, Serengeti and Ngorongoro are really spectacular places and try to spend there as many days as you can... you won't regret it! Tanzania is not a rich country and people there are mostly poor but happy and friendly. Hotels where we were placed were clean and served food was very good!
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  World Adventure Tours commented on this review

  Thank you, Robert. Thank you for your thoughtful review and feedback. We sincerely apologize for not informing you about the current situation at Lake Manyara; we’ll make sure to update our information to avoid similar issues in the future. We're... Show more
  Trip date: August 2024