12-Day Kenya and Tanzania Budget Private Safari from Nairobi

Posted By : 524shengw
We were on a 11-day trip to Kenya & Tanzania. This was our trip to visit Africa and it was the most amazing experience ever. Our guide Chris, safaridoctor (Kenya side), and Gelasius (Tanzania side) are very experienced and have great knowledge about animals, birds and plants. With their exceptional effort, we were able to see all big 5s plus many others. My husband is a photographer so they stopped and tried to get closer with different angles for my husband to have a better shot whenever we saw something interesting. For example, Chris made a second trip to the same location to allow us spot a group of Rhinos. Gelasius recommended us to have lunch in the car by a pond to watch lions and got a once a life time chance to see lion sipping water from the pond. The lodges service were also excellent! By the way, Betty from the office is extremely helpful and always answers our questions quickly.
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Posted On : 2023-09-06 20:24:35

Posted By : 858gwenl
Everyone we came in contact with was incredible. The service, accommodations, and guides all exceeded our expectations!

Betty in the office looked after our every need and ensured every accommodation was above and beyond anything we expected. We would turn down little roads to nowhere, and find ourselves at beautiful places to rest our heads. I don’t know how she has found all of these gems, but…we were astonished! We did modify the trip so that we were not sleeping on the ground…due to mobility issues.

We were picked up by Paul at the airport, who was so friendly and knowledgeable we had hoped he would be our guide the whole time!

Moffat, our Kenya guide, was friendly, and did an excellent job getting us great views of all of the big five! He had extensive knowledge about the animals and happily shared his country with us.

Nico, our Tanzania guide was funny, kind, and never gave up on showing us everything we wanted to see! He listened to us and literally checked every box for a great guide! He even laughed at our jokes and made a huge impact on all of us!

Every day we felt we had seen everything possible, and every day, our guides showed us there was more to see! From Lion cubs to Giraffes drinking from a watering hole, from baby warthogs to adorable dik diks…Africa’s big five…and what we called the little five, made for the trip of a lifetime!
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Posted On : 2023-08-19 06:04:21

Posted By : 695suzanned
We loved Perfect Wilderness, both Kenya and Tanzania. We were a party of 6 and had a vague idea of going on safari. They helped us with all the details and more. We stayed at a variety of different places each night and it was fun to experience them all. We were having trouble with the Kenya Travel VISA due to some weird things, but PW stuck with it and we were able to get all the proper paperwork. We loved Betty at the office who emailed and texted our many questions; and our airport pick up guy Peter. We also decided to book him for our free day in Nairobi, and he took us to a neat giraffe sanctuary and also a neat store called Kobe Tough which I will review soon.

Our Kenyan safari driver was Sam, and our Tanzanian driver was Freddie. These gentlemen were both so very kind and thorough with getting bottled water, our park entrance passes, lunches, and all the little details to make our trip so wonderful. They were prompt and safe drivers, with a lot of fun and exciting surprises mixed in. It’s dusty in the Dry Season, so after dropping us at our hotels each afternoon they’d have to spend more time checking on and cleaning up the vans and preparing for the next day. Tip appropriately 🙃.

The parks were amazing and the animals showed off for us constantly. Drivers know the trails and we saw plenty of animals all day every day. We realized we saw some new animal every day! POV: I would skip Manyara N.P. and fill it in with a more thorough day at Ngorongoro, or maybe the old olduvai gorge, or the suspended bridges or a bike ride or hike. This park needs to recover awhile and let the animals come back.

Pro tip: get all the travel visas online before you go! And don’t get them too soon, as they are only good for something like 3 months.
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Posted On : 2023-08-17 14:02:57

Posted By : momcag
We recently returned from our Amazing Safari with Perfect Wilderness! Before we started our safari, we did the elephant sanctuary and LOVED it - highly recommend! We started in Kenya...had a couple minor hiccups but Everline was ON it to rectify and we are easy travelers so it didn't impact our trip! Biking in Hell's Gate was super cool and a fun way to start the trip. Really enjoyed Maasai Mara and loved the animals we saw....watched a cheetah on the prowl. Met the Maasai Tribe, which was really interesting. Have cash on you as there are many opportunities to purchases things. Crossed into Tanzania, which was an easy process. Mustafa was Awesome in Tanzania - the Serengeti is a MUST! Probably our favorite as we saw everything here! Watched a Pride of Lions sleeping then start the hunt...we saw the whole process and while it was a bit sad for the zebra - the whole experience was incredibly insane and amazing! I may skip Manyara and upgrade your hotel in Arusha we didn't love the Venus Hotel but it was fine. We loved our rustic, moderate accommodations. Loved Osinon in the Seregenti and really loved them all. Our itinerary was well planned and made the safari so easy and relaxing! A Bucket Trip for sure! Happy Travels!
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Posted On : 2023-08-02 13:49:54

Posted By : Nicolas_M
Incredible safari!! We visited the best of Kenya and Tanzania with amazing guides (George and Sereva, and the best private cook Christian)
Perfect Safari helped us make such wonderful trip absolutely smooth and no issue at all. Everything went as planned.
Our guides went above our expectations to make sure we saw as many animals as possible and yes we did see all the big 5! Every park we visited was very different, different landscapes, different animals. We loved sleeping in a tent for 3 nights, zebras came visit us early morning it was so wonderful! I would highly recommend Perfect Safaris, and we will definitely come back to Kenya, people are so welcoming and nice!
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Posted On : 2023-07-20 10:16:32

Posted By : ronni808
We highly recommend Perfect Wilderness! We did the 11 days, 10 nights Kenya & Tanzania Private Lodging Safari. Great price and our agent, Everline, was wonderful. Very responsive and answered all of my questions before and during the trip. We had a number of snafus (covid test issues, truck breaking) which could have really hampered our safari, but she was able to handle them all. We had our own driver and truck which was nice because Everline did warn us that we should bring everything we need. There are not much chances (or items are not available) on the road. Here are my takeaways: the Kenya side of the trip was “budget”. The Tanzania side was upscale and very enjoyable (they partner with Mama Savana. Ask for Harun as a guide). I would upgrade accommodations in Kenya, especially the Masai Mara camp (Lenchada). I would upgrade to another day in Masai Mara and Serengeti. Skip Hell’s Gate, Naivasha and Lake Manyara – very little to see. I would have added Amboseli. It’s pricey, but my guides really recommended it. Bring US$. Credit card machines were always “broken” and you lose on converting money to local and then using their conversion rate back to dollars to pay your bill. Most importantly, remember to bring the Hakuna Matata attitude!! You can’t enjoy yourself if you’re sweating the small stuff.
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Posted On : 2022-03-21 07:28:50

Posted By : sandrajM6990FK
We are now on Safari with Chris Mutinda and we are already having a great time here. Everthing is well organized and the safaris are really exciting. Chris has a really good eye on seeing all the animals in the parks. It is also very interesting to hear what our guide teils us about all the animal.
We really enjoy our holiday and would prefer Perfect Wilderness Safaris to everyone who is interested in wild animals.
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Posted On : 2022-03-13 14:39:44

Posted By : 723candice
Amazing Safari!!
Had such a good time with our guides Joel & Julius.
It was way better than what we expected - everything well timed and planned by the team and just a lot of fun overall.
Will definitely recommend to anyone going there, adventure of a lifetime😍😍😍
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Posted On : 2022-01-12 07:27:25

Posted By : 503anyac
What a wonderful trip. My friend and I hcouldnt have asked for more. Seeing the animals and learning so much about them was amazing. The Kenya safari was with Perfect Wilderness and the Tanzania was with their partner Mama Savanah. Nathan was our Kenya driver. Knowledgeable about the animals and spotting them. We had a cooler but ice is hard to find -Nathan had chilled water in morning. Lodgings were ok for budget tours- Lenchada Camp is showing its age. The staff everywhere is wonderful and really try to make you comfortable.
Harun was our driver/guide for Tanzania- excellent guide. Very knowledgeable about the animals and their habits which enabled him to predict their actions. Recommended. We even had bottles of frozen water once. So we saw a lion kill and cheetah brothers together. Osinon Camp was a highlight of all our lodging.
Everline at Perfect Wilderness is amazing. Quick to help and answered all our questions in timely fashion. Very helpful- very nice lady- got to have lunch with her. Met George -a co owner- in Lenchada Camp- such a nice funny guy
A great experience. All your needs are attended to and requests taken care of. Highly recommended.
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Posted On : 2021-10-19 03:25:44

Posted By : tyendo68
The communication was great throughout the process as I had purchased many months ahead of time. It is always unnerving purchasing online with unknown companies but have faith in TripAdvisor. The transportation and accommodations were arranged and we were able to enjoy our holiday,

I had purchased the upgraded luxury option and to be honest was disappointed with the Kenya side for accommodation and food. The Kenya side of the safari is handled by Perfect Wilderness while the Tanzania side is through their sister company Mama Savana.

We had a 4x4 Land Cruiser for both countries. I would recommend ensuring a 4x4 Land Cruiser especially during any rainy periods. In Kenya there were many companies that operate AWD eurovan which tend to get stuck in the mud. Our driver had to pull out a van and we witnessed many other drivers pull out other vans.

Our driver guide in Kenya was Sammy. He was great, very informative and was very good at spotting animals. He was able to notice the behaviour of some animals and know that another animal was near. We would wait, and was able to see a black rhino and cheetah from observing behaviour. In Tanzania our driver was Amani. In Tanzania all the drivers are in radio contact with each other for the animals. Once a 'cat' was spotted all the drivers converge to that location. We drove the roads and if there was anything close to the road he would stop. A different observed approach to the two drivers. In Tanzania, it was much busier and other company drivers were very aggressive to the line up to the animals, they would push their way in to the front or spend far too long at the front while 100 other vehicles were waiting. Of course this is not the fault of the tour company but regulations are obviously in need.

The 'curio' souvenir shops have the same items. While negotiating is their way, keep in mind, they will start 10x more than the cost. We had stopped at a shop and picked out a few items and when they told me the price, it was outrageous, I walked away. When at a souvenir shop in Arusha found the same items for a fraction of the curio shop. Drivers do have incentives for stopping at curio shops even if clients don't buy.

Betty at Perfect Wilderness provided all the necessary information and communicated in a timely fashion.Everything was arranged and we did not have any unexpected expenses or surprises. Although USD is accepted at tourist locations the Kenya or Tanzania currency has better rates for local purchasing. ie a bottle of coke was $2USD or if local currency was used the conversion would have been $1USD.

We would recommend Perfect Wilderness for your Safari needs!
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Posted On : 2020-01-09 11:15:50