Affordable Serengeti & Masai Mara Migration Safari

Absolutely fantastic trip.
Excellent accommodation.
The Discover Africa team did a great job. Follow up and support while we were on safari. Vehicles was good. Drivers Excellent.
Trip of a lifetime.

Our private family safari to Tanzania couldn’t be better! Dev in the home office was super well-organised and answered all our questions promptly and accurately. The safari was very well organised. Frank was the best driver/guide we could ever hope for: personable, knowledgeable and possessing a seemingly superhuman ability to spot all types of game while carefully driving the safari vehicle. All the lodges we stayed at on our safari were each, in their own way, special.

It was downright amazing to be driving all day in the African bush and then drive up to a beautiful luxury lodge at the end of a long game drive. Each one was unique in its own way. All of us will long remember the outdoor shower at Lahia Tented Camp overlooking the Great Migration just below us, as just one example. We viewed tens of thousands of large African mammals. In short, I highly recommend our private, luxury 13-day Tanzania Family Safari.

I have just come back to Australia from 2 months travelling in Africa. Part of this time was a personal tour organised by Discover Africa just for me. I had found them online when I was researching safaris and made contact with them, as their tours looked like they covered the sort of places I was interested in. I don’t like big tour groups and would have been happy in a small group, but Susan Swanpoel replied and said they’d organise whatever I wanted, just for me. Susan was super helpful with the organisation by email and a couple of Zoom calls. She designed the trip around my wishes of where I wanted to visit and was super helpful when my friend decided to join me for half the trip. She worked within my budget and changed things as necessary to suit me/us better. Everything was set out well, on paper, and also on a phone app that could be accessed offline whilst we were travelling. It may not have been the cheapest option for such a trip, but it was definitely excellent value for money!

The trip started in South Africa and went up through Victoria Falls and Botswana and on to Tanzania. Everywhere I travelled, I could rely on being met at the airport and helped through to either my next flight or my next accommodation. Airports can be quite intimidating; it was really great to have someone meet me. I was travelling on my own for half the trip and always felt safe and well looked after. The hotels and safari lodges Susan had suggested were great. All the safari lodges were full board and were absolutely wonderful. I especially loved Chobe Game Lodge in Botswana and Rufiji River Lodge in Tanzania.

Deidre's Experience

I started in South Africa in January, and it was February by the time I was in the Serengeti and the wildebeest were on the southern part of their migration. We saw so many thousands! Plus lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos, hyenas, so many birds – you name it, we saw it! February was a good time to be in Tanzania, because it is between two wet seasons. The guide we had for the Serengeti and Ngorongoro was really experienced and looked after us super well. It is an amazing part of the world! The small plane flights between safari locations in Tanzania were excellent, and saved us so much time (and body shaking), as road travel is very slow over there, even when it looks like it’s not that far (the roads are pretty bad).

I loved the whole trip and would not hesitate to use Discover Africa again if I ever revisit the African continent for another tour.

On the whole I would rate the safari as terrific. It exceeded our expectations. All of the properties that we overnighted in were excellent. My favorites were the Mara West Camp in Kenya and the Katikati Camp in the Serengeti. But these were difficult choices. There were no bad ones!

This was a land safari with no in country air travel. All of the drivers (4) went out of their way to make the safari as enjoyable as possible. In fact we observed some wildlife events in Kenya that we might well have missed were it not for the drivers diligence. As far as wildlife is concerned the experience in Kenya was more satisfying than that in Tanzania probably due to the time of the year and migration status.

There was one glitch at the very beginning. Arrival times in Nairobi were not communicated to the local staff resulting in a confused start to the safari.

Discover Africa was my first time using a travel agent. I was a bit nervous hiring a company online whom I’d never heard of, and then sending thousands of dollars over to. All I could hope for was that there was someone waiting for us when we showed up at the airport.

I had a ton of confidence immediately though as Adelle (our agent) answered all of my questions, updated our itinerary with new changes, and gave great recommendations for activities – as well as incorporating our own itinerary for a private Sheldrick Trust viewing. She was super helpful leading up to our trip. Her true value really showed when we got there, though. She was easy to reach when we had questions and made adjustments in the moment for us.

I got sick 3 days in and had to stay in the hospital for a few days, causing us to miss an entire part of our itinerary and two flights. Adele jumped into action with her local rep and made sure that we were taken care of, that our flights were completely rebooked (and we paid no extra money), and even got us a refund from the accommodation we were supposed to stay in! It was absolutely amazing. The safari we were supposed to go to also got flooded so our accommodation got moved.

It was a perfectly seamless transition for us, even though I imagine it was quite a bit of chaos behind the scenes. We got upgraded to a nicer camp and had transportation ready and waiting at each and every step.

I would recommend Discover Africa to every single person considering a trip to Africa. We for sure wouldn’t have been able to do all ourselves!

Our trip was arranged by Carel Verhoef at discoverafrica.com and was perfectly organised.

We flew into the Masai Mara from Nairobi and all flight connections and transfers were arranged for us and went like clockwork. Carel was also very generous with his advice having lived in East Africa for some years – he is a mine of useful information.

My wife and I have had this trip to see the wildebeest migration on our bucket list for some time and we decided to go this year to coincide with our wedding anniversary. For that reason we were looking for something special yet reasonably priced and Carel helped us find Mara Ngenche. What a spectacularly good choice that was.

We stayed for 5 nights the camp and were extremely well looked after. The staff are fantastic. Our waiter, Steve, learnt what food we liked and didn’t like and was always on hand with a glass of wine and also taught us some Swahili! The Masai guards who escorted us to & from our tent especially Musanga, Karbolo & Lindeni were always on hand, very polite and interesting. Almost everyone speaks excellent English.

The game drive vehicle that we used was completely open at the top and sides and was very comfortable. We had some fabulous sightings with Joseph, our very experienced driver/guide. He was excellent at anticipating the animal’s movements to ensure good photos. In one afternoon we saw the Big 5 and on another occasion 4½, as we could only see the leopard’s tail that time.

The position of the camp on the confluence of two rivers was so relaxing and we often sat on the deck watching the 30 or so hippos all day, even though they didn’t move very much. Breakfasts and lunches were served under the trees beside the river. Dinner, served in the restaurant, was four courses and was beautifully prepared and presented.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip and the staff at Mara Ngenche made it more than special. When it came time to leave, my wife cried because she didn’t want to go. Of all the holidays we’ve had over the years, this has been our most memorable.