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Last year, I went on an 8-day safari in Kenya with my wife and 3 kids, who weree visiting the country for the first time. After identifying three Kenya-based tour operators on the Internet and corresponding with them, we chose Across the wild tours and Safaris. Our itinerary was: Maasai Mara the Aberdares (Treetops)-Lake Nakuru. The company tour operations manager Fina, was very helpful in answering all our questions and, unlike the other operators that we contacted, she was most willing to organize the trip in accordance with our wishes. A few days to our safari, we met Fina who personally came to meet us on our arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International airport Nairobi, she was happy to meet us and we had a little chat before and we felt at home with her presence with us. She was indeed very welcoming and professional, which reassured us even more! Our accommodation – a mix of lodges, hotels and tents – was very good: the rooms were spacious and clean, the food was fresh and delicious, and staff made us feels very much at home. The tour guide/driver, Amos, with whom we naturally spent most of the time, was always punctual, professional and helpful. As a good storyteller, he shared his deep knowledge of the wildlife, geography and people of the areas that we visited, and answered our many questions patiently. We saw the "big five" and many other creatures’ great and small and in the parks, he did not always follow the well-trodden path, so we often spotted an animal or situation that everyone was hoping for. Amos would then radio the information to his fellow tour guides/drivers to share it with the other tourists. We are thankful to Across the wild tours and Safaris for enabling us to experience a most amazing safari! For my wife and kids, it was a life-changing introduction to the wild: from being extremely scared as we walked to our cottage from our lodge's dining area on our first evening in Samburu, to struggling to get back to his routine several weeks after the safari – because of all the wonderful memories! We were also pleased that the choice of vehicle we took a land cruiser 4 X4 was in perfect condition and well maintained, this are some little things that built our confidence with the choice of the tour operator we selected that is Across the wild tours and Safaris and we wish them well for sure and once again we say thank you. We are pleased to recommend this company to anyone wanting to go on a meaningful safari in Kenya. Stephen.

My wife and I had the absolute best possible experience with "Across the Wild"!!

Where to start?? Fina, the owner of Across the Wild, personally greeted us when we arrived in Nairobi to prepare us for the week. The next morning, we met our guide for the week, David, who told us we were now family. It wasn't just words, he totally meant it. After our week on safari with him, David is now a life-long friend, and we consider him part of our family as well! Thus started our 6-hour journey to Amboseli National Park and experiencing the incredible differences between our cultures. For the next week, David, my wife and I enjoyed talking and learning about life in Kenya, seeing what was similar and different, and educating each other about all of it. It wasn't a one-way street either, David enjoyed learning about it as much as we did. After making it to Amboseli, we ended up arriving at the lodge a bit late because we had one amazing animal experience and another. Little did we know this would be our theme for the week, because David was so skilled at finding animals that other guides did not. I was sharing pictures with our travel agent all week (who booked us with Across the Wild after her own great experience), and she just got more and more jealous!! :) For instance, the first night we found a pride of lionesses and their cubs at a significant distance by seeing some other jeeps. David noticed that the adults walked away to hunt, so he moved us to a road where he thought they'd come out of the brush. Nobody else did this. We ended up with an unforgettable experience watching and photographing two hungry lionesses about 20 feet (6 meters) away from us for at least 10 minutes before anybody else showed up. The next morning, David was the only one who thought to go back out to where we initially saw the lions, and we found their cubs walking down the road. Again, we ended up with an unforgettable experience, watching and photographing the cubs playing in the grass 20-30 feet away from us for 15 minutes...and getting tormented by Guinea fowl of all things!! By the time anybody else showed up, the cubs had already wandered away. These situations happened over and over all week!! 1. A massive 45-year old elephant with tusks almost to the ground named Michael was so close we looked each other in the eye. 2. Sitting in the middle of a large herd of ~30 giraffes watching their babies play and nurse. 3. An even better solo experience with a beautiful lioness in Maasai Mara National Park. 4. Sightings of Jackals that nobody else saw. 5. Chasing away a baboon during lunch one day. 6. Watching baby baboons learn about physics the hard way when they climbed a little tree. 7. Up-close-and-personal experiences with any number of zebra, wart hogs, gazelle, impala, and even many types of birds. David was also incredibly knowledgeable about all the animals and birds. I don't think there was a single question the entire week that he couldn't answer. Plus, he was correctly identifying small birds at 50 meters without binoculars when they just looked like flying shadows! That was just nuts!! I'm not sure how much more I can say about our experience. I think we had literally two negatives all week, and they were very minor. One was a lodge that turned off their generators at night which killed the fan and made the room get hot. That lodge also did not provide mosquito nets unless you asked for them...so we asked for them. The other was the food selection at the lodges. The selection itself was fine, I just wished they served more actual Kenyan dishes for us to try! Purely based on our experience, we'd recommend Across the Wild over other safari companies every time. They were also an amazing value for the money considering everything that was included.

Alan Levy

Unbelievably Amazing First Time Safari Experience!

We booked the Safari around 8 months in advance for me and my father, the planning and communication with Fina was perfect beforehand. We emailed her and got a response on the same day, across the wild had a pre proposed itinerary, we could customize this to our needs, and all this too was quickly and efficiently communicated, we wanted to remove a night and add it in another park, and this was done rapidly with no problem. I had planned this for 3 people, however only few weeks before one of us had to cancel out, despite this very short notice, Fina was able to call hotels and change the booking while also giving money back with minor cancellation fees, this was handled very well by the agency. On the day of arrival, Fina had managed to meet us in the hotel despite the very late time, this was very hospitable and well appreciated. All the Payments were safe and handled well by the Across the Wild. All the promises on the itinerary were delivered and exceeded. The booking was very reliable with no problems at all, flawless! During the trip there was a Wifi problem, so my mother back at home was worried because we hadn’t messaged for a whole day, so Fina called us to make sure we were alright and told my mother the news. Fina throughout the trip conveyed her regards to us through our guide David, which was well appreciated. Our Guide David was Fantastic! He was kind and hospitable from the very start of the journey at the pickup in the airport. He was eager to show us the best safari possible for the next 10 days. He was very knowledgeable, not only in the wildlife but in Many other things. My father and David had great conversations about politics and life in Kenya etc, he taught me and my father a lot of facts, while we also had many things to share about our culture (India), he was keen to learn about different cultures just like us, he is very easy to talk to. David is also very punctual, he was always early and ready to kick off game drives, transport to other parks etc. He had the Land cruiser prepped with roof open, windows open and our bottles filled with water before every game drive. The Land cruiser was slightly old with some issues like door getting jammed sometimes etc however this did not really create any issue on the whole, we never had problems during game drives with the cruiser as it was always fixed by David in time, and no serious issue to the cruiser anyways. We had to once wait at a gas station during transport longer than expected, this bothered my dad slightly as he felt this part wasn’t organized that well and was wasting some time, however I personally didn’t find this a huge problem as we reached on time in the end. David seemed to know everything about the wildlife in Kenya, from the trees to the smallest of birds, the massive amount of wildlife knowledge was amazing, given the fact that I’ve been a wildlife enthusiast since a young age. He is eager to teach this to us, as he sometimes questions us about animals and places to keep us interacted. He is a very careful driver, trying his best to reduce the impact of bumps and potholes on the road for the passengers, he kept within the speed limit during transport which made us feel very safe. He is also very respectful to the animals, keeping distance and giving them privacy, yet giving us the perfect shots of the animals, we got very close interactions while still respecting the wildlife. He was very patient and listened to our wants and needs as well. He gave us plenty of time to just relax and enjoy the animals around us. He was so good at giving us animal satisfaction that we did not want to take any more pictures of Lions because we had more than enough! We saw the big 5 and way way more! David also positioned us for the best view of a cheetah hunt which we witnessed on our last day, he made each game drive top the last one! I mentioned that my favorite animal was the cheetah, he ensured we see the cheetah, and we got to observe a cheetah for a whole day, and witness every moment of a cheetah’s day, this was amazing and all thanks to his knowledge of parks and patience given during the drives. He also was funny and insightful. If I had to go again I would definitely choose David as our guide. A very gentle and humble person. We hope his family can visit the Mara soon as they haven’t been there yet. We were at Amboseli, Ol Pajeta , Lake Naivasha and Masai Mara, for a total of 10 days, all the lodges were friendly and impeccable, sweetwaters at Ol Pajeta is definitely a recommendation, with a must do night safari as an optional cost. The lodges were chosen by the agency and were all great choices. We had seen almost everything and we left very very happy and satisfied, we had a safe trip too especially during the election etc, so we thank across the wild a lot for giving us this opportunity for this great experience. I am looking to come back again with more family hopefully some time in the future! What a wonderful experience! Across the Wild fulfills an amazing experience at a good monetary value, I definitely recommend!

Advait Nambiar

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