I determined to travel to Kenya for my 10-days spring break two months ago, and did the search online from then on. I contacted a lot of safari companies list in tripadvisor in both Nairobi and Mombasa. My guideline are: 1) Visit both Nairobi and Mombasa. 2) Visit Masai Mara, Nakuru, Amboseli National Parks (Tsavo west and east are added in the final trip). 3) I am budget concerned, and I am not refused to join group tour. From the feedback, the Cruzeiro Safari was the only company agreed to arrange group tour and the manager Ms. Claudia gave me a very reasonable quote. The thing I like most was their quote listed each cost in the trip (like pickup form airport $20 etc.), so you would be fully aware of where you spend the money. We corresponded more than 20 times by email to fix the itinerary, and Ms. Claudia was always willing to making the change of the plan and explaining the plan. After that I made a 35% deposit and she send my the photo copy of the receipt, and I payed the remaining money by cash upon arrival.
Ms. Claudia even dropped by my hotel and reminded me important things in Kenya, she arranged everything very well in advance. All in all, everything is professional. I joined two tours, first started from Mombasa, visit Amboseli, Tsavo West & East, a typical three day trip. I don't know actually this is private tour before my trip. And the accommodation(leaving in the lodge) was really really amazing. In the lodge (tent) of Amboseli NP, one can see Mt.kilimanjaro, and I heard the screaming of an American girl while she stepped in the tent. Sometimes I feel it was a pity to travel alone :) However, another tour starting from Nairobi was a mixed tour (5 persons), and I lived in camping site, it was not the real camping, the place was ok and the good thing was inevitably, one would meet many interesting people whom you never meet in the lodge. The two tours I joined are NOT operated by Cruzeiro Safaris, but the staff treated me as their own customer, so there was no problem about that.
It was a well organized trip, everything went smooth and I appreciate the wonderful job of Ms. Claudia
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
April 9, 2012
Dear Li,
Thank you for your reply it was very kind of you. As we en devour to make our clients fulfill their dream - we do work with other tour operators who are K.A.T.O. members to offer safaris services. Most of our clients prefer private safaris we ask a few of our counterparts if they have a departure on the same dates that we can join with our client. If they have then we confirm and they don't have then we don't. We have received a lot of requests both direct and interlinks from single travelers. We do have departures where we require people to join in -mostly we list on our LAST MINUTE OFFERS PAGE but you agree with me that most people have diverse needs and dates of travel. I do look forward to hosting you and your friends in the next time you visit Kenya.
with warm regards CLaudia
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.