Happy World Safaris Reviews

Andrea Parapini 2024.10.16

     

Scammed out of 1000Usd If you do not like being scammed, avoid this company. We were told upon booking that the park fees (over $1000) were included, but once we got to the gate of the Serengeti, there was an “issue with the company card” and we were asked to pay it ourselves, while being assured that the money would be returned to us soon. Faced with losing precious time on our safari, we paid. The same issue happened in the Ngorongoro, and naively we paid again. The money has never been returned to us three months later, and the owner has blocked us on whatsapp. We really wanted to support a small locally-owned company, but now we understand why most people choose the well-established, larger Safari companies. If you are reading this, I suggest you do the same io inizio a posare questo ovunque

Date of experience: 01 September, 2024

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Kilo Foxtrot 2021.09.12

     

Over this summer we visited Tanzania and used happy world safari as our tour operator. The choice fell on happy world safari because of a recommendation from a family member who also used their service in the past. The overall experience was splendid. From the very start of the planning and coordination with Joseph to the actual safari. They where so helpful and service minded to string together the perfect trip for our needs. The 6day safari trip in Serengeti and Ngorongoro was amazing. Perfectly planned so we saw the whole park and the seasonal attractions including the last crossing. Our guide during the trip was called Zebe. A local born who new the park like his back pocket and was so nice and informative with a good level of English. Ask for him! Overall we could not be happier with our choice and would recommend happy world safari far and wide. 10/10!

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Laura Nicole 2021.04.07

     

Jambo!! My Husband and I celebrated 27 years of marriage. To celebrate our milestone, we booked our HWS Safari and looked forward to this great lifetime experience! Our 10 day HWS Safari was Mar 2nd 2021 to Mar 12th 2021. We arrived in Arusha where we were met at the airport by Joseph and our wonderful Safari Guide, Sammy. We spent two nights at the Mount Meru Hotel for a much needed rest and city tour of Arusha before venturing out into the Serengeti on our Safari! We flew out on a bush plane the morning of Mar 4th to Central Serengeti where Sammy met us at the air strip and from there we embarked on our wonderful Safari! Upon leaving the air strip, with few jeep on the park we immediately saw elephants and within the first hour Sammy spotted a leopard lounging in a large Acacia tree. We observed that there were two leopards in the tree, a female and a cub. We watched and photographed these beautiful animals! What a great start to our Safari and each day thereafter only got better! We toured a new area every day on our Safari and overnighted in three different locations. The first two locations were tent camps in Kubu Kubu and Lake Masek where we spent three nights at each camp. Our final two nights were at the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge located on the rim of the beautiful Ngorongoro Crater! We found all of our accommodations to be very nice and comfortable and the staff at each location were superb hosts! Within hours at each camp we felt like we were part of the staff’s family and enjoyed our time getting to know each of them! Sitting on the deck overlooking Lake Masek while enjoying dinner and a drink was a most wonderful experience! In the first two days of our Safari we had already seen four of the “Big Five” (Cape Buffalo, Elephant, Leopard and Lion) and countless other animals and birds! Sammy, our HWS Guide, is a human encyclopedia that has a vast knowledge of all the animals, birds, plant life and the Maasai people and their language and culture. We were very impressed with Sammy’s ability to not only spot animals and birds, but to tell us their name and their characteristics without hesitation! We learned so much from Sammy in our short 10-days together. Some of our memorable highlights were seeing cheetahs and leopards scouting for their next dinner, watching hundreds to thousands of wildebeests and zebras on the move together and then crossing a watering hole with a sense of urgency! We spotted many lions on our Safari, but seeing several young lion cubs was most memorable. Watching four cubs nurse and then play together and spotting our first male lions lounging on a rock outcrop were beyond belief! Seeing and driving into the Ngorongoro Crater was absolutely beautiful! The crater has its own environment and eco system and an abundance of wildlife in this beautiful caldera. Of course this was our opportunity to see the Black Rhino and fulfill our goal of seeing all of the “Big Five”. We not only got to see the Black Rhino, but we spotted and photographed six Black Rhinos! Our HWS Safari was a perfect vacation to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary and to fulfill a lifetime dream! Asante-Sana to Sammy (our Guide) and Joseph, the owner for working diligently to make our Safari an adventure never to be forgotten and one which we may never top! Our Safari far exceeded our expectations and Asante to all the people at our tent camps and lodges for making our trip so very memorable! Laura &Patrick

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Brownboytravels dot blog 2021.01.05

     

Joseph was very professional from the beginning and helped me design a safari that suited us and he was very transparent about the costs and the options. He was also at hand for any questions we had and last minute request for binoculars. The jeep we got was new and driver very friendly and caring. For 3 days we felt like we were in capable hands. He greeted us on our return. He didn’t conjure up any last minute charges and provided an excellent service. I highly recommend him for a perfect experience.

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Reply from Happy World Safaris 2021.01.05

Thank you so much Usman for choosing to travel with us and for sharing your safari experience. Warm Regards, Joseph Mkony- Managing Director at Happy World Safaris

Lydia Mkonyi 2020.10.16

recommends

A 5 Days Safari with Happy World Safaris it was the best choice we made, Joseph and His Team made our family trip fantastic. I recommend them especially on family trips

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Carl Jim 2020.10.13

     

As expected, Happy World Safaris did not disappoint. In Joseph's Capable Hands, Trip Planning went flawlessly. When the day finally arrived, we found ourselves in good hands with Joseph & Zebe whom they greeted us. Zebe was a fantastic Driver/Guide throughout our stay. Excellent Driving Skills, Vast Knowledge of the Wildlife &Areas. Zebe kept the vehicle very clean everyday. We choose the mid range accommodation (Maramboi, Kitela Lodge, Kubukubu &Ngorongoro Serena Lodge) and were glad to have the creatures comforts after the long exhilarating gamedrives, not to mention the incredible ambiance. Each of these properties offered top notch hospitality, food service and unique experience We highly recommend Joseph, Zebe and Happy World Safaris for a great adventure Carl & Elizabeth Jim California, USA. Safari Dates: August 21 -30, 2020

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Reply from Happy World Safaris 2020.10.23

Thank you so much Carl and your wife for sharing your experience with us. Our warm greetings to you and we can't wait to see you again soon. Ahsante sana, Joseph!!

Stephen Kirkwood 2020.02.17

     

Before we booked with Happy World Safaris I read and researched so many different companies for our safari and I can tell you that I am so happy we chose Happy World Safaris! From the moment we got to Kilimanjaro Airport we were greeted and welcomed Joseph the owner and Our wonderful Driver Guide Zebe The places we stayed were top notch and we were very excited to have WiFi at all three locations and running water at two of them. Our favorite was Kati Kati Tented Camp, because of the location, the animals right in the campsite and the food they made for us each night. Our driver, Zebe, was wonderful from the moment we met him. He wanted to know what our goals were and what we were looking for in our safari. Within the first 2 days we understood why we picked Happy World Safaris. Zebe could spot any animal a mile away and made it his goal to make sure we saw everything we wanted to see, and we exceeded this in every way possible! Within a day or two we figured out that all the other guilds would call Zebe or stop to talk with him as we passed to see where they should go to see the animals. The other guilds would flash their lights or call him on the radio to ask for information. We even met other people at the camps that would tell us what they had seen that day in. There was never a time that anyone saw more or knew where to go like we did with our guide. It almost made me feel bad for some of them. I can honestly say that choosing Happy World Safaris was a wise choice for us! The pictures we got while on safari are so good! Many Thank to Joseph the owner for all the help planning our safari and helping make our dreams come true! Stephen &Family Prague, Czech Date for Safari: Jan 06th -12th, 2020

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Reply from Happy World Safaris 2020.02.17

Thank you so much Stephen & your family from Czech Republic, We are more than happy to know your much satisfied with our service and wisely choosing to book with us. Ahsante Sana!!

Patrick Scott 2020.02.07

     

Since returning home from our very first safari in Tanzania, we can’t stop reminiscing on all the breathtaking memories we had in the wild and are already thinking of our next trip back! With 6 of us all together, mom and dad, 2 sons, and 2 daughters-in-law, on our first trip together in Tanzania, we felt so well taken care of by our excellent safari guides and at each of our accommodation sites. Happy World Safaris took care of our every need so that we were able to enjoy our time together witnessing unforgettable moments with the Big 5 and many more. We were blown away each day and amazed at how each day seemed to top the day before. Some of our treasured moments include viewing a gazelle giving birth and the baby calf’s first steps, lions lounging on tree branches, vultures and jackals flocking in and competing over a fresh kill after a cheetah wrapped up its meal, a water hole viewing that started out with 2 elephants splashing in the water, then 2 zebras taking a drink, and then an endless herd of wildebeests appearing out of nowhere and taking over the water hole! What a treat to capture it all on video and pictures to relive and share with our family and friends! Being there during the end of December 2019 also gave us precious viewings of the young, including lion cubs, leopard cubs, zebras, elephants, hippos, wildebeests, warthogs and so much more! Thank you Joseph for setting up the trip and we also can’t say enough wonderful things about our guide Zebe! He shared with us his extensive knowledge of the animals, enthusiasm for the experience, and stories of his favorite safari moments. By the end of the trip Zebe had become like part of our family. He was such a big part of what made our trip a trip of a lifetime. Thank you so much Happy World Safaris. We can’t wait to return. Asante sana!

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Reply from Happy World Safaris 2020.02.07

Thank you so much Patrick our lovely guests from USA and your family, kindly we are looking forward to serve you again and I promise you much better.
Regards,
Joseph

Pradeep Kumar Sharma 2019.01.13

recommends

Great value for money tour operators at Tanzania

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Suraja Menon Roychowdhury 2018.10.29

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Nine of us went on a trip to Zanzibar, and a safari to the Serengeti for 8 days in August 2018. I think I speak for everyone in our group when I say that we had an outstanding trip. Joseph Mkony was very helpful and responsive during our planning sessions. In addition to helping organize the trip he also organized getting my daughter's luggage from Dar-es-Salaam to Arusha. We loved the safari- so many highlights that it's impossible to say which was the best. We saw 4 out of the big 5 game at close quarters, and the rhino at a distance. We were also lucky to see the wildebeest migration. Joseph (a different one:)) and Sammy are excellent drivers and guides. Their knowledge, patience and good humor really contributed to making our experience memorable. Please give them our heartfelt thanks. The hotels were very good too, with Melia being outstanding. Olea was nice, but they could do a few minor things to improve their rooms a lot. Their food was excellent. The Mara Heritage camp was an unique experience, and I think it was Shree's favorite. The Sopa lodge was nice, but very crowded. Golden Tulip was a good hotel, with wonderful large suites, the only downside being the location, outside the city. We also had an interesting side-expedition to a Maasai village- very touristy! Thanks again for arranging such a memorable trip for us. All of us are most happy to recommend your services!

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Luiza Margulis 2018.07.25

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I did a 5 day Safari with Happy World Safaris and it genuinely was the experience of a lifetime. I travelled to Dar es Salaam in mid-June 2018 and was looking for safari options all around Tanzania. After being recommended Happy World by someone on TripAdvisor, I decided to write to them to get some more information on it. I spoke directly to Joseph, who was very helpful in answering questions I had, and which parks would be best suited for me. We decided that Ruaha was the way to go. After giving him a rough budget, we built our own itinerary with his help. We were picked up at 7am from our hotel in Dar and drove all the way to Ruaha (~12 hour drive) - although it seems long, it was actually wonderful! We got to travel through the country, which is an experience in itself. Although the jeep is not very new, we were extremely comfortable! Joseph (our guide) and our driver (Alpha) were extremely friendly, helpful, funny and entertaining throughout the journey. Ruaha was beautiful! We saw a plethora of animals (even wild dogs, which were highly unexpected), and Joseph's/Alpha's knowledge was very useful. We had an all-inclusive package, with breakfast, lunch and dinner being provided throughout the safari. We had dietary requirements which Joseph eagerly accommodated us with. It was a wonderful experience and highly recommend Happy World! Thank you again, Joseph and Alpha, for a marvellous trip!

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Angel Paradise 2018.06.21

recommends

Happy World Safaris was a great experience for my friend and I. We went in early June 2018 on a 5-day trip to Tarangire NP, Ngorongoro Crater, and Serengeti NP. Managing director Joseph was very communicative and adaptable. He even went out of his way to help try to find my phone which was stolen while traveling to Arusha. Only issue was that we budgeted off a 'shared trip' rate, which later went up because there were no other travelers during our selected date. We did get the Land Cruiser to ourselves though. Driver guide was Toni and he was awesome. He knew my main goal was to finally see a leopard, and he sought out the best hiding spots until we saw one! We all became good friends by the end of the trip. Serengeti Safaris can be expensive, but definitely a once-in-a-lifetime, must-see trip!

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Brittney Wittenbrink 2018.06.06

recommends

I went on a Happy World Safari with three friends from college at the end of May and really enjoyed my trip. Our safari was 4 nights and we went to Tarangire National Park, Serengeti National Park, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We had a landcruiser, guide, and cook to ourselves which was great. We opted to stay in tents for a more budget-friendly safari and it was more comfortable than I imagined. The tents were very big and the guide and cook set them up and took them down for us each day. They also provided sleeping bags and thick, foam sleeping mats. The camp sites were decent, nothing fancy, but we slept well each night and had no complaints. The food our cook prepared was amazing. The car itself was really nice and even had a mini-fridge and chargers. This safari company was also very flexible and accommodating—we designed our own itinerary, lodging, and food preferences and they worked with us to make sure we had airport transportation sorted. The communication was great! Our guide was fantastic at spotting animals and we had so many exciting encounters. I especially loved all the lions, leopards, and cheetahs we were able to see! I would definitely recommend Happy World. The guide went out of his way to make sure we saw some amazing animals and I was blown away by the beauty of the Serengeti.

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Freeman Manuel 2017.06.08

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Peter Fowler 2017.05.01

recommends

We have just returned from a two week safari with Happy World Safari's and it totally exceeded our expectations. As you'd expect when booking a holiday with an operator in a different country without a travel agent you are very cautious. My wife and I did a lot of research and read a lot of reviews to narrow it down. We then contacted a few and after a while settled with Happy World Safaris. Joseph's (owner) expertise and friendliness from the very first email was exceptional. He was so very accommodating to our needs and every (several) question. He even organised a visit to a local school for us in order to provide stationary, school uniforms and other supplies to some very underprivileged children. I highly recommend this if you can. We were fortunate enough to have Joseph and Tony (Driver) on our tour and both were very experienced and passionate about the animals and provided a lot of interesting information about them. Additionally they also gave us a lot of information on the country, its history, natural landscapes etc. I cannot say enough about our trip and highly recommend that you use Happy World Safari's for your Tanzanian trip. Joseph and Tony are absolute legends. We will be back again soon Peter & Jess

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Nörbert Moses 2015.10.02

recommends

Joseph the Manager is awesome, so passionate with nature and caring to all his clients. They have excellent Safari jeeps, wonderful guides and wider knowledge of Tanzania

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