Pristine Trails Adventures & Safaris — Attraction in Kilimanjaro

I want to express my most heartfelt gratitude for the expert planning and the flawless execution of the entire adventure. Every single person we interacted with was FANTASTIC.

Our driver Steven in Rwanda was super pleasant and made us feel safe and welcome during the first days on the continent. The accommodations were beyond our expectations, and the gorilla trek was certainly a life experience I will never forget.

Joel and Mary in the Pristine Trails Moshi office were very helpful and made our transitions easy. Keeping track of our luggage throughout was probably no easy feat. Patrick took excellent care of us in Moshi and seemed proud to show us his town. He took me shopping, helped me pick out fabric, introduced me to a dressmaker, had the garment made the same day, and he even picked up the finished product later that night and delivered it to me at the hotel - totally above and beyond! Eliakim and Aloyce, our masterful trekking guides, I mean, I don't even know where to start! They were no nonsense when it came to safety, and they instilled me with confidence with the gear check and other up-front advice. They spent all day every day with us, engaging with us, sharing meals and stories and music. I like to think we became friends, and I sincerely miss them now that we are so far apart. We did summit Kilimanjaro. I burst into tears at the top, and not a small part of that unexpected emotional outburst was due to my overwhelming appreciation to them for all they did to help us achieve this goal, and to the entire team that supported us. Fifteen people for just us two trekkers - yikes - everyone worked so hard to make our experience so excellent. Hussein's cooking was great, "fuel for the mission" I can still hear him saying. We had pizza! On the mountain! We are used to rehydrated camp food, so this was next level. Solomon took care of us, even when we didn't know we needed help, such as warm water bottles, wash basins, plentiful snacks and tea. I predict he will make an excellent guide. Hussein and Solomon even invited us into the cook tent for a lesson in making ugali. Abdilah, our camp manager, was usually first to pass us on the trail, selected the best campsites, and even helped me with my dirty dirty boots and gaiters. We remember the names of the entire team and would be happy to sing each of their praises.

The Legendary Lodge was possibly the nicest place I've ever stayed. Highly recommend! It was the perfect place to relax and recover after the trek.

Peter. Ohmigod, he is wonderful. When we united with our friends for the safari, we were probably so loud and obnoxious. He has endless tolerance and patience. The driving seemed really difficult, but he made it look easy. If he were tired, it never showed. Not only was his driving excellent, he was also simultaneously scouting for animals, getting intel on his radio, and answering all of our various safari and non-safari related questions. He was punctual - no "Africa time" here. His ability to find the animals was uncanny. Seriously, he has a gift! We targeted the Mara river for a wildebeest migration crossing. He knew exactly where to position. He knew when they were going to proceed. The first day's crossing was HUGE. It was magical. I'm still not sure it was real. The second day, we pulled up MINUTES before they went across. Morris, the lovely manager at Kuria Hills, told us people had been there for 3 days and not seen a crossing - we were so fortunate, but Peter was definitely the secret weapon.

I loved all of the accommodations selected. The food was consistently great. The balloon ride was truly a special treat for our 20th anniversary. Everything was easy and well organized. Even the weather was fantastic.

I honestly can't thank everyone at Pristine Trails enough. This was a life changing experience. Of course I am going to tell everyone I know that they need to contact Pristine Trails and VISIT...

It is probably not possible to fully express in words how awesome our trip was, and how grateful we are to the Pristine Trails team, for so thoughtfully and meticulously bringing it to life. That being said, we will try our best to articulate our experience below.

From the very first communication with Kim, we were confident that we had made a great decision in reaching out to Pristine Trails. The planning of a trip like this, which has so many options to evaluate based on your personal preferences, is not something that can/should be done in cookie cutter fashion. Kim set up time with us to talk through our ideas, and clearly did an awesome job of getting to know us, digested our conversation, and came back to us with an initial template for the itinerary. This was such an important step, as it gave us a chance to read through a detailed itinerary and truly visualize what each day of the trip could look like. We then worked with Kim to make a couple of small tweaks and our plan became formalized. From a planning perspective, Pristine Trails uses an awesome online planning tool which lays out every detail you will need, including detailed information regarding your itinerary and lodges, packing recommendations, a full checklist of trip prep reminders, etc..etc..

Our planning discussions with Kim resulted in a 10 day safari through the Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park. One of the awesome tweaks that Kim made was to alter the order of our days/nights in the Serengeti. Based on the timing of our trip, Kim and Edward recognized that the Great Migration Crossings could be nearing an end for the season, and altered our trip to begin in the Northern Serengeti to ensure that we had an optimal chance of experiencing a crossing. We saw three awesome crossings!

I’m certain this was no easy feat to reconfigure our stays, and for this we are again thankful to Kim and Edward.

Immediately prior to the trip, Kim reached out to provide contact details for Joel, who is on the ground in Tanzania. We created a WhatsApp group with Joel, and he insured that we knew where to be, and who to meet up with, when we landed in Arusha. From the moment that we landed to the moment that our guide Josephat dropped us off, everything about the trip was flawless. That may have the appearance of being 'easy', but we know and appreciate how much work, coordination and logistics are required to create that experience.

The lodges were all amazing in their own unique ways, both in scenery and vibe. We were constantly in disbelief as to how amazing each one was. It is impossible to imagine, without seeing it with your own eyes, how such amazing lodges can exist in the heart of these beautiful, remote, National Parks. We so enjoyed getting to know many of the kind people working at each of the lodges, and will look forward to keeping in touch with many of them.

And then there is our guide, Josephat! We will forever treasure every moment that we had with Josephat. He is such an awesome person. His knowledge of everything that we encountered was inspiring, to say the least. His knowledge of the entire animal kingdom seemed as infinite as the plains of the Serengeti. He is a walking, talking, artful blend of encyclopedia, passion and constant humor! During our adventures, we were as happy to see birds as we were many of the other wonders, and Josephat's ability to call out a bird’s name from 100 yards away was awesome. We are again grateful to Pristine Trails for pairing us with him.

For anyone reading this, we know from experience that you may be trying to make a decision on who to choose from a large group of possible travel companies. We can emphatically say that you will be forever happy in choosing Kim and the Pristine Trails team to plan and execute...

Last year, my husband and I started to plan a trip to Tanzania to celebrate my birthday. We wanted to climb Kilimanjaro and go on a safari. We had reached out to four other guide/safari companies and when we explained what we were looking for, along with our budget, we were immediately told that our plans and budget weren’t possible. I’m grateful that they closed the doors on us because that led us to Pristine.

When I first met Kim to describe what we were looking for, she was always willing to work with us and provided us with many different options. She never pressured anything on us and was always patient with us. She responded quickly to emails and always made time for a call to answer any questions. The in-country operations director, Joel was incredibly responsive a few days before we departed for Tanzania and during our entire trip. He is kind, professional, and was our go-to person when we arrived in-country.

We did the Machame trail in 7 days for Kilimanjaro. Our guides were Eliakim and Samson. We couldn't have asked for a more experienced, professional duo. The day before we started our trek, Eliakim and Joel met with us to introduce themselves. Eliakim did a gear check with us and a thorough briefing of what to expect in the next 7 days. He gave us maps to show us the route, along with the campsites we would be staying at each day. There was a vitals/health check every evening with Eliakim and Samson to analyze how we were feeling as we approached summit night.

One of the many things I appreciate about Pristine is that they pay attention to details. The second day of our trek was my birthday. After we made it to our camp for the evening, the crew surprised me with a cake and sparkling white wine. Our crew each had to carry about 45 lbs of equipment, gear, food, everything we needed for the trek on their backs every day of the trek. They don’t have help from any animals, car or helicopter to carry anything. Just their backs. I was so touched that they would carry a cake and some bubbly just to make my birthday special.

The evening we started our approach to the summit, there were winds coming from Mombasa, Kenya down to Kilimanjaro, which made the ascent pretty challenging. We were fighting 35+ mph winds. Even though it was a challenge going to the top, we never questioned our safety and our summit crew (Eliakim/Samson/Samwell) always asked how we were feeling, set the pace that worked for us and kept our spirits high.

Our Kilimanjaro crew was made up of 13 incredible souls including guides, chef, porters and special porters. They are a part of our summiting success. The entire crew was respectful, kind, always willing to help us, and they made us feel safe. They treated us like family. We are grateful for them!

After a week in Kilimanjaro, we spent 7 days on a safari with our guide Laurent. We connected with him immediately. He was always patient with us as we took many photos during safari. He has great social/communication skills and is just a chill person! He is incredibly knowledgeable of all the national parks we went to, all the animals, plants, trees, etc. We had many questions for him and he always had answers. Many times, there would be two tiny dots far in the distance. He would say “oh, that’s a so-and-so animal.” And once we looked through the binoculars, we would confirm that he was right. As we spent time with him, we learned more about each other’s families/lives and we gained a kaka (“brother” in Swahili). Also, shout out to Uwassa as he guided us for one day of our safari to Lake Manyara! All the accommodations on our safari were amazing, the food was delicious and the service was impeccable.

We are forever grateful to Pristine for planning an unforgettable trip with us! We would travel anywhere around the world...