Immersion Journeys — Local services in New York

Travel during the pandemic? Are you nuts? That’s what my friends said. Working with Rumit Mehta, President of Immersion Journeys, was such a pleasure and so different from my previous two Southern Africa safari travel agency (both among the highest rated) experiences, that I had faith that it would be a great trip. I was not disappointed. Rumit was the first agent to really listen to our wishes and needs and he put together a wonderful trip for us. It was not an easy task with the fluidity of Covid reality but he was always on top of issues that came up ready with options for solutions. For example, when the airline we had tickets for began canceling flights, he suggested we change airlines to a more reliable one. Good thing he did as our original flight was indeed canceled later.

Rumit’s attention to detail and high level of support before and during the trip lead to the smooth resolution of unexpected problems that arose which in less competent hands could have lead to disaster. His people on the ground in South Africa and Botswana were were all extremely supportive and helpful. His choice of camps was excellent, all beautifully situated with excellent accommodations, really good food, friendly service and animal rich game drives. Each camp was a different but fabulous experience.

Although we saw lots of elephants, antelopes of all kinds, buffalos, lions, leopards, cheetahs, baboons and another more common animals, we had many new animal experiences on this trip. We saw rhinos for the first time. A baby rhino was curious and came up to our vehicle to investigate until her mother gently nudged her away. What a thrill and so sweet! We saw two cheetahs chasing a herd of zebras and then our guides found the cheetahs resting under a tree providing us with a great close up photo opportunity. We saw wild dogs and their puppies who cavorted around our vehicle. We saw a mother leopard with her cubs that we had seen during the day during a night drive. We also saw civets, genets, owls, hares, lions and a porcupine at night. We saw many lions during the day including a large male finishing up a buffalo carcass which had been left by other lions lying around with full bellies. We saw some bat eared foxes and a family of snouted cobras which our guides had never seen in winter. And, oh, the birds! It was a wonderland for a bird photographer! We saw more than 100 different species of all sizes.

I give Immersion Journeys my highest 5 star recommendation and hope to travel...

We started planning a safari with Immersion Journeys back in 2019 for a safari in July 2020. COVID scuppered those plans but we postponed, took stock of developments, toyed with going in 2021, and then eventually made the trip in July 2022. During the intervening time we progressed our plans from Tanzania for 6 nights to the East Africa Sky Safari for 12 nights (Kenya and Tanzania). There were a lot of moving parts during this time. The team at Immersion were responsive to every question and concern, looked for ways to cater to every request and provided detailed information to help us build out the information we needed as we re-planned the trip. In the months and weeks leading up to the trip, Rumit was well organized, sending us details of everything we needed: links to visa sites and pre departure forms for both countries, packing lists, itineraries, and helped us book onward travel for post safari, and gave us information and answers to questions above and beyond the bounds of the Sky Safari itinerary. We are grateful to have had the access to the expertise and help for what really was an experience of a lifetime. I highly recommend Immersion and Sky Safari/Elewana for anyone planning a trip to...

We, a group of four couples, used Immersion Journeys to arrange a trip a to Kenya and Tanzania. This was our first trip to Africa and we were a little apprehensive about the trip. It turned to be such a great trip. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Rumit made a fantastic 10 day itinerary for us and executed it flawlessly. The transitions from Kenya to Tanzania and back to Kenya was handled so smoothly, we were very impressed. We could not have been happier.

Rumit had the best drivers/guides throughout the trip. They were very friendly and knowledgeable. They were able to show us lots of wild animals including the big 5.

Rumit picked some of best lodges to stay throughout our trip. They were located in the best possible locations and they had the best service. The food at all the lodges were very nice. Even though all of use are vegetarians, we had enough vegetarian options to enjoy the food.

If anyone is considering a trip to Africa, I strongly recommend using Immersion Journeys to...