Kandoo Adventures Reviews 1,195

I went with KGN Gym from London with a team of 11 of us. We did a 7 day trip up Kilimanjaro and a 4 day Safari after. This is the 1st time I've ever done such a huge mountain climbing and I was not disappointed.

The experience was great from the very beginning. We were picked up promptly from the airport and taken to our hotel in Moshi. We met up with our guides who gave detailed briefings of what to expect etc. We had 5 guides under the leadership of August. They were incredibly awesome and professional. Their daily briefings greatly helped me towards accomplishing my climb. We were checked daily to ensure we were in optimum health for each climb and that was so reassuring.

Our team went through the Machame route starting with the rainforest. We had different guides leading the hike on different days. Each guide was so experienced at what they do. They were immensely helpful, patient and always giving us useful information through each climb, most notably reminding us to go slowly "Pole, Pole" and always reminding us to drink some water. This made each day's hike doable and enjoyable.

Our campsite are always ready by the end of each day's hike. The amazing porters would have gone ahead of us to ensure our tents are ready, bags ready, the toilet ready and food prepared for us etc. This is my first experience of sleeping in a tent and in a sleeping bag but it was a very positive experience. I rented my sleeping bag from Kandoo. It was such an effective sleeping bag that I didn't feel cold at night at all. The porters were very helpful, happy and always willing to offer help when needed. They even entertained us with beautiful songs and taught us some useful Swahili words.

Surprisingly, not knowing what to expect, the food given to us daily was very delicious. I was pleasantly surprised that they could conjure up such nice meals on the mountain daily. Paul, the chef made sure we were fed varied cuisine daily. Not only that, the food was laid out and served nicely in our dining tent. Well done Kandoo, I always looked forward to my daily meals.

Climbing Kilimanjaro offered different terrains but at my age of 60, I was able to navigate and manoeuvre around some of the tricky bits with the guides' incredible support. I also really enjoyed the experience. I am really grateful, thank you Kandoo.

Now, the summit night was something else. Despite the fact that we were prepared for it, I kind of struggled. However, Richard who is the most calm and patient man was the one chosen by August to support me. He along with a porter called Hassan slowly and encouragingly led me to the roof of Africa.

Writing this review has brought back emotional moments for me with this fantastic experience of a lifetime.

I cannot express my gratitude enough to Kandoo Adventure for this incredible experience. My getting to the summit was facilitated by your experienced guides. Without their unbelievable support, I do not believe I could have done it. Thank you to the Kandoo team. My special mention goes to Richard who led me to the summit. I cannot but mention Eric who is another incredible guide. He was very supportive to me and when he saw that I was struggling with my bag, he decided to carry it daily and ensured I was drinking enough water daily.

I feel so elated, joyful and immensely grateful that I was able to not only achieve the climb but to actually get to the very top of it. By the way, 11 of us went on this climb and the 11 of us summited. Thank you so much to the Kandoo team. Mwah, mwah.

An adventure of a lifetime.

Have just returned from walking the Machame route to the summit of Kilimanjaro with 4 other members of my family. To be able to share that experience with your loved ones makes this adventure all the more meaningful and memorable.

I personally am under no illusion that without our support team of 24, led by the unflappable Raymond, I would have struggled to summit. My body's inability to sleep in the early stages had a drastic effect in lowering my energy levels and on summit night my gloves were not man enough for the freezing temperatures.

The care, consideration and camaraderie, which the team gave us was very humbling and should be a great source of assurance to other groups walking with Kandoo. Our medical condition and oxygen sats were monitored morning and evening, so when my son in law's sats had dropped to 60% on the summit, it was inevitable that we had to get down sharpish.

Nothing was too much trouble for the support team. My youngest daughter had her birthday on the day before summiting and yet Lasaro the cook was still able to produce an iced cake. While altitude suppressed our appetite, Lasaro did a brilliant job in creating nutritional food for us all throughout. There was even a cobbler in the mix, Umari,who carried out two emergency repairs to my eldest daughter's boots. She now has a sentimental attachment to those boots because of Umari.

It's so difficult to put into words the true extent of our admiration we felt for our support team.We tried to engage with the team from the outset and any attempts at pigeon swahili was always appreciated as were our efforts in the dancing. Our guides Raymond, Amadeus and Happy God were a winning combination, for which we were blessed. My connection to the team is reflected in the fact that their photo has taken up a pride of place back home.

My 30 year dream of climbing Kilimanjaro has now been realised and while I feel very lucky and proud to have completed the challenge with my family, that sense of achievement has been eclipsed by a fondness I feel for the whole support team.

For other groups taking on this adventure, be prepared for an unparalleled emotional and physical experience. ASANTI SANA

The team gave us such a memorable trip for the Machame 7 day route at Kilimanjaro + safari, 5 stars really doesn't do it justice.

When booking and planning, Shelley and Joanne's communications and updates were fantastic and really helped us to get organised.
Once we arrived in Tanzania, Emmanuels team were on standby to pick us up and drive us around and were very helpful.

For the Hike, our kandoo guides Raymond, Happygod and Amadeus were all incredible. They were so attentive and helpful, it was a joy to spend the 7 days with them and all of the porters. Without their support we may not have summited, as they were with us every step of the way. All 3 of them are a huge credit to Kandoo.

Finally Josiah, our safari guide and driver - was incredibly knowledgeable on all the animals on safari and did a fantastic job helping us to see 4 of the big 5, as well as going above and beyond teaching us about the local region and people.

I expected a hiking experience. That is not what I received. We "hiked" the Lemosho route. We had a stride of one foot in front of the other and a pace of one mile per hour. I asked if we could hike faster, but was told that this was our pace. We continued this pace until summit night. Our leader, Andrew, told me to follow him. He proceeded at a gait of 30 inches and a pace of 3 miles per hour. My pleas of "pole/pole" and "break" were ignored.
This is the last time I will hike with Kandoo Adventures.

Amazing experience with the local team!
We had a very VERY nice family experience with the KANDO local team in Tanzania during our Kili trek. (7 days, Machame road )
This was clearly due to our guides !
- Andrew (You should ask to have him as first guide, you won't regret it !), and guide assistants Ambrose and Gottfried
- the cook Julius aka Baby Mamba
- Chef camp : Crispin
and team members such as Lucas (bathroom and toilets), Eric (table service)and all the porters.

All the best to the team

The mountains made the trek magnificent.
The experience, forethought, advice and cheerfulness of the guide made it possible to take full pleasure in it.

Nothing takes away the spectacular environment, but some communication could have been better.
Briefing beforehand could be improved (description of a typical day, description of expected weather at specific times of the year). It should also have been made clearer that the majority of the trek was on roads rather than trekking trails.

This was my second trip with Kandoo and they provided an amazing experience again. The customer service and communication was great from the point of booking and they kept me informed in the lead up to the expedition.
The trip itself was a bucket list experience; the guides, logistics, accommodation and trek were incredible. The local Kandoo rep checked in with us at the start/end to ensure we were all having a good time.
The long 200km trek was tough but our guides made sure we enjoyed each day, taught us about the local culture and kept us well fed/watered in the tea houses!

Fantastic, well organised trip. Great guides and assistants, very attentive to the groups needs and any individual concerns. Good food and teahouse choice. Couldn't have found a better team to realise my life long ambition with. Thank you

Ladin Lama was a marvelous guide. He was constantly making sure we had a good experience. When we couldn't get out of Ramecek airport, he worked on getting us a helicopter ride so we could start our trek He consulted with us to make it a trek to remember. The porters were also great. The local Kandoo executive was helpful and got us a guide in Kathmandu.

My experience was excellent in every aspect of the trekking.
Starting from the arrival to Kilimanjaro airport and being picked up by the driver to my hotel to the whole trekking was highly organized.

The guides were fantastic and can’t fault anything

Thank you
We will book again on one of your other trips

Th whole Kandoo team, from the time of booking right up until the final drop-off at Kathmandu airport were fantastic. This was a dream trip for my friends and I. Kandoo ensured that it went amazingly well with memories that we will cherish for a life time. The Guides and Porters assigned could not do enough for us, always willing and smiling at every step of the way. The planning and organization was exemplary, with the right balance of structure and some flexibility, ensuring we were prepared to tackle the high altitude sections, whilst enjoying the spectacular views along the way! I look forward to joining another Kandoo adventure in the future. Thank you to all the team!

I climbed Kilimanjaro with Kandoo Adventures at the start of the month. This was only made possible with the help of the fantastic guides and porters! We had an amazing lead guide in Andrew, who was extremely skilled, knowledgeable, thoughtful and kind. Our lovely meals were made by Lazaro (he even made two cakes, one in support of the charity we were climbing for and one to congratulate us at the end)! All the porters went out of their way to to help us and make sure we had everything we needed at the campsites.

Summit night was hard but Eric’s (assistant guide) patience, strength and kindness got me to the top in time to see a fabulous sunrise!

A superb experience and a huge thank you to the Kandoo Team!

Kandoo team organised our Bhutan trek extremely well. Very efficient with very good trekking team, excellent camp food and priority care for us guests.

Good communication with the staff has been the key. They responded to all my questions and inquiries pretty fast and if the staff who regularly communicated with me is away or temporarily not available, another staff will quickly took over to communicate with me. This company is attentive to all my requests especially when it comes to our dietary preferences and restrictions.
The recent trip that I did was the hike to Lofoten Islands in Norway. Every single thing about the trip - transportation, itinerary, meals, accommodation were fantastic. My husband and I enjoyed every thing and every moment.

I enjoyed the inca trail very much. From the moment I landed in Cuzco Kandoo where on it and everything was taken care off. The Trek itself, although challenging was very enjoyable and made so by out guide Alex, who was fantastic and the really hard working porters, who carried our stuff and set up tents. They are practically super human, and the chef made amazing tasty meals on essentially a camping stove. The day in machu pitchu was really well thought out with the restaurant after, with very peruvian feel and the train ride to cap of the whole experience. Everything was really well thought out and organised and anyone wanting to do the inca trail, Kandoo can do it!

Had a really great trip to Tanzania, to climb Kilimanjaro followed by a safari. All the guides were really excellent, both very knowledgeable and really great people. I would highly recommend Kandoo for a trip, they were not cheap but worth the money to ensure you have a really high quality well organised trip.

The guides made a huge difference in my experience. There were health checks every night and expectations were set at the onset of the journey.

We were met at the airport by the local Kandoo representative and they were helpful in getting us to our hotel for the night. They were actively in touch with us before the trip making sure all logistics were taken care of.

After meeting with our guide on the night before our trek he laid out the plans and how we would be progressing and making an understanding that we were a trekking family.

During the trek there were enough stops, the guides explained to us the elevation changes and journey details for that day. They even gave us approximate times for travel and would monitor us to see what type of trekkers we were. They accounted for differences in experiences as well as age, physical capabilities.

During the trek they supplied great information about the towns that we would be visiting, great viewpoints along the way and information about the local communities. 99% of the time they had insightful knowledge as well as experiences about the trek.

During the final days they would help other trekkers wake up early so that everyone could keep a good pace and that no one got left behind.

After the trek we had a great party as well as time to meet and thank the porters and team members even though we knew them pretty well. Great guides and great communication we’re highly appreciated.

Every aspect of the trip was fantastic. The guides were knowledgeable and informative, the porters were efficient, polite and hard-working and the variety of the food was beyond belief, given the location of the various campsites. The small group size was also a positive, with three of us travelling together before meeting up with three others. Some of the other groups on the mountain were as large as 40 people!