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GV_etc
We booked IntegriTour for a daybreak on lake victoria tour. We arranged it all by email and while all correspondence was timely, the responses didn't always address all our queries. The tour itself was great. Patricia and the driver picked us up from our Kisumu hotel on time. Our guide on the water (Daniel) was very knowledgeable (particularly on bird life - his passion) and very keen to talk about the culture and history of the people who make their living from the lake. The sunrise was amazing and we were perfectly placed for some great photos of it. Recognising that we had a particular interest in the hippos, our guide made sure we spent a good amount of time around them while demonstrating his hippo call on more than one occasion. We also got to see a local fishing market via a canal off the lake, which was interesting but very muddy. We'd suggest wearing boots or old shoes that you don't mind having to clean. There was also a lot of bird life around the market. The breakfast was simple (bread, bananas, mandazi and hot tea/coffee) but pleasant in a secluded corner of the mangroves. Honestly better than we expected given we were sitting out on a boat in the middle of a lake. The daybreak trip made for a great morning and afterwards we drove to Kericho to see the tea plantations using the same driver. Although they didn't organise this for us, IntegriTour did advise us on how much petrol to pay for and it was pretty spot on advice. They also provided us with extra bottles of water to use for the rest of the day, which was a nice touch and much appreciated.
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288EmilyM
We booked with IntegriTour and were very disappointed with our experience. First, Patricia told us that she would meet us at our hotel at 1pm on a Friday so that we could pay for our tour. Unfortunately, by 2 pm, she hadn't arrived and was not answering her phone. Eventually she texted us to tell us she was running late, but we were frustrated by her lack of professionalism. We understand that things come up, but it was frustrating to wait around not knowing if our tour was still booked.The tour itself was disappointing. We went to Kakamega Forest in a small car, which is inadvisable. The car wasn't able to handle the rain (and Kakamega is a rainforest...so there will be rain) and we had to call off part of the tour because the driver couldn't get down one of the roads in the forest. In addition, when a tree fell over in the road and blocked the only way out of the forest, the driver did not even have a panga (machete) in the trunk for clearing the tree. (We're Americans, but we live in Kenya and we know that you should always have a machete handy for just this type of situation. We couldn't figure out why a Kenyan tour company was so unprepared?) We sat around for close to an hour, waiting for someone to help us get out. There were other minor disappointments- like watching our driver pee by the side of the road on multiple occasions, and eating the cheapest food imaginable (like I said, we live here, we know they bought the 15 cent potato chips). But it's western Kenya, not an area known for it's tourism industry.In retrospect, we should have just packed our own lunch and hired a taxi to take us to Kakamega. We would have paid a lot less for the same "tour".
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DeBassan
I wish on behalf of Integritour Ltd entire management to state how much we appreciate that you took your valuable time to post your experience on your last trip that you did with us and indeed highlight this unfortunate and extra ordinary incident for us to deeply investigate and put a halt to its future occurrence. We highly regret the inconvenience caused . Please allow me to confirm that Integritour is fully commited in offering high quality services to all our customers an such incidence will have no room for sprouting.Thank you for having chosen integritour.Kenneth CheruiyotOperations Manager Integritour Ltd.
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JessicaM123
We did a 3-day Masai Mara safari through IntegriTour and it was perfect! We were picked up early in the morning from our hotel in Kisumu (Duke of Breeze Hotel, also great) and driven to the Masai Mara. We did a game drive in the late afternoon, all day on the second day, and then an early morning one on the day we left. Our driver Raphael was great and was able to spot animals from miles away – we ended up seeing all animals except the rhino – leopard, lions, cheetahs, warthogs, hyenas, elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocs, etc. The accommodation we stayed at (Mara Sidai camp I think) was also nice; clean, yummy food, etc. Raphael then drove us back to Nairobi, rather than Kisumu, which was an added bonus and saved us the trip. No complaints about this company – everything was well organised and we had no problems.
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Alsacienne
My husband, adult son and I spent a week in Kisumu in January 2012, taking various day trips with Integritour, before returning to Nairobi with them enjoying a short Masai Mara safari en route.It seemed a big ask to set our alarm so early in the morning so that we could be at the lakeshore before sun rise, but we managed and were delighted with our trip.It was still dark when we took our places in the traditional longboat, in the company of our boatman and our guide the excellent naturalist Tom. Daybreak was not far away, but first we glided between the shore and a nearby island which was teeming with roosting birds and where we got an effective and intensive course on bird recognition, before most of them set off for another day's flight.We headed into the lake itself and met up with a fishing boat whose nets were being hauled in by four fishermen, and we got to see the results of their nights' work at first hand. Daybreak was beautiful and we headed along the coastline, and had a delicious packed breakfast with hot coffee and tea in a peaceful mangrove swamp. There was abundant bird and plant life, and we got to see the water hyacinth that has devastated fishing in the lake at first hand, plus papyrus and water lilies. We made a short landfall at a fisherman's village market, and then got up close and personal with the lake's hippos!All in all it was a beautiful introduction to Lake Victoria and its wildlife, and the sunrise made it very special. Don't forget your suncream, as the water reflects the light, but we had no trouble with mosquitoes ... Timeless. Recommended.
