Big Five Tours & Expeditions Review 2026: Is It Worth It, What It Costs, and Who Owns It

Big Five Tours & Expeditions, the family-owned safari operator Mahen Sanghrajka founded in Nairobi in 1973 and now run from Stuart, Florida, scores 66/100 on our six-criterion operator review: full marks for destination breadth and ownership transparency, 20 of 25 for first-hand African expertise, and 0 of 20 for independent reviews. It sells only through travel advisors, prices ten Africa tours checked by the day, from US$700 to $2,500 per person, and has been a certified B Corp since July 2025. What holds it back is what a buyer can check without an advisor: no review on any platform checked, and no booking terms or money protection published on its site.

Verified 24 September 2026 · Big Five Tours & Expeditions' own pages and tours · Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz) · B Lab · Trustpilot · USTOA member directory · Travel Weekly and TravelPulse

Big Five Tours & Expeditions at a glance: the company record

Big Five Tours & Expeditions is Big Five Tours and Expeditions, Inc., a Florida corporation registered in 1996 at 1551 SE Palm Court, Stuart, run by the Sanghrajka family since its founding in Kenya in 1973. Every row below links to its source and was checked on the date shown.

Is Big Five Tours & Expeditions worth it?

Big Five Tours & Expeditions scores 66/100: it has more than 50 years in African travel and a family that has run it throughout, but a buyer checking it online finds no independent reviews and no booking terms. Founder Mahen Sanghrajka, "a native of Kenya", worked with zoologists in the 1960s "tracking, tagging and studying elephant and rhino populations of Kenya and Uganda" and on gorilla research in Rwanda and Zaire; his son Ashish, also born in Kenya, joined in 2002 and has been president since 2008. Its Africa specialist Volker Altvater "regularly returns to Africa to explore different areas". It sells only through travel advisors.

Where Big Five Tours & Expeditions stands on Uncompromised Travel

At 66/100, Big Five Tours & Expeditions is eleventh of the 13 safari operators reviewed on these six criteria, two points above Ker & Downey Africa and nine below Scott Dunn, Natural Habitat Adventures and Roar Africa. This record is its first appearance on Uncompromised Travel: it is not on our safari planner index, payment terms index or UK and US operator comparison.

How much does a Big Five safari cost?

Big Five Tours & Expeditions prices its tours per person per day, land only, for two sharing: the ten Africa tours checked start at US$700 a day in Morocco and US$900 a day in the private conservancies of Kenya and Tanzania, and reach $2,500 a day for the 16-day Africa Quest for Giants. Each tour page lists what is included, such as camps, meals, game drives and internal flights, and what is not, such as international flights, insurance and, on the gorilla tours, permits at US$1,500 per person per trek. No page gives the season or year the rates apply to, and the Adventure Trio page shows two different daily rates, $1,350 and US$800. The last column multiplies the daily rate by the days, as a guide to the minimum land cost. Our safari price per night decoder explains what a daily rate usually covers.

Rates as shown on each tour page on 24 September 2026. For context, our Tanzania safari cost guide, Kenya safari cost guide and gorilla trekking index set these rates against the market.

Who runs and plans Big Five trips?

Big Five Tours & Expeditions is run by the Sanghrajka family, founder Mahen and president Ashish, and its leadership page names five destination specialists, one of them dedicated to Africa. Its site says "Both Big Five's CEO and its President know where each of our traveling guests is at any given time", but it does not promise one specialist from enquiry to return; clients deal with their own travel advisor and, its process page says, get to know "the Big Five team". Its staff pages, Faces of Five, did not show names when checked.

What do Big Five Tours & Expeditions reviews say?

No independent reviews of Big Five Tours & Expeditions were found: its Trustpilot page is unclaimed with no reviews, and no Travelstride, Tripadvisor or SafariBookings listing was found. Its own reviews page shows testimonials signed with initials, such as "OMG, it was the trip of a lifetime! My travel partner and I were incredibly impressed and in awe." It sells only through travel advisors, describing itself as "100% Travel Advisor Focused". Our safari operator review index explains why self-hosted testimonials do not count here.

Big Five Tours & Expeditions' awards and press

The one recognition confirmed at source for this record is B Corp certification in July 2025, with a B Impact Score of 80.3; its site also lists Virtuoso's Sustainable Tourism Leadership Award in 2014 and 2016. B Lab's directory describes it as creating journeys to "some 44 destinations worldwide" since 1973, and TravelPulse reported the certification in August 2025, quoting Ashish Sanghrajka: "Becoming a Certified B Corporation is both a milestone and a commitment that started with a conversation with my father in 2015." Its awards page adds Travel + Leisure A-List places for its specialists, with no year, a nomination in Virtuoso's travel partner awards and Martin County's Best Places to Work.

Its media page lists coverage from 2011 to 2026, including The New York Times in December 2024 and January 2023. Travel Weekly reported the handover to Ashish Sanghrajka as president in September 2008, with his father remaining chief executive, and TravelPulse listed him among the confirmed attendees of the 2026 WTTC Global Summit.

Where Big Five Tours & Expeditions goes, and its safari styles

Big Five Tours & Expeditions has pages for 14 African countries and Jordan, and sells Asia, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand through the same company and its sister sites. Its Africa tours include private conservancies in Kenya and Tanzania, one of which "admits only 18 visitors per day", gorilla and chimpanzee treks in Uganda and Rwanda, walking safaris, private guides and vehicles, and family trips under its Kids Kouncil Approved label. Its sustainability page says that in the 1970s it trained guides not to drive too close to animals and prohibited smoking in national parks.

Who owns Big Five Tours & Expeditions?

Big Five Tours & Expeditions says it is "independent and family owned": Mahen Sanghrajka founded it in Nairobi in 1973, and his son Ashish Sanghrajka has been president since 2008. Florida's register records Big Five Tours and Expeditions, Inc., document P96000073965, a Florida corporation filed in September 1996, with Ashish Sanghrajka as president, Usha Sanghrajka as secretary and Mari Huff and John T Corcia as directors; it filed annual reports for 2024, 2025 and 2026 and an amendment on 13 August 2025. Florida's register does not list shareholders. Its leadership page still calls Mahen Sanghrajka chief executive; he is not listed among the corporation's officers.

Big Five Tours & Expeditions' booking terms and money protection

Big Five Tours & Expeditions publishes no booking terms on its site: no deposit, final payment date, cancellation charges or amendment fees, and no protection scheme, trust account or seller of travel number. Pages at the usual addresses, such as /booking-conditions/ and /terms-and-conditions/, return errors; the only terms on its site are its website terms of use, last modified in August 2019, which say the site is operated "from its offices within the State of Florida". It is not listed in USTOA's member directory, and it recommends travel insurance from Allianz Global Assistance. Ask the travel advisor for its booking terms, and for how deposits are held, before paying. Our guide to safari deposits and payment terms shows what other operators publish.

What the public record does not show

Eight things a buyer might look for could not be found or did not match on 24 September 2026. Each is listed so it can be answered; if Big Five Tours & Expeditions publishes or corrects any of them, this record will change with a dated note.

• Booking terms: deposit, final payment, cancellation charges and amendment fees.
• How client money is protected: no scheme, trust account, USTOA membership or Florida seller of travel number on its site.
• Any independent review: its Trustpilot page is unclaimed and empty.
• A street address, email address, office hours or response time on its site.
• The season or year its daily rates apply to, and one rate for the Adventure Trio tour, which shows two.
• One named specialist from enquiry to return, stated as a promise.
• Mahen Sanghrajka among the corporation's officers: its site calls him chief executive; Florida's register lists Ashish Sanghrajka as president and does not list him.
• Independent confirmation of its Virtuoso and Travel + Leisure awards, which could not be checked at source.

Big Five Tours & Expeditions vs Micato Safaris, Roar Africa and Rothschild Safaris

Against three US-based safari operators we have reviewed, Big Five matches Micato Safaris, another family company with Kenyan roots, on pricing, and trails all three on independent reviews.

How to price a comparable safari

The fair test of any quote from Big Five Tours & Expeditions is a like-for-like quote for the same camps, nights and season from a second specialist and a comparison platform. Ask each for the same lodges by name, the same room category and the same inclusions, then compare the per-person total with international flights excluded.

Get a second specialist quote from Go2Africa →

Compare safari operators' prices on BookAllSafaris →

Browse priced safaris on Safari.com →

What changed

Four dated changes shape Big Five Tours & Expeditions' public record today.

January 2024. It launched a co-branded site for advisors with no direct-booking buttons.

July 2025. It became a certified B Corp, with a B Impact Score of 80.3.

13 August 2025. An amendment was filed on its Florida record.

24 September 2026. This record opened with a score of 66/100.