This Tour Is Offered By
Taking you to the exotic African wild!
Morning Star Tours & Travel
- Office In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2018)
- Member Of:
- IATA, KATO, AMREF & TOSK
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
-
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Travelling serves different objectives for everyone. Some travel to get away from routines and break monotonies, some want to make friends others are in a quest to find themselves while others are just inborn wanderers. Well whether you fall in the group of wanderers or you just need a break from the chaos of life Morning Star Safaris got you! We are a team of vibrant individuals who are ready to make your safari worthwhile. We provide curated safaris to a variety of destinations.
Reviews300
CN
Morning Star is a big cheater.
Morning Star is a big cheater. They owe me a total refund of $8,372 which hasn't been returned yet. During the process, they kept telling us that they would transfer the money to us, but they kept delaying it. It has been almost a month since the trip ended, but we still haven’t seen the remittance.
I would like to ask if this company still has any integrity and if it is so difficult to bear its own mistakes. Why should tourists pay for your so-called hacker mistakes? This is outrageous.
CN
Unfulfilled refunded after 1 month due to their mistake
Our recent 8-day trip to Kenya and Tanzania with Morningstar was far from the unforgettable adventure we’d hoped for. Starting from Tanzania, everything went wrong and they still own us a huge number of money for nearly a month. They promised to refund next week everyday, but still seeing no money yet. And we even got a message from him saying we are NOT PATIENT!
In Tanzania, we had to pay for multiple services, including park fee, transportation fee, etc, twice, losing 2 half-day of safari due payment not done in advance. Despite reassurances from Dennis, Morningstar’s owner, promised refunds for these extra expenses never received. Further more, Morningstar has no direct staff in Tanzania, so they rely on a partner agency, which resulted in poor coordination and minimal support.
Having made our full payment two weeks prior to departure, we trusted that all fees were covered. However, upon arrival in Tanzania, we learned that key expenses, including park entry and transport, hadn’t been paid. Faced with the risk of being stranded, we had no choice but to cover these costs ourselves. Dennis blamed the missing payments on a hacked bank account and again promised a refund once we returned to Kenya—a promise that remains unfulfilled 25 days later.
While our guide Caleb in Kenya was experienced and dedicated, Morningstar’s overall handling left us disheartened. The lack of support, broken promises, and financial inconvenience made what should have been a dream safari a frustrating experience. Sadly, I cannot recommend Morningstar based on our trip.
Furthermore, I don't know if there’s anything related to racism or not, but I do find that reviews from other countries are great, they did not had to experience paying everything twice, while many Chinese tourists report money loss without timely refunds.
We do sincerely wish that the excuse from Denise is true and he will refund as he promised. Please get us the refund ASAP. If so, the whole trip is a memorable experience with MorningStar.
CN
Shocking Experience with Morning Star - Held at Hotel Due to Unpaid Bills
On the final day of our African safari tour , we experienced an unacceptable situation with Morning Star Travel Agency. At check-out time (8 AM), the hotel staff informed us that Morning Star had never paid for our stay, despite us having paid the full tour amount two weeks before the trip.
After two hours of unsuccessful attempts to contact Morning Star (our agent Alice became mysteriously unreachable), we were forced to pay $4,532 out of pocket for the hotel bill to avoid missing our afternoon flight. This was the second time during our trip that we had to cover Morning Star's unpaid fees, following a $1,600 payment we were forced to make for Masai Mara park entrance fees.
Most concerning facts:
Morning Star had received full payment from us two weeks before the trip
Their agent disappeared when the payment issue arose, only to reappear after we paid
One month has passed with no refund or explanation
I am sharing this to warn others about Morning Star's practices and will continue to pursue this matter until I receive a full refund.
CN
It's really a terrible experience! We feel that we have been cheated !!!
Before our trip to Kenya on September 28th, we had paid the full amount for the tour. However, on the morning of October 5th, the last day of our stay, we were informed by the hotel that Morningstar had not paid them, and therefore we were not allowed to leave. We were forced to stay at the hotel for nearly 2 hours. During this unexpected situation, our contact person Alice completely disappeared and refused to answer our calls and WeChat messages. In order to catch our flight back home, we had to pay nearly $4500 for the hotel fees in advance. But right after we paid, Alice showed up and claimed that she had an emergency and would refund us later. Out of trust in this company, we kept communicating with them actively after returning home. But until today, we haven't received any refund, and the people from this company are full of lies! They said the refund had been sent to us at one moment, and then claimed they needed to confirm the specific details of the expenses with the driver at another moment. They always put off giving us the remittance receipt! We also confirmed with the bank over the phone that we hadn't received any remittance information.
If you don't want to advance payment for a fraudulent company and don't want to be helpless in a foreign country, please don't choose this company. It's really a terrible experience!
A truly unique experience, a perfect trip
We had an amazing trip with Morningstar doing 8 days/7 nights across Kenya.
Prior to the trip Joy was always prompt to reply and provide us with any relevant information. The whole process was very professional and felt well organised before we arrived.
Our guide, Willy, was fantastic - he always seemed to manage to position the vehicle in the right spot for where the animals were going to head. He moved along at our pace and had a knack of sensing when we might have needed a little more or a rest.
We saw every animal we wished to see - all of the big 6, ugly 5, wild dogs and more. Willy’s experience in knowing the regular routed of the animals and their behaviour was invaluable.
We had regular contact from Joy throughout, and Willy was also available on WhatsApp in the lodges when we were out through the week.
The land cruiser was spacious and comfortable, it had sockets to charge cameras/phones and reclining seats for the long drives between parks.
We feel we got fantastic value for money, all of the accommodation was of a high quality. The food throughout was varied and delicious, we never went hungry - my partner is a vegetarian and was well catered for at every hotel, with multiple options.
I wouldn’t hesitate to use morningstar again, and we certainly hope to return to Kenya with them again in the future.
