Field photo setting off for rhino tracking
Karumuna Safaris
- Offices In:
-
Australia
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Member Of:
- Uganda Tourism Board
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $70 to $600 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
CH
Email Daniel Wernli | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Professionell, reliable, safe
I chose the 4 Days Queen Elizabeth NP Safari.
Bookable directly and easily on the Internet, I got quick answers.
Simple and secure payment formalities.
At short notice I had to change the flight, nevertheless reliable pick up in the morning at the airport.
Professionally organized tour; good choice of the accommodation (Kazinga Wilderness Safari Camp).
Kefar was a very nice, friendly, helpful, experienced and customer-oriented driver /guide; sensible and safe driving.
We saw 3 leopards within 24h, lions, elephants, hippos, chimpanzees and black and white colobus during the chimps trekking, and a lot more.
Overall good price / performance ratio.
Absolutely recommendable.
DE
Email Anikó and Martin | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Top organized and safe Uganda safari in Covid-19 times
This is our second time booking this company.
The trip evaluated here took place in Covid-19 times and begins in Germany (Bavaria).
Uganda was not a risk area at the time. There was a general mask requirement. For the entry into Uganda we needed a max. 120h old PCR test on arrival and a yellow fever vaccination and an online visa. For the return journey to Germany (Bavaria) we needed a max. 48h PCR test on arrival and an entry registration. All documents were checked at the departure counters.
Now to the travel report:
We reached Uganda via Entebbe airport. At the exit the director Richard and his head guide Kefar were already waiting for us. After a short briefing we started.
The itinerary was agreed in advance and was also communicated daily in the evening by Kefar for the next day during the tour.
In the following nine days we visited the following national parks as planned:
Murchison Falls
Kibale and his chimpanzees
Queen Elisabeth Kazinga Canal and Ishasha
Bwindi (Buhoma) with his gorillas
Lake Bunyonyi
Richard selected fine and excellent lodges for us throughout the trip.
Our driver and guide Kefar, accompanied by his trainee Isaac, brought us safely and well protected from place to place and showed and explained the wilderness of Uganda.
Kefar was able to competently answer all of our questions about animals, nature, land and people and everything else. Isaac was always involved and eager to learn.
They were always warm, cheerful and incredibly personable.
Overall, the whole tour was well managed and organized, including all admissions and PCR tests. We were always provided with everything.
We thank you for the great trip and gained experience and hope to see us again in the future.
We can warmly recommend Uganda and Karumuna Safaris to everyone.
No word to express my feeling, it was extremely fantastic !!! With excellent tour guide .
It was my first experience to tour Queen Elizabeth National Park. Karumuna safaris, my tour agent made it more wonderful beyond expectations.
Time management and site location was perfect. Good hospitality and professionalism of our tour guide with detailed explanation of the animals and places.
Can't wait to visit other parks with Karumuna safaris.
HU
Email Marta | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great company
Well organized, on time. Everything ran very smoothly.
Email perry roos | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great guys and local operators
Richard was great to deal with from the start and helped plan out our trip from start to finish with all our requests and adjustments.
The accommodations were great and best thing was using local operators in place of overseas investors. Would much rather see our money go to the people and communities.
Price was more than competitive and worth every cent.
Colleb was our guide and Richard even joined us for part of the trip.
Colleb was great from start to finish, just such a nice guy and loved his job.
Would book with these guys again without a question.
Colleb and Richard keep up the great work and hope to see you again soon.
Email Suzanne Evans | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
5 Star Tour Company
I’ve just returned from a fantastic 2 week holiday in Uganda, with Karumuna making it the holiday of a lifetime.
Richard and his Team arranged a fabulous trip for us, with Kefar our guide making sure every day was perfect. His knowledge was amazing, plus he constantly went the extra mile to ensure our stay was amazing.
I can’t thank them enough for making the holiday so special.
Email Bettylee | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Kefer could not have looked after us better and made sure we saw and did everything promised
Every place my daughter and I stayed at provided excellent friendly service and very good vegan meals while Kefer kept us well supplied with water and information at all times. We saw and did all that was offered and as an 80 year old I felt perfectly safe at all times - gorilla and chimp tracking, rafting, canoeing .......
All the accommodation was good, some was excellent but my preference was for the smaller more personal, less luxurious places where we got to know the people.
I would definitely recommend this company for exceptional value, good service and excitement.
CA
Email Ashton | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The itinerary, guide, and accommodations were amazing.
Communication before and during the tour was really good. Richard answered all of my questions before the tour and followed up to see that everything was alright after the tour. The itinerary that Richard suggested was really well organized and included everything I wanted to see and the one accommodation change that I wanted to make. All accommodations were nice and well located. During our travels from one location to the next, Richard made some stops at different sites to show me things along the way. He was a very good and enthusiastic guide and I really enjoyed my tour with him.
DE
Email Aniko | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Awesome
Absolutely awesome, perfect driver, nice accommodation. Love all the gorilla's. Big hug. Anikó
DK
Email Rasmus | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Worst Tour Operator Ever
NEVER PICK THIS TOUR OPERATOR.
We had ordered 11 days round-trip to Uganda. We met with the owner Richard who brought an itinerary and a contract stating that everything we payed for in the trip was based on the itinerary. However, during the trip, half of the nights the accommodation was changed last minute. The worst thing was that the accommodation change was often for the worse, and some nights we stayed in so filthy and bad accommodation we rather wanted to leave and pay for accommodation elsewhere by ourselves. In the trip we had also booked Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale as the big highlight. We arrived in a town near Kibale at around 3 pm the day before the trekking, where the tour operator (Richard) calls us to let us know that we are not able to make the Kibale chimpanzee trekking because he failed to get the permits, THE DAY BEFORE WE HAD TO GO. Additionally, the itinerary stated that lunch and drinking water would be included all days which we rarely got.
Besides these problems, there were a lot of other issues about Richard miscommunication with the driver/guide and confusing us and our guide several times. Richard does not care about his customers, he just wants their money and will thereafter ensure that you have a completely disorganized trip. We managed to get the money back from the chimpanzee trekking permits, but honestly, with all the change in accommodation and all the last minute changes he put us through, he should have compensated us a lot more money for a failed trip in many regards.
If I could, I would NEVER book this tour again and would AT ANY TIME pick another tour operator. Its one of the most stressful trips and dysfunctional tours I have ever been on even though we payed to have all inclusive in order to relax and not mind anything. Even though I go on vacation 4 times a year and have been pretty much everywhere in the world, I have never tried anything like this.
Luckily, the driver and guide Paddy was an extremely polite and nice young man. We had a very nice time with him, and we felt bad for him that he had to endure the constant miscommunication and our anger about the trip due to Richards incompetence.
LASTLY, there we some parts of the itinerary which was completely wrong and falsely stated. One of the days it was stated that you get to the park, go inside (which cost 40 dollars per day per person) and go for safari. This was not the case, and Richard would not pay to let us stay inside the park and go for safari even though he acknowledged that it was wrongly stated on the itinerary, so we ended up paying ourselves.
Lastly but not least, it got so bad at one time we went to the police in order to charge Richard and make him pay some of our money back for the failed experiences. We found out it was a very long process and did not want to spend vacation time on it, but I would wish now that we would have filed a complaint and charged him so he would hopefully learn that you cannot take tourists money and then piss on them afterwards.
I HOPE THAT NO ONE PICKS THIS COMPANY IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A GOOD NICE TIME AND RELAXING SAFARI.
Otherwise, Uganda is a lovely country and the nature and the parks a breathtaking.
Reply from Karumuna Safaris
Posted on Nov 1, 2019Dear Rasmus,
We are sorry to hear that you did not have a good experience on your trip with us.
Please note that you who booked two days to safari which did not provide ample time for us but we were okay with it because we really wanted you to go for it,
Secondly, you made the payment through bank transfer when you were already in the country and it was over the weekend of which the money took one week to be active on the account but we decided to use our own money to start your trip which was starting on Monday and additionally to that we openly told you when we met you at the hotel that it was peak season meaning that we might find some of the lodges fully booked therefore in case of any change in accommodation, be aware and you said you were okay with everything and we kindly explained about chimps permits that "WE HOPEFULLY TO GET THE CHIMPS PERMITS" which failed and later agreed to refund you the money for the permits at the end of your trip which is against our company terms and conditions BUT WE DID IT FOR YOU (WE REFUNDED YOU) as you stated it in the review.
As our other clients testify from the 5 star reviews, we pride ourselves in providing excellent services to all our clients to make their safari experience memorable.
Best regards
Jonah
Admin
Karumuna safaris