Gosheni Safaris Africa

Tour Vehicle Unacceptable

My wife and I arranged our honeymoon through Gosheni Safaris. I had developed the plan for our honeymoon in advance and contacted Gosheni simply to make the arrangements for us for a custom safari. They made reservations for the accommodations per my instructions and everything was fine from that side of things. Our guides were also very good at their jobs and we appreciated their insight and expertise. However, when it came to the vehicle that was assigned to us for our safari, it was far from acceptable. These are a list of issues with the vehicle in which we spent 7-12 hours a day:

no functioning air conditioning
no functioning outlets
broken cooler
musty/moldy smell
rusty and broken seat belts
huge cracks in windshield
broken shock/spring day 3
broken interior handle
exposed broken wires
broken strap for pop up roof
dirty ripped slipcovers

Gosheni claims that its vehicles are new and well maintained. Our vehicle was neither. The odometer on our vehicle read 99242km, and obviously the vehicle was not well maintained due to the issues listed. I will note that every other Gosheni vehicle we saw appeared to be in much better condition, so why we were assigned this vehicle during the low season is beyond me.

I contacted to Gosheni about the vehicle just a couple of days into our safari. They responding continuing to claim that the vehicle was new. I pushed back and asked that we be flown back from Serengeti to Manyara, rather than having to ride in this vehicle for an entire day. Gosheni did arrange this flight for us and paid for it, and the vehicle that met us in Manyara was indeed new and well maintained. However, spending several days of our honeymoon in the vehicle provided was simply unacceptable and not what we expected or paid for when we booked with Gosheni. If you decide to book with Gosheni, please inspect your vehicle before you head off on safari. But, I would suggest you look elsewhere for your safari needs.

As a side note, I should inform everyone that Gosheni pushes guests to pay $20 per day as a standard tip for guides. This is not in line with the other safari organizers in the region, which recommend around $10 per day. Please Google this yourself and do not get bamboozled by Gosheni.