Marvel in the majestic Serengeti!
Seven Wonders Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2011)
- Member Of:
- TTB & TLTO
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $160 to $550 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
ES
Email Daniel | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bad experience. We feel abandoned and unprotected by this company.
Terrible experience! I went with my family to try to see the great migration and thanks to local guides and not our driver we found it but our driver Linos refused to go. First, he asks us for money and they didn't say anything in the company, which we refused, then he began to speak violently and kept us standing for two hours.
When we got internet we called 7 wonders and they informed us that for the 3 hours we had already lost we should book another hotel in the area where the great migration was and pay 2 taxes from the natural parks.
We agreed to pay, we reserved the hotel on our own and when we said to go, the driver Linos refused again, demanding payment in cash. We call 7 Wonders again and they tell us that we must pay in cash.
We take out all the money we have in cash and we are missing 160 USD to reach the amount of 1050 USD that they ask us to pay the park taxes and we inform them that when we go through an ATM we will pay them the amount that is missing.
It is at this time that the situation becomes totally surreal. The driver Linos calls the company and makes up a story that we have insulted him and that he is not going to take us to the area of the great migration where we had already reserved and paid for a hotel minutes before. We called the company and he told us, to our surprise, that we had offended his driver and that the new plan was cancelling.
I insist, at no time did anyone say anything offensive to the driver Linos.
We missed the chance to see the great migration.
We lost 662 USD from the hotel we had booked.
We had to put up with another day and a half with this driver and his derogatory comments about what he called our white money.
We had to see Ngorongoro with a negative environment and with 0 explanations.
We had three car breakdowns along the way.
Tanzania is beautiful. There are many Safari companies.
I think that in our case, perhaps more than being a problem with 7 Wonders, it was a manipulation and attitude of the driver.
He wanted to share the experience because no one should go through the situation that we live.
Reply from Seven Wonders Safaris
Posted on Jul 19, 2023Dear Daniel,
We would like to thank you for your feedback regarding your experience with us during your trip to Tanzania.
We are sad to hear that it turned out as disappointment as this was not really our intention as our aim is to offer good service to all our guests regardless.
Just to share our side of story, you have booked 4 Day safari which was supposed to take you to Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro, with one overnight to each park. You started with Lake Manyara and everything went just fine, the problem started on the third day in Serengeti where you were supposed to do half game drive then drive to Ngorongoro for an overnight.
In the morning of that day you asked your guide to drive you to where the migration is which was a bit far from where you were on that day and your guide explained to you that it will not be possible to drive there and get to Ngorongoro before dark as we are not supposed to drive guests around during dark.
The misunderstanding occurred and your guide decided to call the office so that we can explain to you and the office elaborate to you what will be possible by that time. So you were advised to spend another night in Serengeti at your own costs given that it was a last minute changes and there was nothing to do to get any refund from Ngorongoro accommodation, and agreed with that and we advised you to contact your accommodation as that is where you were staying and you already had a direct contact with them and see if they will be able to accommodate you and pay them directly, something which you did.
So the other charges was for the extra charges as park fee and concession fee to overnight Serengeti on that second night, we gave you all calculations and you said you can pay right away. After 15 minutes you told your guide you have no problem to pay but you prefer to do it in Arusha and it wasn't really $ 60 as you claimed on your feedback.
Your guide informed the office again and we told you that is what you suppose to do immediately for you to have a second night in Serengeti and the park cannot wait until your return in Arusha, that is where everything went wrong as you were not willing to pay this extra.
We understand you were really eager to see the migration and we have tried our level best to assist you, but since you were not willing to cover the extra cost then it became hard and beyond our control as your time was not enough and of course the program you had was not really for migration during July, August and September.
Before your arrival in Tanzania our colleague explained to your Agent of where the migration will be during your visit, but you insisted that you know exactly where they are as you have been tracing them and we should change your accommodation from Northern part to Kirawira.
For the time wasted in Serengeti, it is because we were trying to find solution and wait for you to confirm with your accommodation in-order for your guide to know where to go as you completely disrupted your program for that day.
Before this review was submitted, you contacted our office through WhatApp and you were in contact with our Manager and you requested $ 1,500 as refund for the bad experience and when we were working on it we just saw your review with different stories of what you were claiming on WhatsApp.
On behalf of our Company we really like to apologize about the behavior of our guide during this trip and about the breakdown which sometimes can happen because of the conditions of our roads, we will work on all this to do better in the future.
CA
Email Ailsa | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Do not book with this company
Do not book a tour with Seven Wonders in Arusha. In all of my travels, it was the worst experience I’ve ever had. This is not just a post about a bad tour company, this is a safety warning to all travellers – please do not use this company.
My boyfriend and I booked a safari to the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater for 3 days and 2 nights. Our cook was great, but our guide was awful. We shared the safari truck with two lovely French ladies, and we were all told that the guide spoke both French and English – but he didn’t speak either (other than a few basic phrases), which made communication very difficult.
He couldn’t tell time, and kept telling us to get up for breakfast at 2:00 am (which we actually did the first morning!). He was very disorganized and always late, which decreased the amount of time we got to spend each day in the national parks. We had to set-up and take down his tent each morning to try and speed up our departure time, as he didn’t know how to. He didn’t spot one single animal our entire trip! And when we spotted them he would drive past more than half of them. And on our second day when I spotted a leopard, and we requested to park for a better view, he kept driving and said that we had to go home for lunch, yet proceeded to stop for antelope!!! We’re not usually picky with driving, but he was honestly very unsafe and came close to hitting walls, trees and animals on the road on multiple occasions. He was always on his phone in the truck, and when he wasn’t talking on it he was taking creepy pictures of the young French girl (trying to disguise them as selfies). He made the experience so bad that it brought the French ladies in our truck to tears - they called Seven Wonders several times to complain and to try and get a replacement guide, but the manager of Seven Wonders yelled at them over the phone and called them “liars” and refused to compensate them in any way.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, on our last day we were scheduled to visit the Ngorongoro Crater. Our guide had forgotten to pay our tickets for entry the night before, so we were late entering and late leaving the park. Our guide on exiting the inner gate of the crater told us that we had to pay a $70 USD fee per person for exceeding our permit time. We explained to the ranger that it was our guide’s fault because we arrived late, and the guide lied and said that we had threatened to fight him in the truck (3 small girls and 1 guy vs. 2 grown men!), and that we had made him stay late. When we tried to exit the last gate of the park in a taxi, we were detained because the fee had not been paid. The head park ranger agreed that Seven Wonders should pay the fee, and he arranged over the phone with the manager the he should mobile transfer the money. He never did, and as a result we were kept at the gate until after dark before being allowed to finally leave at 8:30 pm (after waiting for 5 ½ hours).
The next day, we were approached at our hotel in Arusha by the manager of Seven Wonders, along with a group of 5 other men. He told us we needed to pay him the $140 USD. We tried to calmly reason with him, but he was simply aggressive and rude, and accused us of lying. They wouldn’t leave, and harassed us until we asked for the police to be called. The police warned us that these men were dangerous, and that they believed that if we didn’t give them what they wanted they were going to hurt us. The police were unable to charge them unless they did first harm us, so we filed a police report and had to be driven to a hotel outside of town where we were safe.
Please be warned – these are bad people. Do yourself a favour, there are many other tour companies you can choose from.
FR
Email Guinevere | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
So disappointed for this special trip, very bad organisation of 7 wonders
Hello, we did a 1 day safari to the ngorongoro crater. Everything went wrong (excepting that the car was ok)...we were supposted to be 4 and leave at 6am but the night before, we learnt we were 6, ok why not. And then a few ours later, before going to bed, we learnt we would have breakfast at 8:30 because we had to wait for another 2. I was upset because everyone knows you have to leave early so you see the animals active while it is not too hot. And by the way, all the other groups left at 6...Impossible to discuss...we would leave the Park at 5pm to 'earn those ours back'. The next day, we were still waiting for breakfast at 8:30 so the whole group was complaining! In the end we left at 9:30, arrived at the gate at 10. We were into the crater at 10:30 and went out at 15:30 because the driver did not want to arrive too late in Arusha. I was really trying to stay calm, we spent so much money on this day we dreamt about for so long...about that, in discussion with the others, we learnt that some of us paid 150$ each, others 350$ (we were in between)...they also forgot the water so we had no water and I got very sick that night (was it the food?). And to finish with, the driver only stopped when we asked him to... Please read these reviews before going with them, I wish I had done it...