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Sunrise Eco-Tours
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2007)
- Member Of:
- Rwanda Tours & Travel Association
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
-
KERWTZUG
- Price Range:
- $100 to $800 ppper person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Eric | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The worst holiday experience of my life
Before reading this please place 'Sunrise Eco Tours - Uganda tripadvisor' in search and read the review posted by Lauren V dated 19/1/16 on the Tripadvisor site....
I have waited until now before posting a review in the vain hope the owner of Sunrise EcoTours, Clement Kanamugire, may turn out to be an honourable and decent man and pay back what he owes. How wrong can you be!
To describe how this man acts - when emailing about compensation, he wanted me to forget the cost of the Gorilla permits, as, in his words the loan made to the tour leader had nothing to do with Sunrise Eco Tours and they had no knowledge of such a transaction. When i said this would mean he would have to pay the $750 back that had already been paid for the permits by each of the 5 people on the tour, (and that we would then send the money to the poor guy that loaned the money for us to attend the trek), he simply refused to reply.
To my knowledge he owes money to the 5 people on the tour described by Lauren above, the Australian couple who have had their tour cancelled, Kavos, the man that lent our guide the money for the Gorilla permits and also a travel agency which he should have paid commission to
Please please please do not book with this company.
Avoid them
This company (Clement in particular) are thieves in my opinion. They cancelled our holiday at the last minute at Xmas time and are still yet to refund me over $11,500 (AUS) They as previous writers have said can not be trusted at all.
My name is Steve. Follow the comments on Trip adviser for more terrible experiences with them.
Email Simon - UK | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
A Terrible Experience ... Sunrise Eco-Tours
We booked and paid for a bespoke Ugandan Safari with Sunrise Eco-Tours scheduled to depart in February 2016. Initially communication with the company was good but as the departure date approached it became very difficult to contact company representatives.
In January 2016 we were advised by a third party that Sunrise Eco-Tours was experiencing "operational difficulties" and social media reports started to appear stating how clients already on tours organised by the company were being asked to pay again for activities, such as gorilla trekking, as well as hotel bills that they had already paid for.
At this point, just weeks before our tour was to commence, communication with Sunrise Eco-Tours became extremely difficult and the company owner, Clement Kanamuguire, when telephoned just terminated the call or stated that he was busy and could not respond to any questions.
We then took it upon ourselves to call the respective hotels, lodges and guest houses in Uganda that we were supposed to be staying at only to discover that there were no reservations for us. We had been emailed previously by Sunrise Eco-Tours to confirm that all our accommodation had been booked. At this point we asked the company for documentation to show that our gorilla trekking permits and our chimpanzee trekking permits had been booked and confirmed. We also asked for an explanation as to why we had been lied to regarding our accommodation bookings. Unfortunately Sunrise Eco-Tours refused to communicate with us and did not provide documentation or explanations.
It was at this point we asked Sunrise Eco-Tours for a full refund of all monies, many thousands of pounds, paid to them as their "operational difficulties" had lead to a breach of contract. They were unable to provide the safari we had paid for.
When it became clear that Sunrise Eco-Tours had no intention of honouring the contract and providing the safari our travel agent, Responsible Travel, identified another company who agreed to create a similar safari for us with only two weeks to go before we were scheduled to depart for Uganda. Sandfield Travel "pulled out all the stops" and managed to arrange transport and guides, book hotels as well as obtain the necessary trekking permits prior to our departure. Communication with them was excellent and the subsequent safari exceeded our expectations
We cannot speak to highly of Rosy at Responsible Travel and Wycliffe at Sandfield Travel ... and would recommend you speak to them rather than engage with Sunrise Eco-Tours.
To date there has been no further communication from Sunrise Eco-Tours in spite of numerous emails and telephone calls. There has been no refund of the any monies paid to them. Caveat emptor!! We certainly learnt a very expensive lesson.
Email Sharon Hart | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awful experience, use this company at your peril.
I was on the same tour as Eric, so there is little I can add, simply reinforce the truth of what Eric has written. I have never had such a stressful holiday in my life...
I have never been in the position before where I felt it was necessary to contact my Embassy (Irish). Frances, from the Embassy was very helpful; sourcing flight information - the day before we were due to leave Uganda – as Clement had not sent us any details. We did not receive flight confirmation info from Clement until 00:30 the day of our flight. This added additional stress to an already very stressful trip. Sunrise Eco Tours is an extremely badly organised company with an owner, Clement Kanamugire, who has no qualms about lying to his customers, and taking their money under false pretences. Various members of our group spoke to him on the phone during the trip (this is why we are sure of the lies), and he took our money and didn’t book activities, chimpanzee trek in Uganda, rhino sanctuary visit, failure to pay hotel bills. He did ofer compensation on our return home (nearly two months ago), to date, this has not arrived.
Average User Rating
Rating Breakdown
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- 1 star 4
Disclaimer
- All corporate and/or tour info is provided by Sunrise Eco-Tours, not SafariBookings