Zanzibar office team ready for your services
Soul of East Africa Safaris (Uhuru Travel)
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2007)
- Member Of:
- TATO, ZATO & ZATI
- Tour Types:
- Small & medium group tours (Mid-range & luxury)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $400 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
SE
Email Magnus Midander | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
5 day safari became 4 days...
We pre-booked a 5 day safari in November 2019 with Uhuru and Mr Abdallah. Good reviews on Tripadvisar and SafariBookings.com together with a fair pricing made us choose this company.
This review is only for the company of Uhuru Travel & Tours Ltd and the owner Mr Abdallah and not for the safari and our guide Zabron which were both great!
We prepaid 60% of $4400 in November and the rest was supposed to be paid 10 days prior safari start. When trying to pay the rest (40% of $4400) the link sent by Mr Abdallah didn't work. I quickly responded and two days later I got a new link which worked and now 100% of the safari was paid. We had a conversation on WhatsApp and Mr Abdallah responded fairly quick that everything was fine and that we should enjoy our safari. When we asked for a pickup time the day before departure he responded "Pick up can be 0730am or 0800am or 0900am."
We waited. At 0747am we sent a message that we were ready for take off and Mr Abdallah responded: "My Opertion manager will arrive there in time." He did not.
5 minutes later he replied: "We have a small problem with credit card payments... please pay $1300 for park fees". " We have cash flow problems".
We responded that we already paid $4400 and did not trust him on paying an extra $1300.
3 hrs later a van came and picked us up and drove us to Mr Abdallahs hotel McEllys in Arusha were we had lunch on his account. That's when we realized that there won't be a 5 day safari. Several hours in the hotel restaurant and no response from Mr Abdallah on WhatsApp made us choose to stay one night at the hotel on his account. He now promised through his local manager Mr Roy to arrange a 4 day safari starting at 10am tomorrow.
Even after we started our now 4 day long safari Mr Abdallah did not communicate with us and we demanded to have some sort of compensation after missing an entire day of safari. It ended up with an upgrade to Acacia Luxury tent worth about $500 but this was not near our expectations of a compensation.
Please be aware of Uhuru Travels & Tours Ltd since their owner Mr Abdallah is not trustworthy nor reliable.
Since Mr Abdallah is replying on many reviews on both Tripadvisor and SafariBookings.com I hope yo understand that we had a horrible experience with him and his company regardless of what he replies.
Our safari ended well with a good view of the big 5 and many many more animals. Our driver and guide Mr Zabron was super!
AR
Email Gabriel | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Uneven service, with great things mixed with defficient aspects
We bought a 3-week package thru Uhuru with my family of 5 (me, my wife, and 3 grown-up children (27-25-23), from December 28th to Jan 17th, 2020. It included 12 days in safaris, and 8 days in Zanzibar. We chose the mid-range option (other being budget & luxury).
Positive side:
1. First, Margaret, our contact person throughout the trip, was there for us 24/7, constantly attentive to our needs, and ready to solve any problem that could arise. It was great to have her reachable in Whatsapp at all times!
2. The organizational part was impeccable, everybody was waiting for us in the right places, at the right times, rooms ready in hotels, guides and drivers ready to take us where we were going.
3. All the lodges in the safari part of the trip, also great, meeting or exceeding our expectations!
4. Having a vehicle and a guide/driver exclusively for ourselves the entire trip was also great.
5. The guides: superb! Perfect I’d say for Charles in Kenya, and very good Godwin in Tanzania. They of top importance, you get to spend most of your day with them.
On the Negative side:
6. Major problem: the vehicles! Transport in safaris are 50% of the experience. In a trip like this, we spent 8-12 hours a day on the transport, either as a game drive or in between Parks (several of the game drives were planned to occur during our inter-park trips, with all our luggage inside the vehicle, and it cannot be done in any other way). And we were 5 adults with luggage for 3 weeks. The quality of what we got was absolutely terrible, not up to standards. And that after much complaining from our part, Uhuru refused to change the vehicle, is really incomprehensible. It ruined our experience. In every lodge, every park entrance, every stop to watch animals, where we saw other tour vehicles, ours was by far the oldest, most decrepit, and overcrowded of all! I happened to read on several Safari.com reviews that other passengers also complained in the past about the same issue with Uhuru, and also read in disbelief that management from Uhuru replied that Uhuru assigns the small Jeeps for up to 4 passengers, and the extended Jeep for up to 6, and we were 5 adults and Uhuru had us crammed in a small Jeep for 8 days (the Tanzania part)!!! So Uhuru did not even respected its own established standards. It is really lamentable, this was meant to be the trip of our life, but it gave us reasons to complain every day we had to endure such bad mini bus/Jeep. On top of that, since the conditions of the roads are so bad, the famous "African Massage" turned out to be torture for us due to the bad conditions of these very old vehicles. Advise to future travellers: find a way to know ahead what kind of vehicles you will be given during the safaris!
7. As compensation, Uhuru offered a free half-day tour in Zanzibar (we chose snorkeling in Nmemba Island). Although this was a nice gesture: 1) it was not nearly enough to compensate the problems we had during the safaris, and 2) the tour itself was bad, the service was mediocre, and the facilities at the point of departure of the boat were just terrible. I’d strongly suggest Uhuru to not use those guys anymore.
7. Airport hotel at arrival: 67 Airport Hotel at Nairobi was horrible, and in a terrible location! My daughters arrived at night and were so scared when they saw their airport transfer entering the streets where the hotel is, it is like a slum. And the arrival hotel is the first impression one has of the whole trip, the country, and the tour company. It is at least three levels below the quality of the safari lodges. It is clearly not “mid-range” level that we chose for the whole trip, and I’d say it does not even qualifies for “budget”.
8. Nungwi Nmanari Cottages in Zanzibar: the hotel is OK, I’d say more budget than mid range, but acceptable in terms of rooms, services and general facilities. But it is on the wrong side of the island!!! It has no beach!! We spent 6 nights on a tropical paradise island in a hotel with no beach. High tide: no beach, low tide: the sea retreats to 800 meters away, and impossible to get to because there are stones, coral, and see urchins. We could not believe it when we went to the other side (just a 10’ taxi ride away) where a lot of other hotels are, and saw such beautiful beaches, enjoyable in both low and high tide. My son and daughters, who love the beach, complained day and night, and I felt that I let them down organizing this trip in such a way that didn’t let them enjoy Zanzibar’s world famous beaches
Reply from Soul of East Africa Safaris (Uhuru Travel)
Posted on Jan 27, 2020Thanks for your great reviews its always a pleasure to have positive and negative side of the review. We shall work on all the points. Hotels will change them for better ones and Jeep we will make sure with the clients before their safari. Since Mr. Gabriel was assigned with Min-Van in Kenya for 6 Seats and Tanzania Jeep 6 Seats but they had many luggage about 7 pieces with back packs! Was to much to be accommodated in the Min-Van or Jeep. Luggage consumes a lot of space in the Cars. Its has been a great challenge with many clients paid for normal size Jeep of 6 seats requesting for Extended Jeep for 8 seats in the middle of the safari while they are only 4 or 5 due to their many luggage in the cars. Better bring one luggage and one back pack each at least will fit well in the Safari Car. No space for too many luggage. We promise to deliver smooth and good services to all our clients. Uhuru Travel Team.
CH
Email Andreas swiss | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great safari adventure
Perfect Organisation, very nice and helpful staff. Safari was very good guided and experienced!
PT
Email Ana | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A wonderful experience in the nature - Selous Safari Game
Before going on a family vacation, we contacted Uhuru Travel and other companies to help us with our trip.
As we had never been in Tanzania and we were a group of 13, with 6 children’s, we needed someone to help us with our travels, visits and suggestions.
Having chosen Uhuru was the best decision we could have made, since in addition to everything going as planned, Margaret, the person directly involved with the organization, handled everything with extra sympathy, politeness and good will, realizing our intentions at every moment.
They integrated all my preferences and needs to the itinerary while using their own experience in the field to design a trip of my dreams.
A 5 Star company and specially a 6 star to Margaret that was unstoppable, always trying to give us the best options to our trip!
We would recommend Uhuru Travel to anyone wanting to have a wonderful safari experience in Tanzania!
Also could not forget our guides during the Safari, Yoda and were fantastic!! Great attitude, and very knowledgeable about the animals and behaviour and finding the good spots to see them.
They were unwearying and we could almost with the 'game'!!! ;-)
We just had an amazing time. A trip not to forget!
Ana from Portugal
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Email Sharon | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
TERRIBLE GUIDE
We started out with a great guide, George, bu the jeep broke down so we wasted a day waiting for the jeep to be fixed. The guide stayed with the jeep and we got a new guide. The new guide didn't tell us anything about what we were looking for, he didn't communicate with us, speak English, and was generally just kind of a jerk. It was exceptionally disappointing for the 4 day safari. Maybe Uhuru is fine but I hope they never use Jonas as a guide again or make sure you don't end up with Jonas.
US
Email Yuri Awanohara | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Best safari experience!
Everything was perfect on our 9 day trip. We spent 3 nights in Selous, 3 nights in Ruaha, and 2 nights in zanzibar. The transfers were perfect, easy communication, excellent understanding of what we wanted from our trip, great accommodation and food and most importantly, our driver guide who works for Uhuru who took us from Dar to Selous (Nestor) was one of the best guides I have ever met in my extensive worldwide travels. I firmly believe that you will not find a better deal elsewhere for what Uhuru offers. Memorable trip with so many mind blowing moments. Thank you so much!
DE
Email Louisa&David | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Easy communication and perfectly organized safari trip.
We booked a three day/two nights fly-in safari trip for two persons to Ruaha National Park through Uhuru Travel & Tours and can absolutely recommend their services.
From the day of the booking until our departure from Tanzania the communication was very easy and perfect. We requested a proposal, which we then received via email. Thereafter all further communication was via WhatsApp with Margaret of Uhuru Travel & Tours. She was extremely responsive and replied to all questions within hours (including weekend days). Payments were made by credit card in advance - all easy and uncomplicated.
A driver picked us up at our accommodation in Stone Town and dropped us at the airport in Zanzibar. Flights with Coastal (all organized by Uhuru Travel & Tours) via Dar es Salaam to Ruaha were on time and luggage was taken care of at all airports. Upon arrival at the national park we were picked up by a driver and guide from Mdonya Old River Camp and directly taken on a game drive in the national park. Accommodation in the camp was an amazing experience, guide and driver as well as staff in the camp were extremely knowledgeable and very friendly. Food was great. Drop off at the air strip after one last morning game drive and return flight to Dar es Salaam were again well organized and on time.
Mixed feelings about Safari in the rain season (of course our own decision). On the one hand it was amazing to see Ruaha very green; on the other hand very difficult to spot animals, because of bushes and trees and had some rain showers every now and then. Driver and guide still made amazing effort to show us as many animals as possible and we enjoyed every bit of it.
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Email Blake Diers | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
3 years in the making! Worth the wait!
My girlfriend and I visited South Africa 4 years ago and immediately fell in love with the animals on Safari. We started planning another Safari for Tanzania but we couldn't find a Safari that met our budget and expectations. Over the course of three years, I searched and searched and finally found UHURU Travel & Tours. Their travel agents got creative and were able to put together the exact tour we wanted, that was within our budget. Communication was professional and timely and I really felt that they were working with me to make this vacation happen. On Safari we had an incredible guide - Mack. He was friendly, knowledgeable, funny, engaging and an overall delight to spend the week with. Our hotels/tents were clean. The staff at each accommodation was amazing and the food exceeded all expectations. UHURU provided the best vacation possible and I can't thank their staff enough for making a bucket list trip come together flawlessly.
CL
Email Maria | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
More than expected!
Booked all Tanzania’s tour with them. Margaret gave me a lot of support on everything and very easy to get in touch with her (via whatsapp or email), always available for answer all my doubts (at any day/time!) and not just those referring to my tours, but for everything i need to know before and during i was in Tanzania. She was always online to check on me and gave me different options and comments on what to do. She also arrange all my transfer for any place i need to go. For Zanzibar i booked: Safari blue tour and Stone Town / Prison Island: i had a guide just for me, dedicated to take me around the mention places, explaining everything and answer all my questions. For Safari Blue tour, excellent service and tour!! Both of them a MUST if you are in Zanzibar. For Serengeti, i booked a 7 days/6 nights tour. Just wonderful! There were always on time for pick up, great box lunches during the game drives and always willing to solve doubts and help. Much more than expected, for sure!!
CH
Email Meret | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing safari off-the-beaten tracks
Are you looking for a safari where you are not surrounded by ten or more other cars while observing the lions feasting on a kudu? Then you should definitely try out Ruaha National Park!
We stayed at the Mdonya Old River Tented Camp, a wonderful oasis tens of kilometers away from any other camp with roaring lions in the bush when you fall asleep at night and a herd of impalas in front of the tent when you wake up in the morning. The tented camp is beautifully located and the tents are spotless clean, with a lovely bathroom attached, comfy beds and fluffy blankets and bath towels. Beside this well maintained infrastructure, the staff make this camp a place of relaxation and pure bliss you don't want to leave. After having been in several National Parks and lodges over the last three years, I would definitely recommend Mdonya Old River Camp to anyone who looks for an off-the-beaten tracks experience.
Uhuru Travel organized this safari, picked us up at home and dropped us back at the end - all highly professionally done and extremely smooth for us (Uhuru Travels seems to work with Swiss watches!). Communicating with Uhuru Travel was easy and whenever any question before leaving we got instant replies.