The team
Karibu Safaris In Kenya
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 1986)
- Member Of:
- KATO, Tourism Regulatory Authority & Eco Toursm Kenya
- Tour Types:
- Small & medium group tours (Mid-range & luxury)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $80 to $280 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Ruhul | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome 6 day safari
Me and my wife have just returned from our safari trip. It was a wonderful experience and John, the driver guide made it more exciting and memorable for us, thanks to john's eagerness and expertise he put in during the tour and game drives. Definately would recommend this tour company to anyone wishing to have a fantastic safari trip. John was very knowledgeable, had a great sense of humour and made the safari more enjoyable. There was once when he drove for 14 hours travelling from lake nakuru- nairobi and then to amboselli, yet he engaged with us effectively and and did not show any tiredness or fatigue.
In comparison with other tour guides seen during the game drives, john was very proactive and took us close to the animals, whilst maintaining safety. Can't thank you guys enough especially John (driver guide)!!!!
RU
Email Maksim | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exellent experience!
Thanks much to Robert (advisor) and our just perfect gide Tom, who drives us all the trip!!!
We'v got our BIG5!!!
It was Masai Mara + Nakuru lake joining group.
Just great, no words - emotions only!!! Thanks alot again!
QA
Email Robert Davis | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A tour to remember
My tour was amazing (and I’m not always using this term like some American guys), especially because of the driver! It was a pleasure to spend time with him! If you are traveling alone, such a trip is an opportunity to meet new friends from all around the world!
US
Email Latoya Henry | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Day Trip In Nairobi City
My fiance and I recently returned from a trip to Kenya. We booked a day tour of
Nairobi with Karibu safaris and it was one of the best days we had during our trip!
Martin met us at our hotel in the morning and drove us around all day in a very
comfortable van. We found him to be very friendly, professional, and knowledgable
about the Nairobi area!,the wildlife, geography, history, languages, and then
political and economic climate in Kenya. We were really impressed with his
knowledge. we saw much in one day baby elephant orphange, giraffe center, karen
blixen museum and visit to the kiambethu tea farm.
US
Email Tom Levine | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Two days trip to see chimps at sweetwater
While traveling to kenya for volunteer project, we decided to take a short safari with my friends.they were able to give me many options within the budget w had set aside. we
decided on the Safari of 2days 1night to sweetwaters/ol pajeta. An amazing,unforgettable experience!
Wonderful Kenya Safari Experience
We are an expatriate family living and working in Uganda.We were referred by a friend who had used this company. We booked a private tour just for the two of us to Samburu, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli. We were given a reasonable deal and our designated driver guide went out of the way to make sure we were happy. The company also planned a surprise birthday gift at our lodge in Samburu. The entire safari was professionallly organised and executed. We recommend this company to any potential Kenya safari seeker.
Awesome Safari
My friend and I traveled to Africa in july. We spent about two
weeks exploring Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar with tours we booked through Karibu Safaris. Amazing experience, amazing trip, and the customer service was top notch --- always responsive, always informative, and just plain nice people who made the process extremely easy! We had no problems at all. No complaints at all about the trip or the booking experience through Karibu Safaris . We would DEFINITELY use them again!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great Safari, fantastic guide!
We were really satisfied with our tour with Karibu Safaris. From the prompt communication upfront to the pick up service from the bus station, even after the bus was an hour late, they were ready and waiting. The accomodation was great value as well and all meals ensured we were well fed. The Masai Mara add on was also good value.
About the tour itself, it was magnificent & extremely well run! Our guide John was amazing, he always kept us up to date with what was happening. He was flexible and his communication & team work with fellow drivers on the radio, whilst on safari was extremely impressive, as it ensured we saw every animal possible. If you have ever spent a decent amount of time in Africa you will know as a general rule service standards aren't high in western terms(although they are improving). However, at Karibu, I can safely say that their service was fantastic! And try to ensure you get John to be your guide as he is a very knowledgeable and hard working guide, one of the best we have had in all of the safaris we have done in Africa!
Email stelio | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
missold package
We have missold a Safari Package, we took the Kenya and Tanzania package as advertised on their website and we paid $1700 per person for 10 nights.
First of all Karibu Safari is not licensed to operate in Kenya, so basically they took us to the border, put us on a transfer and gave us to a different agency... very different from what we had paid for and we were expecting
Karibu Safari and Robert demonstrated their incompetence from the information stage until the organization stage of our trip.
More specifically we experienced the following issues:
1) they sold us a package with max 6 people in the van and for 4 days there were 7 people in the car
2) WIFI at lodges and hotels, Robert told us that there was WIFI at the lodges and hotel in Kenya but there was not WIFI in any of the lodges in Kenya & Tanzania, the quality of the lodges and the services offered was ridiculous, we spoke with other travelers and our lodges were the cheapest and the worst ones that you can find...
3) Waiting time, on the way from masai mara to lake nakuru, we have to wait 3 hours in the middle of the road for an other car to change passengers and due to this inconvenient we lost our night game drive to lake nakuru
4) Lake nakuru to Amboseli trip: they told us that was 4 hours driving when it took more than 10 hours due to the fact that we have to go to Nairobi to pick an other tourist and got stuck in the traffic
5)Passing from Kenya to Tanzania, we had to wait 4 hours, the transfer that Karibu arranged for us did not have valid documents to pass the border, as a result of it a group of 14 people spent 4 hours with 40 degrees waiting.... a taxy would have costed $30 and would have avoided our group of 4 people waiting 4 hours.
The result of this 4 hours waiting time was the shift of lake manyara and the cancellation of our night at ngorongoro camp, again this is not what we have paid for and with a little bit of care and attention should have been avoided, we were not paying the price for a budget safari and there are not excuses for this lack of organization, an agency who arrange a crossborder transfer with a car who has not documents should be closed straight away....
6) We were in the group with Tanya (you can read the other 1 star review) and we agree with everything that she said, Karibu staff was just rude and careless promising things that they were not willing to do just looking how to get few more dollars...
I really cannot believe that the 5 stars review are genuine, personally we had a terrible experience and the worst element was the discussion with Robert and the other Karibu staff who wanted to be right and cannot accept the evidence, after several discussion they apologized and they refused to offer a compensation for all the inconvenience that we suffered.
Robert and his staff think that the fact that they have not left us in the middle of the road is a success, they have no idea of what it means customer service and they think that tourists are just chicken to get money out of it, they cannot understand customer need and if they only wanted to, they could have offered a much better service making customers happy and giving value for the money spent
Reply from Karibu Safaris In Kenya
Posted on Jul 31, 2015Karibu Safaris is licensed operator in Kenya(Anybody in doubt we can email them the certificate offered to us my the ministry of tourism).
There was a recently new accord signed by both Kenya and Tanzania that no operator shall be allowed to operate in another country even there vehicles should not pass the border point hence work in partners as agents from both countries.
You and Diana(traveled as a couple) you have posted 2 similar reviews, so we have responded to her review page.
Sorry for the bad experience you had while on safari,as much as it has tainted a bad picture it has made us also change the way we operate group joining safari for the better and nothing like this will ever happen in the future.
DIRECTOR
Msafiri
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Miss sold safari package, asked for a refund and never got even an apology. Total rip off
1) Number of passengers in the cars, we have agreed for MAX 6 passenger and for several days there were 7 people in the car making the game drive very uncomfortable since there is no space for everybody to view from the roof.
2) Road Trip from Masai Mara until Nakuru
We and other 4 clients has to wait for 3 hours at the restaurant for a connecting van/safari group (coming from the same place!!!).
This delay meant that we were not able to have the evening game drive in Nakuru as per schedule
3) Road trip from Naroku until Amboseli
We passed to Nairobi to pick the chef and an other passenger instead than going directly to Amboseli, we found a lot of traffic to get in and out from Nairobi and this deviation made our travel longer of probably 2-3 hours and made our travel even longer, obviously we missed the evening game drive as advertised on the schedule
4) road trip from Amboseli until Arusha
the arrangement of this trip was just unbelieveble, we waited for 4 hours at the border with two other spanish tourist due to your arrangement (travel in a 15 pax) as we first had to get our visas (10am) wait for the shuttle (12am) and wait for another three hours for the other 15 people and one BUS!! to get their docs. As a result, we had lunch at 4pm and missed our afternoon game drive in Navaisha (arrived when it closed 6pm).
The result of this delay was the cancellation of the evening game drive to lake Manyara and the change of schedule for the rest of the trip in Tanzania
5) Lodges advertised, you advertised on your schedule Mara sidai camp and we stayed in a different one (Lenchada), without internet (as advertised and a very low quality) None of the lodges have internet in the contrary of what you told us.
6) Advertising a cross country package that you cannot offer, your company is cleraly not registred and authorized for doing business in Tanzania, and therefore you cannot sell a package without saying that it would be provided by a different company (Aruexpeditions).
Reply from Karibu Safaris In Kenya
Posted on Jul 31, 20151) Honestly the 7th person joined you while you were heading Amboseli(Tanya) she also wrote a review other wise in masai mara you were 3pax nakuru you were 6pax.
2) We are sorry for the delay,the delay was caused by another safari company car broke down and we could not watch there clients suffer and at the end of the day all us are promoting kenya as a travel destination you arrive lake nakuru late but we compensated for you game drive on the next day before departing to Amboseli.
3) From Masai mara to Amboseli you have to pass Nairobi no other option what cause the heavy traffic jam was the heavy commercial truck driver blocked the highway and were on a go slow because of police harassment.,but we take the blame for that.
4)For the border crossing after you borded the shuttle(the shuttle was not ours it a P.S.V-Rainbow shuttle) the immigration detained it for a while because they had fogot to carry the original log book thats where the delay was making you arrive lake manyara late and not sleep in the park but outside because the park get closed at by 6pm.
5)In the program we sent to you via email we never mentioned Mara Sidai but Lenchada check your emails well...just check in internet you will see mara sidai reviews and lenchada reviews and the facilities it self you can compare the difference,as a tour operator we visit there every weekend for inspection, I think you were corresponding with another operator that offered mara sidai making the booking with us that why you say we offered that..
6) The was a new law that no Kenyan tourist vehicle can enter Tanzania and no Tanzania tourist vehicle can enter kenya even at the airports so we have to work with agents this was to create equality and no company has permit to operate in both countries we have to use agents/partners.
Kindy also reply with where you stated in the email that you wanted refund...honestly its not good to paint a bad picture, we apologized and explained what happened on email correspondence with stelio( your travel companion)
Director
Msafiri