Chels Travel & Tours

Go with a more experienced company!

We booked a two-week trip which included both Kenya and Tanzania after having multiple, thoroughly detailed e-mail communications with Beatus. While Kenya was smooth sailing, Tanzania was another story. After picking us from the Namanga border, we get to Lake Manyara only to be told by Beatus and his driver that his park entrance "credit card" has expired and if we wouldn't mind using our personal credit card for the entrance fees to Lake Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro Crater. I was told I would be reimbursed as soon as we reached Arusha. Long story short, didn't get reimbursed until quite literally our last morning in Tanzania and that too was told part of the reimbursement would have to be in Shillings. If you are looking for efficiency, integrity, and professionalism, this is not the company for you. Again no complaints with our Kenyan tour guide, but I felt that Beatus let us down with Tanzania. From a driver that wouldn't stop yelling down on his cell phone for a majority of our day in Serengeti to the poor hotel selection in Arusha, Beatus tried but wasn't quite successful with living up to his promises while booking with his company. Word of advice: while not mentioned anywhere in the email communications, apparently the expectation is that you google each and every hotel/camps he books you from the itinerary because specifying standard accommodation can still lead you to a god awful, mosquito infested hotel room with a piece of ROOF MISSING. And when you have a problem with that, you are told "I sent you the list of hotels with the itinerary. Why didn't you google them?" Gee why? Because I thought that's why I hired you as my tour coordinator!?! Standard accommodations, the last time I checked, involved an entire roof over my room for sure. Yes Beatus got us a better hotel upon our adamant refusal to stay at that place, but the point is that we should have never been put up there. Overall I think they are perhaps too inexperienced to put together a seamless trip but I did appreciate Beatus trying to resolve our issues. At the end though there were just too many issues in my opinion.