The team
African Breeze Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2011)
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $500 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Lily | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
If you want a budget safari, this is definitely a budget safari.
Tour itinerary looked great and Cate was very friendly, but she neglected to tell us that the total payment for the tour was due on Day 1. This resulted in some scrambling to withdraw cash from an ATM but we were limited by ATM withdrawal limits. There was no option to pay online with paypal or with credit card! Finally at the end of the tour Cate had told or driver a different amount than what I truly owed (a $10 USD difference) and also told the driver that was should pay him extra for dropping us off where we were staying in Nairobi even though this was included on the itinerary (in addition to a regular tip).
Our itinerary told us to be picked up at George's Cafe at noon, by 12:30 we were still waiting and called Cate. Cate had apparently (forgotten?!) to call a driver and our driver finally showed up at 2:00pm with no clue about what our itinerary was. To his credit, he was able to take one look at our itinerary and then figure out what hotels he wanted to take us to. There were a lot of extra costs that were not described in the itinerary unfortunately. I ultimately didn't mind paying, but if a boat ride was listed on the itinerary I would have appreciated knowing that it would cost me $100 in cash. While the extra expenses were no big deal, a heads up would have been nice, unexpected expenses can be frustrating.
Our tour driver, Johnny, was friendly but apparently lies to KWS to try and get resident rates for non-residents (this was from a story he told us making fun of the stupid white people who "forgot" they were supposed to be going by fake names). This was disheartening to hear about because this is a big loss of money to wildlife conservation. I'm a resident and my traveling partner was not and luckily Johnny did not try to lie to get resident rates for her. It was a slightly odd interaction.
The hotels we stayed in were clean with excellent food but no hot water in any of them unfortunately. Johnny seemed to have a poor understanding of when meal times should be and how often people need to eat because lunch was at 4pm on Day 2 (he seemed to think we could skip it?!). He also tried to skip lunch on another day right before a long hike (who skips lunch before a long hike?!). He often told us dinner couldn't be ordered before 7:30 (resulting in multiple meals at 8:30 PM!) but the kitchens seemed to be open and working as early as 6 because there was always waitstaff ready to take our order when we arrived. He also often ate with us, which I normally wouldn't mind, but he would order too much food for us (even when we told him we couldn't eat that much) and then guilt us with cultural values if we didn't clean our plates. He subsequently also couldn't clean his plate, but would then offer up some excuse about the food being bad. Overall a bit odd.
Johnny was also getting a bit old and in failing health (coughing and wheezing which made us a bit uncomfortable) and it was clear by his driving sometimes that his eyesight is no longer the greatest. There were a few speed bumps he missed slowing down for and game driving in parks is not his forte! I spotted the rhinos and lions we saw and he stopped at a buffalo once thinking it was a rhino. He also bragged that he would find us a leopard but never did. (I've seen leopards before but the boasting was strange). In general our driver was friendly, but nothing like the kind of service I've had on other budget safaris.
We stopped at multiple curio shops and they are usually expensive, but I've never had someone try to sell me a shuka (usually cost 600ksh and never worth more than 700ksh) for 4,000ksh. I was surprised that knowing that I'm a Kenyan resident Johnny would still try and take us to a place this ridiculously expensive. After they tried to scam us once Johnny actually took us there a second time. (???). He also added in a random stop at a girl scout memorial for people that I know nothing about and the man there asked for donations of any size so I at least thought offer 100ksh but he then turned around and said that wasn't enough. Was getting a bit sick of Johnny taking us to people who were just going to ask us for too much money. Especially since we told him that were not interesting in gift shopping as we were planning on doing that in Nairobi.
The itinerary was great, but at the end of the trip I wouldn't recommend trying to cram as much as we did into one week. Spend at least two nights at every location so that you get a full day at each. Cate added a few extra things to my itinerary beyond what I requested and I trusted her to know what would make a good trip but now I wish I'd asked to cut some of those extra locations.
Good things: Because it was budget we ate a lot of ugali and nyama choma which I love. Food was always delicious. Parks themselves were beautiful and wonderful.
TL;DR: The organization and communication was poor. Driver friendly but not very skilled and in bad health/bad eyesight. Would not recommend. You can find better budget safaris than this, or just rent a car and do it yourself.
Reply from African Breeze Safaris
Posted on Feb 2, 2017Lily with my help, tailored a 7 days budget safari. We finally agreed that they will be picked at the safari junction since Lily and her friend was coming from Masai Mara. I quoted her and gave her a budget of usd 1700 for 2. This was an all inclusive package. I was out to help them visit all the parks mentioned in the itinerary even with the low budget that that was. As much as i would like to attach the proposal here for prove,i find that there is no that option of attachment. In the proposal i informed her that if she paid using credit/debit card or pay pal,she will pay 5%pay pal / bank surge. I also let her know that , since she was in Kenya,a cheque/cash deposit would work out well without attracting further charges and for sure she choose the option of direct cashing to the company account.
On the proposal there was information of paying the total cash just before the safari departure,she had only deposited the 30% of the total amount on the departure day yet she had all the information. I allowed her to pay in bits since she was not going to come in the city to run her card and with the fact that she had all the company bank accounts.
I believe that all will agree with me that the exchange rates keep on changing and i didnt add any extra coin from what we had agreed,i just converted the dollars with the rate that was changing then,i even ended up paying the park entry fees with a higher rate than the one i had used to calculate the balance she had in Kenya shillings. The boat ride was clearly stated as an option,i paid for their hells gate entry fee which was what i was supposed to do. i disagree with her when she says that we over charged her on boat ride,curios and the rest of shopping was not in the itinerary or proposal,that she was supposed to negotiate on her own,not sure why she would stae and say that the company was involved. i bet anyone reading will agree with me that if the sellers give you unfriendly pricing,you would not go for the item.
She says that she called me and i had forgotten . I really dont understand what that means because i had organized and the driver had left Nairobi for the safari Junction where he was supposed to meet them,Lily and her friend had alighted at a different location other than the one agreed.
The driver communicated so well with her and had to go for them from they had alighted.
Just to conclude, Most of the things she has written here is not true,i personally left airport and drove 10 km to go and meet with her and her friend after safari, I did it because i always want to find out the out come of the safari.
She didnt raise any complain of any sort,the girls told me they were very happy. i trust that the world has away of judging this.
MX
Email Salvador | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not a good service.
I had bad experience with African Breeze safaris in Kenya. First. I paid part of the tour in cash in Nairobi, but they did not wanted to accept some USD bills issued before an specific year. Finally they accept it but only after they charged me an extra amount. Second. In part of the tour they put an extra person in the vehicle, 8 passengers, instead of 7 as in their brochure. It was very uncomfortable for several of us and we almost had a fight! Third. They changed two times my hotels during safaris, one of them of lower quality. In general not a good service.
DE
Email Sascha | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Messing up accomodations
Best experience of our safari was with our guide Isaac. He is a safe driver, very good game spotter and a lovely fellow. Asante sana to him.
With the accomodations Kate was supposed to organize we were not so lucky and happy.
We did the 7 day's safari with drop off at kenyan coast.
About 8 months prior we agreed with her on an itinerary that was finally matching the offer on safaribookings.com in terms of accomodations.
We paid her the deposit of 25% to make all the reservations.
When we arrived in Nairobi we've found out that there were just reservations made for the first 3 night's!
The rest of the hotels such as Sentrim Amboseli, Ngulia Lodge and Voi were not booked for us but completely full at that time in high season.
Kate is a very emotional person and was very pissed that we've found out about that prior.
We belived her to get us the acomodations of our intinerary as she promissed once again. So we paid the 75% balance of the tour in cash on the day we started, just as agreed prior.
We started without knowing where we would stay the other night's. For most of them she found somehow comparable stay's.
Except for one night. We had to stay in a
lowest budget sh*ty zero star place called "Kilimanjaro Cottages Amboseli" https://www.google.com/travel/hotels/s/3yQTuqmxLhfF4mkE8
instead of the exclusive Sentrim Amboseli Lodge, https://sentrim-amboseli-lodge.hotel-mix.de/
We requested a refund of 150$ for that.
She did not refund for that!
We didn't tip for that.
We told her to give the refund straight to the driver, so everyone is happy again.
She didn't.
We can not recommend to book through her.
Reply from African Breeze Safaris
Posted on Aug 29, 2023Sascha and his partner booked a 7 days joining safari for 7 days months prior to their arrival. On this particular time, he would use a certain wire transfer and sent me a link that would show me that the money had already arrived in the company account while as, it did NOT reflect in reality. He did it just before the Christmas season and a busy season it was and he would tell me that the cash is already in the company account. i was keen to follow on this transfer particular transfer for some reason! it was tricky.
Now again when he arrives in Kenya, he contact me to say that he has arrived in advance and he was living in an area called Kiambu in a certain airbnb. and he insists that we pick him up in Kiambu the morning he is departing for safari on August 5. So i agree but request him to deposit the balance of 2000 $ in our company account since it was on Friday, a working day for the banks in Kenya and some hours prior to the commencement of the safari, Sascha doesn't agree to deposit the cash, infact he connects me with a certain local lady who advices him how we should operate his safari, she calls me and she gives me some funny points to meet with the quests in Kiambu and its here that i again become very suspicious and did not agree to meet them on those point. I requested Sascha to take a cab from Kiambu to the central Nairobi at City market and again, he disagree saying that City market place is very UNSAFE for them. Anybody who has visited Kenya knows that city market area is at the central of Nairobi and one of the safest place and many companies operating safari, there departures, start from here, so many tourists moving around the area.
So for some reason, Sascha and his team found another point that they wanted us to pick them up and collect the balance in cash but i didnt fall for that. Anyone can google the History of Kiambu and would surely judge me from my disagreement! After not falling to all the traps, Sascha and the local lady that evening of Friday started calling all the accommodations that were on his itinerary! Unfortunately, when they called about 2 hotels, they were informed by the hotels to having worked with our company for more than 10 years and they were asked to trust us. They were not very happy. Its here the hotel teams called and informed me what was happening and i called Sascha and informed him the information i had gotten from the hotels and i told him that if he did not trust us, he had a right to cancel the safari and get his refund back.
So to cut the story short, Sascha, his partner and the Kiambu lady arrives at city market in a small car on August 5, we decide to give him a full 7 days private transportation as a wise decision for a total of 2,666$, comfort hotels and all park fees and everything included but he still went ahead and said he would not recommend us. WHY? During peak season, hotels are usually fully booked to an extend of having some overbooked and if you have not completed the payments in full, their system will end up throwing some upaid bookings and since, Sascha did not agree to pay the balance on time, we missed out in 1 hotel booking, i put effort and booked them in Sopa lodge Amboseli for 1 night and with the money he had paid that wasnt enough for such a class of a hotel!
He admits the driver having done a good job, but he did not even show a sign of a appreciation for 7 days they had been together! Wasnt that mean in anyway!
Sascha finally told our Driver that he had lived in Kenya some years back and he understands everything going on here, he wanted a refund, but kindly judge us from this piece!
When it comes to money! The world should be careful about Sascha and his Kiambu team !
ES
Email Pablo | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
several setbacks that have occurred during the Safari.
On Monday the 13th, ten minutes after departing in the van from Nairobi, Catherine, an employee and intermediary of African Breeze Safari, informed us that we were beginning the safari in a different order without prior consultation with us. Furthermore, she mentioned that there was no availability at the hotel we had booked (AA Lodge Masai Mara) as she had not made the reservations yet. The contract explicitly states that we were required to pay 25% in advance to reserve the hotels (Payment made on June 2, 2023). Despite this, we were accommodated in Masai Mara Camp, which was significantly different from where we had paid to stay. We didn't have water for personal hygiene and had to purchase bottled water with our own money for brushing our teeth and even showering.
Additionally, we didn't have breakfast on the two days we stayed because the camp didn't have enough food for all the people accommodated. Two of our companions even had to share a room despite having paid for individual rooms due to lack of available space.
Due to the aforementioned issues, from the first night, we contacted Catherine in an attempt to find solutions and prevent the situation from worsening. However, instead of helping, she sent a message saying, and I quote, "please focus on positivity so you can enjoy your Safari."
As I mentioned earlier, we booked this safari 3-4 months in advance, paying 25% upfront to reserve the hotels. Therefore, this should have been arranged and resolved well in advance.
I would also like to note that none of the guides had our itinerary. On August 15th, we were supposed to have lunch at Nakuru Sopa Lodge, a hotel we had already paid for, but instead, we had lunch on the way at a self-service restaurant that was nothing like where we were supposed to eat. We arrived at the hotel at 8:00 PM, leaving us only time to have dinner and sleep before leaving the next day, not being able to make the most of its facilities (which is the reason we paid for good hotels, to enjoy the safari and also relaxation).
We informed our guide (Sam) about this incident, and he mentioned that he was unaware since he didn't even have the itinerary.
The following day, the Lake Nakuru safari was rushed and completed within an hour. We didn't have time to enjoy the morning and couldn't even open the roof of the car to better appreciate the views, as it was broken. Not to mention the multiple breakdowns of the car, which required several stops to fix.
On the same day, we stopped at a shopping center to eat, paying for everything ourselves, as the picnic mentioned in the guide was once again not available.