Unlimited Tours & Safaris

Sadly Disappointed.

I’ve been on mobile safari before, many times. This is the first time I’ve ever had so much anxiety on a safari and been so disappointed.

We paid for 6 nights safari, 2 nights hotel in Maun, 3 hour Mokoro ride and transport to and from the airport. We paid 7 months in advance.

3 days before leaving, we reminded them of our arrival. They asked us who was picking us up and where we were staying. That was their job. We sent them the invoice they sent to us where this was covered and they said they had it under control.

The day we were supposed to leave, our flights were cancelled (not their fault) but I tried to call and let them know of the updated flight. All calls went unanswered. They finally responded to an email saying they got the updated information and we wouldn’t get our money back for the hotel on arrival night (fine, last minute change) but that the hotel wasn’t available for the final night either because of “renovations” which was odd, the last night was never impacted. Why was it suddenly unavailable? I think it’s because they completely forgot.

We start our safari and the car is unreliable. I’m not talking old, refurbished or dusty. The car wouldn’t start half the time, there would be smoke coming out from under the hood, burning smells, random wheels stopped turning mid-drive and the passenger door would randomly open mid-ride. The guide was constantly having to put in motor oil, jump the car, be under the hood and working on the tires to get them moving again. He even had go tie the passenger door so it would stop opening while we were moving.

The guide had zero knowledge of our Mokoro ride and where we were staying in Maun. He called numerous times at each gate we passed - calls went unanswered for days. He even went to the gates while we took an afternoon naps to try to resolve everything but said no one answered or no one called him back. The Mokoro ride eventually happened, but only because we armed the guide with proof we paid for it.

The guide also said he’s worked for many mobile safaris. They usually give a print out with all the details but he didn’t get one for us. He said he was called 2 days before (conveniently around the time we reminded them of the safari) and everything was instructed over the phone.

The crew was fine, the food was good though we ate cold cuts everyday for lunch, and the guide showed us all we came to see but it felt like our safari was completely forgotten by Unlimited, then slapped together last minute. If we hadn’t reminded them, I bet we would have been stranded at the airport. How can you pay a company thousands of dollars and have to remind them you paid for a safari?

When I thought it was all over and we just go to the airport now, Unlimited had one last surprise. They didn’t pick us up from the hotel to the airport. They didn’t bother to tell us there was a problem with the car until we called, and they weren’t going to pick us up until 1 hour before the flight - leaving us no time to get through passport control, baggage, security and board. The hotel called a taxi. Thankfully we did, we arrived with only 5 minutes to spare before boarding.

When I got home, I saw they had taken a high profile client out based on their social media posts, so I guess that took priority over us. It was upsetting considering we saved up for 2 years for a mother-daughter safari and we should have just gone with someone else we knew and trusted.