JOCKY TOURS TEAM
Jocky Tours and Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2002)
- Member Of:
- AMREF & KWS
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget & mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $50 to $200 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
CA
Email Candice | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Budget customer service is what you should expect
Day 1 of the 7 day Safari with Jockey Tours my husband and I were picked up from our hotel on time where we were then taken to the head office which is downtown Nairobi, very busy and no parking. My husband told the driver (Peter) that I had medical issues with my back and then he was then pushed off to pay the remainder of the safari, leaving me at the 4x4 with our luggage. I was immediately told that one of my suitcases would not be accommodated and needed to be left behind. I was then forced to make fast decisions on my luggage and had no room for my special order pillow and my TENS machine (all needed for my medical conditions) settling on my much smaller heating pad and blister packs of medications that I absolutely needed for my back/neck issues. We then head out with Peter and the 7 others ( although all Jockey Tours advertising we read for the 7 day tour said MAXiMUM 6 ppl on tour) maybe if it was only 6 I could of brought all my needed medical equipment……..
Peter and the 7 tourists continue onto the roughest road I have ever been on while driven in a 30plus year old 4x4 Land Cruiser that the seat my husband and I sat in had metal springs which was felt through the worn out padding, my lap belt buckle would only 1-10 times properly latch and the truck had no shocks anywhere on the vehicle as we witnessed the driver on 3 occasions pull over in an attempt to fix the back shocks that completely broke and were dragging. We then proceeded to the night safari at Masai Mara park were during the drive thru the park, Peter who was told about my medical issues managed to hit a bump so hard that it bounced me out of my seat to the floor of the truck where I hit my left hip. Finally making our way to the tent camp, we noticed Peter to be constantly on his cellphone talking to various callers like mama and luv as I was sitting directly behind him and could see which were work and others that clearly weren’t. I only bring this up because on the drive back to the camp he almost had a head on collision with a motorcyclist, narrowly missing a fatal collision and this was the first day. Day 2 I had to miss the village walk to rest my bruised hip and sore back, I could go on about numerous other things but I want to focus on the main issues. It only got worse from here and we left the safari on the morning of day 3 after another hideous road was taken as a “short cut “ as Peter described to us because the tarmac was too long to take. This was only revealed after yet again he was reminded of my back issues and that we were done. He tried at first to say the roads to Amboseli were bad but then when he realized we were serious about leaving the tour he then tried to convince us that the roads would be that bad. Fool me once and I was in so much pain that we knew I was done. After staying in bed from the time we were dropped at 1100 until the next morning at 0630 and still unable to walk without bawling, my husband was told we would have to pay $85 USD to take us back to Nairobi to pick up our suitcase then go to a hotel that we also had to pay out of pocket since all the office offered us was a “sorry”. When we got to the hotel we went to pay with a $50 that Peter had given us that morning for a park fee he supposedly had issues getting into and my husband being nice volunteered to put on his credit card and then given cash from Peter instead. The driver (Daniel) hired by Peter and supposedly associated with Jockey Tours said he would not take that specific and only $50USD we had as he didn’t think the bank would take it…. Like I said just bad customer service on every level.
CZ
Email Stan | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unscrupulous behavior
If you want a preview of the contract, before paying the deposit, they will end all communication with you. That doesn't sound too serious. It seems more like they want to have you in their fist first and then you will have zero chance of negotiating any changes.
US
Email Anon | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We had multiple issues
We would not book again with Jocky tours due to the following issues:
Pre tour:
- Communication - spoke to 3 different people to organise the tour, kept getting transferred to different phone numbers on Whatsapp
- Payment Issues- We tried to organise bank transfer (lower fees) and did not receive a reply until we followed up, when they told us it was then too late to do so. We were told certain payment methods attracted a 5% fee, this was incorrect for us.
- Airport pick up - the website and jocky emails say this is included. I was told on the day that this attracted a further 20 usd fee. I questioned this with 2 different people and it was eventually agreed it was included. We later were told our tour price had an extra 20 usd per person compared to others on the tour for airport pick up, I would suggest specifying not to include this in the price as Uber costed us <$10 USD.
Day 1: we waited in jeep for over an hour after paying - unsure what for. Delayed the afternoon game drive, possibly shortening it as other Jeeps left earlier.
Day 2: our guide/driver got stuck in mud twice for an hour each time, possibly further shortening game drive.
Day 3: the itinerary on the Jocky website and Safaribookings site says an early morning game drive - this did not occur. No game drive this day at all.
Day 4: guide told us to be ready by 7am - at 745 he was having breakfast. Jeep arrived at 8am. Guide's card did not work to pay park entry fees due to what he said was a bank issue - he asked us to pay and he would give us cash. Our cards did not work due to being unable to 2 factor authenticate, when asking guide about other options he raised his voice at us and I felt uncomfortable. We waited over 1 hour to get into the park.
We were initially told by the guide the boat ride was an extra 20 USD - I checked our itinerary which showed it was included and had to tell the guide this.
During game drives, the guide was speaking on his phone almost constantly on speaker phone. We were told to look out for animals while he did this and almost missed some rhinos. I was ignored when I asked a question as he was on his phone.
Day 5: the visit to the geothermal power plant and hot springs was not included - despite being in the park we were not given the option to do this. When we asked the guide, they said this was because some tour members had to go to the airport however they arrived there 5 hours early. We were not informed of this until after leaving the park.
Email Antonio | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Less than 3h of Game Drive for a 2 day tour in Masai Mara - Avoid it!
Terrible experience. I absolutely recommend against the 2 days 1 night tour to Masai Mara as the total game drive was 2.45h for both days. It's simply unacceptable. I have been to daily safaris of 5-6h of game drive.
Some good things though: My guide was great, the accommodation and food were good for being a budget safari.
Tour happened as follows:
Day 1: pick-up at 7am in Nairobi. Departure at 8am. Arrival at camp at 3pm. Game drive started at 5pm. It finished at 6.30pm.
Day 2: pick-up at 6.15am. Game drive starts at 6.45am. Game drive ended at 8.30am. I arrived at Nairobi at 3pm.
The drive from Nairobi to Camp will never be less than 6h and it can be up to 8h,
Take at least the 3 day tour or don't do it!
For respect for your time and well-being it is a brutal waste of time, money and energy don't do a 2 days 1 night tour. It was so frustrating to have ended a 2 day tour at 8.30am! I was shocked.
They never offer to refund partially or offered a discount for another safari.
I cannot recommend Jocky Agency. Avoid them!
Reply from Jocky Tours and Safaris
Posted on Nov 28, 2022Hi Antonio
Its very unfortunate that you are putting the blame squarely on us, its should be known that you had booked a 3 days 2nights safari with us, which you later reduced to 2 days 1 night on short notice. We explained to you the pros and cons of joining a 2 days safari and even gave you an itinerary to go through which you subscribed to and agreed to proceed with a 2 day tour over 3 days tour.
We talked over phone about this while on safari, but you never brought forward a compensation claim but instead you told me it was your own fault on reducing your stay by 1 day. Its amazing that you have gone forth to write an official negative complaint even though it was your own idea on reducing your stay.
Regardless, we would like to pass our apology for not being able to convince you enough to drop the safari all together if you couldn't manage a 2 days Private safari or the initial 3 days group safari, which for sure would have offered you more time in the wild and would have been more relaxed safari. We apologize for any inconveniences caused.
Email Kamau | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice gamedrives, excellent driver, bad accommodations, miserable customer service from the office
We’ve been doing a tour for 16 days/15 nights with this company. We visited several nationalparks and destinations in Kenya.
Nairobi-Amboseli-Mount Kenya-Thompson falls-Lake Nakuru-Kakamega forest-Kisumu-Masai Mara-Naivasha-Nairobi was our tour
First of all we can say thanks to our driver and guide Evans, who was very friendly and helpful. We enjoyed all the game drives with him, we were able to spot all of the big five and he was able to tell us a lot about all the animals we saw. He’s very experienced and has a lot of knowledge.
So on the first day in Nairobi we’ve been picked up on time at our hotel and drove to the office to do the outstanding payment with our creditcard. The office wanted to charge us 5% on that amount, which we refused because it was not a small amount and we already paid a lot, it was never mentioned or written anywhere that paying with creditcard will be charged with 5%. If we would have known we would have paid full in advance. We started our program in Nairobi, it was fine and in the evening we arrived at the sopa lodge in Amboseli. The hotel was good and the first game drive the next day was great. On our way back to the lodge our drive told us our program the next to days will change.
There the disaster began, they wanted to fool us the first time. Our schedule was to visit the Mau Mau caves on the way from Amboseli to Mount Kenya the next day but it was not possible due to lack of time (whole day driving). So he told us we would postpone it to the day after and skip a whole day gamedrive/visit in Ol Pejeta Conservancy (Sweetwater Rhino Sanctuary). That’s ridiculous, they obviously really tried to fool us and why was the visit to Mau Mau caves planned anyway, if they now it’s not enough time for it? So of course we’ve been insisting on our gamedrive in Ol Pejeta.
So after the second night in Amboseli we spend the whole day on the road to Nanyuki (Mount Kenya) and arrived at Sportsman Arms Hotel in the evening. Horrible hotel, unfriendly and inconsiderate staff, dark rooms with a lot of broken items (lights, dustbin) and water dripping out of the bathroom light from above. Restaurant also very dark and uncomfortable, staff as mentioned, buffet very small and not tasty at all.
The next day our gamedrive at Ol Pejeta was great but we had to quit in the early afternoon due to one out of four persons was already feeling bad because of conditions of the last night... sad because of the nice conservancy and bad because of returning early to that hotel (we just thought ok we’ll tolerate one more night there).
The next day we went to Nyahururu to visit the Thompson falls, spent few hours on the road and arrived at the lodge for lunch. Already two out of four persons felt bad/were ill due to the last two nights. Lodge was very old and rustical but had charme but could definitely be maintained better, especially the showers.
The next morning we took off to check-in to our hotel in Nakuru and left with picnic lunches for Lake Bogoria which was a nice trip. We arrived at our hotel (Hillside Court) in the late afternoon and took a first look into our rooms and we’ve been disappointed again. Dirty sheets, leaking toilets, dirty towels and so on.
That was the point we decided not to be disappointed about accommodations anymore and just to look forward to get back to the hotels late and wake up early the next morning for gamedrives/excursions.
The next day we had our gamedrive at Lake Nakuru, which was as enjoyable as the other gamedrives! In the evening we had to go back to our hotel, at least the staff tried everything to get us comfortable.
The next day we went to Kakamega forest and finally had a good accommodation again, the Rondo Retreat. Really charming, quiet and in the middle of the forest! After a good night we had a guided walk into the forest the next morning and went to Kisumu arriving at our hotel for lunch.
In Kisumu we decided to upgrade the hotel in advance on our own cost to have two comfortable nights with a day at leisure in between! Later it paid off...
After two nights in Kisumu we took off to Masai Mara with a stop at the soapstone factory in Kisii which was quite interesting. We arrived at our camp in the Mara at dinner-time. The Lechada camp is not maintained well, the mattresses are done, the showers are very dark, dirty, no hot showers, all in all very poor bathrooms, food was okay but the dining hall also very dark. Staff and the Masai have been friendly.
The gamedrives the next two days have been amazing, the Masai Mara is really awesome.
After three nights in the camp we took off to Naivasha and we’ve been really excited about our hotel, the Lake Naivasha Resort was on the program for two nights. Arriving at Lake Naivasha our driver told us we’ll stay in the ‚sweet lake resort‘ which is a totally different price category than the Lake Naivasha Resort wish we found out really fast online, so we told the driver and insisted on to stay in the Lake Naivasha Resort as per program. As we were doing our boatride before lunch, our driver was to sort out with the office. As we came back I had to talk with the boss Lucy from the office for the first time, the lady really told me that the hotel was changed and we’ve been informed about, which was not true and a lie! After me still insisting on us staying in the better hotel as per program she was shouting at me on the phone!!! It was getting later and later so that we even had no lunch and we finally accepted to stay in another hotel called Masada resort, because Lucy was not reasonable and insisting to her lie the hotel was changed and we knew. So we checked in at around 6pm in the Masada Resort without having any lunch (all meals included) and the hotel was also definitely not the same category as the hotel on the program, the hotel that we have paid for! How can a hotel/program that we have paid for be changed?
The next day we went to Hells Gate Nationalpark and had a gamedrive in the morning to back at the hotel for lunch and afternoon at leisure. After another night at that hotel we took off to Nairobi the next day.
We would never recommend that agency to anybody, please be careful!
Our driver/guide Evans Ngigi was really excellent but the Office/the boss Lucy really unprofessional, customer service was very bad or no customer service at all! She tried to fool us with skipping Ol Pejeta Conservancy which is 95 USD per person, in total almost 400 USD. And finally she corned us with our hotel in Naivasha and saved a lot of money (hundreds). This lady is criminal! Sadly we had no chance to react because it was already paid and booked directly with that agency in Kenya.
TR
Email SALIH | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Terrible Experience
We had a 5 day safari tour with Jocky Tour. First two days were as it was on the program but when it was our 3rd day things started to change. Driver canceled our early game drive because he simply didn’t want to. When we complained he said we can discuss and never showed up (we didn’t even need to discuss because we already paid for the whole thing). We let it go for the sake of the other days because we only depend on that driver and we didn’t feel safe. Next day he wanted to keep our game drive short (it was till late afternoon from 7:30 am but he wanted to finish the game drive at 10:30 and transfer us to the other location). This time we didn’t want to let ot go and told him that we paid for this service and we want to stick to the program. He found it offensive and gave us attitude the rest of the trip. Last day we had a boat tour on the river and he said it wasn’t included and we said he should call the office he went against it first and then he called and let us to the boat ride. This is not how it should be. No one has to fight to get the value that they already paid for and plus receive bad attitude for it. If you can get the value out of the program it would be a nice budget safari tour try not to shop from the shops in Kenya they stop frequently because they are overpriced. (you can buy the same stuff im Tanzania for almost %20 of the price tags in Kenya). Overall I would go for another tour company next time for sure (with more reviews and higher ratings) and maybe pay a little more for it. Maybe thats when you don’t have to worry about if they will try to screw you somehow the next day.
Reply from Jocky Tours and Safaris
Posted on Jun 25, 2018Hi Salih we are very much Sorry for the inconveniences caused to you by your Jeep guide, we found this not professional at all.
From your dissatisfaction we conclude that it was all about the guide whom you and us know that he was not our company guide but an outsourced guide since you wanted to do the safari in a land-cruiser jeep other than our own safari minivans, even after 2 of you paying the 580$ each for 5 Days masai mara-Nakuru-Naivasha all inclusive in a luxury landcruiser jeep, the rate that any one else in the industry will tell you only suits joining group budget safari in Nissan safari van we find it not being too honest with us on many fronts, your pricing was for budget travel but your expectations and demands were for luxury even after elaborating to you.Going on to say 5 days in Tanzania will earn one a better safari and even cheaper price is ridiculous.
Though we were not in full control of the guide since he doesn't belong to us, we choose to take the blame for him not being professional enough in dealing with your many demands.
We highly apologize for all the inconveniences caused to you during your stay with the guide, and though we feel as a company we don't in any way deserve the rating since we deed all we had to do on our part only for you to insist on Landcruiser jeep on a safari nissan van budget
PL
Email Yarik | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible standard for much too high price
My review is based on comparison - we experienced services of 2 agencies in Kenya, for 2 different Safaris.
We (the couple from Poland) went to Maasai Mara national park, in tour organised by Jocky Tours (Bison safari in internet). We had already experience with safari, since we went few days before to Tsavo East and Amboseli, so we have had some expectations, which have not been met in ANY aspect.
Lodging and food - terrible, much closer to the army camp than tourist lodging. We have been accomodated in Rhino Camp (claiming to be the best camp in Maasai Mara, really!!!), but it is very far from what you expect. I have to mention that at booking time we were offered Lenchada Camp, what has been changed without any prior information to us. Just dropped in other camp, no explanation.
Food on the road and in the camp - dirty(!) dishes, no choice of food, dirty place: disgusting in every aspect. In the camp - do not take a look into the kitchen (what is difficult, kitchen is open all the time)), otherwise you will stay hungry...
The driver/guide - not interactive with passengers at all. All the time on CB, listening and responding to other CB users, not providing any information to people on board and not reacting on your requests to stop, see something, etc. Last day he was 45 min late to pick us up from the camp, without even a word of apology!
To sum up - price (310 $/pp) does not meet the offered standard. For mentioned above another tour (which was private one - only 2 of us on board), we paid 275 $/pp, receiving great accomodation (hotel Voi Wildlife Lodge and high standard camp: Senirim Amboseli), great food (on the road and in the hotel) of good choice and service, fantastic guide - informing about what we see, responding to our needs, good tracer of game, always on our request.
I did try to claim to agency received service, but they don't care at all...
US
Email Eric | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not sure what happened here
5 of us booked a 3 day tour through this company for a quick safari. I am not sure what happened but it was absolutely ridiculous from the start. We were scheduled to be picked up at 8 am from our Nairobi hotel, no one showed up after calling they first said that the driver had been there and left with no explanation as to why, then immediately turned around and said that the driver could not find the hotel. We were picked up in another vehicle at 9:30 and taken to meet our driver. As per our itinerary we were told there would be no more than 7 people in the van, there was 8 which was not a huge deal just another inconsistency. After the late start we then ran in to an accident on the way there was no water supplied in the van we sat for quite some time in the heat before starting off again, at that point we were to late to get lunch at our lodge and had to stop at a buffet on the side of the road. We ended up getting to the lodge at 4:30 which is past the time when our game drive was supposed to start. We sat there as our driver and the lodge staff argued for an hour because come to find out despite the fact that we had paid months in advance Jocky tours had never actually booked our rooms. Once we were finally checked in it was almost 6 oclock. We ended up getting about 30 min worth of a game drive that night. The next morning we did not get into the park until after 9 oclock due to the constant delays of the driver. Once in the park he failed to point out any wildlife and drove around like a crazy man only stopping if we made him at which point he would then take off as we were trying to get photos. We talked to him about it multiple times yet he persisted. He continually almost hit animals as they crossed paths and even sped up at them several times. It appeared the only time he was interested in stopping was to speak to his friends which were other drivers. While looking at a pride of sleeping lions him and his buddy driving the other van went within 10 ft of the lions and began revving their engines to make them get up. When we protested he laughed. After our complaints he became sullen and began not bothering to respond to requests at all. He supplied no water for the entire day that we were in the park and blamed it on the hotel despite it being in the itinerary that his company would supply it. These issues continued throughout the entire rest of the trip and made for a very akward and dangerous ride back to Nairobi with all of the vans occupants asking him multiple times to slow down and stop driving so dangerously. The drivers name was Dalton nickname Ali, in my opinion and the opinion of everyone I was with he should not be allowed within the park and definitely should not be trusted to drive people.
Reply from Jocky Tours and Safaris
Posted on Feb 15, 2017Thank you very much for the feedback, Reading through your review its clear that you did not like the services we provided to you and we highly apologize for that. We would like to clarify that all this inconveniences were largely because of the driver guide you had MR Dalton "ALI" who happens not to be our company driver guide, Your Kenyan link who helped in your reservation is the one who insisted on having 'ALI' as your driver guide and we had no choice but to oblige since you were 4 people booking together.
The driver guide Ali is Kisumu based driver and therefore not conversant with Nairobi city that's why he picked you late from the agreed time of 8am, You were supposed to be 7 in the van (4 of you + 3more) but while reserving you did not mention to us that you had a kid coming along thus making your number 5 plus the 3,if we knew in advance that you will be having a kid coming along we would have added 2 more instead of 3, however after learning from the driver that you turned up 5 instead of 4 as you had reserved we intervened and took out 1person making the number back to 7 as we had agreed, for the rest of the safari.
For the lodge,kindly note we had booked and made payments long time ago, its Ali's lack of clear expression that led to your delay check in and also partly your fault too because on reservation you failed to mention to us that you were 4 adults and 1 kid, we only knew of 4 adults and on arrival at sopa Lodge the lodge reception team were confused as we had made a reservation of 4 people only, and therefore they had to take time and consult us before allowing you in.
We highly regret and apologize on Ali's poor conduct both on driving, guiding, expression and attitude. We will for sure not use his services again, as much as it was Alis fault in all this and he is not our company guide we will take full responsibility and like to sincerely apologize.