Field photo setting off for rhino tracking
Karumuna Safaris
- Located In:
-
Australia
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Member Of:
- Uganda Tourism Board
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $70 to $600 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
RS
Email Aleksandar Zivic | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Zero star
I hope you guys who are interested in traveling in Uganda find this review useful and won't make the same mistake as me and my friend did. In this review i will share the part of my experience with Karumuna Safaris and it's owner Richard who we believe is a fraud and a thief.
From the first moment i contacted Richard he was very fast in answering my mails and whatsapp messages,which i liked because that is how an agency should behave with clients. I applied for the journey inDecember and was supposed to arrive in Uganda in March!! It was like that until the moment I paid him the 50% down payment which he requested because he wanted to make sure the gorilla tracking permits are secured. The same story was with my friend who applied for the trip one month after me. The moment I paid him the money, no answers no mails, nothing! Every info I needed I had to wait 3 or 4 days for a response i called him and told him this is not professional. I asked him to make me another trip plan because i had less days in Uganda because of my ticket.
He sent me the plan 2 days before my trip and also found a guide for me and my friend day before our arrival. When we arrived and gave him the rest of the money the problems started. In the Lodge in Queen Elizabeth our guide approached us and told us thar Richard had an accident and hit the boda boda (motorcycle taxi) with his car and the motorcycle driver didn't survived so Richard was detained in prison. My friend and me were concerned but as the gorilla tracking was approaching i was starting to be suspicious about everything because Richard couldn't be reached on any phone and they apparently didn't know which prison he was detained and he was the only one who knew where the gorilla permits are. Our guides brother was searching for permits in his office and he was able to find only one permit. This one permit was paid on March 8th the day we arrived! And he told me in December to pay so he can secure the permit. At this point we knew that we were scammed! With the help of our guide Herbert we managed to pay for another permit 700usd because we came in Uganda specifically for the gorilla tracking. Richard was not answering any calls from our guide and the warden in the gorilla tracking office told us that he know Richard and that the chief of tourist operations in Uganda are awared that he scammed people before.
There was a lot more happening which I could write and if anyone is interested in hearing this can contact me.
This is not a fake profile, which he claims on other reviews of people that were also scammed and according to him want to damage KARUMUNA SAFARIS reputation. If you look the negative reviews it was never his fault!! . The ranger in Kibale national park told us that his driver by the name Dona went to Chimpanzee tracking with fake permits left the clients there and ran away with the car keys. If you don't want things like this to happen to you avoid Karumuna Safaris and Richard.
God sees everything, if Richard is really in prison he should stay there. But if he lied about hitting someone with his car in order to get 700usd speaks volumes about him as a person.
I tried to attach valuable photos (the payment of the permit,screenshots of our chats and more) but the site won't publish them, so if anyone needs to see them I can send them.
AR
Email Leandro garibaldi | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Worst Nightmare Ever
Avoid this company. The owner/manager Richard, lied to us. He did not respect the contract, put me in different accommodation, much cheaper and very low quality , than i have paid for. I have paid for gorilla habituation but instead of that i just got the regular 1 hour trekking, he ripped me off u$s 800, which was never refunded to me. The driver Dona who was part of the scam, tried to make me pay for a hotel in the middle of nowhere and when i talked to the police the money magically was sent to the hotel.
Please go with someone else to make you trip of a lifetime unforgettable.
Other companies will make your dream come true.
(images removed for privacy reasons)
HU
Email Marta | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great company
Well organized, on time. Everything ran very smoothly.
LV
Email DZINTRIS | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Be careful with this company
It's very sad because previously travelling with Karumuna (we did it three times) had no big problems. This time, however, the unpleasantness overcame everything. A number of services were not paid. So we had to pay for a second time in several places for accommodation and food. There were also no paid hikes for chimpanzees and gorillas. The owner of the Karumuna kept promising that the money issues would settle. Right away. An hour later. Two hours later. Tomorrow. Even now that we are already returning home, it is still promising that the money will be returned. We don't believe it anymore. It is a great pity that the visions of many travelers of the beautiful country, Uganda- Pearl of Africa, have been ruined.It's not exactly a clear reason why our money was missing. The most unpleasant, though, are the empty promises. I now i will travel Uganda again. Becose of very beauty and nice country and friendly people. But not with Karumuna. Never.
Reply from Karumuna Safaris
Posted on Nov 30, 2021Yes it true Karumuna safaris could not reach your expectations but we also believe it was not our first time working together. As a company we experienced scum which i tried to explain and i hope you also understand the situation which was in the country due to covid19.
we had worked together three (3) consecutive safaris without experiencing hardships but as we said the company always do refunds in incase of such experiences and we are looking forward to refund.
we are really sorry for the bad experience but we promise it will never happen again.
Thank you.
DK
Email Rasmus | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Worst Tour Operator Ever
NEVER PICK THIS TOUR OPERATOR.
We had ordered 11 days round-trip to Uganda. We met with the owner Richard who brought an itinerary and a contract stating that everything we payed for in the trip was based on the itinerary. However, during the trip, half of the nights the accommodation was changed last minute. The worst thing was that the accommodation change was often for the worse, and some nights we stayed in so filthy and bad accommodation we rather wanted to leave and pay for accommodation elsewhere by ourselves. In the trip we had also booked Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale as the big highlight. We arrived in a town near Kibale at around 3 pm the day before the trekking, where the tour operator (Richard) calls us to let us know that we are not able to make the Kibale chimpanzee trekking because he failed to get the permits, THE DAY BEFORE WE HAD TO GO. Additionally, the itinerary stated that lunch and drinking water would be included all days which we rarely got.
Besides these problems, there were a lot of other issues about Richard miscommunication with the driver/guide and confusing us and our guide several times. Richard does not care about his customers, he just wants their money and will thereafter ensure that you have a completely disorganized trip. We managed to get the money back from the chimpanzee trekking permits, but honestly, with all the change in accommodation and all the last minute changes he put us through, he should have compensated us a lot more money for a failed trip in many regards.
If I could, I would NEVER book this tour again and would AT ANY TIME pick another tour operator. Its one of the most stressful trips and dysfunctional tours I have ever been on even though we payed to have all inclusive in order to relax and not mind anything. Even though I go on vacation 4 times a year and have been pretty much everywhere in the world, I have never tried anything like this.
Luckily, the driver and guide Paddy was an extremely polite and nice young man. We had a very nice time with him, and we felt bad for him that he had to endure the constant miscommunication and our anger about the trip due to Richards incompetence.
LASTLY, there we some parts of the itinerary which was completely wrong and falsely stated. One of the days it was stated that you get to the park, go inside (which cost 40 dollars per day per person) and go for safari. This was not the case, and Richard would not pay to let us stay inside the park and go for safari even though he acknowledged that it was wrongly stated on the itinerary, so we ended up paying ourselves.
Lastly but not least, it got so bad at one time we went to the police in order to charge Richard and make him pay some of our money back for the failed experiences. We found out it was a very long process and did not want to spend vacation time on it, but I would wish now that we would have filed a complaint and charged him so he would hopefully learn that you cannot take tourists money and then piss on them afterwards.
I HOPE THAT NO ONE PICKS THIS COMPANY IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A GOOD NICE TIME AND RELAXING SAFARI.
Otherwise, Uganda is a lovely country and the nature and the parks a breathtaking.
Reply from Karumuna Safaris
Posted on Nov 1, 2019Dear Rasmus,
We are sorry to hear that you did not have a good experience on your trip with us.
Please note that you who booked two days to safari which did not provide ample time for us but we were okay with it because we really wanted you to go for it,
Secondly, you made the payment through bank transfer when you were already in the country and it was over the weekend of which the money took one week to be active on the account but we decided to use our own money to start your trip which was starting on Monday and additionally to that we openly told you when we met you at the hotel that it was peak season meaning that we might find some of the lodges fully booked therefore in case of any change in accommodation, be aware and you said you were okay with everything and we kindly explained about chimps permits that "WE HOPEFULLY TO GET THE CHIMPS PERMITS" which failed and later agreed to refund you the money for the permits at the end of your trip which is against our company terms and conditions BUT WE DID IT FOR YOU (WE REFUNDED YOU) as you stated it in the review.
As our other clients testify from the 5 star reviews, we pride ourselves in providing excellent services to all our clients to make their safari experience memorable.
Best regards
Jonah
Admin
Karumuna safaris
It was a beautiful experience with lots of friendly people and great service. I am happy I booked wi
Straight from the beginning we were communicating well from the site and email, upon my arrival we were treated with smiling faces and I remember Mr. Richard greeting us with a smile and ushering us to the tour van. I enjoyed the tour and got to see the Kibale chimps. It was fantastic
IE
Email Conor | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing gorilla tracking experience with Karumuna Safaris
My girlfriend and I had a wonderful experience tracking mountain gorillas in Bwindi impenetrable forest with Karumuna Safaris. Richard and Jonah were very professional in their communication with us right from the beginning. The whole experience completely exceeded our expectations, the accommodation at Gorilla mist camp and Lake Bunyonyi was excellent and the food was delicious as well. Our guide Caleb was very friendly and very knowledgeable, providing all sorts of information about the Gorillas and other wildlife on the long journey to and from Kampala. The Gorilla tracking itself was a phenomenal experience and worth every penny. All in all Karumuna Safaris were a great company to do our trip with, from the first communication until they dropped us off at Kampala, they took great care of us. Thanks a lot guys!
US
Email Esther | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It Will Change Your Life
Three friends and I picked Uganda because our top priority was trekking the mountain gorillas, and we were pleasantly surprised when it turned out that everyday of our 15 day safari provided a highlight that was almost as awe-inspiring as the gorillas. We picked Karumuna Safaris because it was owned by a Ugandan, competitively priced, and we knew the money we spent supported local businesses and individuals (versus booking with a company headquartered outside of Uganda.)
We arranged the tour through Richard, the owner, and he was very responsive and patient in answering our many questions. For example, he provided us with a list of accommodations on the budget plan, and when we decided we wanted to upgrade to the mid-range category (which I highly recommend, since it's worth paying a little extra for nicer places), he worked with us to ensure that we approved of the replacement properties. And, after staying at them, it is clear that Richard understood what we were looking for in hotels. They were staffed by the kindest, most service-oriented Ugandans, and the individual rooms were charming. The hotel staff went out their way to meet our every need, and when there was confusion, our guide stepped in to make sure that everything was taken care of.
Now, about the safari itself--there is no way to describe the reaction when you spot your first elephant or giraffe on the savannah. It creates an insatiable need to see every living creature in the national park. We were a demanding group, but our guide aimed to exceed our demands, and did so with good humor.
I recommend going on a private tour since the group will spend many hours together in the car (make sure the vehicle has a roof that opens up to allow 365 degree viewing) and are literally on top of each other as you scramble with your binoculars and telephoto lens to capture a lion and lioness as they emerge from the bush. And, I recommend going with a company, like Karumuna Safaris, that hires local ranger guides at each of the national parks you visit. We saw many other groups that relied upon their tour guide to scan for animals because the tour company didn't bring aboard a local ranger guide that specialized in that particular national park. The local ranger guides made the safaris much more rewarding and informative.
Everything was not perfect, and much of what wasn't perfect can't be fixed by a tour guide or company. Uganda is a country that has yet to adapt to the modern, industrialized era. No tour company can improve the weak and intermittent hotel wi-fi reception, or avoid the slow-going, dirt roads, which are utilized by every mode of transportation, including pedestrians and cyclists carrying their goods to market, the local farmer herding his cattle, and the occasional baboon.
At the end of our incredible 15-day journey, I really felt like our tour was designed to strike a balance between immersion into the local people and their day-to-day living, and spending time in nature, with the animals, birds, wide open plains and unforgettable, star-filled, night skies.
Our guide's motto was "Your wish is my command." And, he did everything within his power to turn our wishes into his commands. I have been told I sometimes have unrealistic expectations. Nonetheless, Karumuna Safaris exceeded my expectations, and when something didn't go according to plan, the company did whatever was within its power to fix it. When I return to Uganda, I have no doubt that I'll book my return trip with Karumuna Safaris.
Email Karen | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Close proximity to wildlife, beautful scenary and safari lodges paired with an accommodating guide.
The service was fun and friendly. The safari were outstanding as they enabled us to get close to the wildlife without disturbing them - a great eco tourism success. With the exception of one hotel, which the company moved us from, the accommodation was comfortable and homely. The communication could have been improved but overall the guide was very accommodating.
US
Email Ray | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Merchant Falls excellent tour! A++
My family and I went on the 3 day Merchant falls tour. It was an absolutely amazing experience. Karumuna safaris did a great job communicating with us days leading up to the safari.
Our safari guide Onan did an outstanding job and made the safari a once in a lifetime unforgettable experience! His knowledge of local culture and all wildlife made him the perfect safari guide! Onan is highly recommended!