Galloping Safaris Staff with Director
Galloping Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2013)
- Member Of:
- ASTA, TATO, TTB & EAWLS
- Tour Types:
- Small & medium group tours (Mid-range & luxury)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $225 to $2,000 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
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Email Debra M | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Liar, Cheat, disreputable! Do not use under any circumstances
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. My husband and I booked through a great agency in Kenya who outsourced the Tanzania portion of our trip to Galloping Safaris. Walter, the owner, is a liar and a cheat. Read other reviews (wish we'd seen them in advance). We were in Tanzania for 5 days. He hired a 3rd party guide/driver for us, Athman was EXCELLENT. He saved the tour for us. However, Galloping Safaris (GS) had us pay our entry fee into the Serengeti park (even though we'd paid everything in advance). He said he was installing a new payment system and was having problems. We put the $642 USD on our credit card, assuming Walter would do as he said and pay us back when we finished the trip in Arusha. Walter with GS outright lied to us. We wasted an hour waiting for him to respond so we could even enter the park. Next, as we were exiting Ngorogoro crater, we were not allowed to leave the park since GS (Walter) had not paid the concession fee of approximately $100 USD. Our driver, Athman, convinced Walter to go to the bank to immediately transfer the $$. Another hour wasted there. Then we arrived at Tarangire Park, only to find out, once again, Walter at GS had not paid the entry fees. He then asked us again to pay $227 USD of our own $$. We had no choice but to pay, because where else would we go? Yup, another hour wasted sorting this out. Upon our final day, we drove back to Arusha, met with Walter, his wife Glory (a Director of the company) and someone who said they were his lawyer. He did not have the money to pay us back upon our arrival ($869 USD total), instead he wrote and signed what we thought was a legitimate legal agreement that he would wire us the money in 2 weeks. That date came and went, no $$$, more lies from Walter and now zero response from him. He should not be allowed to operate. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY under any circumstances.
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Email Ken | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unfortunate Experience
Galloping Safaris took our money for a trip they did not deliver. Our hotels were not booked or paid for in advance, as promised. We chose activities that they did not take us on and did not respond to our questions and requests to have our trip as planned. Walter was avoidant of our texts and phone calls, but offered to meet us in person to make it right and explain himself on our last day in Tanzania. We drove for hours to meet up with him and he never showed. Walter has offered to provide my group a refund of some funds, which we accepted, but he has not followed through with that promise. I strongly urge you to pick a different company for your safari.
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Email Melinda | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Broken Promises
I booked a safari though Kenya and Tanzania with Galloping Safaris in 2019. Walter provided a nice itinerary for myself, my husband, and my two best friends. Other providers were less expensive, but Galloping Safaris had great reviews, so I went with it. Walter demanded prompt payment, that the money be wired to him immediately, which we did. The safari took place in February 2020. There were several issues throughout, including Walter and his staff not listening to requests to change small parts of our trip, lying about why we couldn't go to a place we planned to go, and skipping events we had paid for all together. We had paid for two nights at The Four Seasons Serengeti, and Walter instead had our guide take us to a less expensive hotel three hours away, one that was riddled with tsetse flies, without letting us know that we wouldn't be staying at The Four Seasons as planned/paid for. We demanded that they take us to the Four Seasons as planned the next day, but when we arrived the staff at Four Seasons let us know that Walter had not paid for our stay, and we were left sitting in the lobby. They told us that Walter often does this, and they do not extend credit to Galloping Safaris anymore, so we would have to wait until he paid to be taken to our rooms. We asked the Four Seasons staff to confirm the rest of our trip with the hotels in our packet that were booked, and not one of them had been booked or paid for. My guess is that Walter is unable to pay for the current clients' reservations until the future clients give him cash, which is why we were stuck waiting without paid reservations even though we had submitted payment in full to him many months earlier.
When we had issues with the trip Walter ran from us, ignored our calls, had our guide disappear. We drove hours out of the way on our last day of travel to meet up with Walter and settle up our issues, and he never showed up.
Through phone calls and emails Walter acknowledged that he was at fault and owed us a refund, which he never sent. We have contacted him multiple times and its always one excuse after the next.
I have traveled all over the world and have never felt as scammed as I have with Galloping Safaris. I strongly recommend that you book your trip with a more reputable provider.