Ewamanns Safaris

Subcontracted safaris were great, transfers between them were not

We went on a 9-day safari that included Masai Mara, Lake Manyara, Seregeti, and Ngorogoro Crater. Each of the parks were very enjoyable and we saw a ton of animals, including all of the Big 5. However, all of our transfers between the parts of the safari were very stressful.

When we flew into Nairobi, there was apparently a driver waiting to take us to our hotel, but we were not told to expect a driver nor did we see anyone at the airport that seemed to be looking for us, so we took a cab to our hotel. When we got back from the Masai Mara leg of our trip we were staying at the same hotel for a night, but the hotel had to call Erick, the safari manager, to verify that we actually had a reservation because it didn't seem to be on the books. We then had no idea when we were going to be picked up in the morning to go on the next part of the safari. It turned out Erick was coming to the hotel to talk to us later that night, but we were not told to expect that. He told us he would be picking us up in the morning to take us to our bus to Arusha, but in the morning he did not show up, so we had to call him, and then eventually someone else showed up to take us where we needed to go. Once our bus got to Arusha, there was a crowd of safari bookers and cab drivers waiting to take the bus passengers where they needed to go. All the other passengers either knew where they were going, or a safari booker came on the bus and knew the passenger's name and where they were going. We were left on the bus with no idea where we were going and no idea if anyone was supposed to be picking us up, and then we were asked for our bus ticket, which we didn't have. We luckily had Erick's phone number from calling him that morning, but our phone's didn't work in Tanzania so we had to have someone else call him. Erick told them the safari company that was supposed to be picking us up, but they didn't answer their phone when called. We almost took a cab (that we would have had to pay for) to that safari company's office, but luckily the people who were supposed to pick us up arrived right as we were leaving and caught us. We had a similar experience when arriving back in Arusha at the end of our trip, and we had to have the hotel call the Tanzanian sub-contracted safari company (which we luckily remembered the name of) to verify that we had a pre-paid room, and then again in the morning to verify they were actually coming to pick us up. When we got back to the bus, we were again asked for a bus ticket we didn't have, and we again had to have them call someone to verify that we had a prepaid bus trip back to Nairobi.

A lot of this stress could have been avoided by giving us a detailed itinerary with all the information about the sub-contracted safaris, pick up times, and contact info for a person at each transfer.

To top it all off, before we even left our home country, Erick contacted us to inform us of some increased park entry fees, letting us know we should bring a little extra money to cover them. We did so, but when we settled our balance on arrival, the balance did not include these increased park fees. Then, on our second night in Nairobi (between the Masai Mara and Tanzania parts of the safari), Erick gave us a long explanation about how he sets the safari prices for the whole safari season even though Tanzania often increases their fees in the middle of the season. He told us that he does not force his clients to pay the increased fees since they agreed to a lower price, but that he tells his clients about the increased fees in the hope that, if they have a good time, they choose to pay the price increase. This made it sound as though he wanted us to think of a the increased fees as a tip that he should receive if he did a good job. Because of this long-winded explanation, I chose to see how the rest of the trip went before deciding whether to pay the fees, and since we had to convince people at every leg of the trip that we were pre-paid and have them call various people to make sure, the trip didn't seem like it deserved an extra tip. However, once we arrived back in our home country, we received numerous communications from Erick asking us for the money for the park fees. All of this felt pretty slimy to say the least. The ridiculous part is, if he had just included the park fees in the balance when we settled up at the beginning of our trip, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. Instead he had to make it seem like he was demanding a large tip for a very sub-par job.