Our staff was part of a Fam trip to Ngamba Island
Achieve Global Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2011)
- Member Of:
- APTA, AUTO & USAGA
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $30 to $900 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
BE
Email Brian | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Plagued by admin issues.
My experience with Achieve global safaris wasn't great. After some back and forths with the team an itinerary was agreed on and 50% was paid in advance, it was mentioned that the remaining 50% would be paid on arrival with my Amex.
Here's a summary of the issues I faced:
I was told my Amex would work, it didn't, I had to dig around for another card
During the Rwanda part, of the trip, the driver saw and commented on my headphones, upon returning from the chimp safari he told me he used them and they were great. Not cool. He'd also eaten my lunch so I ended up with his choices. Again not cool.
For the Congo part, I needed my yellow card to show my vaccines, I wasn't informed about this but took it anyway. Feedback from admin was 'oh we thought you knew'.
For the flight from Rwanda to Uganda, I was not informed beforehand that I needed a visa. I escalated that to the admin contact and again she said 'it's not our fault, we thought you knew'. A shocking response, they informed me about the Congo visa but not the Uganda one? Madness
The Uganda itinerary wasn't accurate, there was confusion between admin and the driver, luckily I hadn't booked the hotel myself or else i'd have lost money.
The Uganda seemed to be more concerned with working on his preference of timing. I missed an activity because he didn't want to eat at a certain time, which meant us waiting around for 2 hours in the roasting heat doing nothing.
The Uganda driver asked if it was OK to pick up his wife on the way back from Queen Elizabeth park to Kampala. I said OK but this actually added 2 hours to the trip that he didn't tell me about.
Overall it was pretty disappointing. I also voiced my concern that there were no internal flight options proposed, the admin contact came back saying 'I didn't know your budget'. Another odd response considering 3 hotel budget options were proposed.
Avoid, the whole experience was pretty disappointing.
BEWARE OF SCAMMER / LOW QUALITY
I am glad that I did not book with Achieve. I saw their van while in Murchison and it wasnt nearly as nice as the 4x4 with a pop top that we enjoyed for a better price with Uzuri (https://uzurisafaris.com/) instead.
I had originally planned on booking with Achieve, but their email account was hacked and I sent a wire for $3,140 USD to scammers. The owner Polly Kamugisha took zero responsibility even though I took steps to verify the fake instructions sent from their email account. I even messaged an Achieve employee on whatsapp to "confirm the email with updated instructions are legit? Just wanna make sure nobody sent a fake message from your email account" (see screenshot).
I wouldnt normally air my dirty laundry like this but the world should know that the business owner's response to the incident was that I should seek help from the police... not only is he ignorant about the likelihood of a recovery via law enforcement, but I am still shocked that he doesnt think Achieve has any responsibility for the instructions sent from their compromised email account. Wouldnt even agree to split it.
Probably would have been more victims if I hadn't separately reached out to a 3rd party lodge in my efforts to verify the suspicious instructions sent from Achieve's email address. They called Polly to make him aware of my concerns before I sent the wire.
Don't expect Achieve to be there for you if anything goes wrong! Have the time of your life with Uzuri or any number of better companies out there!
