kenya bush Safari Vehicle
Kenya Bush Expeditions
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2013)
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $300 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
IE
Email Harry | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Lying Cowboys
Kenya bush expeditions lied to me and my local guide about available tickets for the Sheldrick Trust tour for the 20th of December.
On enquiry they said they had 7 tickets available and we only needed 4. They asked for an email to send the payment link and we were slightly skeptical so we offered cash on the day which they agreed.
They charge $50pp US for the tour and the price is actually $15pp from Sheldrick. All they offer extra is pick up and drop off.
On arrival to the Trust, we pulled over and the driver said we had to wait. After questioning he said that we didn’t have tickets and we are waiting to see if there are any no shows. There were 6 other operators engaging in the same activity. Imagine if we had paid online prior!
Absolute cowboys! Sheldrick trust informed us that they are fully booked until the 6th of January and all bookings should be done through them. This company still offers available tickets every single day for the tour, complete liars.
US
Email Jake janybek | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The tour guy was nice but demanded extra pay.
I booked the tour through TripAdvisor, securing it for the listed price of $85 for the 6:30 tour. However, the organizer contacted me via WhatsApp on the evening of the tour, stating he would pick me up at 6:15. Upon arrival, he proceeded to pick up other participants from a different hotel before reaching the park gate. To my surprise, he then requested an additional $45, catching me off guard. Reluctantly, I agreed to pay in cash upon our return to my hotel, complying with the unexpected demand.
To further add to the frustration, we were left waiting for approximately 40 minutes at the park gate, with no communication about the delay. Eventually, the tour commenced. My concern lies in the discrepancy between the advertised price paid online and the unanticipated extra charge in person. This unexpected financial request and lack of transparency about delays were disappointing aspects of an otherwise anticipated experience.
DE
Email Max | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good guide but contracts not honored
I booked a tour (2 days Safari Maasai Mara). Did the 50% prepayment.
One day the company owner contacted me telling me that park fees got raised and that he wants me to top up my fee about another 80USD per person.
I told him out of generiosity, that I can take over 50% of the increased fees, because thats his business risk and not mine (and package+price was already negotioated).
He declined and didnt even try to find a good solution here, just wanted me to take the whole fee. As client paying hundreds of Dollars for that tour already, that behaviour just felt really wrong and "greedy".
So just wanted to warn you that if you book with that agency, you might end up paying for additional stuff that was not negotiated (maybe he will also charge you for inceased gas prices, who knows.)
Tour itself was good. We had a great guide. Just be careful with your prepayment. Cheers
Reply from Kenya Bush Expeditions
Posted on Aug 22, 2023Dear Sir,
WE tried our best to give you the best tour. You gave agreed this. The government increase was announced at the last minute. Such fees are covered by the client. We had contacted you to cancel the trip but you insisted we continue with the tour. Kindly be candid and tell the whole story. We tried our best to give you the best tour.
NG
Email Dave | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nairobi Park 1/2 day tour----The Gilligan's Island 3 hour tour.
It was advertised as a 4-5 hour tour, it was less than 3 hours in the park.
Our expectations were not high so the bar was set low and they couldn't even meet that.
After everyone was picked up at 1:30 we were told "all the animals are asleep now and the best time to start is 3 pm." So to kill time we drive to a small souvenir shop/snack place for about an hour.
First question is if there nothing to see until 3 then why not pick us up at 2:30 instead of 1:30? Obvious answer---to take us to some place to spend money where I suspect the driver and/or company is getting a kickback. THIS ANNOYED ALL THE PASSENGERS (we talked about it) since it was very obvious what was going on.
So we get to the park entrance at 3 and by the time everyone has paid the entrance fee we head in around 3:20. Funny thing is there were numerous vehicles in the park already and we pass a few LEAVING. Didn't they know the animals were all asleep when they arrived a few hours ago? lol.
Long story short what we saw was: Virtually nothing, certainly nothing of interest until 30/40 min. in when we saw a pride of lions sleeping (they should be awake, don't they know what time it is?). There were long stretches of nothing but in the end did see both black (2) and white (2) rhinos, lots of zebras and 3 giraffes only because we happen to see them far off and luckily they were headed in our direction so we stopped and waited. We pass that area 30 min. earlier or later and we don't see them. We also saw lots of Impala, one Ostrich, a couple of hartebeest and 3 hyenas.
They tell you up front in their ads there are no elephants so we knew that.
All we saw of the "big 5" was Lions and Rhinos so no leopards or buffalo either. Also no cheetahs, wildebeast, Hippos, baboons or crocodiles or well....anything else. Of course there's luck involved and no one should expect to see everything but this was pathetic. We headed out of the park before 6 pm so the tour was less then 3 hours long.
The whole thing was more like a Gilligan's Island 3 hour tour gone wrong then an interesting African safari of any kind.
IT
Email michela | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not so good
We booked a 5-day Safari between Tsavo East-West, Taita and Amboselli. The quality of the facilities is very good however the time spent on the Safaris was very little (in fact we saw very few animals). Much of the tour was spent in moving from one park to another. We usually arrived at the lodge to check in around 12 noon and the guide took us to the safari directly at 3 p.m. for only two to one and a half hours. All this money for two hours a day of safari doesn't seem like the best.
We were finally very disappointed when we were taken to see the rhinos in the special reserve near Tsavo...the guide arrives there for 4:30 p.m. and after 20 minutes makes to leave since the park closes at 5 p.m.; but couldn't he have taken us there earlier?
finally, the guide did not seem the least bit knowledgeable to us and never wasted time looking for animals (he even came without a spotting scope!).
DE
Email Holger | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good operator for first time experience!
We chose Kenya Bush Expeditions because the tours offered on SafariBookings fitted best to our holiday plans.
As we never did a Safari before we wanted to make sure to get a good all-in-one package.
This is exactly what we got!
From pick up in Nairobi to drop off at our desired place everything was organised.
We spent a lot of time in parks to discover landscape and animals.
Of course you need to be lucky to spot every animal you want to see (Big Five: check!), but our guide was a big plus in this. Even without seeing animals for a few hours we enjoyed the landscape a lot so no day felt wasted.
Communication with Kenya Bush Expeditions and our guide Peter was perfect. Days were planned good so it was a good mixture between relaxing and adventure.
For our taste there could have been a bit more flexibility regarding the daily schedule. Sometimes we had to leave the spot because of timing issues although we could have enjoyed the situation/scenery for a bit longer.
Overall we recommend Kenya Bush Expeditions to anyone who wants to experience their first safari.
Thanks to Peter who was patient, put a lot of effort in spotting animals and for driving us safely throughout the whole tour!
SK
Email Tomas | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
1-day Amboseli
We were very glad that we found 1-day Amboseli tour as we did not have enough time to visit it for longer period. Our driver was very experienced and professional. He took us for a great breakfast on the route. We were lucky and we have seen whole Kilimanjaro in the morning. Besides that we have seen all the animals we expected from this tour. Lunch was also very great!
However, we had a small problem with the payment, as they did not inform us in advance that it is not possible to pay by dollars older than 2016. So we had to pay by card with payment fee.
Good tour
The safari was really nice.
However Amboseli is the nicest to see, I would recommend to stay longer in this park. There is no much to see in Tsavo west (too many bushes).
The hotel are okay and well located except Amboseli where we were far from the reserve (50 minutes).
Our guide was really nice but it would have been great to have longer day (safaris start at 7 and end at 12).
Kenya Bush is a reliable organization and they are really reactive, you can trust them
IN
Email Vijay Nakashe | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They are good to go with
Hi we have visited Kenya through Kenya Bush Expeditions. We found John very cooperative. The Guides provided to us by him namely Geoffrey , Tonny and Peter were knowledgeable, providing us detailed information about the animals and Birds we saw . Patience shown by them whenever we were taking Photographs or looking at Animals and Birds. Tonny was amazing as he is a singer , photographer in addition to guide so it’s an icing on the cake. Overall it was amazing experience going with Kenya Bush Expeditions to Kenya.
IN
Email Rajagopal | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good transportation with knowledgeable and courteous drivers cum guides, stay arrangements not ok
We were a group of 19 from India , right from the beginning of the tour till the end the guides cum drivers (Mr. Geoffrey, Mr. Tony and Mr. Peter) were very courteous and had good knowledge of the jungle routes ,animals and birds. They were patient enough to wait for us whenever we requested for a good sighting. Our stay and food arrangements were not up to the expectations we had as being mostly vegetarians the options very few, quality of rice was good and fresh, in most of the jungle camps electricity and Wi-Fi/network were very limited or totally absent. Overall a good experience. Advise to all , the local cell network works best with "Safari", "Telkom" is useless ,it available only within Nairobi city limits.
