Petit Maasai Safaris

DO NOT GO ON PETIIT MAASAI or INNO SAFARIS, YOU WILL REGRET IT

I’ll start with this. I hate that I have to post this crappy review. I hate reviewing in general as I don’t have time for it. This should tell you how messed up my experience was and how angry and cheated I feel over the whole experience as were all the individuals who were taken on this safari with us in the third week of February 2019. The guides name was Kantona but he goes by “Eric”. Below is my description of the trip, it's chaotic because I am beyond angry, frustrated, and the trip was chaotic as well.

By writing this review I genuinely hope it spares you the experience I had. If someone had written this deserving review before I had booked this safari, I could have avoided this misery so at least I want to prevent it to happening to as few people as possible.

The bad (and it was 99% bad, really bad): I really hope this helps you make an informed decision and I would really urge you to steer clear of Petit Maasai and Inno safaris unless you want to have a miserable experience and feel cheated, lied to, and have a throbbing headache by the end of your “vacation”. If they want to lie to you more and tell you that my review is written by a competitor, please message me and I’ll be happy to email you a scan of my receipt and pictures of my safari.

The trip was memorable despite of the tour company and guide. That speaks to how beautiful the Serengeti is.

This “guide” wasn’t a guide. He was a bus driver. You don’t tip bus drivers do you? The audacity for them to even ask for a tip is already beyond comprehension let alone the fact that they asked for a "big tip" before the trip even started and in fact before he even told us what his name was as he never introduced himself and just said to put our bags in the car.

So firstly, I booked this safari tour through Petit Maasai Safaris. I spent a few days researching the tour operator before I booked and gave them a deposit. Like most people I did some research and would expect to be taken on the safari with that company. Oh was I mistaken to assume that I was going with the tour operator that I booked with!

The actual tour: I am put up in the hotel the night before the tour. The next morning a few guys dressed in jeans show up about 45min late and start yelling at me, are you going on safari? I said yes as did the couple in the hotel lobby also waiting for a tour. So these guys have no idea who I am or that I was supposed to be on the safari with them. After another half hour of them calling some guys they say ok put your backpack in the car. I carry it myself to car which isn’t customary on guided safaris but whatever, not a big deal. I get to the car and it has a completely different logo on it. It says Inno Safaris. I ask them whether I am still going with Petit Maasai and they just say no. No explanation, nothing. When I ask why not they look at me as if I’m crazy for even asking. To them, they’re taking me and that’s that. Almost as if they’re doing me a favor. This is all right after the first word out of their mouths were: "give Eric a BIG tip" before anyone introduced themselves.

I went on this trip because I wanted to see the great migration which the company office promised me I would see. They said unequivocally that it was part of the tour. One hour in to the actual tour after I’ve arrived all eager to see it, the guide says oh no the great migration is in Maswaa Reserve and we won’t see it. I was speechless. I felt very cheated considering they were more than eager to make promises and take hundreds of dollars from me.

The guide, Eric: he ONLY smiles when joking with other tour guides or screaming into the radio that when he wasn’t screaming into it, was full volume screeching for THE ENTIRE 3 day safari. I mean I wish I was exaggerating. Every time you’d say something to him like “could you tell me what species of bird this is?” the smile would instantly fade. At first this was concerning and eventually became comical in the context of this entire messed up “safari tour”. To this question he would reply with one word: the species name. No information on it such as sex, age, mating behaviors etc. (you know, the stuff that we go on these safaris to learn which makes it more enjoyable and memorable when it is more interactive). Boy, were my expectations flawed!

We were always the last ones to arrive to the park on game drives and the first to go back to the campground. No exceptions. I wish this was a figure of speech.

The entire three day trip the guide said maybe ten sentences to us. For every one word he said to us he spent one hour on the radio chatting with his friends on radio and cell phone. Asking him for anything was like pulling teeth. If you think I didn’t ask him to turn off the radio or god forbid lower the volume you are mistaken. Would just completely ignore any requests made by me or the other tour members. Just didn’t give a sh*t. I hope this review at least makes him care or at the least the owner of this company care because this isn’t acceptable and can’t continue. This is one of the most expensive events of my life and one of the worst service experiences I have ever experienced or could have imagined.

First thing you hear from them is give this guy a good tip. Not even a hello my name is... Never introduced himself. I thought this tip comment was in poor taste to begin with but I didn’t quite understand the audacity of this request considering the poor guide and service I was about to receive which I couldn’t have ever imagined. Not for something you pay for. Homeless people waiting in line at a soup kitchen are treated with more respect and dignity than we were on this tour.

Zero information about animals other than this is lion. Any other information was painfully solicited.

Would smile and laugh when talking on the radio but then the moment you ask a question his smile goes away. Acts like doing you a favor and you’re just interrupting him socializing with his friends. This "guide" needs to understand that he is there for you not the other way around. People fly from across the world for this experience and he couldn’t care less. Zero social awareness.

We were literally the only group that didn’t go to meet the Maasai people out of hundreds of other Safari expeditions.

Safari guide is one of the better paying jobs in this region of Tanzania and it’s a travesty that someone with this little apparent care for other people and in particular paying customers, with zero interest in or respect for nature who idles his engine in the Serengeti while all the animals breathe the toxic air, has this job when I’m sure so many would be willing to take his place. This guide would leave the radio screeching on for the entire freaking drive and Safari. While you’re trying to watch the animals and relax he leaves the engine on and all he says is can we go after a few moments. Zero information about the animals unless painfully solicited. So you’re listening to screeching radio for the entire day and listening to him scream into radio with his buddies while you try to relax and ignore it so you can actually watch the animals.

Oh and the cherry on top was him playing a prank joke of pretending to have forgotten me and then stopping a few hundred meters away down the highway. I thought at least this poor joke that I’ve paid hundreds of dollars a day to experience was over and he’d come back but to my shock he just idled the engine and waited for me to catch up to the car. This piece of sh*t not only doesn’t have the social awareness to not play pranks on paying customers and laugh at their expense but didn’t even have the decency to freaking put the car in reverse and come back. Just incredible. Simply speechless as were the other people of the group. If you don't believe this happened, I have it on video and will gladly send to you.

I understand that there are limits to expectations and customer service but this is one of those situations where competition needs to teach not just this guy a lesson but the company for lying to me and also for putting such an individual to “guide” us for three days. And furthermore we were promised a private tent but were put into a tent with another guy. Fine, wasn’t the end of the world even though that was another lie. But when we heard how loud he snores the nightmare was just continuing. So after listening to the guide yell into the screeching full volume radio, we got to retreat to a tent with the worlds loudest snorer.

On the ride home I was relieved to be leaving and at least be able to get away from the rude behavior and get some peace and quiet. To my further dismay, the guide picked up another tour guide and they jabbered in Swahili the ENTIRE 4 HOUR JOURNEY HOME. I mean at this point I was almost manic, trying to see the humor in how terrible this experience just kept getting, and alternating that with anger and thinking about how I will ever explain this on Trip Advisor. Because honestly words don’t do this experience justice.

I wouldn’t do this tour if I WAS PAID I feel like we should have been paid to go on this nightmare.

In summary: If you want to listen to three days of screeching radio, listen to a guide yell Swahili at other guides and into the radio all while being ignored and feeling genuinely disrespected, oh and feel like you’ve been lied to because they do lie to attract customers, and I almost forgot the cherry on top, be pranked that the car is driving away while you feel stranded in a third world country without your backpack or wallet, if this is what you want then Inno Safaris and Petit Maasai are the tour for you!

The good:
Food was good. I will give the chef that. He did a very good job in the mix of all this. And the Serengeti and Ngorongoro are incredible. The setting is one of the most beautiful I have ever been to in my years of travelling. You just can find so many alternative safari guide companies that will actually complement the scenery by providing information and just being nice rather than forcing you to have to tune out the noise and yelling and just the general feeling that you are there for them and they are doing you a favor. If you don’t like this job then quit. This isn’t for you and I can’t EVER imagine this individual providing any level of service that would leave someone happy. The guide just needs to be replaced.

Next time I will just rent a car and pay the park fees and do this safari myself because I will receive the same amount of information about my surroundings as with this guide (none). And at least that way there isn’t a radio and you can enjoy the peace and quiet.

I will lastly say that I heard that Innocent, the owner of the company who takes some of the groups, is actually quite good and is passionate and knowledgeable. But I wouldn’t take the risk of getting the guy that we got. Not when there are so many good other tour operators. And even if you’re promised to go with Innocent, I was promised to go with Petit Maasai and that’s who I gave a deposit to and we know how that ended. I also was promised to see the great migration and I also have yet to see it. Moral of the story, don’t trust what they say, their promises mean NOTHING and be very prudent when picking a tour operator and guide so you don’t experience what I did.