Office Staffs
Pride of Africa Adventures
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2014)
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $350 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
ES
Email Mariano | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Feeling deceived
Services contracted: Fully customized private safaris, 4 days Amboseli, Tsavo West and East and 9 days Samburu, Buffalo Springs, Aberdare, L.Naivasha, L.Nakuru, Hell's Gate and Maasai Mara.
First of all, I want to put on record the positive aspects:
- Smooth communication with quick responses from Stephen during pre-hire planning.
- Willingness to adapt the tours and accommodations to our requirements.
- Experienced and qualified drivers.
I am writing this review 5 months after the safari because in those months Stephen from Pride of Africa assured me that he was looking into ways to compensate for the problems I describe below.
- Problems with payments. I paid a deposit by wire transfer to secure the booking. The balance was to be paid upon arrival in Nairobi in USD, but most of the banknotes I had with me were refused. They said they would only accept freshly printed notes, even though the older notes I had were perfectly legal. They also refused to accept payment by credit card or wire transfer. We spent hours at the ATMs until we had reached the maximum on my cards. The driver offered to make up the difference in cash and accept the payment via bank transfer later.
- Non-compliance with the programme. The visit to Samburu Park was cancelled, thus saving the entrance fees, but we have not been refunded. The safari in Aberdare Park was limited to 1 hour in the cafeteria of the Ark Tree Lodge, despite the fact that we had indicated from the beginning that we were not interested in visiting the lodge but wanted to do some of the trekking to the numerous waterfalls in the park. At Lake Naivasha the tickets for the boat trip and visit of the island turned out not to be included despite both activities being included in the programme (the justification was that the programme included the entrance fees to the parks, but that Lake Naivasha was not a ‘park’ (??).
- Non-compliance with the Masai Mara programme. It included 4 game drives in the park: the first in the afternoon on day one after the scheduled lunch at the lodge where we were to arrive at noon, 2 full-day safaris and the last one in the morning before the scheduled departure for Nairobi at noon. However, the driver delayed leaving the previous park (Lake Nakuru) and made several stops along the way, meaning we arrived too late for the first safari. On the last day, the safari was reduced to a drive between the entrance gate near our lodge and the exit gate closest to the road to Nairobi, in a manoeuvre by the driver to save on entrance fees by justifying at the checkpoints that we had only crossed the park on our way from the lodge (we even went through the checkpoints with the roof closed so as not to look like we were coming from a game drive). We reported these irregularities to Stephen before we left Kenya and asked for a refund of the unpaid entrance fees, but since then he has only postponed the resolution (claiming that he had to complain to the driver) and has avoided refunding the money to date.
DE
Email Oliver | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not thrustworthy, you should not believe a word they say.
We booked two safaris with Pride of Africa in January 24 for our Kenia holiday in October 24.
Just about two month before the trip we were informed by Stephen, that the park fees for Masai Mara have been raised and that we have to pay a higher price for the safaris. On my complaint, that the higher fees have already been officially released by the time of the booking they said that they expected the government to not really stay with these higher fees and so they did not integrate them into our price and that we will have to pay the higher fees. Finally, we agreed that I will pay some higher amount, but not the full difference and I got the assurance from Stephen that we will find a good solution for both of us when we are there.
Finally the good solution was that I was told to pay the full additional amount and that otherwise they will not start the safari. This really felt like fraud to me, because in this position there was no other way out for me than paying the amount and the obviously knew this in advance.
After my complaints after the tour Stephen promised me several times to talk to his boss again and make sure that I will get a refund (I have this as a written statement!).
Now it is already three month later and I did not get anything than more and more empty promises.
If you ask me for my recommendation it will be that you should not believe a word the say and even be careful with what they write.
Additionally it turned out during our tour, that many of the described and booked parts of the safaris will just not happen, as it is absolutely impossible to do all this in the given time frame and driving distances. And again, I am sure that they of course knew this advance. Don’t get me wrong: Our guides did a good job and in general it was a nice and unforgettable trip, it was just more expensive with much less safari parts than promised before.
To get a good feeling about the honesty and trustworthiness of Pride of Africa Adventures just look further down in these reviews where you will find a review from Phelix from October 24. Everything you read in this review is a lie. Neither has Phelix booked a tour nor was he there with his family. Actually, he was one of our guides and I took the photo that shows him at the boundary stone to Tanzania. If you look at the attached photo you will see the same guy at the same location at the same time. This review is just a fake and maybe a good description of the business of Pride of Arica Adventures