Reviews
FR
Email Gosia M. | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Ken showed up drunk twice during our safari
Although Uganda was lovely and a highly recommended destination, unfortunately we finished our safari with Bushmemories with a feeling of a relief. During our 10-day tour, Ken showed up completely drunk on two mornings, putting us in an uncomfortable position as the trip was already fully paid and we depended on him. Moreover, his organization was already a bit erratic before and during the trip, and overall we did not feel we got a great value for the money we paid.
The first situation took place in Fort Portal, his hometown, where Ken showed up 2 hours late for our morning departure, drunk and with a bleeding wound on his face. The second situation took place on the last day of our safari, when Ken showed up at 6:30am with a drink in his hand and barely able to stand straight, and without enough money to pay for our hotel, fully refuel the car or provide a lunch for us (although at this point we preferred anyway to arrive as soon as possible to our hotel in Entebbe and be free of him). He never apologized for his behavior, and we didn't feel secure enough to confront him. We were grateful that our driver Johnson was an extremely responsible and dependable person.
Before the trip, he did not give us a clear payment schedule, instead asking (with urgency) for different amounts at random moments. He changed the price relative to the original quote mentioning a change in the rate for gorilla permits, and tried to reuse this same excuse again later to increase the price further. On multiple occasions we started the day from driving around town to run Ken's errands that could have been easily taken care of the previous afternoon, as we usually finished our days early.
We requested a program that would not be too packed (also for budget reasons), but we were disappointed to realize that the last two days of the trip we were mostly confined to our hotels with no activities planned. Several items on our itinerary called "experiences" consisted of looking at something (tea plantation, long horn cows) from the car with some explanations from Ken. Having paid more than 200 USD per person per day, and having stayed mostly in budget accommodation we would have expected something more.
We did enjoy our holiday most of the time and loved what we saw in Uganda, but Ken's behavior was completely out of line and inexcusable leading us to leave the reviews to help other travelers make better choices in the future.
SN
Email Benjamin | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great trip
Hi all,
I and my family went to a trip to Uganda. We wnet through amazing Lodge and National Park. It was beautiful and to be honest we were not expecting nor me or my wife such welcoming and enjoyable country. Our Tour guide Ken was great. He really did a great job as well as his colleagues. I strongly recommend him to anyone who would like to go there. Cheers.
US
Email Birch | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Can't be trusted. Kenneth Karuhanga is a fraud.
Four months ago we reached out to Ken for a proposal to organize our trip to Tanzania. He is based in Uganda but is also listed as leading tours in Tanzania on your website, and his proposed itinerary and reviews made him seem like a good fit. He said he would be the guide for both our six-day ascent of Kilimanjaro and our five-day safari from Moshi. He asked for a $1000 deposit to cover national park fees and staffing costs, which seemed fair.
One week before the trip Ken told us he needed more money since it was the holiday season and costs were higher. We felt it was unfair to change the budget right before we started traveling, but agreed to move forward with the trip as planned and to pay the extra sum when we arrived.
When we arrived in Moshi and expected to meet Ken, we instead met a woman named Neema Mushi who runs an agency called Licious Travel Adventures (also on your site). She explained that Ken was not coming to Tanzania at all, that her price of the trip was under budget and that Ken had not forwarded any of the deposit money we had sent him.
We spent many evenings frantically trying to reach Ken and recover the deposit money to run our trip as planned, but Ken said he had needed the money for "another project" and couldn't send it right now. He finally sent $175 to Neema, but that didn't cover half of the new price increases she insisted on.
Possibly worst of all we learned that Ken had been pushing Neema lower and lower on her price, while asking us for more and more money. When we asked him what he felt he did to deserve the $825 cut he took for himself, he said something about booking the one hotel we stayed in during our trip.
Our experience with Ken was one of: 1) misleading us to believe that he would be leading the trip; 2) never once mentioning he was reselling our trip to an extreme budget agency; 3) lies about early cost increases of the trip and sticking us with the bill of the actual increases; 4) theft of our deposit money (he still refuses to return it)
Email Pete Exley | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Fantastic and varied trip around Uganda and Rwanda
We booked a 15 night trip with Ken Bushman and I would have no hesitation in recommending him. Communication was excellent throughout the planning stages and he made very valuable suggestions and discussed/changed details to tailor our trip to our exact preferences. We used a variety of accommodation ranging from budget to luxury and all were up to our expectations. The journey was well paced and well balanced with a wealth of fascinating experiences. Wildlife highlights included walking with rhinos at Ziwa sanctuary, seeing chimps in Kibale forest, Gorillas in Bwindi NP, Boat trips on the Nile to Murchisons Falls and on the Kazinga channel and numerous game drives in different national parks. We also added on a 2 night trip into Rwanda which provided quite a contrast to Uganda with interesting visits to the Kigali Genocide memorial and other sites. Bushman is an excellent guide, everything ran smoothly, any minor hiccups (inevitable on a trip such as this) were easily and professionally sorted out. Uganda is a great destination with more variety than you might expect - a visit with Bushmemories safaris would be a great way to see it.
AT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great tour to awesome places, with a cool and funny guide!
Uganda is a beautiful country, safe, with great people - and getting around with Kenneth was a really good way to get it to know. He showed plenty of beautiful places, not only in the big National Parks, and told a lot of interesting stories about the country, its landscape, nature and of course its people. He is also very flexible and makes every effort to fulfil the wishes of his clients. And he is good fun to be with! :-)
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We had a great time in Uganda together with Bushmemories and felt very safe all the time.
We spent 9 days on a Safari-Trip in Uganda with our driver Kenneth from bush memories. We had a lot of fun together and felt very safe on this trip. Kenneth an the people in Uganda itself speak really good english and because we had a driver, he could show us things parallel to the touristic route. We went to a really basic village wich was totally interesting to see an I´m sure we wouldn't have found it without him.
Uganda is such a nice, friendly, beautiful country. The highlight for us was the contact with the Ugandan people and the track to the Gorillas (totally worth it)! To be honest to go on Safari in the Nationalpark and see heeps of animals Kenia or Tansania is better for that.
But Uganda is much more real - and not that touristy like Kenia and Tansania.
US
Email anjahni d. | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This was the trip of a life time
Going to Eastern Africa was a dream of mine since I was a little girl. When I got married, my husband and I went on our honeymoon. We wanted to experience the Mt. Gorillas as part of our journey. Ken and his driver Alfie gave us an experience I will never forget in this life time. Ken worked very hard to make sure everything went well and went out of his way to change things around so we experienced things that were important to us. Our trip was booked to see Mt. Gorilla but Ken made sure we drove through the rural country side so we could see what life was like in the villages. We stopped in a small town and had lunch at a local restaurant (eating like the locals is very important to us; if we wanted to eat like we do at home we would stay at home) and went to a local market (which is one of my favorite things to do when traveling. Nothing tells you more about people than their market) We got to see Lake Bunyonyi, which was spectacular and where Alfie stopped the jeep for me so I could see a local man's baskets (he was walking down the road, transporting them on his head). They bought me a basket, which is now a treasured piece in my home. Ken is passionate about conservation and we had some educational and meaningful conversations about Uganda and it's natural wildlife. But the Mt. Gorilla's were by far the highlight of the trip. We were informed we might hike for hours to see the Gorilla and even then there was no guarantee. We hiked about 45 minutes through thick forest and then we saw them. Being so close and personal with them was a spiritual experience. At one point, a little toddler looked at me. I gazed right in his eyes and we held that for about ten seconds. After that, that little tot stayed close to me the entire time we were there (we were only allowed an hour with them for their well being), including pulling my hair (we are not allowed to touch them but I guess they didn't know they were not supposed to touch us!) and swinging over my head and throwing sticks at me. I just loved it! The mama was close by and made a grunting sound at first. I actually told her, "Don't worry. I won't hurt your baby." She looked at me and then didn't grunt at me anymore (but she kept close by). To see those magnificent animals, our cousins-I was convinced 100%- was auspicious. Words really can not describe our time with them.The silver back was this enormous creature who was clearly in charge. I loved watching him and how we led his family. We followed the group for an hour as they foraged and roamed for an hour. I was sad to leave them and I think about our time with them often (I have several photographs in our home and at work to remind me of this very rare and special experience.) I would recommend Ken in a heartbeat. You will not have a better guide than him and you will not have a better experience. Uganda is a lovely place that will remain in your heart.