On Safari with Features Africa Journeys
Features Africa Journeys
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Member Of:
- AMREF, KWS & KTB
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $300 to $700 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
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Email Allen | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
I found the owner to be a bit dishonest and deceitful.
First, let me say that if you haven't visited Africa, then you need to put it on your bucket list. Our trip was amazing as far at what we saw in the field. We saw lions in trees, the elusive Cheetah, baby elephants, zebras, hundreds of thousands of Wildebeest on migration, etc.......including a take-down of a Wildebeest by a pride of lions. The staff at all of the lodges were fantastic!! This was an amazing trip!
So now you are asking why the one star. The one star comes from the way we were treated by the owner of the company.
At the beginning, the owner was extremely responsive to our questions. But once we sent in our deposits, he went radio silent. Responses to emails either were delayed by weeks or never happened. I sent three emails in one month and never got a response. And this went on for months. His communications were horrible within our group of six.
We booked semi luxury resorts for the 10-12 days in the field. The first three were great. The fourth was a fantastic place but not what we booked. His reasoning was, it got us closer to the animals. And I will give him kudo's on that, as he was correct and the lodge was semi luxury. But it would have been nice to learn about the change in advance as it added almost 2 hours to the drive that day. At the same time we learned he only booked 2 of 3 park permits. This was a disaster for us as we had to wait almost 2 days for the issue to be resolved, then our guide (who was fantastic) told us he was getting incorrect information from the office and had to deviate from our normal game drive to get to a remote ranger station to get the third day permit. Needless to say our guide (not the owner) was not happy either.
The next two places we stayed were no where near what we expected or paid for. Instead of semi luxury, we got a "Eco-friendly" tent site where some members of our party had no hot water for three days. The last site was also a tented site. When confronted, the owner blamed his office staff for the confusion. Going to our last site I asked him where we were going and he said he did not know. How can you not know where you are taking us? Then he passes the original place we booked and traveled another hour to the last tent site! This site was located in the park, but so far away from the animals we could not go back for our last day.
We confronted him again where he finally admitted that he was afraid to tell us that all of the parks had significantly raised (in some cases quadruple) the entrance fees.
So instead of telling us up front, where we could have come up with an alternate plan, he decided to reduce the quality of the resorts to save money. If he had been open and honest with us we would have probably just paid the difference. Issues do crop up. It's how you deal with them that defines how good you are. But he lost out in the end, after the last tent issue, as we demanded a partial refund or we weren't going to leave the site.
-We were told 6 hour drives from location to location when reality was we drove for 11 hours on some days.
-Their advertised picnics were nowhere near what reality was and one "picnic" was in a parking lot of a gas station.
-Binoculars advertised were not available in some vehicles.
-Advertising ample legroom in the vehicles was not completely accurate.
-He spent a lot of time on the phone instead of talking to us.
-We finally learned that when he said "it's an hour from here" we just added another hour! It was a running joke between us all!
I could go on and on, but I think you get the message I am trying to convey.
The visit to Africa was amazing, but the the tour operator (owner) was a bit dishonest and deceitful to us, and as such I cannot recommend Features Africa Journeys.
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Email MPH | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
Absolutely visit Africa. The people, land, and animals are amazing. Our contracted drivers/guides for Amboseli, Kenya, and the Serengeti, Tanzania, listened and worked with us through difficult times. We saw more wildlife than we could have imagined. Absolutely visit Africa, but do NOT use the services of Features Africa Journeys.
Our final itinerary showed the list of upgraded lodging as requested and paid for. It was a LIE. Of the 6 listed, we were not informed of any changes until we drove past 4 of them. We were downgraded to tented camps, some with no amenities. One 3-night stay did not even have running hot water.
Estimated drive times were grossly underestimated. Many days were over 10 hours or longer, only leaving the vehicle for lunch. We arrived at all of the lodging as the day turned dark. For every upgraded lodging, we left after breakfast the next day. We did not have any time to enjoy the facilities or amenities. Heck, we didn't have time to even see them .
As a party of 6, with 4 being just under or over 6' tall, we we're assured the vehicle could accommodate us in comfort. We had a terrible time finding leg room. I had bruises on my wrists, head, shoulders, knees, and legs. One guide told us the vehicles are really meant for 4.
Park permits were not paid for in a timely manner. In the Serengeti, we had a 3-night stay but only a 2 night permit. We were informed, if the permit was not paid for, we would have to leave the Serengeti or risk being arrested!
The owner, became our driver when we returned to Kenya. We confronted him about his deceitfulness, asking him to be truthful with us. He looked us in the eye and lied over and over again. We ended our safari early and asked to go directly to the airport.
If I could, I would give this review a zero. I cannot say this enough. DO NOT USE FEATURES AFRICA JOURNEYS.
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Email Anonymous | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Compulsive Liar
To be clear, this is NOT a review of our visit to Kenya and Tanzania. This is a review of Features Africa Journeys. We took a 12 day safari tour and the experiences were amazing. Highly recommend visiting Kenya and Tanzania. Just don't do it with features Africa Journeys. The owner, Karanja, downplayed a lot, and made promises he did not keep. The man seems nice in person, but he's actually a shady salesman and a compulsive liar
Save yourself a lot of stress and discomfort and use someone else
Here's an abbreviated list of my issues. More detail below:
1. After first payment customer service and communication ceased.
2. Changing accommodations 3 TIMES after final payment without telling us. To lodges of signficant less quality.
3. Significantly over-promised the amount of space in the safari jeep.
4. Consistent errors in hotel reservations and park passes, risking use getting kicked out of parks.
5. Significantly downplaying the amount of time spent traveling between lodges leading to a lot of missed activities and no down time as promised in the itinerary.
There were plenty of other issues I had with them but my post is already too long.
Here's the details on the above:
1. Initial communications were great! Responsive, friendly, helpful. After our 1st deposit communications came to an end. Days of questions going unanswered, despite our literal begging for a response. The last invoice a month late. We all started researching the company because we were beginning to think it was a scam. Communications did not improve during the trip when we started having issues, detailed below.
2. Changed lodges on us, not once, not twice, but 3 TIMES!!! Without telling us!!! Over half of our trip!!! First lodge added 2 hours one way to our drive. The second lodge he changed without telling us, again, out of our way, and it was a DOWNGRADE. We were finally going to have a couple days where we would have the afternoon off (per our contracted schedule), and I was looking forward to the pool at the lodge we were promised. This place, no pool, no power, no hot water, my mom's phone would not connect to the wifi. No afternoon off. After the 2nd change we even had a discussion with Karanja about it, and again he didn't tell us then about the 3rd change. We found out when we drove past the lodge we were supposed to be at. After explicitly asking earlier that day. Another downgrade, another 2hrs out of our way. Of course the last lodges of the trip so we got to end our vacation on a sour note.
3. Said there would be plenty of room for 6 in the jeep, including the 3 people were of above average height. We were all uncomfortable and in pain, even the shorter people. I have bruised elbows and knees from the drives. Told by another tour driver that the trucks really weren't meant for more than.
4. The first hotel reservations were the wrong dates. We had to pull teeth to correct it despite being painfully explicit how many nights were needed. Find out half way thru the trip our Serengeti permit was wrong too. We were only paid in full for 2 nights instead of the planned 3. At 4pm the day before we would have been forced to leave the park, he sent us a message LYING that it's all figured out, only to find out it was paid 3 hours after his message from our driver. And then we had to drive 7 hours out of our way the next day to pick it up. At the end of our trip, turns out we don't have permit for Lake Nakuru Park either!!! Karanja claimed that "the system needed to be refreshed" but we had caught him in SO MANY LIES at this point we knew it was just more BS.
5. Drives between lodges that we were told were only going to take 3 hours took 8 hours, drives that were supposed to take 6 hours took 11 hours. All of it on water-logged, potholed, lose-your-lunch dirt roads. For 11 hours!!! We missed promised sunset dinners, assuming we didn't skip them completely due to exhaustion, there were lodges we paid a lot of money for that we never got to see during the day, almost no down time at any point, and many lunches were extremely late, 2 or 3 pm. One of our drivers said he'd never work for Features again because of how miserable the timeline was. Even when Karanja was driving us personally, he'd look us in the eye and LIE, telling us 10min when there was 2hrs of driving left.
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Email Marco | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Bad experience with Travel Africa Journeys
Please do not use this tour operator!!! they are completely unreliable.
The Owner changed the accommodation for our Tarangire stay (Tarangire Ndovu tented lodge) at the last minute without consulting me. The matter and the way he dealt with it is in itself unacceptable, but most importantly the lodge we were given (Acacia Tarangire camp) is for sure of lower standard than the one we had chosen in terms of location, room quality and common areas.
Moreover the lodge was more than one hour further south, which meant longer trip from Tarangire to Amboseli Park.
2) The jeep we have been using was very old and had several issues, including:
- some blocked windows
- extremely dirty
- the engine starter didn't work always and our guide had to ask for help from other cars several times in order to restart the car. We were lucky if we did not have major issues but this is a serious safety issue.
3) No binoculars were provided - the guide simply said it was broken.
I sent several emails with a refund request, but the owner never replied to me !!!
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Email Anna & Anton | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great company and wonderful safari!
We did 10 days combined Kenya & Tanzania jeep safari and it was unforgettable!
At first Karanja answered our many questions in detail and helped in planning the best itinerary to see the Great Migration. He also recommended the lodges and all of them were very comfortable with friendly staff and in an ideal location. Our safari guides were Antony in Kenya and Frank in Tanzania, they are incredibly professional guides and excellent drivers, they knew parks and animal habits very well and always stop the car in the best place for photographing animals. We saw The Big five in the Serengeti and Masai Mara! Lions, giraffes, zebras, elephants, cheetahs and many other animals were just a couple of meters away!
Features Africa Journey tries to fulfill all special requests. We asked for African cuisine on the trip and had a lot of different local dishes and drinks! At the end of the tour we were also shown a coffee plantation and a local banana beer bar. It was an unforgettable cultural experience!
Company 's team is very responsible and attentive to detail. They are never distracted from their work and are always on time. So our trip was very comfortable! Karanja picked us up from the airport despite that the safari began only the next day. The safari vehicles were in good condition and equipped with a charger and refrigerator. The cars were always clean inside and our luggage was protected from dust.
We are very glad that we did a safari with Features Africa Journeys! Thanks, you made our trip so amazing!
Great travel Experience in Tanzania
We bwere referred to Features Africa by a friend who had travelle earlier with them. We contacted Karanja and he assisted us organise a safari in Tanzania. Our guide Danford was a great companion as we navigated the difficult terrain and we saw very many animals and beautiful Africa landscape. This is a holiday we will remember and was one of our best travel experiences. We hope to come back some dayand will definitely use Features Africa again.
Thank you to Danford and the team.
IE
Email Lisa | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Exceptional experience
We did an 8 day safari with Features Africa. Right from the initial contact by email with Karanja we knew we were in good hands. The whole trip was well planned, each hotel/ lodge was well chosen. Our tour guide George was knowledgeable, kind and funny, we thoroughly enjoyed his company for our trip. He knew so much about each park and all the species of animals we came across and always positioned the jeep so well to ensure we had a good view and could take good photos. Our luggage was lost by the airline on the way over but to ensure we were never stressed at any point Karanja kindly sorted this out for us and liased with George to let us know where it would meet us, this meant so much as we could just enjoy our trip. I highly recommend features Africa and we are very thankful we chose them. Special thanks to Karanja and George for a fantastic trip.
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Email Christine & Billy | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Most incredible experience. Features Africa goes above and beyond!
My husband and I went on an 8 day safari in August (Amboseli, Naivasha, Nakuru and Masai Mara). It's the trip I've always wanted to go on and Features Africa went beyond all of my expectations. Karanja was wonderful helping plan the details, getting us into a lodge I was hoping to stay at and that was originally completely booked. Gerald, our guide, was fabulous. When we stopped to watch animals he always had the best positioning. It felt like the animals would come to us, instead of us moving to see the animals and we would have the best views and photo opportunities. He did this while respecting the animals and their space and the rules of the parks (which we appreciate!). The jeep was also immaculate and very comfy to be in all week. We're early risers and Gerald accommodated us, as well as readjusted the schedule when we wanted to watch the rhinos (and other animal friends) for a few hours that wasn't planned (black and white!). We've recommended them to our friends, who are planning their trip with Features Africa now, and hope we have the opportunity to return soon. Thank you again, Karanja and Gerald! Check trip advisor for some photos from our safari. x
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Email Monica | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great company and staff
When a couple of friends, my partner and I decided to go on a safari through Kenya, we found ourselves in the dilemma of trying to choose between one of the 872548765 companies that are dedicated to it. After analyzing several of them, we opted for Features Africa and ... what a good decision we made!
Karanja, the owner, was very quick when responding to our emails, provided us with as much information as we needed, gave us many facilities to formalize the reservation, etc. In addition, the day we started the safari he came early to our hotel to greet us personally and introduced us to our guide and driver, George, and he also came to meet us at the hotel the day we finished the safari to personally make sure that the experience had been as amazing as we expected.
On the other hand, George was, without a doubt, the best guide we could have. He was very polite, he cared about us, gave us good pieces of advice and he knew every corner of the national parks we visited. It was a joy to share those days with him and, if we ever repeat a safari in Kenya, we will expressly ask him to be the one who leads us again.
Finally, the accommodations. We did not know what to expect from them and, honestly, every time we arrived in one of them we were stunned to see how wonderful they were, the amount of details they had, the incredible attention from the staff ... wonderful in all aspects (and truth be told we are quite picky about these issues!).
Thank you Karanja and George ... meeting you has been a very pleasant surprise and the service you have offered us has been exceptional. We hope to see you again soon! Monica
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Email Wira W | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We will be back
The whole thing was amazing, since the booking process, and corresponding. Karanja was very responsive and fairly flexible in the way he accommodate our request regarding, scheduling, wildlife interests, photography questions.
Masai Maara in general is Amazing and I think i can write all the superlative words here to describe how great it was. We practically seen and photograph what we wanted to see there and more !
Our guide george was very very knowledgeable about the region, areas and animal behaviour that he really helped maximise our chance in getting a great pics of the animals.
To spend the last part our trip between baringo, bogoria, Nakuru and Naivasha was great, as our bird photography days was quite relaxing after 7 full of action days in Masai Maara. Our guide James was also great with good knowledge about birds and animal around these parts and very attentive to our need. (I was a bit sick for a couple of days). I also would like to mention a special praise for Karanja and his team, as we REALLY appreciate when he offered to have one free bonus trip of photo hunting of the African Fish Eagle in Lake Naivasha, as we did not see them when we where in Baringo. I know they mentioned this was because we cancelled our morning drive to Lake Bogoria, but ultimately because it was our decision, he did not have to do this. The fact that he did anyway we really appreciate it !
So there, Thank you again for this.
All in all, it was an amazing experience for our first trip to africa, and we are glad that we choose 'Features Africa Journey' , now we are sure we will come back, and we know we will be in a very capable hands.
Thank you Karanja and Features Africa Journey.