Reviews
Great safari.
My experience was wonderful!The guides were awesome and found the big 5 for us.The lodges were so nice and the communication was excellent.
AE
Email Jacky Muthoni | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari
My experience was wonderful ! The guides were awesome and found the big 5 for us.The lodges were so nice and the communication was excelent.
HK
Email Mr Kotoro | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amezing and wonderfull trip with Solaris Safari
Great safari trip with driver guide from Solaris Safaris
We booked a safari with Solaris Safaris for February 2017. We went with 4 adults. From the briefing at the Hotel in Nairobi till the drop-off at Jomokenyata airport, we had a wonderful Safari and great trip.. With thanks to our experienced and very friendly driver/guide , who knows almost everything aboud wildlife as well as Kenya culture. Jose Kim arranged some lovely accommodation too for us. it was excellent trip, for sure They make it an unbelieveable experience for us.. thanks as well to Solaris Safaris team.
CA
Email Saad | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Experience!
Josphat was great from the start, he gave us all the information we needed and ensured we had an amazing time in Masai Mara. Uncle Joe our guide ensured we got to see the Big 5! The stay at Ashnil Mara Camp and Ilkeliani Camp were fantastic. Highly recommend everyone book a tour with Solaris! Great Team!
PT
Email Roquesinho | under20 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
One of the best due to its efficiency and management
In the services its simply amazing,efficient and to the point thus making sure it lives up yo the name its made for itself so far
IL
Email NS | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Kenya, and the SOLARIS the FRAUDSTERS
This is a genuine review about our trip (me & my husband) to Kenya during last month (5 days, End of January 2018).
Hope this will help you, if Kenya is in your bucket list also.
Kenya is an amazing place, with its scenic places, very friendly people, tasty food and the best tea.
There are many tour operators available online, please start doing the research a bit early and go for a reputed one.
I contacted many tour operators but got impressed with Solaris quotes and their flexibility which made us to choose them. The only and the biggest mistake I did in planning this trip. Now after the trip I understand, being flexible to any extend is the trick to make you fall for them.
The coordinator and the spokesperson from Solaris was Josphat.
Here is the list of disappointments by the Great Solaris!!
• Starting of our trip - Josphat cancelled the Amboseli NP plan without informing us. When we got ready with lot of excitement in the morning the driver took a turn towards Nairobi and said that you flight was delayed so the Amboseli NP is cancelled. We were shocked to hear this as we landed on time and got out of the airport as well on time, it was a lie told by Josphat to the driver.
We travelled all the way from Nairobi to Amboseli just to sleep in the Lodge...!!!!!!!! I must say the Kilimanjaro view we had from our lodge was spectacular, which kind of calmed us down.
And on second day travelling all the way from Amboseli to Lake Nakuru...
We reached late to Nakuru also...!!!!!!! 2 days wasted in our 5 days trip...!!!!!!!
Refund Number 1: Mr. Josphat then agreed to give us back the National park entrée ticket fee.
• We were provided with a safari van, which had a non-working radio. Only after reaching Masai Mara we got to know the importance of radio. The guides communicate to others over wireless when they spot something.
Our driver knew this radio issue from day one and he did not open his mouth until we were stuck inside Mara with no radio. If driver and Josphat had communicated properly, they could have fixed/replaced the radio when we had crossed Nairobi on the second day from Amboseli. But they did nothing...!!!!
We got to see the big 5, only because we were lucky...!!!!!!!
• The driver hardly opened his mouth and he is supposed to be the experienced safari guide too for us. He was more like just a driver who had already reached his retirement age. Every day we started on time, but never reached any destination on time...!!!!
He was very careless and sometimes rude too and never cared about our time.
Example,
After balloon safari (on the 4th day) he was supposed to pick us inside Mara at the agreed upon spot. When we returned he was already waiting there for us, but as soon as we got in, he said “I don’t see your lunch box inside and this hotel guys have forgotten to put it”, We had to go all the way to the camp from the national park to take the lunch box and after reaching there it turned out that it was in the vehicle all the time and he did not check it properly and just started blaming camp guys. This event made both of us very upset on for first wedding anniversary morning. First of all it is his job to make sure the lunch boxes are in before he leaves the camp and he did not care to check that while waiting on the spot for us too. Then at last he can’t search his own van.
Because of his carelessness we lost almost 2 hours in the morning, the time when we get to see more games.
Refund Number 2: For all the disappointments, Mr. Josphat wanted to correct his mistake by refunding some amount on the next day of our trip end.
Even after a month, follow up with lot of patients, we got zero Refunds!!!!
After one month, we did not receive any money, which explains us that was not a flaw which happened accidently, but all the plans and promises were just lies to get our booking.
When we are spending so much, his refund is not a big money. But still we wanted to give him a chance to admit and correct his mistakes.
So, guys after spending so much money, so much researching, expectations and planning, if you don’t want to end up with a feeling of being cheated, DON'T GO WITH SOLARIS.
Only 35 reviews in all these years tell what SOLARIS really is...
In spite of all these, it will still be a special trip with the magical view of Mt.Kilimanjaro in Amboseli, Flamingoes in the Lake Nakuru, Masai village visit, balloon safari and the big 5 safari in Masai Mara .
It would have been a lifetime trip if we would have chosen another tour. If we get a chance we definitely want to go back to Kenya, but definitely not with SOLARIS.
Reply from Solaris Tours and Safaris
Posted on Mar 6, 2018Hello NS
Greetings from Nairobi, and thanks for your review.
We are are medium sized company that have very good ethics in business. We appreciate you had great time and spotted the magical Kilimanjaro mountain, Flamingoes in Lake Nakuru National Park and the big five in Masai Mara National Reserve. We believe that having a 5 day safari and experiencing all this as a great opportunity.
However we are greatly concerned with the raised issues. You arrived at 10.42 am aboard an ET flight. We meet at 11.45am at the arrival hall. YOU HAD NOT PAID YOUR SAFARI and we had to settle the balance which you had promised to pay on arrival via paypal. We spent another 45 minutes working on your payments. I mentioned to you that on this day game drive in Amboseli would not be possible since we were behind and we all had agreement. An email dated 5th January 2018 explains the details of the drives and you acknowledged and you insisted Amboseli National park must be included in your program against our advise- I will resend it to you if need be. In addition we had mentioned about some refunds in case we had not informed on this on time.
The vehicle used is a brand new Minivan with all safari features - pictures can be sent with you on board. The driver is among the most experienced safari drivers in Kenya. We understand about the driver, but if you considered the driver old with less knowledge you could have informed me since I met you thrice on your safari.
We greatly admit some of the mishap and time constraints on this safari and we believe this may have been done better. But on every safari there is always some little or more time difference that might occur due various factors.
We welcome you again Kenya!
Thanks
Solaris Team
FR
Email Charlie De Morguex | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
On of the best experiences ever in Africa
Our trip to Africa was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I love Africa, it was better than I could have ever imagined, Kenya and Tanzania were exceptional. The people were wonderful and the animals were amazing. We really enjoyed our guides Mr Joe and Mr David is an exceptional organizer with much patience for all my emails and questions. He was very informative and quick to respond.
Thank you so much for helping me fulfill my life dream!!
Charles
Email Claire | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Complete fraudsters.
We paid 4 months in advance because otherwise Solaris couldn’t pay Ngorongoro Farmhouse for our accommodation (apparently). We arrived in Tanzania and had an email to say we had been ‘upgraded’ to a tent in a place called Mosquito River. We were then parked in a hot vehicle for 4 hours in the middle of Arusha because the company had no money to pay for the game parks. The vehicle had broken seats and windows and all the seatbelts were broken. Amazingly we all survived long enough to get malaria !
Many emails since and 5 months later not a dollar back for the poor accommodation (the farmhouse had a pool, electricity, food and mosquito nets), missing game drives and spending hours in a dangerous truck because the tent was nowhere the Crater !
They are crooks, stay away
IN
Email Niki | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari In Tanzania
My husband and I had a safari in Tanzania and we are greatly impressed. The quote, the payment options, the quick replies, the safari experience, the guide the vehicle are all great. We highly recommend them
US
Email Anonymous | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Solaris is an absolute fraud, DO NOT BOOK YOUR SAFARI WITH THEM. If I could give 0 stars, I would.
Solaris Safaris is an absolute fraud, DO NOT BOOK YOUR SAFARI WITH THEM.
We booked a 6-night safari with Solaris in Tanzania. We prepaid everything in two installments, as they required, and they promised to provide 6 nights of hotels, all of our park fees, a private car/driver for the two of us, and all of our meals while on safari. In short, they provided almost none of these things and we ended up paying additional thousands of dollars to keep our safari going that has not been refunded to us despite many promises from the company that it would be.
Hours after we arrived, the problems began. Our driver (who was not a Solaris employee, but rather a local guide contracted by Solaris) was several hours late to pick us up because Solaris did not provide the necessary funds and information for our trip to begin. We missed out on a few hours of game drives that day, and Solaris had not organized our lunch for us. Later that evening, our local driver came to find us at the lodge to tell us that Solaris was supposed to have sent him money that evening for the next day but had not yet. We had to call Solaris several times to try and figure out the issue and they wouldn't do anything for us. The next morning, our driver was again several hours late because Solaris kept telling him they'd send money and never did. We ended up having to pay our driver directly for 4 of the 6 days out of pocket on top of what we had already paid - this was required up front to allow our driver to get enough fuel for our 4 days in the Serengeti where there are only dirt roads and no gas stations. We also had to pay for all of our park entrance fees, which were supposed to have been included, plus a balance on our final hotel. We ended up paying another 50% on top of the total trip cost while on the ground in Tanzania just to continue our trip. Meanwhile, Solaris kept telling us everything would be fine and they would sort it out and this never, ever happened. We wasted several expensive hours on the phone with them instead of in the parks doing game drives.
At the end of our safari, Solaris agreed to refund us everything we paid out of pocket and set a date to do so a few weeks later. We never received the refund after several reminders and emails to them, and they have stopped responding to our emails. This company is an absolute fraud. We have reason to believe they embezzled this money for their own personal gain.