Four Crane Safaris

Changes to 2 of the 6 Main Activities on the Itinerary

Our experience with Four Crane Safaris was a mixed bag.

The good:
-Paul was very responsive to our communications prior to the trip. He arranged a custom tour for five people which included 6 main activities (two game drives in Queen Elizabeth, a boat safari in QE, chimpanzee trekking, gorilla trekking, and golden monkey trekking/ a second day of gorilla trekking.

-The lodges Four Cranes booked for us were splendid.

-Our driver quickly responded to requests and seemed to want us to have a good experience.

-The rangers at the parks and the boat guide (who were employed by Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi, and Mgahinga) that led the single day activities were fabulous. The gorilla trekking was such a special experience that we will remember for years to come.

-A member of our group celebrated her birthday during our trip. Paul arranged a cake and our driver gave her a Uganda shirt. It was very sweet!

The bad:
-On our first day, our driver informed us that Paul was unable to acquire the chimpanzee permits. He said Paul was supposed to tell us when he met us at our hotel that morning. When we asked Paul about this later via email, he said he didn't tell us because we were busy checking out of the hotel. He also admitted that he knew about the failure to obtain chimpanzee permits a month in advance of our trip, but he chose not to communicate this to us as he wanted to tell us in person which he then opted not to do. Via email, he offered to refund us the fee for the chimpanzee permits or to do an additional game drive. Our group selected the refund which we never received.

-Our itinerary listed the tree-climbing lions and game drive on our first day in Queen Elizabeth. We were then told that this section of the park was too far and we wouldn't be going there, but we would go to the north section of the park for the game drive. When asked about this, Paul at Four Cranes said he had copied a prior itinerary for ours and the tree climbing lions section was left on in error. Then, we were informed days later that we will not be getting a refund for the cancelled chimpanzee trekking as we did two game drives. However, Four Cranes had two game drives listed on our itinerary and it wasn't clarified to us until days later that the two game drives were also in error and only one should have been listed. We left the tour feeling cheated and scammed by this. Four Cranes should have reviewed the itinerary they sent us before sending it initially or at the very least at the time we paid the deposit. Any changes should have been communicated then.

Both good and bad:
-The trip was advertised as having a guide/ driver. While nice, our driver did not offer guiding services. He drove through the national parks at 60 km/hour and did not stop for animals unless we asked to stop. That said, once we asked him to drive slower and to stop for animals upon request, he did. The driver provided the names of the animals but not much more. Very little was shared about Uganda's culture, and nothing was shared about history or current events. When we asked questions, our driver would answer, but sometimes answers were clearly false. He'd state, "There are no birds in this park" and when we pressed further to ask about the birds we were hearing, he'd say "they are in their bed."

-The car broke down twice. Luckily, once was on the morning of a travel day and delayed us only a few hours. The second time, a different care was temporarily arranged to pick us up from golden monkey trekking while the original car was being repaired. The vehicle was older and definitely showed that it had been loved, but overall, it got the job done. It was missing one seatbelt, and one of the seats was slanted to the side, but it got us around. That said, our driver and Four Cranes seemed to work to fix the car mechanical issues as soon as possible.

-Additionally the jack under the passenger seat leaked oil onto one of our group member's coats. Upon request, the driver took the coat to get cleaned for $10. The strong chemicals used removed the oil from the outside of the coat and left a strong turpentine-like smell.

-Despite our driver repeatedly saying communication was important, he provided little communication about the plans for the day/ expectations. However, he was very responsive to our requests. Once we requested to stop to see the animals on the game drive, he did so willingly each time we asked (yet we had to keep asking). Our driver multiple times asked if we wanted to go do something (such as see the salt farm community up close or see flamingos up close) and after responded "no" he still took us to the place. Upon reaching the place, we again confirmed that no, we did not want to pay extra to see the attraction. This wasted time and is an anomaly to the other tours we've done. That said, he knew we were disappointed about not going to see the tree-climbing lions, so he thoughtfully took us to see three sleeping lions in the north section of the park.

Summary:
We talked with other travelers at the lodges and during the trekking who really enjoyed the other tour companies with whom they booked. Four Cranes has potential to grow into a successful tourism organization; however, based on the multiple changes to main activities on the itinerary (game drives and chimpanzee trekking) and the omission of a promised guide, I would not recommend Four Cranes for your trip to Uganda.

Note: the above information was shared throughout the trip and after the trip with Four Crane Safaris via email. Paul expressed that he was saddened that we weren't satisfied, but he did not make efforts to resolve our concerns about dropping chimpanzee trekking in order to do a game drive that had already been listed as being included on the itinerary. He also stated that many travelers have been satisfied with Four Crane Safaris' tours in the past, yet I can only review based on our personal experience.