Shengena Adventure

10 day Safari Trip

Having read the previous great reviews for Shengena Adventure my boyfriend and I were confident in our selection of this company for our safari in Tanzania. However for the 10 day safari package we chose with this company things did not go to plan. Firstly there seemed to be a miscommunication between the tour operator and our guide from the get go as the very first morning we were left waiting for an hour to be picked up as the tour guide went to the wrong hotel. We left it go as we were excited for our trip. The guide was very knowledgeable and patient when we went on game drives. Then the switch changer for the fuel tanks wouldn’t work just as we began our journey to Serengeti. Having received help from 2 locals we got going. Again we let it go because these things happen. One night before what we were told was our hot air balloon ride the hotel said the hot air balloon company (Serengeti balloon safari- would highly recommend!) had our reservation for Thursday not Wednesday. We got onto our tour operator who said it was on Thursday even though our guide had told us Wednesday. We asked our tour operator to tell the guide as he was staying in the local village and not the hotel that we would be at the hotel in the morning not the hot air balloon field. Unfortunately due to lack of service in the area no one could contact him so they left us waiting for 3 hours the next morning to be collected when someone could finally contact him. Again we tried to stay positive even though the only ones missing out was us. That day we also got a flat tire (again it happens) and then the original issue of the fuel changer acted up again because the guide did not put fuel back in the first tank so that meant he had to manually switch the fuel tanks again. Little did I know my boyfriend had planned a surprise proposal in the middle of the Savannah for that afternoon with champagne. He had asked the tour company what could be organized and was offered to purchase a champagne lunch. He had paid a heavy enough fee for permits to go off road and get out of the jeep and the bottle of champagne. My boyfriend told me later that he had been informed by the guide during the day that he can’t go off road as he’ll get in trouble and my bf explained that’s why he paid for the permits. He was told the permits didn’t exist but agreed to help anyway which was nice of him. My boyfriend later showed me the stunning picture of the white table clothed table with an ice bucket and bottle of champagne that he paid for vs what we got- 2 camping chairs with a metal table and a warm bottle of sparkling 0.0% alcohol grape juice. Now the moment was perfect based on the setting and of course the actual proposal but I felt terrible for my bf having paid the extra money for no reason. He had tried to organize the hot air balloon in the am and then followed by that so we wouldn’t be covered in safari dust for the proposal. But based on how the trip had been going we just had to laugh. It was an actual argument for the tour company to give back the money to my bf for the “champagne lunch” even though we didn’t get champagne and the permits he paid for didn’t exist. The jeep then proceeded to break down so many times I lost count. At one stage bf pushed the jeep with 3 other men as it jeep wouldn’t start without a push. The middle console of the jeep was falling out onto the gear stick. We laughed initially at the “African massage” you got because the jeep was so bumpy but when we got collected by the hot air balloon jeep and rode the same roads we just realised how bad the condition of our jeep was. It was still bumpy but nothing like our jeep. The shocks of our jeep must have been completely gone. We completely understand sometimes things go wrong. But the amount of things that went wrong at no stage did the tour operator offer any financial compensation (besides giving back the money for the failed champagne lunch that they basically paid nothing for) as we were the ones that missed out on basically half a day of game drives. We paid a lot for this trip and we work hard for our money. Now we saw all the animals we wanted to see and all the hotels and staff were great so would definitely recommend for anyone to do a safari. However we saw so many different companies so I personally wouldn’t take the risk and go with this one just in case you have a similiar experience to us. Our guide said he was free lance so I would say given a decent jeep and correct information to go by he would be great. He was so informative about the animals and thankfully was able to get the jeep going each time. Not to mention he did go out of his way to drive out on the Savannah for the proposal.