The Team Behind Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris
Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2003)
- Member Of:
- Eco Tourism & Kenya Wildlife Services
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget & mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $64 to $490 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
US
Email Phill | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Dishonest Management
It's a long story, but in summation we paid extra to stay in nicer accommodations but were taken to another location without being told or asked. We had to confront the company before they would admit the mistake. Management made multiple excuses with a story that changed each time then promised a refund for the difference between the two places. We contacted the company multiple times for this refund and have yet to receive anything.
At the end of the day, there are so many great safari companies, why use one that you can't trust?
Reply from Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
Posted on Nov 11, 2016Hey,Phil ,We acknowledge your review to know that you where NOT happy with the same facility you approve after long phone discussion before you did the booking of the safari ,we respect all our clients Negative and positive feedback and this make our company more responsible on the services.
We are sorry to see your review online claiming you did not received the refund of USD$100 for your group of 10 person at USD$ 10 per person ,and to confirm for you this, I personally did the transfer the money to your account .
Please we request you to be clear and honest on this,For other travelers to know the truth.
Email Sarah | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
BEWARE: Please do not book before reading this!!
When my mom and I agreed we wanted to come to Africa this year, I contacted multiple safari companies. Kenya Walking (KW) was the fastest to respond. I also chose to go with them because they are local, the reviews online seemed great, and it was in our budget. We paid half then, and half when we got here on July 17th. We were supposed to have a 15 day Kenya and Tanzania trip.
Our first 10 days, all in Kenya, were fantastic. We were very satisfied with the experience and nothing went wrong. However, on our 11th day, when we were supposed to go to Tanzania, everything dissolved into chaos. The driver who was supposed to pick us up at the border was not there. There was a group before us to told us they had been waiting at the border a day, and they did eventually get picked up. We were worried, but we waited there like the company told us to do. KW kept saying they would be there shortly. After hours in the hot car, we finally went to the hotel. KW told us to get a room there (we paid for it), and that the driver would arrive in the morning. The next day, after calling and waiting for hours, still no driver. KW hung up on me and then just stopped answering the phone.
We were finally picked up, just as we were leaving to go back to Amboseli, and taken to Tanzania. The next 5 days there ( we stayed a day extra because of all this) were awful. No permits, hotels, or meals were paid for. We would be waiting at the park gate for hours until either a permit came through, or we paid for it ourselves (it is way more expensive to pay for permits yourself. we paid $280 just to get into serengeti). There were a couple middle men between KW and us, and all of them were calling us telling us a different story or a different plan. The hotels we did stay at, we either paid for or the owner let us stay there, despite not being paid yet. Of our 5 days in Tanzania, only 1 was very good, and we had to pay for hotels that night. Between my mom and I, KW had been paid $440 each day for us to be there. That money was nowhere to be seen. I soon found out the likely cause
Fortunately, getting back to Nairobi was smooth. There was a driver there to pick us up. By this time, I had peiced together some of the story. Our driver then told me the rest.
KW is run by a guy named OT. Last year, OT apparently spent the equivalent of $500,000 on a peice of land with tourist money. He thought the land investment would return a profit by the time the tourists arrived in june/july. The guy who sold him the land was a conman, and the money was lost. So, clients were stuck in the same situation. At the time, OT had his tour company license taken away. Somehow, perhaps with a bribe, he got it back. He also seems to have doctored his reviews online (there is warning on trip adviser now about it). This year, it seems he may have done something similar, lost all the company's money. This disaster unfolded starting on Saturday, July 28th, when the group before us got stuck at the border. It has been one week since then, and now the company's website is down, multiple guests (including myself) have filed reports in the Kenya Police office and with the Kenya Tourist Police, and the drivers are doing the same because they have not been paid. Our drivers were so kind, I feel terrible that they have not received compensation for their time and work, as this is their livelihood. I was also told there are 16 people stuck at the Tanzanian border, and more tour groups stuck around the country. We received an email from KW promising to refund us by certain dates later this year, but I have doubts that will happen.
What a terrible situation that has impacted so many people. We feel fortunate that this didn't happen before we got here or right after, because we did have a great first 10 days.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Welcoming the New Year in Kenya!
From the warm welcome at the airport in Nairobi, the Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris representatives have been amazing and very professional. The food was delicious, the camp fire was amazing.
The Masai Mara was amazing from the moment we arrive to the time we left. We saw a huge amount of wild life, including lions, cheetah, elephants, giraffe, hippo, and more. The wide open plains provided great opportunity to see the animals as well as the most brilliant sun rises and sun sets. Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris staff is a great company with reasonable price options and the staff was excellent and make the stay with them memorable, leaving you wanting to return in the future. The food was great. Our kids (3) enjoyed this unique experience. After all, it was worth the bumpy ride. We highly recommend this company.
AE
Email Cris | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fraud!!!Be aware
We booked a 4 days trip safari for Kenya 3 months ago. I already payed and have received an email saying:
The company
has technical problems and therefore cannot give the required
services.You will receive the funds
between 45-90 working days...I am calling them and nobody answer..We are going to the police office.
US
Email DLM | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great safari tour company in Kenya
I arranged a four-day safari with KWSS over the internet. I was traveling on business and I was impressed that they did not charge me a single supplement. The communication with their office was very fast. After establishing a departure date I provided the 50% deposit via Western Union without a problem. They picked me up exactly when they said they would. Because I was traveling alone, I had a private safari van and driver/guide. My driver/guide provided excellent information about the land and people. In the Maasai Mara, he got me as close to the animals as possible and let me spend as long or as short a time as I wanted in any one particular spot. He listened to the CB radio on which other drivers reporting sightings of hard-to-find animals and got me there quickly. A pride of lions walked directly in front of our car, which was spectacular. KWSS provided exactly what they described in the itinerary. I felt they were honest and treated me well. I would definitely recommend them to others.
IT
Email Tiziana | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Discover Kenya,Tanzania and Zanzibar together with local people
We travelled through Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar with "Kenya Walking". They are wonderful countries, to get to know them with expert local guides from Kenya Walking is a unique experience, they were very kind and succeeded in letting us see all the big five!Arrangements were almost perfect, we had a budget and they managed to mix budget (but nevertheless fascinating) with luxury lodges and hotels.Our group was 2 adults and 2 teens, we had 2 (two!) guides always with us, ready to accomplish our every wish, they even cooked for us typical meals!I would strongly recommend a travel with Kenya Walking!
Email Preeti Krishnan | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing discovery
This safari was organised as part of an overland tour. The safari operator Oti had everything organised and made us feel extremely safe. We did a 3/4 day tour of Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara. He was very well informed and spoke excellent english. We managed to get upclose to 4 of the big 5. Even though we were camping, we were still very comfortable. Meals were all provided.
Since that trip my friend has been back for another tour and I intend to do the same in the near future. All in all we had a fantastic time and can't recommend this tour enough!
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
It was a great expierience
We did a 8 day safari, 4 days walking in Loita Hills, 4 days Gamedrive in Nationalparcs.
We had a cook and a driver and the car was always available. The walking with the Masai was a great experience and the Gamedrive was also nice. We had the luck to see Hunting dogs.
The cook prepared excellent food and we were always well lokked after.
Thanks OT also for your help the last day in Nairobi and bringing us to the airport.
CH
Email Tobias | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unsure solvency of the company - Definitively not a care free safari!
First of all: this review has nothing to do with the beauty of Kenya and Tansania nor our personal tour guides or cooks (they have been super helpful)! Both countries are beautiful and their people have been exceptionally friendly and accommodating!
However, if you want a carefree safari tour in which all bookings/reservations/parking fees are payed in advance (as discussed and payed for) then we suggest to book with a different company. We cannot express how disappointed and frustrated we were in regards to the organizational skills of Kenya Walking Safari's (KWS) management. It caused us many nerves/patience and most of all time during our 10 day safari.
In order to be fair with KWSS we would also like to say the at the end of our tour KWSS compensated us with approx 5% of the tour price for lost time and wrong calculations.
Anyway we would like to explain what happened:
We booked our safari tour in April 2016 for our trip in August 2016. We had extensive contact with KWS which gave us confidence because they were always very responsive and answered all of our many questions. We payed well in advance (a good amount of money!) and expected that all accommodations/services/park fees would be payed/booked for us in time for our arrival.We are very well aware that we can come across unforeseen circumstances and that flexibility is required. However only to a certain extent.
During our tour we encountered four issues which we would like to explain for others in more detail:
The first issue we encountered was during our first lodge in Maasai Mara. Taking KWS's suggestion, we swapped 1 day in our tour due to ongoing animal migration in the region (adding 1 day in Maasai Mara and take 1 day off from our Tanzania tour).This was a good idea because we were able to see the river crossing. However, we didn't receive the same standard room we booked for originally.We wrote KWS a mail to see how to proceed (since there was a clear down grade on our room).They didn't reply to us until the end of our safari tour.
Second issue:after wonderful game drives in Maasai Mara and a great time at Lake Navaisha we headed off for a very long drive (8h) to Amboseli National park. According to our itinerary (which was reconfirmed verbally and on print during our face to face briefing in the Nairobi office) we were booked at the Kibo Lodge (high class safari lodge). We were then surprised to hear from our tour guide that he had just received a text message from the office saying we would be spending 2 nights in the AA lodge instead of Kibo (another down grade as they have different room rates). Apparently Kibo was fully booked due to government officials.We decided to see for ourselves and were more surprised to hear onsite from Kibo lodge that they did have available rooms and no government officials! We of course did not take the room in the AA lodge and insisted on taking a room in Kibo (according to our tour program we had payed for). We then found out from the hotel manager that they no longer accept KWSS clients because the company has outstanding payments. We (including our tour guide) tried to call the KWSS office many times (including the "hotline number") because this was a situation we were not going to accept. We were not able to get the manager of KWSS on the phone and waited 4 long hours until we reached someone from the office.They suggested that we pay the 2 nights ourselves (400$) and we will get a refund. Obviously, after all that we had heard and experienced we were not ready to pay ourselves. Due to the kindness of the Kibo hotel manager and our persisting tour guide we were able to check in at 8.30 pm. KWSS had promised to send the money to Kibo the next day, which they then did the next afternoon.However, low and behold,we encountered another group from KWSS on the second night at Kibo. They had the same problem! Unfortunately they weren't as lucky as we were and had to go to another lodge.
Third issue: after transferring from Kenya to Tanzania,we slept a night in Fanaka lodge to be ready early morning to go to the famous Ngorongoro crater.We were supposed to depart at 8am.However, our tour guide told us that there was a problem because KWSS had again not yet sent the money for our accommodations and park fees for Tanzania. KWSS's Tanzanian business partner, contacted us and suggested we pay 440$ and KWSS will refund us as soon as the money has been wired (apparently there was a technical problem so money transferring was not available). As you may guess, this was not an option for us.KWSS's credibility was non existent. So we called the KWSS office and were surprised that they actually picked up the phone. However this wasn't very helpful and the Tanzanian business partner had to borrow the money from his relative (!) so we could go on with the tour.We waited for almost 3 hrs until we were able to leave.
Fourth issue: after all that had happened, we decided to cross check our past accommodations and realised that KWSS had double calculated the first hotel night in Nairobi. By the way: don't accept a booking at Henessis Hotel.This is a shabby hotel which by far did not meet the standards of our other accommodations. This could have been an honest mistake but we decided to list all the issues we had during our tour for full transparency.
To come to an end: After many emails and involvement of a 3rd party, KWSS management was cooperative and quick in refunding us (after we finished our tour) for wrong hotel accommodations and lost time (several hundred dollars in total).
In short:
- If you want to do a safari tour do it definitively in Tanzania and Kenya - people (incl. tour guides and cooks), nature and food are amazing!
- If you are looking for a carefree package KWS is not the best option
- If you insist and put pressure on KWSS you probably will get refunded for issues, however we believe this only worked for us because we involved a third party
Email Buddini | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
an insight into East Africa
There is nowhere in the world like East Africa for immersing yourself in nature and appreciating your true place in the animal kingdom! When guided by the right people who know their land and culture, it is a humbling experience. Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris exceeded my expectations of the Uganda Gorilla Tour, which was more than a hike in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to come breathtakingly close to one of our closest relatives - it also included the wildlife of the magnificent lakes, the Rift Valley, and a most memorable insight into the culture of East Africa that can only be fully conveyed by a locally owned and operated tour company (I know, I have used a UK company before!). The trip from Nairobi to Kibale went seamlessly - comfortable travel and good, affordable meals and accommodation. I was impressed by the professional standards of KWSS - in particular the flexibility in the face of a last minute change of plans by other clients of the tour group. I felt I had a private tour specifically tailored for me for the price of a group tour, that is how much attention KWSS paid to my needs!