TH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fraud
I booked a tour with full payment but had to cancel because I was worried about Ebola outbreak in DRC. Barack, the head of the company, promised to refund me 80% of my payment according to the policy. It's been more than 3 months now but still hear nothing from him. Very dishonest and unreliable.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Took advance payment of $480 for transport, cancelled at last minute and not refunding the moneys.
I am convinced that this tour operator is a scamster. They took moneys in advance from us in March/July for a trip planned for August 2018 for a group of 10. At the last minute, they left us in the lurch and cancelled our bookings. They said that they will refund our moneys $480 within 30 days. Then told us that they have already wired it. But no wire came and the Company is no longer responding to our mails/calls. We have lodged complaints with Tourism Authorities, SA Police, etc.
IE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY - THEY WILL ROB YOU!
Do not use Bella Africa Safaris as Bella basically took our money and left us hanging high and dry.
We found this out the day after our arrival in Kigali when it turned out that nothing was paid for: no car, no permits, no activities. We did have phone calls with Bella herself who told us that she had financial problems, but all would be solved within 3 days and we just needed to advance $2000 for the first 3 days so that she could sort herself out. She would meet us in person back in Kigali, apologize and ensure us we will have a fantastic trip. Needless to say that never happened. We had no choice but to pay for everything all over again it was that or taking the next flight home. We were lucky to still be able to get gorilla permits and I wont mention the financial impact of having to pay for this trip of a life time twice.
We sent the deposit back in February to ensure all permits would be bought well in advance but nothing was done. So this was not a last minute problem with cash flow as one of the versions of the story we were provided with
I repeat DO NOT use this company they are a sham. Rwanda is amazing but our trip was spoilt by Bella’s dishonesty and greed. We went to Rwanda and have been back for 3 weeks and the last thing we heard she was going to ask for a loan and reimburse us every penny. This was 2 weeks ago. We will never see our money again don't waste yours as well, find another company.
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not reliable and fraudsters
I booked a tour with the agency Bencia Africa Adventure & Safaris based in Nairobi, starting from Kenya - Nairobi and that was to end in Tanzania - Arusha and then continue to Zanzibar. The tour involved crossing the large parks to follow the migrations, more than visits to sites of interest along the way. Obviously we knew that being in Africa and in a country where accuracy is not there we would have to adapt and not ask too many questions even if the price we had paid for two was very high. In any case, as we expected, throughout the trip we were not adequately informed about the program, giving us vague information and changing it continuously program, in fact three times we have changed the structures where to sleep, previously communicated, changing them with others not always of the same level proposed and the discovery of the change occurred only on the spot, without giving us the opportunity to accept or change. The first excursion was to Mount Kenya where we were told a generic "let's visit a cave", but we were not told that there were four hours of trekking and that we had to be equipped for a very rough path. The moral of the fairy tale, after half an hour of march a storm broke out and not being equipped we had to go back. And so it was throughout the trip. The most serious episode that happened and that ruined us all the rest of the holiday happened after 5 days of travel, when we arrived at the northern border between Kenya and Tanzania. They told us that they had to wait for their next guide before continuing their journey. They left us at a taxi saying that the driver would wait for us in the next city because he couldn't come there, we didn't have many problems because we were used to that way of doing and we went to the meeting in the next city. The guide we met, after a long wait, on the trip told us that he was a replacement for our driver who had the car broken and that would wait for us in the Serengeti Park. The trip was tremendous because he ran like a damned because we understood he didn't pay much and he wanted to get rid of us soon. We made the whole trip without water and lunch that were included. Arrived at the entrance of the park told us that we had to pay the entrance, which was already included in the price, but told us that not being he our guide, once arrived we would refund, we trusted and we paid. Once we arrived we immediately realized that the place was not the one we had booked. We had booked a tent with beds and instead brought us to a public field with a tent where we slept on the ground. The guide was not there and we tried to get him called by the person who had brought us them, telling us that he would arrive after an hour and a half. We waited for the guide and in the meantime we called the agency asking for explanations on the spot that was not the one booked, also because we did not know it, we were not equipped to camp, after my continuous insistence answered me that it was too expensive the tent with beds and changed structure and attached me to the phone not answering me anymore. We waited for the guide who had never arrived and stayed in the camp for two days without water or food, providing our own needs. We stayed two days in the camp sleeping in this public tent with sleeping bags recovered who knows where, because we didn't have the chance to leave, we were stuck and every now and then some characters told us that someone would arrive who never arrived. We were wandering in this camp that was not sure, so much so that one night a hyena chased us and we had to escape.
By day the camp was empty and we were left only two close to the tent and a small structure where they ate. We were really desperate, until we managed to bargain with a guy a passage to Arusha, interrupting the journey that was ruined. But not having the entry tickets to the park that the driver had brought with him, we would have had to pay the 400 dollars of the passage, the fine for tickets that we did not have, the two days of stay in the camp and the entry and exit in the park of Ngorongoro that necessarily had to pay to get out of the parks. At that point we decided to call the rangers who brought us to the police where we made the complaint and where magically occurred the driver who had disappeared. He was very surprised by the complaint and he justified himself by saying that the car had broken down and that he was finding a solution, he offered to let us continue the journey with him but we did not accept, the police forced him to give us the money of the entrance to the park, he paid us the car until Arusha and crossing the other parks. We also had to pay one night in the hotel, but once we got there the driver told us that he didn't have the money but we were relieved to have come out of that nightmare and we were very happy to be able to choose us a structure and get rid of them. The agency came alive when it heard about the complaint, apologizing and justifying that it had relied on this partner in Tanzania and that would have made us pay ... to date has never arrived anything. But the fact that I explained that it was his responsibility, because I had made a contract with him and that in the moment of need he had disappeared was a concept difficult to understand. We are now trying to find a solution to get compensation even though we know that it is impossible to get it.
Maybe we were a bit unfortunate but nothing justifies their way of behaving and the absolute lack of professionalism, exposing ourselves to risks and leaving us in a foreign land at the mercy of ourselves. Even just because of the stress their behaviour causes you, absolutely avoid them.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Avoid !
Did a Masai Mara Safari with Bencia end of July. It was supposed to be 3 days and we only spent 24 hours in the park, our guide pretending that the car broke down to force us to go to the Masai Village to force us to go to the Masai Village and to avoid paying the entry fee for another 24 hours.
We've had to complain and got 80$ back, so that we wouldn't put a bad review online. They pretended it was the guide's fault, and told us they gave him all the cash to pay the park fees. Although the park fees can't be payed by cash.
I met later a couple who told me the same thing happened to them, so it must be a regular thing.
Later on I met two Italian guys stuck in Serengeti campsite for two days without getting on any safari because they booked with Bencia and their driver never showed up!
Avoid!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
terrible experience, not professional, NOT recommended
Our experience with tinga tinga safari was horrible. They are subcontracting the clients to other companies so their cannot guarantee ANY itinerary, rendering them meaningless.
We had booked a safari to see the great migration and thus paid extra especially for it. We confirmed the day before with Akim, the person in charge, that we would be able to see it. He assured us we would. Well we didn't, not even close: After being bounced around in different cars, we ended up in a car doing a completely different itinerary than us. When these changes occured they assured us they would partially refund our money. After we got back they didn't refund us anything and Akim stopped answering our texts altogether.
They acted very unprofessionally toward us and lied to us from start to finish. I would not recommend them.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible experience
- Terrible experience, from the beginning to the very end.
- Terrible attitude from the staff asking for ‘goods and gifts’ before our arrival.
- Several problems with the payment and more than 50$ charge for paying with card.
- Real disgusting responses by “the boss”.
- Terrible car conditions and driving manners. We had a serious accident with a truck caused by our driver, when we asked the company for the insurance they ignore us and, literally, laughed at us.
- Do you really need more reasons to ignore this company? Make yourself a favour and avoid them.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The worst experience of our lifes
I’m writing this coment from Nairobi airport still shaking. Today me and 4 friends were coming back from Masai Mara area to Nairobi to have dinner and then take our flight home. We were in a van of the company “Africa Home Adventure”.
During the way it started to rain and the traffic became very slow. After a couple of minutes, when we were next to the Riff Valley our driver decided to overtake some cars so he moved to the other lane (uphill) but a truck was going downhill (in his lane). The lorry driver tried to stop, I even saw the smoke in the wheels but it was too late. It hit our van and we almost fall into the valley.
Fortunatelly, only one of my friends had some small cuts because of the window glass and I have a big swollen circle with a bruise on my leg starting to show.
The driver stopped another tourist van that offered to take us to the Tour company office. It was raining and the traffic became cahotic so honestly we just wanted to go away.
Around 300m later there was another accident. A big lorry fell into the valley and we believe that accident was due to ours, because after our crush the traffic stopped moving.
Finally this driver that helped us called our company and we met one member of the staff at the center where he was waiting us with a different car (a small one) and driver. He smiled the whole time, saying that it wasn’t a big deal and that it was the lorry’s driver fault. We couldn’t believe it. We all are drivers and we saw perfectly what happened. He just said “ok I’m sorry you can go to the airport if you want with him”, pointed out to the new driver.
We are ok but still in shock. I’m sorry for such a long text but I just want to let you know that if you are looking for a Tour company in Kenya NEVER choose “African Home Adventure”. In addition they charged me 23$ more when I payed the due balance at their office, saying that it’s because their rate change is different (apart from the 6% charge for paying by card, which I find it normal). When I tried to explain them that my card (Revolut) make the payment according to the exchange rate of the day they refused, I didn’t want to start our tour arguing so we didn’t reply and we payed.
By the way, I’ve seen they have great coments from a man called Abednegoh, he works for them. He was the one who was laughing while we were telling him that we almost die, and the one who texted me through WhatsApp a few days prior my trip which present I would bring him from my country.
There are hundreds of good and reliable safari and tours companies in Kenya but this one is not one of them.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Extremely disappointed and will recommend not to use them
Communications:When he knows there is a problem he decided to avoid answering the phone, other than that he responds ok.
Service:Not good, we definitely didn't get a good place to stay nor the trip was done as discussed!
living up to expectations:We found ourselves in a deserted camp-not sure if it was a camp-one hut with a small dining area.No other customers were there even though it is the season.
The food(ad the waiter) was brought in the car with us-which by the way was apparently a frozen chicken and eggs and we lived off that till the next day's lunch when we finally had enough and wanted to move camp.Of course we had to pay for the new camp as well!!after we complained to Rama/Gecko and his response was it's not his fault!!!
The Safari tour:
We booked two nights and three days:
First day:
the plan was to drive us from the ferry, have lunch and head to the camp and catch the ferry.They came on time to pick us up, however the trip somehow took longer than they expected so we ended up not having lunch and running to catch the boat.
Second day:
We drove up to the game park no problems.
Third day:
We were supposed to have our walk in the game park , we ended up just walking around our camp cause Gecko-Rama-decided to not buy the entry ticket and save some money!!While it only costs about 130 dollars for two people and we paid him more than one thousand dollars for two nights and we ended up paying again for another camp because the camp he chose for us was terrible, even the waiter came with us to the camp and he was the only waitron top of that we were the only customers staying there and I couldn't sleep the whole night!
*We were looking forward for this holiday, and we paid well and discussed all the arrangements in advance, but still nothing was done according to plan.It is very unfortunate to be treated this way.I would not recommend nor wish this to happen to anyone else.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
NIGHTMARE. This is a company full of liars and cheaters. Be careful, if you see one of them, RUN!
I point one start because it's not possible to put half or any of them.
This is a company full of liars and cheaters. They will try to fool you, get your money and then, seldomly they will fulfill the agreement you pay for. We hope that company will close soon and not more tourist will be fool by them.
Be careful specially with Ben, he will say at all your requests "tomorrow we will see", and then one they, he will respond to you, "sorry, but your complain are not mentioned on time"...