SE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The tour guide is really bad
We did not have a good experience with Karibu Safaris In Kenya since our tour guide Edward was really bad and not engaged at all. He did not communicate anything to us about anything during the transportation. And during the safari he did not tell us anything about any animal or anything. We had to find all the animals ourselves and when we asked him to stop so that we could take photos of the animals we noticed he got annoyed all the time. We expected more from a guide, basically he was just a driver who could not communicate and he slept in the car every chance he got, not professional at all.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Horrible
The experience was a nightmare ,from the time of pickup, amount, choice of hotel and the tour guide who had no knowledge of what he does as a guide .The land cruiser was filthy with lots of mechanical problems (over heating)
The worst part was the food.
BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Disgraceful agency. Don't use them at any cost.
We booked with Image Travel Ltd the following package : 4-Day Luxury Lionhill Camp & Mara Serena Lodge Safari with 4X4WD LandCruiser Jeep for 2 persons costing 3,996 $.
This is a highly negative review for this agency which surprisingly has otherwise very favorable reviews.
1) First of all, the booking process was good, I got several quotes from multiple agencies from safaribookings website and compared them, did a lot of research using different reviews websites and finally choose Image Travel. Booking was made in July 2024 for a safari in September 2024. Paid initially a deposit then full payment using wire transfer. Up until then all good with smooth communication.
2) As we are approaching the start day of our safari, there was no communication from the agency. They didn't know our hotel in Nairobi, neither did they have my phone number, nor did we know the pick up time. So 2 days before the start day I email them in the morning letting them know my hotel and to confirm pick up time. No reply. I send a WhatsApp message in the evening. No reply. 1 day before start of trip, still nothing. I was in Nairobi already so call them around 9 am to ask. A man picked up and when I asked about pick up time he said 8 am, and I told him I sent email with our hotel name, he said ok I will reply to you. It's now 2 pm and no acknowledgement or reply to my email. Having wire transfered 4000 $ and just hours before the safari start, I decided to go check out their office in Nairobi CBD area. There were 2 girls, and I told them I come here to confirm the trip, she is ok, took her dairy and noted the hotel name. When queried how would she have known our hotel if I didn't come, the answer given was "most our guests come the day before start so we send them email 5/6 pm the day before to confirm the hotel and time"... ok but that's not a reason to not reply to email or WhatsApp message. Poor communication. Red flag was raised here.
3) Next day luckily the safari driver is on time to pick us. We go to lake nakuru, but the agency hasn't paid the entrance fee. So we wait at the front entrance waiting for them to pay. That seems normal since other safari vehicles also stopped waiting for payment. But they waited at most 15 min. We waited almost 2 hours... the driver had to make several calls to them to get it done, with excuses such as "she is going to the bank make payment "... meanwhile dozens of cars entered the park. Arrived at park entrance 12 pm and entered at 2 pm. Due to this we missed lunch, no big deal but still, and it started raining. So we skipped the hotel and directly went for the game drive. The game ended being much shorter than planned due to this delay.
They also changed the hotel to sopa lodge and booked double room when I clearly asked twin bedroom and they confirmed it. Luckily the hotel was good enough and they gave us twin room.
4) Next day, going to Masai Mara, the driver and us made a clear plan to press Image Travel office to pay the entrance fee to masai mara early to avoid the same issue as Lake nakuru. We left Lake nakuru at 7 am. We arrived at Masai Mara entrance at 1.30 pm. And Serena park entrance at 3.30 pm. The driver told us it should take 5/6 hours. It took 8h30... the driver was driving slowly, he even made the following remark "I am driving slowly to buy us time so they can make the payment of the park"... that was so, so frustrating, so I paid 4000 $ and flew all the way to Kenya just to enjoy a slow ride in a jeep going to Masai Mara ? Seriously ? According to the safari plan, we were to supposed to arrive at Masai mara for lunch... completely wrong.
Now ofcourse despite the driver several calls, the fees was not paid when we arrived at Masai mara entrance, but the driver got a "transit pass" to go to the Mara triangle entrance. Then the agency told the driver due to "payment system issue " we should pay the entrance fee, which is 800$ for 2 persons for 2 days by ourselves and they will refund that amount later. I got an email from them stating that also, "promising" to refund the amount once "the issue is solved". Now I am no fool, and I don't believe I would ever see that amount back, living in Europe dealing with a Kenyan travel agency on basis of "promise" in an email. I flat out refused and told them to sort it out. I paid 4000$ and I am not expected to fork out another 800 $ because of their problem (or atleast that's what they say). I got a number from the email to call, and I told them I paid a full package, they are member of the KATO (Kenya Association Of Tour Operators), have good review and rankings and this is completely unacceptable and unprofessional. I told them I don't have 800 $, so either they pay the fee or we go back to Nairobi and next morning I register my complaint with KATO, the tourism police and Tourism regulatory authority, in addition to negative reviews. She said ok give me 30 min to find an alternative to solve issue. Keep in mind that it's approaching 4 pm and we are wasting time dealing with this instead of a game drive... 5 min later, the driver found a solution : his boss (who is a contractor working for Image Travel) will pay and Image Travel will reimburse him later. Because of this we once again only a short game drive lasting less than 2 hours.
5) On day 4, going back to Nairobi. Upon checkout at Mara Serana Hotel in Masai Mara, we were informed Image Travel did not pay the hotel. They will not release us and let us leave until it is paid. That was at 7 am. The driver made several calls to get it sorted, without success. I managed to directly call Image Travel, and they repeated the same excuses "payment system issue", which doesn't mean anything. I strongly objected to him about the handling of this situation and threatened to report to KATO and the TRA. I also argued with the hotel that they should pursue the matter with Image Travel Ltd directly and not keep us "hostages" here because I paid everything to them. They refused to let us go. At this point with the risk of missing our flight I was about to pay myself the 1100$ hotel invoice, since it was nearly 9 am, but at the same time the person from Image Travel Ltd wrote an email to the hotel and they let us go. I have been told that the email was once again just a "promise" to pay. Due to this the driver had to rush to the exit gate of Masai Mara before 10 am to avoid having pay extra fee which led us to miss the exit game drive.
All the issues led us to miss most of the time which should have been devoted to the game drives, in addition to headache, frustration and anger. This is completely unacceptable from a accredited tour operator in Kenya. Nothing in the schedule of the plan they gave us was respected. The driver told us 3 other vehicles of Image Travel were facing the same issue that day and not being released. Furthermore he said in his opinion the person in charge at Image Travel most likely run out of money and he is not paying anyone and just "promising" to pay everyone by email. This is completely unacceptable after having spent over 4000 $ for a safari and projects a very negative image of Kenyan tourism. I have submitted a complaint to the KATO and the TRA with appropriate documentation. Additionally it seems this issues are arising very frequently at this company based on recent online reviews.
Please save yourself the trouble and don't choose this agency at any cost.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Paid but was left stranded
I had a bad experience with this company. I booked a permit for rushaga in Bwindi NP through this company. The hike was supposed to start from the headquarters office. I was provided with a guide who had already registered for a group of 7 people.
When the trekking started we got a family that was 1 hour away. The company drove me to the beginning of the trekking but then left me stranded after the trekking. I had to ask for help of the local people to make my way back to the hotel. They did not want to take me back with their vehicle although there was plenty of space in the car.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Paid but was left stranded
I had a bad experience with this company. I booked a permit for rushaga in Bwindi NP through this company. The hike was supposed to start from the headquarters office. I was provided with a guide who had already registered for a group of 7 people.
When the trekking started we got a family that was 1 hour away. The company drove me to the beginning of the trekking but then left me stranded after the trekking. I had to ask for help of the local people to make my way back to the hotel. They did not want to take me back with their vehicle although there was plenty of space in the car.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not book
My wife and I booked and fully paid for a 15 day tour (Kenya/Tanzania/Zanzibar) with African Sunset Safaris which began on Sept 15. There was communication issues with them since day 1. They only paid for 3 days worth of the contracted services, changed hotels last minute, did not answer calls or messages, never provided itinerary to our guide, etc.
By day 4, we learned they never paid for our park fees in Masai Mara.
By day 5, we learned they never paid for our lodge in Masai Mara, and they sent us an email saying they are cancelling the remainder of the tour.
By night of day 5, we learned that the owner of the company has ended his own life. They must have ran out of money.
We were stuck paying for the park fees and lodge in Masai Mara and now are going back to Nairobi instead of going to Serengeti. We will file police report, and we know there are many other people in our situation that have also filed reports.
They should be removed from SafariBookings
CO
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It has been a very sad experience
We have had a very sad experience. We booked and full paid our 12-days safari, mores than two weeks ago (7500 dólares).After that, the company hardly answer our requests. Yerterday (one day before our trip) the owner, Haron, wrote US an email saying: "...we are unable to provide the services... We assure that we will do everything possible to proceso your refund". Right now i am at the airport as we cannot change our economic ticket. We will arrive to Nairobi tomorrow night. However we don't have Even a hotel as we has paid including the firts night at Nairobi. The owner now did not answer neither emails nor WhatsApps or calls. We plan go to this safari, before an academic conferece we where invited to present results from our research. We are from Colombia, so we Will have a long and very sad and disapointed trip. We have receips of the tranfers from our bank and the receipts the company send as prove of our payment. However they did not answer US. We do not know what to do.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Attention, do not book here!
We booked a 12-day safari through this provider and paid a deposit of USD 3,630. One week before the start of the trip, the tour was cancelled. We received an email about this yesterday. Since then, we have had no contact with the provider. We really hope that we will get our money back!
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Don't recommend
Hi , I just finished my trip with Native Afrika voyages on sep 2nd week and unfortunately it was not great . Even though our driver cum tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly, the office team messed up our itinerary. We had two day game drive in masaimara, which they cut short into 1 day without our knowledge.
My husband and I, submitted our initial inquiry to Native Afrika voyages(NAV) via safaribookings. After our enquiry , we were communicated via email by the NAV team . After multiple round of email conversation, we received the final itinerary as pdf and we paid around 25% to book the trip with the confirmed itinerary. On the day of travel, we were picked up from our hotel ( 30 minutes late) and the NAV travel consultant tried to brief the itinerary while we were enroute to National park. Unfortunately we didn't check our itinerary against the day to day briefing by consultant. Little did we know that they changed our 2 day game drive in masai mara to one day . Please note that one day entrance fees to masai mara national park is 200 dollars per person . We were two and they didn't even inform us via email about this change in itinerary for which we had already paid. Who changes the already confirmed and upfront paid itinerary on the day of trip ? When I asked about the 2 day masai mara visit , I was asked to pay extra 400 dollars for entrance fees. I tried to address my concern, but somehow they didn't want to talk to WOMAN , instead he wanted to talk to my husband to get his opinion. Whatever excuses they are going to provide as a response, please think before making a decision. If you have already paid, please validate the itinerary once again before paying the remaining amount. I didn't get my 400 dollars back. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. Hence a lengthy post.
I was told on the last day of the trip that they will look into this issue and get back with a solution . I didn't receive any response so far.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Nightmare safari
Stay away from JT Safaris!! Despite glowing reviews, we believe were scammed by Julius, which ruined our family’s safari trip to Kenya and Tanzania for my parents’ 65th birthdays.
We booked the trip nine months in advance and paid 50% upfront, with the remainder due six weeks before departure. Everything seemed well-organized, and our driver, George, welcomed us at the airport. The first few days went smoothly, but things quickly went downhill on my mom’s birthday, only the fourth day of our trip.
The prepaid hot air balloon ride—my mom’s birthday gift—had not been paid. Julius claimed there was an issue with the bank transfer not reaching the accommodation in time. Because it was Sunday, he asked us to pay the $1,800 USD by credit card so that we wouldn’t lose our reservation, promising an immediate refund when the banks opened on Monday. Since there was no reason so far to doubt him, we followed Julius's suggestion.
The next day, we found out the Maasai Mara park fees (another $800 USD) were also unpaid. Julius related this to the same bank transfer issue and again promised to resolve it.
Right before crossing the border to Tanzania, our driver showed us a signed copy of the bank transfer on his phone that Julius had asked him to show us. The exchange to our new Tanzanian driver went smoothly, so we felt relieved and hoped we could continue our trip without further issues.
During lunch, we discussed our Tanzanian itinerary with our new driver and immediately noticed his concerned expression. He was upfront with us, revealing that his version of the itinerary listed different accommodations than what we had booked. While the accommodations were good, they were not the ones we had booked and were significantly cheaper than those we had paid Julius for.
Throughout the trip, we had to constantly chase Julius for answers, which put a lot of negative energy, stress, and pressure on our family trip. Julius never communicated proactively, always offering promises and excuses, but never actual solutions. Given the positive reviews, we were shocked and deeply disappointed by the entire experience.
Unsurprisingly, we are still waiting for the $2.800 USD refund from Julius.
In short, Julius scammed us. JT Safaris is not to be trusted anymore. We truly cannot believe all the 5 star reviews after the experience we just had! Stay away!