DK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I was looking forward to the safari ending.
TL;DR: The safari is amazing; the accommodations were pretty decent; the company was not great.
My partner and I booked a four-day, three-night safari from Arusha in late December 2022. At first, I was pleased with the constant updates and communication from Marta, my journey designer. We made the first 50% payment, via credit card, and almost immediately we were asked for the 2nd 50% payment. It was a little awkward because we're talking about thousands of dollars here. We had been previously staying in Arusha, so we didn't require a pick up from JRO, and we expected to meet our guide in the morning on the start of our safari.
And that is where my qualms began. I had to reach out to SoT to confirm the guide would meet us at the hotel, I wasn't provided his or her name at all. The morning of the safari, we checked out of the hotel at 8AM promptly, and had to go searching in the parking lot for our guide - it seemed like he couldn't be bothered to actually meet us. In fact, the first thing he said after hello was how much he expected to be tipped at the end of the safari. Off-putting, to say the least.
The car was fine, it wasn't that updated and the charging ports didn't work. It certainly managed across the rough roads and terrain. There was water for us, which was great, but there was also no hand sanitizer or wet-wipes, which in a post-COVID world should probably be standard. Setting out from Arusha, we made a pitstop to "support the local community" and were basically asked to buy trinkets from folks at a roadside gas station. Moving on to Manyara, the animals weren't out but our guide was indeed very good at spotting them and highlighting them for us. There were several times, however when we had an opportunity to take pictures of certain animals (giraffes, for example) that we asked him to stop and he did not, saying we needed to be "kept on schedule". After blasting through Manyara, we made two - two - pitstops at gift shop tourist traps. We expressed our non-interest in doing so, and the guide told us that we would stop because he got credit for how many tourists he brought and would get a present at the end of the year. It was frankly a bit annoying that it seemed like we rushed through Manyara just to spend time at gift shops selling the same things, and yet another Tanzanite Experience, neither of which we wanted to do.
The first night's accommodation was fine. It was us and another solo traveler staying at the Mandhari Lodge as the original accommodation was booked up. The food was fine, nothing to write home about. The bed was comfortable and the coffee was strong. The staff was friendly and I really enjoyed chatting with them. The second day was a long drive to Serengeti which was fantastic. The guide was informing us about the great migration, and how we would see a lot of wildebeests and zebras. However we stopped at **two more** gift shops and were asked multiple times if we wanted to go to a masaai village and make a "at minimum" fifty-thousand schilling donation. We were exceedingly clear we didn't want to stop at anymore gift shops nor the masaai village and it seemed that it annoyed our guide.
The accommodation at the Acacia Central Camp was by far the best of the entire four days. The staff at Acacia was professional, warm, helpful, and just a great deal of fun to be around. We clicked more with the guys at Acacia than we ever did with our guide, unfortunately. The dinner and breakfast at Acacia was wonderful, and the bed and tent were sublime. No notes.
The third day was more Serengeti and the drive back to the Ngorongoro Crater. Ngorongoro was fabulous, however we were slightly disappointed at the accommodation when we arrived at the Pakulala Luxury Safari Camp. This was also the most expensive accommodation (at $740/night) and so I think we had a certain expectation that the food would be fantastic and the place would be comfortable. We were disappointed - the food was fine, but not great. And there was no electricity so we sat eating dinner with a high-powered halogen light in our faces. Not entirely sublime. We don't discount that the remoteness of the camp makes it more expensive, but the camp was also located between two permanent, luxury lodges, that were priced not that much more than the camp.
When we booked the safari, we contracted that the SoT would take us straight from our fourth day at Ngorongoro to JRO for our evening flight. We spent the entire safari reminding the guide that this was something we expected - he very clearly did not want to take us to JRO and in fact arranged for another driver to take us - he drove us to a mall outside of Arusha where another driver picked us up and took us to JRO. It was super awkward.
Finally - the lunches. The website goes to great lengths to say that your lunches will be the envy of other safari groups, with hot plated lunches and wine. We had three plated lunches, all variations of spaghetti bolognese and all stone cold, to the point that I was curious about food safety concerns. The wine was fine, it was incredibly inexpensive South African wine that was served room temp and in glasses that weren't cleaned. The lunch on the last day was a piece of cold pizza wrapped in foil and some cookies and juice. I was really not impressed with the lunches and I strongly advise a potential customer for SoT to manage their expectations.
My partner and I were happy with the animals on the safari and with the people we met - we had a fine time with the guide though it seemed like he was pre-occupied with other things, to the point of watching videos while we were stopped trying to take pictures of animals. We certainly don't discount that safaris are expensive, and that we were in an expensive country. However, we definitely did not feel that SoT, nor our guide appreciated just how much money we had spent to even do this safari - we felt a little like we were treated as an ATM, and it soured the experience a little bit. Our guide tried to even have us agree to stop at the same four gift shops we stopped at on our way out - it was a bit much.
I also got some insight from a friend in Arusha who runs another safari company (I didn't know this before booking with SoT, else I 100% would have). She informed me of the things that she does for their clients (provides a recommended list of packing, reminders for sunscreen, bug spray, etc.,) and I realized that SoT was only communicative when it came to getting the payments - I never received a recommended list of anything, a highlight of what to expect, emergency contact information, nor even the name or picture of the guide so that we could find him on our first day.
Do the safari - it's an incredible experience and you will want to do more. We do, but we will not go with SoT the next time
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Budget safari, with a nice crew, awesome safaris and budget Accommodations
We had a really good time during the safaris. The drivers were really nice. Especially Simon did. a really good job, driving, explaining and some fun moments.
The food was absolutely acceptable for a budget safari. Also the cooks tried to meet our needs, as we had some allergies (worked out 50% of the time).
Some of the lodges we stayed were really budget. Probably still good for tansanian standard on a budget trip, but still a bit less then we expected (windows were not safe at all times, bathrooms not clean …) but Godwill managed to book us into another lodge that suited our needs more.
Also they were really flexible with everything. That made us feel really welcome and good.
The last day we did a coffee tour to a village. The coffee experience was really cool, as we joined them from picking the beans till the brewed coffee. We were just a bit shocked about the „restroom“ which wasn’t really a room at all. But you get a good local kind of view.
So all in all we had a nice budget safari with awesome day trips, safe drives, always enough water and some really Budget overnight stays.
If you don’t expect a mid range hotel, you’ll be good to go with Simon, Godwill and the rest of the crew.
NL
Fine
I had to share my room with a stranger. So I contacted the safari company in may ways. What they did was just ignoring me. I think that is not the way.
By the wat the tour guys were great!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Experienced and knowledgeable driver
Unfortunately the weather was awful, we experienced a lot of rain, and see very little amounts of animals. The safari driver was very experienced and knowledgeable.
I would suggest visiting another national parks instead.
Marketing team is annoying and harassing for reviews. Wouldn’t let go.
AT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The offer for the tour didn't fit with the real tour.
We, my husband and I , booked a 3 day lasting Safari tour including a sight seeing tour in Kigali and entering the park and check in at the Lodge in the Akagera National Park on the first day.
On the second day we made a Safari tour in the Akagera National Park.
BUT on the third day a Safari experienced person of our group ordered an additional guide in advance who was specialized on birds. We weren't asked nor informed of this special bird tour on the third day of our Safari tour. The tour partially was very detailed discussing about the shape of the wings or colour of the bird legs.
We think being not informed of this special bird tour in advance is not a client friendly policy. We even still don't know if we had and how much we had to pay for the additional guide / additional programme we didn't order.
Btw Jimmy, our main guide did a great job.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Guides very good, accommodations and food in Cape Town terrible!!
It's too bad that we have not gotten much of a response from go touch down on our intial complaint and no refund on the less than accepble hotel in Cape Town. The Stillness manor and spa was a 2 star rating at best rooms were dirty mold in bathroom (shower) and food was poor.
We were promised the Bel Moroc a upscale hotel and at the last moment changed to the Stillness. We were very disappointed at this change and not being offered compensation for the change!
Two of the complainers about the van being cramped have been compensated!
it's too bad that such a nice tour turned out at the end to be so disappointing!
We await your response.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Professional, very nice.
It was a pretty involved tour. Was amazing to see all the animals (Big 5).
The driver Zayree and the guide and cook Magoma were very nice.
Just a few issues with this tour. Accommodations were very or “below” average. Especially since I booked for a totally PRIVATE Safari for only TWO people. I’m sure they could’ve given Better Accommodations.
Also in the Serengeti we were in a lodge that seemed like the”Boonies”. So that one day all we saw was just prey animals. Nothing else. I repeatedly asked the driver to go to Central Serengeti, but he refused, saying it was 2 hours away. But we were just driving around in ONE Boring Area for around 8 hours. Could have easily taken the trip to Central Serengeti, I felt. To me that was a TOTAL Waste of our Precious time, since we were on a ONE week tour for Tanzania.
I even offered to pay extra for a Nicer Room in Arusha, but I was refused. Don’t Understand WHY??
Hopefully in future the company realizes these issues travelers may have and provide somewhat Better Service? Cause people travel from very Far distances and would like to make the Best of the time and days on hand.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nice Tour but not like description
Thank you for organizing our safari days. We were very much looking forward to the great accommodation "Eco Lodge" as described in the offer. Therefore we were disappointed with the "replacement accommodation" which was not of the same standard.
Danke für die Organisation unserer Safari-Tage.
Wir haben uns im Vorhinein sehr auf die tolle Unterkunft „Eco Lodge“ wie im Angebot beschrieben, gefreut. Deshalb waren wir von der “Ersatz-Unterkunft”, welche nicht dem selben Niveau entsprach, enttäuscht.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beauftiful nature, but greedy guide
We had a three night tour from Laka Manyara over Ngorongoro Crater to the Tarangire park. The tour was organized perfectly — we could make some neat adaptions to our tour without any issues (concerning the airport transfer and the accommodations). If you ever plan to do this tour, we would highly recommend the Tarangire Simba Lodge, we had really magical moments there!
However, our guide had a negative impact on our experience there. We know that tipping is expected in these activities and never refused to do so. At the beginning of our tour the guide directly demanded a 120$ tip at the end of the trip. Talking in some way always came back to tips (and why to give even more). Multiple times we were asked how much we would be giving for his alleged wedding.
After the tour we decided to give a tip inside the recommended range by Lion Kind Adventures. Afterwards, the guide send angry text messages to us and even called me on my private phone number. To me, this is a huge no-go and made us feel quite uncomfortable.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Ngorongoro and Tarangire were good, Lake Manyara canoeing was a scam
We went on a 3 day safari trip to Tarangire, Ngorongoro and canoeing on Lake Manyara.
The first two days were really great - Mollel was a really good guide, answered all my questions and his driving skills are great. We saw a lot of animals in Tarangire and Ngorongoro.
The third day was supposed to be canoeing on Lake Manyara which I was very excited about. We paid extra to arrange this experience. However, I thought it was a joke at first: For one, we were brought to a spot that wasn't even inside the national park (and I have checked online before booking the safari - Lake Manyara National Park does canoe tours and since we're talking about safaris and national parks, we naturally thought we would be canoeing inside the park with professional guides). The starting place was a muddy, dark spot where local men were chopping down trees. Our guides, local fishermen, brought canoes that honestly look like life hazards - rusty, old, full of water. But since we were already there, we got in, hoping we would sail a bit further from the shore and see some wildlife. My guide didn't say a single word to me the entire time - I am unsure he even spoke English.
It was also very windy and we couldn't really go out very far and had to stay very close to the shore where the locals were cutting down trees so expecting much of wildlife in that location is a strange idea (we did see some hippos which we appreciate).
All these things aside - lack of proper equipment, disappointing location, unprofessional guides - I would have assumed that if the weather didn't permit canoeing, we would be warned and offered an alternative, such as a drive through the Lake Manyara National Park. I would have no issues paying the entrance fees - rather than having a questionable canoeing experience.
We turned back after around 45 minutes (instead of 2 hours) for the above mentioned reasons.
Like I said the first two days were nice. Mollel was a great driver and guide, the accommodation was awesome (the service and staff were great) and the pick up and drop off were smooth. However, I do consider the third day a scam to be honest - it's not really about the fee (although 60 dollars extra per person for that experience is strange), as it was about having ruined expectations.
I do not recommend booking canoeing trips with this operator.
