DK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
100% fraud
Do not go with this company!
We paid most of our trip in advance from home. But the problems with the company guy Victor started from day 1.
First we had to pay what he called a payment fee which we agreed, after that he ensured that everything was good. After that he left us with the driver.
Arriving to Serengeti nothing was paid for us. Accomodation, Food, Park entry fees. Not even the free water they promised us was there.
We where stuck in the middle of Serengeti at 10pm, with no place to stay. (we found a place with help from some local guys)
We booked 4 days of Safari, what we basicly had was some transit drive in the park maybe 2-3 hours. The drivers english was very limited.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not approach this company, or anyone by the name of Seperwa Parkimalo or Victor
They are a prime example of a company who operate in the most unprofessional way.
I found them on Safari Bookings .com Perhaps Safari . Com should check the credentials also before allowing companies to use their platform. They were not involved in my travel plans.
Massai Boys:
You will NOT stay at any of the emailed Lodges / Campsites / Hotels mentioned in the itinerary.
I was NOT picked up at the airport as promised by email and had to ask another safari company to contact Victor at on my behalf . Eventually I was taken to my hotel.
In 5 days I stayed only once at the hotel stated on my itinerary, and it was the last night.
I was driven around at night looking for lodges to stay in with no bookings in the dark, down tracks and mostly off road destinations . It was frightening.
Food and water barely adequate on more than 1 occasion.
On the last day I was told to take a local bus to the airport knowing I would miss my connecting flight. Luckily I stood my ground and was finally taken by proper transport to the airport as in my itinerary.
Other
Victor is well known by the locals for not paying them any wages , changing itinerary and failing to follow through with his promises. My last day at Lake
THEY ARE A DISGRACE.
Please ensure if you book a Safari you are part of a group ALL doing the same route and paying for the same accommodation. Use Trip Advisor and speak to genuine travellers. There are many good operators but as usual there are many not behaving appropriately. Check you have all passes to parks included in the cost as these are expensive in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro.
I over heard other travellers being charged on the gate for entrance fees , clearly to their surprise as they thought entry was included. Be warned please !
Finally, when I contacted the company and Seperwa Parkimalo he said he would reimburse some monies to my bank and he was apologetic once I had told him of my week. However , to this date I have received nothing.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
$800 paid and he says he has to try find the money to buy our train tickets. It’s a scam
Absolutely awful I trust worthy this man should not be getting away with what he is doing. We paid $800 for train tickets. We want our tickets and he says when we sent him the money through PayPal he was in a negative balance. So now has to try get money from other sources to pay for our tickets. We have already bought our air tickets to Tanzania. At great cost. We have no train tickets for our planned journey.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Hillary has jointed us to company Blue mountain safari. Before he didn't tell
Hillary sold us the tour from company Suricata safari, but when we come to Arusha he has jointed us to freelancer how he have said, but later we have known that it's the company blue mountain. So Hillary has layed to us. That's terrible.
Plus Hillary asked to pay a tips for 10 dollars from each per day. That's terrible.
Guide Emanuel has ugly behavior. Every questions from us and others make him angry.
When we asked to stop him behind the animal he become angry too. We didn't asked him to stop more then one two time per day.
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Vacation very stressful
I had a very stressful and disappointed experience with this tour and Yoeni Japheth as organizer of this mess. Tour was for 10 nights and after 3 nights many things went wrong. My itirinary was changed had to spend senseless long hours on a bus going back and forth.
itself Yoeni Japheth spoke very bad English and communication with him was exhausting.He was very responsive when he wanted my money but then when trouble arises he went silent. Yoeni Japheth mixed up a lot of things and made my vacation very stressful.
Tour itself is not worth the money. Accommodation in fact is very cheap if you book them directly. Food was very bad.
First night after transatlantic flight I was put in a really horrible hotel and spent sleepless night listening to all night music from next door night club.
I specifically asked how many people will be in a safari car and was told by Yoeni Japheth no more than 7.
In fact there was 9 of us which made the whole trip very uncomfortable.
I do not recommend this Drive Tanzania Ltd company to anyone. Lots of things went wrong and there were lots of misrepresentations of what company is offering. Not worth even remotely the money spent
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Simon of EastCo still owes us more than $9,000 after three years. DO NOT BOOK.
It is absolutely criminal that Simon and EastCo are still taking bookings. I should have written this review earlier, but every time I think about it I get a terrible pit in my stomach. My husband and I organized a 30 day safari with Simon in July 2015. The reviews were all good, so we felt okay about it. But then the first day, no one came to pick us up at our hotel, which should have been the first sign of trouble. The next week and a half was probably some of the most stressful travel I've ever experienced. I won't get into the nitty gritty, but I will give one detail: our safari vehicle got repossessed in the middle of the night when we were at a remote safari camp, because Simon hadn't paid the bills. At every turn we were asked to pay out of pocket or held behind, because Simon and Eastco hadn't paid. Finally, we cut our trip short. We ended with a copy of Simon's passport and a statement, in writing, and signed, that he would repay us for services not rendered. He's paid us back only $900 of over $10,000 owed. We're still waiting. DO NOT BOOK WITH EASTCO. You will have your money stolen. I would be happy to discuss more with anyone who has questions, and to share the written document of Simon's promising us our money back (you can email me using the link above this review). This company should be flagged as fraudulent on all safari sites. Terrible. Just terrible.
IL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Kenya, and the SOLARIS the FRAUDSTERS
This is a genuine review about our trip (me & my husband) to Kenya during last month (5 days, End of January 2018).
Hope this will help you, if Kenya is in your bucket list also.
Kenya is an amazing place, with its scenic places, very friendly people, tasty food and the best tea.
There are many tour operators available online, please start doing the research a bit early and go for a reputed one.
I contacted many tour operators but got impressed with Solaris quotes and their flexibility which made us to choose them. The only and the biggest mistake I did in planning this trip. Now after the trip I understand, being flexible to any extend is the trick to make you fall for them.
The coordinator and the spokesperson from Solaris was Josphat.
Here is the list of disappointments by the Great Solaris!!
• Starting of our trip - Josphat cancelled the Amboseli NP plan without informing us. When we got ready with lot of excitement in the morning the driver took a turn towards Nairobi and said that you flight was delayed so the Amboseli NP is cancelled. We were shocked to hear this as we landed on time and got out of the airport as well on time, it was a lie told by Josphat to the driver.
We travelled all the way from Nairobi to Amboseli just to sleep in the Lodge...!!!!!!!! I must say the Kilimanjaro view we had from our lodge was spectacular, which kind of calmed us down.
And on second day travelling all the way from Amboseli to Lake Nakuru...
We reached late to Nakuru also...!!!!!!! 2 days wasted in our 5 days trip...!!!!!!!
Refund Number 1: Mr. Josphat then agreed to give us back the National park entrée ticket fee.
• We were provided with a safari van, which had a non-working radio. Only after reaching Masai Mara we got to know the importance of radio. The guides communicate to others over wireless when they spot something.
Our driver knew this radio issue from day one and he did not open his mouth until we were stuck inside Mara with no radio. If driver and Josphat had communicated properly, they could have fixed/replaced the radio when we had crossed Nairobi on the second day from Amboseli. But they did nothing...!!!!
We got to see the big 5, only because we were lucky...!!!!!!!
• The driver hardly opened his mouth and he is supposed to be the experienced safari guide too for us. He was more like just a driver who had already reached his retirement age. Every day we started on time, but never reached any destination on time...!!!!
He was very careless and sometimes rude too and never cared about our time.
Example,
After balloon safari (on the 4th day) he was supposed to pick us inside Mara at the agreed upon spot. When we returned he was already waiting there for us, but as soon as we got in, he said “I don’t see your lunch box inside and this hotel guys have forgotten to put it”, We had to go all the way to the camp from the national park to take the lunch box and after reaching there it turned out that it was in the vehicle all the time and he did not check it properly and just started blaming camp guys. This event made both of us very upset on for first wedding anniversary morning. First of all it is his job to make sure the lunch boxes are in before he leaves the camp and he did not care to check that while waiting on the spot for us too. Then at last he can’t search his own van.
Because of his carelessness we lost almost 2 hours in the morning, the time when we get to see more games.
Refund Number 2: For all the disappointments, Mr. Josphat wanted to correct his mistake by refunding some amount on the next day of our trip end.
Even after a month, follow up with lot of patients, we got zero Refunds!!!!
After one month, we did not receive any money, which explains us that was not a flaw which happened accidently, but all the plans and promises were just lies to get our booking.
When we are spending so much, his refund is not a big money. But still we wanted to give him a chance to admit and correct his mistakes.
So, guys after spending so much money, so much researching, expectations and planning, if you don’t want to end up with a feeling of being cheated, DON'T GO WITH SOLARIS.
Only 35 reviews in all these years tell what SOLARIS really is...
In spite of all these, it will still be a special trip with the magical view of Mt.Kilimanjaro in Amboseli, Flamingoes in the Lake Nakuru, Masai village visit, balloon safari and the big 5 safari in Masai Mara .
It would have been a lifetime trip if we would have chosen another tour. If we get a chance we definitely want to go back to Kenya, but definitely not with SOLARIS.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Cheated out of $3300
They took our money but never returned our phone calls or emails, and never picked us up or tried to contact us while we were in Tanzania.
We heard rumors of financial insolvency and bankruptcy, but were never able to verify that. Nonetheless, we know we never got to go on our tour...
That said, we ended up finding a great company and having a great time, so at least that worked out.
PL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Baba Africa Safaris makes the fool of clients and steals their money
From our experience they take money in advance (50% down payment online, and 50% before departure) and then :
1. Change lodges for cheaper ones without agreement for the first day ...
2. Do not pay at all for the next ones (Client has to pay a second time on arrival)
3. Do not buy the flight tickets they have received money for
4. Give out of age card that break down every other day (and do not give spare car when you are stuck with the break down)
5. Ignore you when you demand to follow the program
Now Mr Victor Godwin owns us more than 3000 $ compensation for costs incurred by us... and is wanted by Tourist Police in Tanzania
A. B.
CO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Worst Tour Operator ever. Not what I paid for!
I paid US680 dollars for a three day safari with Seven By far Travel. The Company offered a 3 day safari that included a stay in a wonderfull lodge called AAlodges, which is categorised as a 5-stars facility in booking.com. To my surprise when I got there, the lodge was far from what was promised, they not only changed it without previous notification, but they took us to a lodge that was way below the level of what I paid for. The place is not even listed in booking.com. What really bothered me, is that they took me for stupid and had the nerve to say that it was an upgrade. When this happened, I decided to leave and ask for a refund before the Safari even started. After sending recurrent emails for a month and receiveng several excuses from the operator, I finally got a refund but for half of what I paid for. I would never recommend this Company.