DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Beware of rip-offs
I booked a seven day safari with Kennafrica Adventures, which included the Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, and Amboseli. The exposé was excellent, and the tour was slightly more expensive than comparable tours, which would have been absolutely fine considering the services promised.
Unfortunately, the stated inclusive services were not provided.
For example, a walking safari at night, a visit to a Masai village, a photography workshop, a visit to an elephant sanctuary, or cheetah tracking on foot, to name but a few.
The tour was ultimately carried out by a third-party provider (I would give this provider at least four stars).
What is particularly annoying here, however, is that this provider was (initially) not paid. Kennafrica Safaris was then suddenly no longer available by phone or otherwise, so I first had to advance money to the subcontractor in order to continue with the safari. Only after many (unanswered) phone calls and threats with lawyers, the police and the Ministry of Tourism was the corresponding fee finally paid, 770 dollars. I myself had paid 1200 dollars. The considerable difference might in my view be explained by the omission of services that were promised but not provided. All in all, a very disappointing experience and so different from all the hospitality that one usually experience throughout Kenya.
Finally, I can absolutely recommend the route itself, especially the Masai Mara, and also our driver Evans did a great job.
To be fair, they have apologized for all the inconvenience, but I personally would not book with them again.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unprofessional travel agency
The travel agent I had did not pay attention to details, she got me mixed up with another client which caused delays in payment. Bonfire does not accept credit card payment from foreign travelers, agent also gave me wrong information about Safari itinerary over a phone call, may be that’s the reason why she did not send me an itinerary. I would not recommend Bonfire Adventures to foreigners who live outside of Kenya.
BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bad organisation
Sorry but I wasn’t that happy with how the safari went .. Everyday another jeep with another driver and other peoples, the planning changed totally from day 1 without any communication or plan. I slept on other campsites then my planning said, every morning I had to search by myself to my driver and nobody knew anything. Everyday we left very late (also not on the planning). And my driver forgot to pick me up at lake manyara to Serengeti so I’m not that happy
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not reliable - questionable business practices.
If you only read the first paragraph of this review, we would highly suggest you do not book your next vacation with with Sunsets in Africa. Do book your tour through TourRadar and if you are searching for outstanding transportation, consider using Professional Safaris based in Arusha, Tanzania. For reference purposes, our trip was a 15 day safari to Kenya and Tanzania.
Why not use Sunsets in Africa? They are not reliable nor in our opinion completely honest. We just want others to not experience what we did while in Africa. A vacation should be a vacation not an anxiety filled and somewhat intimidating experience. Let me explain.
The good: Kenya and Tanzania are truly special and even though our original tour operator was on the edge of awful, the countries themselves were wonderful. We loved the people, the scenery and the animals we encountered. And the hotels in Kenya booked by Sunsets in Africa were the ones we asked for and were paid for prior to our arrival in Kenya. We are not sure about the hotels in Tanzania because we did not use them. More information below.
The Bad: We arrived and thankfully our hotel provided us with transportation to our lodge. However, once we were picked up by our safari driver in Kenya, we found out a couple days into our vacation that his company (Sunsets in Africa subcontracts out the transportation) had not been paid for our transportation and at one point our driver told us his manager said to just leave us in the Maasai Mara. Whether or not this was true is unknown. A call to Sunsets in Africa was answered by Gladys who said the transportation company can't do that and she would take care of the issue. Yea right. She texted me to not worry everything was fine. The next day or two we were told that Sunsets in Africa had not paid anything and more than more than 30 calls on WhatsApp to both Dexter and Gladys, co-owners of Sunsets in Africa, were ignored. Dexter was available but choose not to answer. At this point, we felt as if we were being mislead by everyone including the transportation companies in Kenya, Tanzania and Sunsets in Africa. I guess the breaking point was when I read a message sent by Dexter to the owner of the transportation company in Tanzania saying that I had agreed to pay for the transportation in both Kenya and Tanzania. I wrote to Dexter and told him I never agreed to this and why would I because I had already paid for transportation! He never reached out to me to discuss this and frankly, there was no way I was going to pay twice even if he promised to pay me back. At that point, I reached out to our planned transportation company in Tanzania and I asked if they were canceling our tour. Response, "I'm not canceling your trip. Just need some money to facilitate your program". I asked why he couldn't wait to be paid by Sunset's in Africa? Didn't he trust the company to pay him? His answer was, "I really trust him but I have no cash to facilitate your program". Doesn't this feel like a shakedown? We had it at that point. Between the two transportation companies, they wanted me to send them ~$4700. Can you imagine?
The Solution: Thankfully, we did a bit of research and realized we had originally paid for our trip through TourRadar. A quick call and TourRadar put in motion changes. They paid for the outstanding transportation bill in Kenya, they rebooked all our remaining hotels and booked a new transportation company (Professional Safaris). Thanks to Kristina at TourRadar, the rest of our trip was outstanding! And I can't say enough about Gerald our driver, Medcine owner of Professional Safaris in Tanzania and TourRadar who saved our vacation. These companies are outstanding and more importantly, honest. We would highly recommend both organizations and especially Gerald!!
Finally: Just so you think this just happened to us, we met another group that used Sunsets in Africa and they too experienced the same issues. Unfortunately, they ended up paying for all the unpaid transportation in both Kenya and Tanzania. I'm not sure if they ended up paying for their hotels as well. Their only recourse to file a report at the police station in Nairobi, and hope their travel insurance covered the charges or credit card reversing the charges. Sad. We heard of a third group as well but this can be construed as hearsay.
I know this review is long and it does not even cover all the issues we experienced before and during our trip. Do yourself a favor. Find a reputable company that pays their subcontractors before you arrive!
AE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Misleading and Bad Organisation
My experience of Mousebird Safaris is not great. I booked a shared - mid range safari package - 4 nights 5 days. After sending the deposit "to secure the accommodation" a month prior to the trip - I did not hear back from the company until I arrived in Arusha. Gift came to my home to collect the rest of the payment the night before being picked up by Samuel our driver the next morning. The other 5 in the vehicle I would find out later were on different itineraries. After the first day I was told my accommodation had changed as the other people were in different m and mine was too far away. I was put in a different vehicle at the gate of the first Park to be given a lift to the first nights accommodation. Next morning I was picked up and we made our way to Serengeti. I was again told that ,y accommodation for night 2 was again different to what I had booked due to the distances between the groups' accommodation. Night 3 was in the camp I had booked. However day 4 in Ngorongoro Crater was cut short and we were heading out of the park at noon as the rest of the group were on 3 night 4 day itineraries and were due back in Arusha (with a family of 3 flying from JRO that evening ) So I lost 1/2 a day of Safari ( not to mention the hours lost driving around on a morning to the other accommodations. ) The final night was in my booked lodge as advertised and Gift came to the Lodge with another driver for my last day in Manyara.
On return to Arusha I informed Gift about my displeasure at losing so much time - especially in Ngorongoro as it was wonderful there. No attempt to reimburse me was made for the lost time and changes to accommodation.
A hugely disappointing experience as it was my first time on Safari and first time in Africa.
The time in the vehicle with Samuel ( the driver ) and the other travellers was great and we saw lots of wildlife - but the whole experience was affected by the poor organisation.
US
Very Poor Service For Amount Paid
The below is my opinion based on my experience with Go2Africa.
Go2Africa was reasonably good at selling the trip to us - good communication and pitching of experiences. That said, I agree with reviewer Anna who mentioned that they withhold information unless you ask them specifically (and in writing) - items such as the specific location of a lodge, whether you need vaccinations, where your pickup will be from (inside airport or after baggage claim).
Once they took our money is where we felt they really fell short of what we feel we paid for. In my opinion, this was made even worse by a lack of care when we reached out to them - both during the trip and afterwards.
A number of issues were encountered, including:
- Hotels forgot to put enough towels for all of our party - we emailed Go2Africa the first time this happened but it kept happening
- We'd booked and paid for a private vehicle for certain safaris but a lodge we stayed at did not know this - we had to awkwardly "fight for it" after our arrival - we feel Go2Africa should have been "on top" of what we had paid for and ensured this didn't happen
- One of our airport pickups was late, and we were left waiting for 15+ minutes outside of the airport
- One of our lodges was over 50 minutes away from the "prime" safari grounds - this was something they never told us when we were booking
- We were told that Go2Africa is a co-owner, co-investor and/or shareholder in another tour operator, called Asilia, they used this provider for parts of our trip (many Asilia cars advertise Go2Africa on their signage). The Asilia representative in one city offered to us, free of charge, a city tour at our next destination. When we arrived in this next city the Asilia team on site had no idea of this offer and, after loading our luggage into their car started awkwardly asking us for money for the tour. This made us very uncomfortable and when we later commented to Go2Africa, all they said was that they would "investigate" - our experience and time was still spoiled
- Go2Africa claimed to have reserved a restaurant for us but when we arrived we found out that the restaurant was closed on the day they said they'd confirmed the reservation for - this cost us valuable time on our tour (they later said their subcontractor should have reconfirmed this when we pushed them for accountability on it)
- They refused to provide any compensation for the issues we encountered and instead were, in my opinion, very defensive about everything that happened (they chose to blame their subcontractors rather than own the issues we encountered)
I personally would not use Go2Africa again, I feel that we paid for a premium experience and service, only to be treated quite poorly once we had paid them. Having awkward moments in foreign countries with tour operators was frustrating.... When paying for a trip, I believe you're paying for an experience. You have limited time during your travel and want to make the most of it. Go2Africa was very unsympathetic to this. I recommend looking at other options before considering Go2Africa.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Can't trust Silas
Sadly I have to agree with some of the reviews about Apodiformes Adventures.
During the hiring process, Silas, the owner of Apodiformes replied to my messages right away, adapting to our needs and promising an exceptional quality of service.
Being our honeymoon, we hired a safari considered luxury (over 4000 EUR for 5 nights), requesting booking at very specific accommodations.
Until we formalized the reservation (transfer of 40% of the total) evething was fine. Once the payment was done the problems started to show up. The most wanted accomodation, Enkewa in Masai Mara, did not accept the reservation for not complying with their conditions (minimum 3 nights stay and take care of safaris in Masai Mara). Silas lied that they knew the accommodation and had previously worked.
The alternative was Olengoti Eco Camp, this accommodation has two types of room, tent and bungalow. The bungalow was requested (and paid for). Upon arrival at the Camp, the staff informed that our booking was at the inferior category and that they had no availability to manage the changeo of room. Silas lied again saying that the fault came from the camp (they showed me the booking made from Apodiformes) and that all rooms had the same price.
The third day of safari we had an incident with the car, we were standing 6h waiting for the repair. The guide asked us to take it easy and ask us to eat/drink in the cafeteria that the agency would cover. This never happened, not only that, Silas knowing the issue never got in touch with us in the whole week to check how things were going. We lost one day of safari and he didn't even care.
In the agreed itinerary, later that day we had a stop at Tompson Falls for lunch. We had to argue with the guide because Silas had not informed him and did not want to stop or pay the tickets.
With all the above being said, the overall experience was very good, thanks to John (our great guide) and the staff of the camps/lodges, but I would never hire them again for the lack of honesty and service provided by Silas.
It may be slightly cheaper than other companies but the price difference does not justify having to be constantly alert, feeling cheated and with the sensation that if there had been any problem the agency would not have helped or solved anything.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beware of contract language!
My family’s experience with Go Touch Down for our “safari tour” was a complete disaster. I would absolutely NEVER book with them again, even if offered a trip at a fraction of the cost. They are able to lean heavily on clauses in their stock contract that allow them to entirely modify their itinerary.
Taken directly from the contract: “Go Touch Down shall not be responsible or held liable to secure the originally intended vacation package, which in many cases may not be available or its procurement may not be practicable due to forces of nature, market factors, or other related reasons” and “…when deemed necessary in its sole discretion reserves the right to: (1) cancel any itinerary or any part of it for any reason; (2) make any alterations to the itinerary (including, but not limited to, alterations or substitutions of hotels).”
In other words, they can promise WHATEVER they want and then dump you into whatever itinerary they come up with! I stupidly assumed this was boilerplate language that we’d have no choice but to agree to in order to sign up for any safari. But even if it is common contract language, most of us have to trust that tour companies wouldn’t dare abuse it; our experience with Go Touch Down revealed that this is not a company worthy of our trust.
My story is a long one, but here is the gist of key issues (though there were many more, too numerous to cover in detail). Go Touch Down closed one of our two safari lodges six months before our trip. They did not reveal this to me, but I instead discovered it on my own…even as I was having multiple phone conversations with our agent (the owner’s wife) about our stay at that very lodge because I was trying to make some arrival arrangements. Of note, Go Touch Down manages the lodges they use on their South African tours, so they knew of the closure, and I found they’d actually removed this lodge from a prominent corporate branding image months prior. When I asked our agent about the lodge closure, she became extremely rude and combative. Go Touch Down then used contract language to prevent us from getting a refund even though this was going to cut the safari portion of our trip in half and dump us at a freezing cold trout fishing timeshare they manage instead (this was the unfortunate fate for months of guests; we got last-minute lucky when they opened a new lodge just before our arrival and spared us the fish pond).
While we may have gotten a safari in the end (after so much grief and stress), it wasn’t the one we were sold. The number one reason I chose this tour had been the promise of a maximum of six people on game drives. In fact, the brief Go Town Down self-written bio on social media is “small group tours of max 6 people.” Upon arrival, we discovered that we would have ten people on our game drives – every seat in the truck filled, including the one up with the driver. Those squished into the middle seats could barely see anything, especially since nearly all of our drives were in covered-top vehicles and some fellow passengers were quite tall. Even the most barebones budget safari packages generally guarantee an outside seat. One high-level staff member brought up specifically how unacceptable this was and explained that many game drive vehicles no longer even have middle seats and instead place storage compartments down the middle! (I’m intentionally leaving out specific details like staff titles and names because I don’t want any of these wonderful people to get in trouble – we encountered so many who were very candid with us about their extreme frustration with Go Touch Down, and it is a testament to their own professionalism that they did not take out this frustration on their guests.) The entirety of our Morubisi stay was packed in like this, as was our full day in Kruger (even though in the latter case, we were assured the day prior that we would all ride together to Kruger and that a second game drive vehicle would be waiting to collect half of us for the smaller tour we’d been promised, but this didn’t actually happen).
Once again, Go Touch Down chose to lean heavily on contract language as an excuse. We certainly were not the only ones on our tour who were extremely upset, as many had chosen Go Touch Down for the six-person cap just as we had. One fellow traveler then astutely observed that the final documents we received the week of departure had been tweaked to state that any “outsourced” activities, including game drives, may have more than six people. First of all, Go Touch Down runs the game lodges, so the drives are hardly “outsourced.” Furthermore, this left only the transport from the airport and between lodges as what they’d deem non-outsourced. Who cares how many people we ride from the airport to the hotel with, it’s the game drives where that actually matters!
There were numerous other key advertised features of the tour that never came to fruition. For example, there was supposed to be a cultural music performance that never happened. There was also supposed to be a walking safari, but this was never offered. In addition, we were supposed to traverse the Panorama Route, a famous region of South Africa, when we were going to travel from Humala to Tshukudu. With the closure of Humala, we still faced a six-hour drive (not including a lunch stop), but we lost the morning game drive that was supposed to happen on that day and traveled a rather dull route to Tshukudu without scenic stops. And when we learned we’d be going to Morubisi, we were told of a wide variety of optional activities to choose from, such as a river cruise, to fill the long period between morning and evening game drives. But when we asked about this on site, we were told that only the reserve owner could drive the boat, and he wasn’t available to do so. In the end, there were no activities offered to fill the mid-day hours at Morubisi. Lodge staff were very apologetic and told us that Go Touch Down had frequently shifted financial priorities and was in the process of opening multiple new lodges which was causing not-atypical disruptions that were frustrating for them as well.
To be clear, this review is about Go Touch Down and why I would never recommend booking with them. The staff at the properties were almost uniformly lovely, and they were very candid about their own hatred of Go Touch Down management and about how guests constantly arrive having been entirely misled and taken advantage of. “They only know hotels” said one frustrated high-level staff member who was doing everything possible to give guests the safari experience they thought they’d purchased in the context of a management tour agency that seemed to think we were there for fancy rooms and meals that they attempted to spin as “upgrades.” So if your goal is to book an African safari, I would say this is NOT the company with which to do so – their contract is written in such a way that they may ultimately decide not to bring you to a safari property after all, and even if they do, it doesn’t have to be the safari you were promised.
South Africa is a lovely place, and there were many wonderful staff, animals, meals, fellow tour members, and hotel amenities that allowed us to make the most of our trip despite its many uncertainties and unkept promises. I have a lot of travel experience and love discovering joy in even the worst of situations. But ultimately what it comes down to is that Go Touch Down is a company that repeatedly made excuses for not delivering what we as clients were sold. Maybe they sometimes pull through, but it doesn’t seem like a risk worth taking when there are so many other options out there. This review has nothing to do with whether I would return to South Africa for a safari or whether the lodges we stayed at were nice. It is instead about warning people that there are thousands of actual SAFARI booking agencies, so I would highly recommend staying away from what was in our experience the unreliable, contract-abusing Go Touch Down when booking something as special as a safari.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A once in a lifetime trip with a few issues...
We had a 13 day tour with walking stick tours in August of 2023. Botswana itself is an incredible country with some of the friendliest people, and some of the most incredible wildlife we’d encountered anywhere. All 5 of us highly recommend a trip to the country for safari. Unfortunately our experience of walking stick tours was less stellar.
I’ll start with the good (of which there is plenty) :
- The food that Jo & team prepared for us was absolutely incredible, better than we had In restaurants elsewhere, and all cooked over an open fire! The team were always friendly and happy to help with any requests, we had beer and wine at dinner and no shortage of clean bottled water. We were really well taken care of at camp the entire 2 week trip.
- Prior to the trip communication was good and we were picked up at the airport.
- We had a great guide, Wago. He spoke very good English and had excellent knowledge of the flora & fauna of Botswana. We had a lovely time getting to know him and he got us some truly amazing wildlife sightings.
- Onto the sightings generally, we had great views of lion, leopard, cheetah, even an early morning wild dog sighting - really special.
The negatives:
- Our vehicle (named desert honey badger) was in a constant state of disrepair. We broke down several times every single day, the brakes on the car weren’t functional, and we had to veer off road at points when vehicles approached along the same stretch of road. We were repeatedly told that the car was being replaced or fixed but the issues persisted for the entire trip. This impacted our game viewing and massively impacted our travel time, by the end of the trip we were taken in an alternate vehicle, but this was far too little and much too late.
- Communication on the trip itself was poor, the issues with the vehicle and what was (or in fact wasn’t) being done was never properly communicated to us. We were misled daily about getting the vehicle repaired or replaced, but this never happened. We’ve been on safari before and know how ad-hoc things are sometimes, but this was a step beyond.
- In an attempt to make up for the constant issues with the vehicle we were offered a “complimentary” trip to Victoria falls in place of a game drive as our vehicle wasn’t functional. This was in fact not complimentary, and we paid $500+ for the day ourselves.
Since our trip we have reached out to Phillimon to open a dialogue with no intent for compensation, but we have been ignored. We absolutely loved Botswana and can’t recommend it enough as a safari destination, but we’d recommend you go with another operator instead of walking stick.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not a good value
The advertised 10 day itinerary was actually 8.5 days.
If you don't do the optional tours, you'll be alone at camp for 15-20 hours over the trip.
If you do do the optional tours, the price of the trip doubles.
Pressure to tip. Even forced to tip $10pp once.
Bus: It's dirty because it doesn't get deep cleaned. It's dangerous because it's just a plywood shell with plate glass windows all around (good view though). And it broke down so we were stranded by the highway.
Guide: It felt like the tour guide and/or operator were going from kickback to kickback.
Cook: 3 out of 5 stars. Lunch was nasty sandwiches.
Safari: Incredible. Chobe is an awesome place, and the drivers (3rd party) are good at what they do.
Africa: Great experience, don't let ATC jeopardize it.