AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not reliable
The actaul itenerary is not same as discussed in email.
It’s understood that it’s was shared tour basis, I could accept some changes but lying to customer is not acceptable.
However the drivers/ guides are okay. I have changed 4 mini van for 7days tour.
If you are flexible and ready to change the plan then it’s fine to book this tour as it’s cheap.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
My experience was at bookings very poorly coordinated. I feel I was overcharged not Professional
As a parent I felt cheated. Got a raw deal.The SGR booking was a mess
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not recommendable. Don't go with them.
We had two safaris with them. Actually one is still running. The first was in Tansania. Besides humiliating toilets on campsites the tour was ok. Our driver Fred is really the best. Very nice, professional and funny. Our chef Abu is awesome aswell. Very humble friendly and a great chef. In total I think the price for a low budget safari (210$ per day p.P.) is to much. Besides they don't have so good jeeps. We had an accident and I scratched my head kind of badly. They didn't have a first aid kit, so I took some napkins to calm down the blood from my forehead.
Our second safari was/is a mess. Our first day was an eleven hour bus trip from Mombasa to Nairobi. We wanted to start our trip from Mombassa because the Zawo East is just around the corner. But no chance. The woman who managed everything (Ann) said it would only be a four hours drive... that was obviously a lie because it took us eleven. So no safari the first day. Of course we paid for the whole day including the food we didn't get. The accommodations are a mess aswell. No warm water, almost no wifi and the food is really bad. The last day of our trip is again just a 5 hours trip from Amboselli to Nairobi, so no safari again.
All in all, do yourself a favour and book with some other organisation.
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unprofessional as they did not follow the agreed plan
I have contacted Fig Tree for the positive reviews and for the reasonable prices, though, I did not have a good experience for a number of reasons. First of all I was given a program and ended up doing another! So a piece of advise, make sure you are very specific on your requirements, making plenty of research and you get a program confirmed in writing exactly as you have understood it and you want it. I have asked for a 5 nights budget camping safari with 3 nights inside the parks (2 in serengeti and 1 in Ngorongoro) and I got instead a 5 nights with only 2 days inside the parks (1 in serengeti and 1 in Ngorongoro) I never asked to go to Tarangine and we found ourselves spending the first day there instead of Serengeti and slept outside the park. Serengeti is big, if you do not spend at least 2 nights inside you waste a lot of time traveling between parks and you don’t enjoy much time game viewing! In fact out of so called 5 days in reality you do 4 days of which 1.5 days game viewing and the rest is traveling or waiting). Second of all you need to know if you are going with the actual company car and driver for the whole trip or not. In our case they just gave us a freelancer driver with other people from other agencies, sometimes they do this in case they don’t find enough people to fill the car and they don’t have drivers available. Funny enough we were 6 people coming from different agencies and we all had the same program but ended up doing another one. Or we were all stupid or it is common for agencies to be unclear and unprofessional. We got 2 different drivers in 3 days while another couple which stayed longer got 3 drivers in 4 days ending up wasting time and therefore money (we got delayed a couple of times during the trip for missing payments from the company to the driver, literally 2 hours waiting!). Third of all you need to make sure you clarify in advance the amount of tips to give to the staff; we were told we had to give 10 usd per day per person to the driver but we ended up having to give tips also to the cooker, which was not expected. Ref. Tips it would be much better for the company to pay for the drivers and cookers and include that amount in the overall price! It would avoid misunderstandings and uncomfortable situations and leave the customers choosing if a tip is worth to be given (tips should not be forced!). Fourth of all, be aware of the extremely bad conditions of the public camp sites, overcrowded with dirty facilities! I have been camping several times in Zimbabwe and other places and the experience of the camping is incredible, you are immersed in nature, hearing the animals around you after a nice meal cooked on the fire. In Tanzania the experience is far from this; I have never experienced such crowded camps and you loose completely the connection with nature (if you are in a safari for this reason!). You will only hear people talking, and more, all night and no sound of animal! Also, be aware of the commercialization of the safari and expect many cars around; if you are sensitive about animals conservation it can be quite overwhelming seeing how many cars can surround a lion surely disturbing them... Our driver was old school and very sensitive about this matter which I have appreciated. After all I could not recommend this company as after the trip and discussing the program issue they are still insisting they did nothing wrong. And note I have confirmation in writing of the 3 nights camping from them! Literally unprofessional.
TH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
First time safari with unsatisfy opertator
We choosed smile with us tour for our tour operator in Tanzania. We felt that Jacob was very active on the communication for planning of the tour and accommodation. On the first day he picked us up late 1 hour and said that our guide will be changed without informing us the reason. We knew later that our guide has just been contacted that morning! Since there has been a change in guide and car and also the poor operation of smile with us tour on the reservation and permit to go to each national park, we spent more than 1.30 hour at each gates (i.e. serengeti and ngorongoro). The worst is that we didn't do the game drive as we spent too much time dealing with all these problems which should not exist if the tour operator is professional enough. Our iternerary was ruined. Our guide tried to manage all problems and planned new itenerary. We felt that this tour operator is very unprofessional.
CN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
What they did last year, we paid $28965 for 9 person in 2017. Read my story
2 Stars for how lucky we are....Mr.OT disappeared almost the same time last year. I try to contacted everyone in the contract despairly one day before departure. Right now, if you have not flight to Kenya, FIND PLAN B. Below is the e-mail I sent to them in 1 Aug, 2019....
Well, Dear OT Team,
It's my last time to mail you, just lost my patience.
Attched is your so called "Promise" "Apology"....which turned to be a lie.
If you rememberd you cried on the phone begging me to let your tourism package back to SafairBooking. I believed you.
If you rememberd how eagerly you want to back to SafairBooking even sent me a "confidential mail" promised refund with interests. I responded we don't want interests, we just need our money back!
If you rememberd you claimed yourself is a Christian, lying is a sin, you got family to support, you got housing mortgage, you have to back to SafairBooking to keep you alive.
Oh, find the attachment "mail", sometimes I just joking with my friends, I said "Hi, Merry Christsmas Mr.OT, where is my refund? " " Hi, happy new year Mr. OT, where is my refund?" "Hi, happy Valentien's Day Mr.OT, where is my refund? ".....well, this time maybe Happy Anniversary Ruined Vacation 2018, right? where is my refund?
Hush.....145 mails between us, oh plus this one is 146...sorry, you are not Tom Hanks, I am not Meg Ryan either.(you know the movie "You've Got Mail", if not, just watch it , definitely you deserve best actor reward)
The last but not least, Hakuna Matata, I understand debt is a old friend to you. I just go back to SafariBooking, TripAdvisor, kenya tourism authority, kenya tourism police, again~~~~
Above is the mail. I bet they promised everyone get refund in 90 days. He, Mr.OT, will try to persuad everyone withdard the bad comment that he will speed the refund. (DO NOT BELIEVE IT).
In my situation, they did refund in a very long time. For almost one year, still have $1961 arrearages.
I really doubt I can have the money back right now.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Misleading Information + Unprofessional Response... Can book same safari with more reliable company
If you want to skip reading the review, here's just a quick list of reasons you shouldn't book with Seth Vincent and things that were PROMISED TO BE INCLUDED in our safari package that WERE NOT: First nights stay in Nairobi, visit to elephant orphanage, giraffe sanctuary, farewell dinner at Carnivore, a limited number of people in a van, and adequate amounts of daily drinking water. He just wants to find any way to take your money!
As two college students who booked a "budget" safari, and have been to Africa before, we went into our trip with no expectation, knowing that traveling over there is an adventure of it's own! We booked a 6 day safari through Seth Vincent and initial communication was clear. Once the deposit was paid, however, his communication became a little more sporadic and it was unclear how we were going to transfer the remaining balance, as we made it known we did not want to travel with that much cash. Anytime we sent an email asking questions about anything prior to landing in Nairobi his response was nothing other than "it will be fine."
In the email he sent with our itinerary, he said that our first nights stay upon landing in Kenya was paid for in the cost of our safari. He never booked us a place to stay, or gave us money from the safari package to put towards a hotel, so we booked and paid for our own hotel in Nairobi (which wouldn't have been a big deal if he wouldn't have told us that a room was included in the package and then lied when we asked him about it)
Upon landing in Kenya we were picked up by a driver named Samuel! He was great and according to him, and the itinerary that Seth Vincent had sent us, someone would be meeting us at our hotel to go over what the rest of the week was going to be and someone was going to take us to the elephant orphanage and giraffe sanctuary. No one ever came and we were instructed to be ready for pickup the following morning.
Seth arrived as we were departing for our safari and took us to an ATM where he had us withdraw the remaining balance for our safari after we had asked multiple times if we could just wire the money the same way we had paid the deposit.
After taking our cash he dropped us off at a van where he told us that the van would exceed no more than 6 people. Well, after just a few minutes of waiting the van was completely full (9 people) and we were stuffed elbow to elbow with people from a different tour company that Seth evidently partners with. So, the number of people he told us would be on safari was false, which at the start wasn't a huge deal, but after being stuffed into a van for numerous days on bumpy roads, it got a little too crowded and very uncomfortable.
Then the amount of water that was promised to us each day was not given... to the point that I was so dehydrated I was vomiting (there is water available for purchase at the camps so we just ended up buying water for ourselves... which also wouldn't have been a big deal if Seth Vincent would have just been honest about the amount of water we were going to receive)
Upon returning to Nairobi after the safari, we never heard from Seth (he would have never known if we even made it back to Nairobi) so we reached out about the "complimentary dinner at Carnivore" that is promised in the itinerary, along with the visits to the elephant orphanage and giraffe sanctuary. He told us that because we didn't go on the first day (BUT THE REASON WE DIDNT GO IS BECAUSE HE NEVER SHOWED UP) he wasn't required to take us to see the elephants and giraffes (and was incredibly rude about it), but he offered to arrange to take us AT AN ADDITIONAL COST (to something we already paid for!!) and when I asked about the farewell dinner at Carnivore he flat out told me no. When I asked to be compensated for the first night's stay in Nairobi he also told me no, even though HIS INITIAL EMAIL STATES THAT HE WILL PAY FOR IT. He asked for additional money to arrange visits to the elephants and the giraffes and dinner. So we just took an uber and planned a day for ourselves.
The safari itself was magical. We absolutely loved our first driver, Jeffery Bruce. Everything about the Maasi Mara is absolutely breathtaking, but you can book the same safari with other companies for cheaper (: We were put into a van with another company and everyone who booked through them paid less than we did (and seemed to be given what they were told in their itineraries)
Our second driver, James, was AWFUL. He drove on the wrong side of the road on a busy highway on the way to Amboseli and didn't notice until someone told him... and FELL ASLEEP multiple times while driving on the safari.
Our safari went to the Mara, Nakuru, and Amboseli... we both agreed that if we had to do it all over again we would book a 5 day safari (through a different company) and only go to the Mara and Nakuru (: Amboseli is cool, but not nearly as fascinating as the Maasi Mara and a lot more work to get to than it is worth!
Go on a safari... just book it through someone that's honest!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The office personnel will rip you off here!
Let me first stop off by saying that the climbing team (Guide, cook, waiter, and 6 porters) was incredible. They were hard-working, fun, and were always positive.
I'm leaving a one star review because of the Emmanuel in the office.
At my hotel room the night before the climb, we went through what I had packed (even though he never sent a packing list beforehand). He stated that I couldn't wear the shoes that I brought and would need to rent shoes and a mattress to put under my sleeping bag for an additional $65 (extremely expensive). I gave him $70 and never got change back. He said he would be bringing the mattress. The next day we went to a small shop and searched the pre-worn boots (about 8 pairs) and left with one pair that fit. The first red flag was that we didn't pay for them. We just left with the boots.
A few hours later when we arrived at the park, another red flag went up. The office didn't send enough porters to carry the weight of all the bags, tents, kitchen stuff, etc. so when we got to the Kilimanjaro National Park gates, the park made us hire 2 additional porters to carry everything. The Unique Jungle office should have weighed the bags before they picked me up. Additionally, Emmanuel said that he didn't have any way to pay for the additional porters so he asked if he could borrow the $100 USD it would take to hire the 2 additional porters to get us into the park and start the climb. Once in the park, he asked me for a tip for the driver, which seemed odd. I've never tipped the driver in all my travels...its always included.
We finished the climb earlier than expected so there was an additional day to spend in the area. I had asked my guide about a safari and Emmanuel came to my hotel that night with the costs. A boxed lunch was going to be $50! Even lunch in the USA isn't that much! Needless to say, I declined his entire offer and found my own way.
I would love to hire the climbing crew again if I return. They were great. However, I will not work with Unique Jungle again because of Emmanuel. He is a thief, liar, and lacks any knowledge of true customer service in the travel industry. People are traveling to a new country where many don't speak the native language and because of this there's a certain vulnerability. Emmanuel will take advantage of this situation and of you. Its been a month since my trip, I've asked numerous times and have yet to receive my $105 refund from Unique Jungle.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unfortunately NOT satisfying!
We booked and paid our trip 6 months ago already and our trip started mid July. Unfortunately it all started with a misunderstanding already when we had our meeting/introduction in the beginning. Because we had organised a city walking tour ourselves after the intro (which we told OT about beforehand) but he he other plans for us which were at the same time he tried to move things and told us our tour would start a day later, which we actually didn’t really want. He said not to worry, we should relax and the guide in Ugands will be informed about the day that was supposed to be scratched from our trip (which we also didn’t want). We had to then start our trip a day later than expected, which was a pity but ok, because at the end of our trip we had an extra day before our flights went. We had also booked a hotel ourselves for that last evening.
When the trip finally started we had a fantastic first guide named Frederick who was very knowledgable and told us a lot about the animals, the country and it’s culture. After that we had friendly drivers but not really someone I would call a guide. They weren’t very talkative and didn’t inform us.
We started getting worried in Uganda when our guide wasn’t informed by the office of the change in itenerary and it was even possible to change it. We then sent OT an email, complaining about how he handled the situation in the first place and that he shouldn’t scratch one day of our safari because we actually paid for it. Furthermore we just wanted to know how the rest of our safari would go because now it was all a bit confusing how it would continue. And if we would stay for the whole trip then we would have to cancel our hotel for the last evening. He hadn’t replied ( which was odd because before our tour started the office replied VERY quickly) for more than a week. We asked our guides/drivers to ask the office to contact us because they must be in contact with the office all the time. The drivers just answered that they couldn’t reach the office, which was also very odd because they had to get info from the office to change drivers. After the 3rd driver told us that story we knew it was bullshit. We phoned and got through immediately twice!! Unfortunately OT was NEVER available to talk, he never phoned back and after a those two phone calls we weren’t able to get through either. They blocked us.
Then we told our driver to take us to the office on our way from Naivasha to Kenyan boarder, because the LACK OF COMMUNICATION AND THE NON-EXISTING CUSTOMER SERVICE really frustrated us. At the office we couldn’t get answers to why they had never replied and we found out that our itenerary had been changed by OT (via phone) which was a big surprise to us. If we hadn’t demanded to go to the office we would have never found out because the drivers didn’t know about the change.
Then we went to the boarder to Tansania. We waited for 2 hours for our next driver, who had more than enough time to get there on time, just to find out that he wasn’t coming anymore and we should stay st a nearby hotel. No one from the office called us to inform and update us, not even to say sorry for the inconvenience. The next morning we waited for an update until 10:30 (we actually tried to phone and find out what’s going on-that didn’t help because they didn’t know themselves and they didn’t have a plan B) that our next driver would be there at 11. We waited at the boarder again just to wait for 2 hours AGAIN!! He finally got there but we basically missed a whole day and we missed a game drive.
The next guide named Francis in Tansania was great as well. At last we could enjoy our trip again. We had two great days in Ngorongoro and Serengeti. Our last day, because our trip started a day late, we had to speed from Serengeti to Nairobi airport to catch our flight in the evening. Why OT planned the last day like that we will never know. He said there was enough time to even do a game drive in the morning and get to Nairobi Airport on time in the evening. That was bullshit. We even asked him to change it but he said it would be fine. We missed our last game drive and the guide had to drive 140km/h on a 80km/h road to get us there on time.
Summary:
The things we saw during our trip were amazing!! We had two great guides.
BUT the people working in the office and especially OT have been incompetent and very unprofessional. There is a total lack of communication at a time when it should be the best ever because it was DURING our trip, and there is definitely no customer service whatsoever!!! It was really disappointing because before our trip they seemed very professional and they responded very quickly to emails.
I just hope we, and other groups we met that also had a lot of problems which were even worse than ours, had some bad luck and that other groups won’t be stuck with this kind of mess!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very good operator, extremely rude drivers
Masai Mara & Nakuru: 30 July 2019; for short version, look below.
I am so conflicted giving this a 2 star rating because we (group of 9, with 7 visiting from the US) had a terrible experience largely due to one person (Julius - experienced but grumpy & rude tour guide who seems to hate his job/life), but the rest of everything else was great. However, Julius largely defined the experience for the group that he was driving, so I unfortunately cannot justify more than 2 stars. All 9 of us are avid travelers and visit 3-4 countries every year (4 of us are above the age of 60), with 2 who live and work in Kenya, and there was consensus that these were among the most disrespectful people we’ve met.
We are a large group and worked with George for a few months, during which we made multiple changes and George was absolutely fantastic, accommodating, and patient throughout, designing a customized trip for us - I had decided I would give this operator a 5 star rating even before the trip, but then, enter Julius. Right from day 1, he seemed a bit rude and on edge with his responses to any question. Since we were in a mindset of trying to have fun, and had planned this for months, we ignored it and tried to brush it off. We had 2 vehicles, and the other tour guide, Milton, seemed much friendlier until Julius turned him by day 3, so we had him acting snippy towards the end too. After a few incidents it became hard to ignore Julius’ rudeness (example - at one point when we said it was uncomfortable to have a large empty ice box in the car, as the water he brought had run out anyway, he responded with ’then you have to be uncomfortable’; not even a hint of empathy, or trying to find a solution). Oh and he also whipped out a large machete that was under the seat on at least a few occasions (pretending to clean it) possibly with the aim of intimidating everyone, and I guess it worked. Imagine being in a jungle at the mercy of someone like that (he even looks scary). Both drivers started acting very dictatorial, telling us what the new plan was (different from the itinerary), and not offering any options, or entertaining any suggestions. We finally got a different driver on day 3 (James) who was absolutely fabulous - and told us more about Mara and wildlife in one hour on the freeway, than Julius did in 2 days, but unfortunately he was there only to drive us back home, so we didn’t really get to do any Game drives with him.
TLDR: George - amazing guy, very easy to work with; tour guide Julius ruined the experience with his blunt rudeness; The other guide Milton was okay first couple of days, but also became rather rude after seeing Julius talk to the group with no respect and get away with it. James (who stood in for Julius on day 3 was absolutely fantastic, and well spoken, and the guide we all wished we had through the safari), so be super careful who you select as a tour guide/driver as it is critical in how your experience turns out.