35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Money makers only profit oriented
These guys are just money makers. Did the one night safari trip and it was ridiculous. Arrived way too late at the park so we had only 2h game drive. Slept in a tent which doesn’t even has a light switch. You had to screw the bulb to switch on/off the light. Then morning game drive was also just 2h saying the driver needs to be on the road back to Nairobi by 9am. Maybe for unexperienced Tourists fun but I have lived in EA for more than 4 years and did many safari before. This was mos def the worst of all. They just make a lot of profit saving every shilling they can regarding service. Food was cheap local food (rice, beans, posho, goats meat) and all other services also ridiculous. The game drive was also only very semi professional. Anyway if you want local African experience, go for it but the price is definitely way to high for what you get.
SG
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The owner lies a lot and even now he is lying.
We have spoken with the platform master and he has suggested to give an update so here goes:
First, I would like to address the issue of refund. As mentioned, the agreement we made at the police station was for Haron’s African Sunset Safari to make a FULL refund BY 19 SEPTEMBER 2021, please refer to the attached. Haron only made his first partial payment on 28 September, second partial payment on 22 October. And as of today, 6 November, the FULL refund has not been received. Can you imagine after all these mistakes and injustices against yourself, Haron had the audacity to tell you to bear transaction costs when refunding you? Especially when he had a chance to repay you in person (and avoid these fees) but he chose not to. Because of this, we waited an entire day (until 9pm) at the police station - while we are on holiday.
Next, I would like to bring your attention to his responses to our reviews.
The person supposed to do ground handling in Tanzania had some problems…
(RESPONSE: We have proof and voice recordings that Haron was in cahoots with the Tanzanian middleman and tried to cheat the Tanzanian agency. We even found out about Haron’s threats because he was exposed. He is a manipulative and scary man.)
We did inform them of the only two hotels we would change more than a month before they travel…
(RESPONSE: To be precise, we certainly were not given more than a month’s notice. We were notified of the latest change (13 Jul) to one of the hotels 3 weeks before our trip. Not forgetting to mention the last hotel which Haron insisted to have booked, but when the officer called the hotel at the police station, they confirmed that payment WAS NOT made. We spent our last night scrambling to find another hotel to stay in because of Haron’s lies.)
There are so many lies Haron made that we can’t even list all of them.
It is telling when a tour operator responds to every bad review with rebuttals of their innocence. African Sunset Safaris is one such operator.
It is also laughable that this is the first sign of apology from Haron to us and it only comes when he is replying to a bad review instead of expressing his remorse sincerely in person, he is clearly putting on a show.
Haron, we know you are reading this. As the owner of an agency, please have the decency to reflect upon your actions. You owe us an apology and of course the balance of the refund. With that being said, do not expect us to take down our reviews as the agreement has been void by you.
Of course we can take failures, not everyone is perfect. What we cannot take is when it is happening everyday of the trip and the owner ignores you when he can’t find an excuse for his actions.
Of course, attaching a photo of the agreement he made with us to get away from the police station that day. That should serve as proof and give anyone reading this enough warning to steer clear.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Did not deliver on what we agreed
In terms of value for money this was a big mistake. Driver's attitude was unpleasant for most of the trip. An unsatisfying trip overall. Considering this was my bucket list trip you can imagine how disappointed I am.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Thiefs and liars
Going on safari was a lifetime dream of mine. When my husband finally agreed to embark on this adventure I could not be happier. We had used African Adventure specialists and were excited that we were allowing an experienced company create our itinerary. My husband specified which lodge he wanted to stay in as well as his expectations and we thought the rest would be taken care of.
During our trip we started questioning the total cost of our trip because it was off season as well as the prices seemed outrageous compared to people we were talking to who had similar trips planned as us.
We started investigating and speaking to hotel managers and lodge owners and when they saw our furry they all printed out the exact invoices as well as the transfer amounts made by African adventure specialists.
After receiving all the invoices and transfer statements we realized that we had truly been taken advantage off and we were way too trusting.
African adventure specialists overcharged us $9,654.
On top of that, after we had confronted them, instead of making it right they proceeded with fake promises and then completely ignoring us.
The last day of my trip was spent waiting at the lobby of the hotel for “proof” from African adventure specialists and after reassuring the hotel they were on the way nobody showed up.
It’s been two weeks of running after someone to get some answers and there is no responses.
I would never recommend this company to anyone if you don’t want to be robbed..
I’m sad that my dream trip had to end this way.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Scammers
Our experience was terrible. We booked spontaneous and asked if it would be ok to pay online. Peter agreed but as soon as we arrived his Partner said its not and so we spend the first day with looking for an ATM. After we couldnt find any it was ok again to pay online. In the middle of the Night Peters Gang woke us up to ask for the money again - it was not ok anymore..
The following trip was a nightmare. The Car broke (we had the oldest one), booked events were skipped and all things had to be paid in addition because the money we transferred did not reach in time (they seem to be broke). They said we will get the money back since we transferred money and paid everything by our own too. They dont reply anymore but we knew this when we left. Good for them that we just want to forget this nightmare instead of taking any legal actions.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
NTABA is best describe as "lack of communication".
I took a Tanzania/Rwanda trip with NTABA in October. Throughout the booking process it was a struggle to get any communication from them and it continued on the Trip. I constantly had to reach out to them by phone, email, chat, Messenger... and it took days for a response or no response at all. They constantly blamed COVID, but really? Also, we had to take care of a lot of things on our own that they should of taken care of.
Once the trip started, the communication did not improve. We were told at Dinner what the schedule was for the next day, usually.
Throughout the trip I wondered who the trip was for. On numerous occasions, we searched for animals, stopped for photos, marketing opportunities, .... of what the tour operator was interested in; not the client.
Another bad thing from NTABA is the tour operator's lack of any form of professionalism. There were numerous comments made during the trip that were highly unprofessional. Another thing they continually did was try to push their other trips.
However, the Itinerary of the trip was FANTASTIC and I look forward to going again. My next booking will be with Maasai Wanderings LTD. This is who NTABA contracted the trip. This company is professional, great guides, great accommodations and food.
Go to East Africa! But, check your options.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Never again!!!
Never again! I booked a 3day Safari and paid a Deposition of 600 Dollar.
Because of Covid i had to cancel the Safari 1 week before the Safari start. Ktosh told me they give me 400 Dollar back. Since 2 month I ask about my Money and nothing happens!!!
In future i book by „VIATOR“ there you get your Full Money back and you can cancel 24 hours before the trip start! And you get your Money back within 3 days.
So think about if you want to Book your tour
With the Ktosh Goup. I will never Book again!!!
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Stay away. We paid, but Taste of Malawi Safaris never showed up.
We paid for a tour that included 7 people, more than $4,000. On the day of the trip no one showed. Taste of Malawi continued to say someone was coming. After 9 hours waiting in a parking lot we were force to make last minute arrangements. We have been promised a refund, but 3 months later, no refund and no response to our attempts to contact.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Never again
+ The organisation is very well and they‘re very fast in responding
+ They were always on time for the pick up
- The car was in a very bad condition. Also it was not a Land Cruiser. They took us to safari in a very old bus. The seat belt was broken, some electrical cable were falling down and also some parts of the roof were falling down what made it difficult to look for animals while on safari with the open roof. Also we had to be towed two times.
- The driver only spoke limited english
- The driver‘s phone was ringing very loud every 5 Minutes (I‘m not talking about the radio microphone he used to communicate with other guides) and he was answering to private calls
- We paid USD 990.00 for the tour. On the internet I saw that the tour only costs USD 950.00.
- In their 3 days maasai mara tour they advertise that you do 3 game drives (day 1: evening game drive, day 2: fully day game drive, day 3: morning game drive). Once you get there they don‘t want to take you to another game drive on the third day. We had to discuss for hours with the driver and the office until they agreed to bring us to the game drive on the third day. However, they kept the third game drive very short (2 hours), even we had more time because we agreed to drop us off at Nairobi Airport at 6pm. At the end of the game drive we saw cheetahs getting ready to attack wildebeests. There were other 20 cars around to wait until the cheetahs attacked. After 10 minutes our driver said, we got to go back to Nairobi. We didn‘t understand, as we had so much time left until our flight left. On our way back the driver told us, that we will pick up 2 other guests and bring them back to Nairobi (even we booked private safari…). So we had to make space for them. When we got to Nairobi, we first stopped at their apartment to drop off their luggage, then they got back in the car and after we dropped them off in the Nairobi West Hospital for their Covid Test. Traffic in Nairobi is really bad and this stops in Nairobi cost us about 2 hours. Finally we got to the airport and it was clear to us why we made only such a short game drive in the morning: It was because of the 2 People we had to pick up and this wasn‘t told us in advance. Don‘t get me wrong, the 2 people were really nice, but we expected our day to be different.
In general, be carefull with all tours: They advertise all 3 days Maasai Mara Tours with 3 days Safari (Evening game drive the first day, fully day game drive the second day and morning game drive the third day). But most of the cheap tours like this try to skip the last morning tour and tell you „you‘ve already seen everything yesterday bla bla bla“. The reason they do this is, that the Park Fee for Maasai Mara is paid per 24 hours. This means, if you go to the first game drive in the evening from 4pm to 6pm and the next day you do a full day game drive from 7 am to 4 pm they only pay one day park fee. If you do a game drive on the third day, they would have to pay additional USD 80.00 for each guest (hope my explanation makes sence). So always make sure to clarify in advance what you will pay and what you will get. We met spanish people on a similar tour and they had to pay the park fee seperately for 48 hours (USD 160.00 each). They gave the money directly to the guide and I guess he only buyed tickets for 24 hours and told them that they‘re not going to do a third game drive. So he kept 80 USD of each passenger for himself.
LV
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Be careful with this company
It's very sad because previously travelling with Karumuna (we did it three times) had no big problems. This time, however, the unpleasantness overcame everything. A number of services were not paid. So we had to pay for a second time in several places for accommodation and food. There were also no paid hikes for chimpanzees and gorillas. The owner of the Karumuna kept promising that the money issues would settle. Right away. An hour later. Two hours later. Tomorrow. Even now that we are already returning home, it is still promising that the money will be returned. We don't believe it anymore. It is a great pity that the visions of many travelers of the beautiful country, Uganda- Pearl of Africa, have been ruined.It's not exactly a clear reason why our money was missing. The most unpleasant, though, are the empty promises. I now i will travel Uganda again. Becose of very beauty and nice country and friendly people. But not with Karumuna. Never.