DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
!!!WARNING FROM SEKA GONDWE (owner of Taste of Afrika)!!!
!!!WARNING FROM SEKA GONDWE (owner of Taste of Afrika)!!!
1.) FAKE REVIEWS!
Seka writes fake reviews himself under alias names! I know it 100% and I can even prove it, because the Google rating of the user "lil-emky" includes the pictures shot by me! I only provided these photos to Seka so he could create a video of our hike for extra payment. NOBODY except seka and me is in possession of these pictures. SO SEKA MUST HAVE WRITTEN THE RATING HIMSELF! I explicitly told Seka to delete the photos after creating the video and not to use them elsewhere.
When I look at the reviews so also noticed that very many positive reviews were written by users who have only written a single review... funny that people specially create a new Google account to write a single review or...? (but can also be a coincidence)
2.) SERVICE NOT PROVIDED, PROMISES REFUND FOR MONTHS, BUT DOES NOT REFUND!
We had booked some extras for additional payment. One of these extras did not take place and it does not matter what reason Seka comes up with all of a sudden for the failure of the extra. It's annoying enough when something you were looking forward to doesn't happen, but for Seka not to refund the extra cost is FRAUD! He has been promising me reimbursement since June and postponing it until the following week every time...SINCE JUNE, for 4 months!!!! By now I know I will not get the money back.
3.) His employees are not salaried, but are contracted as "self-employed".
He does not discuss what has been agreed with the customer with the "employees", so they get into difficult and unpleasant situations with the customer.
4.) He tries to save money even during the tours: e.g. booked beverage flats are suddenly to be paid by the customer (only clarified after discussions).
(supposedly) positive:
5.) At the beginning (online booking) and when you talk to him (Seka) personally on site, he always seemed very friendly and customer-oriented. He planned our tour according to our wishes and took a lot of time. However, the moment he got the money transferred, the contact already became less.
I think we were very lucky. Probably the special occasion of our trip - which Seka knew about - led to the fact that Seka didn't cheat us completely and that our trip was carried out at least to a large extent as planned. (Cheaters apparently sometimes still have a bit of heart!).
6.) What was really SUPER were the super dedicated staff (=self-employed) of our crew during the ascent of Kili (including Nickson and Brison + all porters) as well as our safari-guide Moses! Thank you for giving us a beautiful and successful climb as well as a unique safari despite the problems with Seka!
Without these people our tour at Taste of Africa would probably have been a total failure.
Conclusion: Taste of Africa and especially the owner Seka Gondwe are NOT TO RECOMMEND! Seka only wants the customers' money. We were lucky in our misfortune, but other reviews show that this is unfortunately not the case with everyone.
BE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Plagued by admin issues.
My experience with Achieve global safaris wasn't great. After some back and forths with the team an itinerary was agreed on and 50% was paid in advance, it was mentioned that the remaining 50% would be paid on arrival with my Amex.
Here's a summary of the issues I faced:
I was told my Amex would work, it didn't, I had to dig around for another card
During the Rwanda part, of the trip, the driver saw and commented on my headphones, upon returning from the chimp safari he told me he used them and they were great. Not cool. He'd also eaten my lunch so I ended up with his choices. Again not cool.
For the Congo part, I needed my yellow card to show my vaccines, I wasn't informed about this but took it anyway. Feedback from admin was 'oh we thought you knew'.
For the flight from Rwanda to Uganda, I was not informed beforehand that I needed a visa. I escalated that to the admin contact and again she said 'it's not our fault, we thought you knew'. A shocking response, they informed me about the Congo visa but not the Uganda one? Madness
The Uganda itinerary wasn't accurate, there was confusion between admin and the driver, luckily I hadn't booked the hotel myself or else i'd have lost money.
The Uganda seemed to be more concerned with working on his preference of timing. I missed an activity because he didn't want to eat at a certain time, which meant us waiting around for 2 hours in the roasting heat doing nothing.
The Uganda driver asked if it was OK to pick up his wife on the way back from Queen Elizabeth park to Kampala. I said OK but this actually added 2 hours to the trip that he didn't tell me about.
Overall it was pretty disappointing. I also voiced my concern that there were no internal flight options proposed, the admin contact came back saying 'I didn't know your budget'. Another odd response considering 3 hotel budget options were proposed.
Avoid, the whole experience was pretty disappointing.
BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Never book with this company. Horrible experience!
Don’t book!! Please, choose another company if you don’t want to worry during your safari.
Read this for more information ( long story, below a summery)
The hostel were we stayed, recommended Big 5 voyage. The boss came to talk to us
We agreed on a 6 days safari. With 1 night in a tent, 2 nights in a camping tent and 2 nights in a hostel in Seregenti park. With WhatsApp messages we got the planning and more details about the safari. In the morning we confirmed to do the safari the next day. We agreed on a total price of $2200 in tota.
We got a message back that the hostel was full and for only $120 per person per night we could have a lodge with swimming pool in Seregenti. We agreed on a total price of $2500, 2 persons 6 days safari, everything included (- $45pp cost of the hostel we first agreed on)
We got to the office in Arusha to pay, and there it was 5% more to pay with card, that was never told to us (we had cash at the hostel!). After again discussing this, he dropped the commission fees, and we got receipts.
Then next day, we started the safari.
We arrived at the meeting point to start. Nobody of the company was there, all of the sudden our program was changed and we had to go with another company on safari, also another group.
We had no communication about it, even if we asked for it.
After day 1 of safari, I got messages from the boss of the company, that we had to pay more money. We called him after this and then he asked for more money: we paid only for 1 night at the lodge he said. So we had to pay $240 more. Also he talked again about commission fees we had to pay. We paid everything in the office so we didn’t understand why he was again talking about it..
The lodge was already booked and confirmed (see photo of WhatsApp message)
We didn’t want to pay extra, so we asked for another option. He said we sleep in tents then and get money back. Then all of the sudden the call ended..
We worried all night, because we started already the tour and now we got really bad vibes.
The day after we got $240 back. We had a great 6 days safari with tour operator: Meru Slopes
We slept 2 nights in a bed and 3 nights in tents at public campsites. Our safari with the other company, meru slopes was really nice. We enjoyed the great migration!
Summery: the company asked 3 times for more money, even when we agreed on the price and paid it.
No communication during safari or changing plan
So book with another company if you don’t want to worry, even if you already started your safari!!
IT
Nightmare Honeymoon
So much went wrong in this 15 day trip I don't even know where to start. I am at the point where I think all the other reviews must be fake. It was sketchy from the very beginning and I would have surely cancelled if it weren't for the large deposit we had already paid. This was our honeymoon. The suggestions we were given were poor and provided little to no information. There were huge miscommunications between the travel agent and the local guide - honestly I don't understand how they can do business together. We were supposed to have a full serviced 15 day 'luxury´ camp, but on the last days of the trip WE ENDED UP SETTING CAMP AND THE TENT OURSELVES including cleaning the tent and DIGGING THE TOILET HOLE!! because they just abandoned us in a horrible island without any staff except for a chef. We were told there would be 2 games drives EVERY day, it turns out that on the day we changed camps there was no game drive at all because even though those drives were supposed to be considered game drives, the driver was not even stopping for us to have a look at animals. The evening drives on those days weren't even performed. We ended up having 6 game drives less than promised. We were not served alcohol due to COVID restrictions - which we understand- but the agent didn't provide us with any warning whatsoever beforehand, surely because he didn´t want to loose us as customers. Imagine finding out you won't even be able to have a glass of wine during your 15 day honeymoon once you get to the first camp and are in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to go. Additionally, no other activity or extra service to compensate for the price of the alcohol that wasn't bought was offered, so they basically stole 300 USD from us. The guide kept promising 'we will see rhino and wild dogs GUARANTEED in the next few days' and then we never saw them. Really, how unprofessional can you be? We never had the expectations of seeing them in the first place, but we did after his empty promises. When we asked to make some changes to the trip, the guide came with a ridiculous price, which didn´t make sense at all....yet another excuse to steal our money. On a couple of occasions we asked the guide to go check out specific things (like a dead elephant in the area) and he would say no because he just wanted to go chase whatever he felt like, thus we missed out on amazing sights. On more than a couple of occasions we were told to meet at a certain time to leave for the game drive, and they left us hanging for 30 min or more. The guide would sit with us every dinner and wouldn´t even talk to us, he would only talk to his staff in his language. Why even sit with us and ruin our dinner in the first place? All in all, it just felt like they manipulated and lied to us to take our money. And so many things more. Feel free to contact me and I can share more info and or photos of the disastrous camping setup. We felt and we feel robbed.
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Thieves
We booked the safaritrip "The best of East Africa" in 2020. Because of covid we had to postpone to 2021.
The trip we booked was fully options, parkfees, logies, meals etc.
When we arrived in Nairobi Peter and Peninah were waiting for us together with our driver.
They said everything was arranged for our trip.
At day 4 the troubles started, we had our lunch in a restaurant on the way to Masai Mara and the driver paid 6.000 KES for the lunch.
A hour later, the driver told me he had a call with Peter about the lunch and h said that Peter told him to ask the money back to me and that he would pay me back when we were back in Nairobi.
The same day a recieved a mail from Peter asking me to pay the parkfees for Masai Mara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Amboseli, because the were not payed yet.
Because we were already on our way to Masai Mara, I wrote him that I could do that if we could pay with creditcard at the entree of the park and that he would repay us whn we were back in Nairobi.
He replied, no problem.
So, we paid the park fee for Masai Mara.
Then we went to Tanzania and that driver said that they had contact with Peter and that we would pay the park fees in Tanzania.
I said , yes, if we can pay with creditcard at the gates.
That was impossible he repleid, in Tanzania the fees are paid through the travelco and you cant pay at the gates, because they have no cardreaders.
So, we drove to one ATM to another, collecting cash money, because I reached that day the maximum of cash redraw, we would do the same when we came from the Nogorongoro crater.
The amount we had to pay was also much higher than Peter wrote me in his mail.
So, I wrote Peter that same day, that I will stop paying and that he had to find a solution.
I never recieved a answer on that mail, so after visiting the crater we had to go again to ATM machines to collect the rest of the money.
When we went back to the border of Kenia, to visit Amboseli, we had to show our PCR test, but nobody told us, not Peter or the touroperator in Tanzania, that we had to do the test.
So, instead of going to Amboseli, we had to return to Arusha, to do the test.So, we lost our stay in Amboseli and we had to pay $110 for the test.
The normal price for the test is $49, but we had to pay more, because the testcenter was already closed and they found a doctor who would do the test, but only if we paid $110.
So, the day after we went back to the border and straight to Nairobi.
I sent a mail to Peter to meet us in the EKA hotel, so he could pay me back.
Once arrivbed in the hotel, a few hours later Peter, Peninah and one other lady showed up.
After explaining what we went trough and how much they owned us, the discussing started.
They did not had the money to pay us back and they told us we had to wait until they recieved money from another group that would come the second week of September.
So, after 4 hours of waiting and discussing, we had to call the tourist police.
When they arrived and because they could not explain what they did with our money we paid for our tours, they arrested them and put them in jail. Before we went of to the police station another issue popped up, even our hotel was not paid for our last night and diner.
Last week a recieved our first payment, but we are still waiting to get the rest of our money back.
What should be a splendid holiday, became a nightmare, we lost more than 4 days, first driving to one ATM machine to a other one, than because of the PCR test we never had the change to visit Amboseli and our two last days in EKA hotel, where we spend more time in the police station than in the hotel.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
CHEATS AND LIARS
I had a safari tour with my family and from the United States through email communication I felt as if though I was booking with a reliable and trustworthy company. I had communication with Magdalene. Our driver Steve tried to cancel part of our safari tour in order to try and pocket the entrance fees we had already paid the company! He confronted us during our family dinner to try to talk us out of it! How disrespectful and unprofessional! I never felt so insulted in my life. I contacted Magdalene who informed me I would be refunded and once I replied to confirm yes send me back my money I never heard one word back!! Do not trust this company. You should not have to go through this when visiting an unknown third world country. Of course safari is a great experience but you can experience all the wonderful things with ANY other company who has reliable staff and drivers, there are so many which shouldn’t try to cheat and steal from you! I tried to be calm about it but after all, I highly discourage anyone from booking with BigMac!
BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The agency is FRAUD!
Me and my friend, we ended up with the Abraham Shaidi’s company (Sandland) as a third part booking. We booked a 5 days safari trip with the Three Peaks Safari agency which sub-contracted our trip to Abraham’s company without asking us.
Our experience was terrible. We have never seen the migration in the North part of the Serengeti neither the Ngorongoro crater as it was in our plan.
Our guide, Albert Lema drove like crazy, broke the safari rules several times by disturbing animals’ peace and put us in danger. We did not feel safe in the car and in the campsites (e.g. driving 90km/h, texting us in the middle of night when we slept, putting us between lion cubs and making noises etc).
On the 3rd/ 4th day, Albert and his boss became very rude to us, blaming us that we cost a lot. Albert also yelled at me in the front of clients, he left the camp at 8pm with our suitcases and without debriefing us. Next day at 08:30am, he came back to the camp without saying any word. He gave us his phone and asked us to speak with his “director”. Albert and Abraham asked us for EXTRA MONEY in order to go to the Ngorongoro crater or we would come back to Arusha. I called the Three Peaks Safari agency and explained the situation. The agency called the police….at the end, we have never seen the crater...
Moreover, the chef, Hilda pretended to be a 26 years old single Maasai mother from Arusha (while she was from the village Mto Wa Mbu as well as Albert) was also a very rude, aggressive and laud person.
The owner is crook and the safari guide with a chef – liars! PLEASE AVOID IT
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
He stole our money and delivered no services.
Saving for this trip for years. We were supposed to go last August/September 2020, cancelled due to covid. Rebooked August/September 2021. We were already in Uganda when we learned our trip was not paid for, despite paying in full in March 2020. He stole our money and ruined our trip.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
He's a crook
Don't use them! Michael and Nelson/this company ran off with/stole our trip money for Tanzania safaris and Uganda accommodations - we saved for years for this great adventure and are now, headed home without the experience and without our money!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unscrupulous tour operator - do not use!!
So, I booked a tour with Zeigen Tours & Safaris (Via Viator) approximately one year in advance (for June 2022) but then had to cancel due to our Covid concerns. So imagine my shock when after booking, they had in bright red letters that all reservations are final and non-cancellable!! A year out???? Really???!!
Despite reaching out to them numerous times, they never responded!!!! Can you say scam artists??!!
So, I'm writing this review as a public service - do not use Zeigen Tours & Safaris unless you're prepared to be ripped off!!!!