US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
This company is a scam.
Based on doing an 8-day self-drive tour with this company and subsequent communication afterwards, I have come to the conclusion that this company is a scam.
1) My assumption was that they had made all bookings in advance when I paid my fees. This was not the case. They told me they had gotten the start date wrong despite me getting a confirmation of the itinerary with the correct dates, but my suspicion is that this was to cover up the fact they hadn't made any bookings. Instead of making all the bookings on the day this error was found, the location for accommodation changed nearly every day. In only one case had a booking been made and payment completed before our arrival out of 7 overnight stays.
2) The places where we actually ended up staying was consistently changed to a hotel or lodge at a lower price point than what was advertised on the itinerary we used for booking.
3) Twice we ended up having to pay for the stay ourselves (conveniently the 3 most expensive nights of the trip) and the company still hasn't reimbursed us despite repeated requests over the last month. The stress of never knowing if a booking had been made was a detraction from our trip. If we hadn't paid already, we would have set everything up on our own, but we were trying to get him to pay for accommodations whenever it was possible.
I have filed a complaint with the Namibia Tourism Board about Enrico's Tours and Safari World Tours, since they changed their name but are still the same operation.
All this said, you should absolutely go to Namibia because it's an incredible and magical place. But absolutely DO NOT book through Enrico's Tours or Safari World Tours.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible experience
It will be a long review, but here you'll have all the details of how it goes with Bencia africa because it's seems a bit tricky to find a good safari agency. We did a safari in Masai Mara with them in january, they sold us 15 hours and 30 minutes of game drive in three days (first evening, then full day, and last one during the last morning). We bought it 280usd (you can find cheaper in other agencies and probably with them also...) for transportation (2 ways from Nairobi), food and tent (like military ones with shower inside). First, we left Nairobi 2 hours late, so we arrive at the Gate of the park, 2 hours late the first day (of course...). The van was so old it broken down the first day 200 meters after the entrance of the park, so no game drive the first day. The second one the program said "game drive from 8.00am to 6.30pm". At 5.00pm the driver reached the exit gate, we asked why so early, he answered "it's a rule setted by the park"... And the next morning the program said "game drive from 6.30am to 9.30am", we did just one hour and then again the driver tried to explain that we were too late to continue the game drive... The driver doesn't care about the program (and passengers), so we requested the company to compensate the hours we didn't do inside the park, they sold 15hours and we did 10 !! Here start their funny answers. They first answered "the 2 people we shared the van with were happy, so the company cannot make any refund". I replied that we don't care about the feelings of the others in the van, we had a contract and nothing of it was respected. So they answered "our driver made a detour of 40 minutes, so we consider this as a compensation". Then i replied that we never asked for a detour but to be dropped on the way back to Nairobi to take a local bus to naivasha (but the driver brought us to naivasha even if i told him that we'll find a bus). Just for you to know, public transportation for Naivasha is about 1 dollar from there... So they tried to compensate the 5 hours in the park they stole us with a one dollar drive.
Then we continue to talk with them and finally they said that there will be a refund but we wait and we wait and nothing happen.
We just leave one star for George the cooker who's a really nice person and the only one with honesty in this company.
If you want more informations about our experience, don't hesitate to contact me. I have the screenshots of the WhatsApp conversation as a proof of what i write, and that i don't exagerate/inflate the reality. It's just for you to not make same bad choice than us.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Thieves and Scam Artists!!!
PLEASE DO NOT book a safari with Claudious Tours and Safaris!!! I paid in full and received an email 24 hours before I was supposed to leave saying that my safari was cancelled! I never got any money back!!! Claudious Tours and Safaris are FRAUDS, THIEVES And SCAM ARTISTS!!!!!!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Dishonest and unprofessional
Firstly it is important to understand that Adventure My Take is not a tour operator, but a travel agent. No matter how much the owner of the company, Tamara, will try and convince you that they use their own vehicles and drivers/guides, this is not true. They have only 3 employees, of which one is a driver/guide and who make take guests on tour during the high season. They also handle airport transfers and city tours in-house, but otherwise they will pass you on to whichever company can squeeze you into their van. The other guests’ tour might look very different from yours, but at no point will you be able to get this information from the company, no matter how many times you ask.
But let me start at the beginning. I chose to book my 3-day Maasai Mara tour with this company, as they were very responsive and offered different options regarding accommodation. I did not want to stay in the most basic option, so paid extra to stay in a lodge rather than a tent.
I also arranged all my transfers through Adventure My Take, as it made sense to work with a single service provider while in Kenya. The confusion around my transfers as well as the lack of professionally by the owner raised some red flags long before I went on tour, but as I had already paid a deposit, there was nothing I could do but hope for the best. I had to keep reconfirming my arrival times, the owner of the company was late on both occasions that she transferred me to the airport, she drove erratically and played loud music and generally would not answer my questions about the Maasai Mara trip.
On the departure day I was not driven to their office to complete the payment as per the itinerary, but straight to the departure point, where Tamara proceeded to tell me that I needed to pay additional “service fees”. As this had not been communicated to me at any point during our many emails and discussions, I refused. It was an extremely uncomfortable start to the trip.
After a long day of driving to the Maasai Mara, the other passengers were dropped off at their accommodation. I was however told that my accommodation was another 80 km away! If you have ever been to this region, you will know how long it takes to drive just a few kilometers on the very bad roads and it was inconceivable that I would have to spend another couple of hours getting to my accommodation and then drive back those couple of hours in the early morning to be at the gate for the 6am game drive. I’m sure the hope had been that I would be so tired that I would just agree to stay in the cheaper accommodation, but I refused. The driver was kind enough to contact his boss, who arranged for me to stay at a camp nearby. The quality of the accommodation was still not what I had paid for and the food was not good, but the staff were incredibly kind and did their best to make my stay pleasant.
Although I have nothing but praise for Edgar and Jonathan who work for this company, I would strongly advise against booking a tour with Adventure My Take. Tamara will promise the earth, but she is not in a position to deliver on those promises. She is unprofessional and dishonest and does not care what happens to you once she has your money. Avoid Adventure My Take!
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Chased by Armed Park Rangers with kids inside the Jeep
Be very careful, Silas’ tour driver, lied to my an my family about the Jeep being broke down. He stole the money I payed to entered the Masai Mara Park & left us stranded at the hotel instead of taking us to the National Reserve. Silas made excuses not to refund the money stolen and never payed back. The day before, this driver Peter didn’t stop at a Ranger security checkpoint, and the rangers chased our Jeep with guns while I had 3 small kids & 1 baby inside the car. After raising a formal complaint to Silas about his driver, He never reimbursed the money stolen and the time we lost. Be very careful with this company, don’t be fooled. Awful experience in a Africa with kids, being robbed and chased with family when we just wanted to have fun at the Masai Mara Park. I will never come back to that place and never would consider using this thieves’ company.
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
AVOID !!! .... you must pay a deposit and then he runs away with your money and no safari !!!
in the beginning (before payment deposit) , he answers very quickly .. everything looks okay, but 2 weeks before start, you can't reach him anymore..
we paid already a deposit of 2.000 € and never see it back...
nothing was booked (no car, no lodges) .. so bye bye safari
please don't book this touroperator ... he is a swindler
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It ended in a court case
I had a few days of meetings in Botswana and booked two Safaris with Lucky, one before the meetings and one after. In the first Safari (4 days) everything was ok. Moremi of course is a wonderfull place. The guide and the chef did a great job - all of them are freelancer. After the second safari (see further down), I am not sure they will work with Lucky again.
A much worse experience was the second safari (it should have been 7 days CKGR and Nxai Pans). Lucky didn‘t do any advance preparation for the trip like buying food or booking accomadation in the parks. When the safari started he was not in Maun, but in Gabarone, an unexpected meeting he said.
He sent the guide to pick me up, but didn‘t provide him with money for food, disel or accomodation. With the help of a friend of Lucky we could buy the most necessary things. Even I cashed in some money I had on me. Lucky said he would join us after two days and bring the required supplies. He didn‘t. He only showed up after three days, probably when he realized, that our situation wasn‘t too good: we were in CKGR, no food left and not sure we had enough disel to make it back to the gate, where we could have a phone call for support.
So he briefly came to our camp with more supplies, appologized, said from now on everything would work fine. It didn‘t. When we went over to Nxai Pans we realized: he did not pay park entrance nor accomadation for us - eventhough before hand he had repeatedly confirm that he did...
Before more people had to cash in money for something Luckey had been paid for by me in advance we headed back to Maun, two days early. Back in Maun we waited on Lucky. And he kept on with the scheme of telling that he would be there and then not showing up. He finally showed up when I set an ultimatum and threatened with the police. We then agreed on the money he had to refund me for the two days of safari that didn’t happen and I also set the condition that he would pay the guide and chef for their work in order for me to consider the thing to be ok. He than set off, saying he would go to the bank to get the money - only to hide somewhere and play on time until I had my flight back home.
Until now, he did not pay the refund to me nor did he pay the money he owns the guide and the chef for their work. And I must say both of them did a great job, doing their best for me to have at least some safari!
Given the fact that Lucky owes money to all of us, the guide went to court with the case. We are waiting.
After this I wouldn’t trust Lucky. He studied communication and he is good at telling stories. I assume he run into financial problems. This should not happen, he should not have used the money I paid to him for something else than my safari. But even if so, once it happened, he should not tell stories as he did. Very disappointing.
If you still book with Lucky, do not pay more than 1/3 of the money in advance, like this you make sure there’s money left for your trip.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Worst Management, broken cars!!!
We booked the 4 Day Lodge Safari (Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater).
Our dream became a nightmare!
The Management is the worst I have ever had. On our first day we arrived at the office and the Manager Kassim already yelled at me because I didn’t pay cash and asked to pay by credit card. Then the tour started with an old car (dirty seats, no air condition, broken seatbelts and only 2 windows which could be opened). On our first day the driver had to fix the car twice. On our only day in the Serengeti the car broke down completely. The driver tried to manage everything. We’ve been standing around 4 hours in the middle of the Serengeti. Then the driver arranged a ride to the visitor center for us. There we’ve been waiting another 5 hours. The whole time we didn’t hear anything from Kassim. After calling him and asking what is going to happen because it’s been already 5pm and it normally took us around 2h to get to our accommodation. He apologized for the delay. I told him that this is not a delay! Because of the bad road conditions it took us 4h instead of 2h. So we had to drive 2h in the dark. This was not responsible. Animals had been on the road and we jumped and hurt ourselves because it was not possible to see the humps ahead. So the trip turned into a nightmare.
But it’s not the fault of the driver. They do their best and they have all the work. It’s simple the responsibility of the management to organize a good and safe! trip. But as the others already said he doesn’t care about anything (Customer, car, driver) once he got his money.
If you wanna have a once in a lifetime experience don’t go with this company!!!
NZ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Be careful if you sustain an injury during one of their tours
Despite advertising that they carry comprehensive insurance, this company will deny any responsibility if during one of their tours you sustain and life changing injury as I did. They arrange all activities and accomodation and therefore it is reasonable to expect that they will accept a duty of care. They do not. Do your research before selecting your tour operator, make sure you are covered.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Avoid at all costs
Return customer & always recommended / sent customers here as service provided before was as expected but rapidly gone downhill ever since. Booked into a shoddy hotel last year during the Nairobi tour & charged at a more expensive rate than other similar agents in the area but because of my continued loyalty, I overlooked that & put the “way below par accommodation” down to experience and instead, complained to the hotel directly.
This year I was planning on booking my trips again with them starting with the Mombasa full dayer- again, more expensive than others but because I built a rapport from before I stuck with them. Paid for lunch in advance but on the day after the meal I was informed that even after a starter and a mere main with a few soft drinks I still had to pay half the bill !
Full day trip turned into a half day as halfway through, the guide informed me that he had to leave and that the company was aware of this the night before, leaving me driving around aimlessly round town minus a guide till I was back at the hotel which I could have done in a taxi for a fraction of the price.
The next day I thought it would be an easy resolve given my continuous loyalty to the company over the years and extra custom I had got them through other clients. A sheepish sorry was what I got- I thought I’d give them a break and not suggest a refund for half a service but instead just what I paid to the meal be took off my next trip which was a £1300 Maasai Mara trip- this was declined. I tried my best to make the agent Harrison realise that if I didn’t get the equivalent of £15 off that I would go elsewhere.
Subsequently after days and days of back and fourth messaging reminding me of how he couldn’t get it any less and that a sorry is all he could offer as that he would be doing it for free if he took that off with guarantees that I wouldn’t get it cheaper elsewhere, I decided I had listened to enough of this salesman pitch & took my business elsewhere- best thing I could ever have done. Ofcourse after going elsewhere the discount could now surprisingly be applied although by this time I had made my mind up,
The Mara Safari that he couldn’t take off £15 I now got £195 off and also made a hefty saving on the Nairobi trip but on this occasion was booked into a really nice hotel and comfortable car and made to feel like my custom was valued at the end.
I am fortunate that I return to kenya every year. I would hate to think that if I visited it just once, these customer service issues would be my lasting memory. Shop around if you want a better service, guaranteed customer service if issues come up and definitely more reasonable pricing.
Everything is good till a problem arises - clearly there is no procedure on how to resolve issues. Refreshers on customer service are urgently needed as running on luck & hoping that no problems will come up is just not good enough in an industry where competition is round every corner.
Being scared into thinking you are getting a good deal because they compare their prices to the ones in the hotel is just smoke & mirrors. Be smart