US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
One star is too much
The three of us selected a ten day trip around Uganda. We paid two thirds of the total, told to cover the remaining third upon arrival. Once we arrived, we were taken to ATM's several times almost every morning, to take out the third half and pay in cash. We explained multiple times that we would not be able to take out that much and can wire money instead but our guide refused and kept asking us to take out cash, even asking us to overpay at a lodge so they could reimburse that amount back to the guide.
We told our guide several times we did not want a boat tour. It was not part of our itinerary. On the day we had scheduled game drives all day, they took us to lunch then told us to hurry through lunch to make the boat tour.
After we paid our initial deposit, our guide changed several lodging options. They explained 'it was the equivalent.' One lodge was $125USD a night but they changed it to a $16USD a night lodge. When we arrived at our $16USD night lodge, the guide told us to check in then LEFT. We couldn't check in because it was too early and our guide had left with our bags. They came back two hours later- no explanation or apologies.
Prior to arrival, we were told several times to bring items to donate to an orphanage. On the day we were set to meet the kids, our guide brought us back to our lodging then told us since it was a holiday, the kids had gone home to their families. ..but it's an orphanage? We were forced to give all our items ($300USD) to the lodging manager and are not entirely sure where the items went.
Over the entire trip, our guide was consistently late and left us alone in our vehicle in large cities (without telling us where they'd be). We brought this up but there was no change.
When we went for game drives, they would stop and take photos themselves, then continue on. They never checked in to see if we had a good view or got all our photos.
In addition, our guide made three stops during our drive to visit friends. They would stop the car, hop out and chat with the person for several minutes, then hop back in. No explanation or apologies for the delay in time. At one point, both guides asked us if we wanted to stop and shop. We said no, but they still left us in the car and went shopping themselves.
On the last day, our guide had initially promised a lunch before a ride to the airport however, the night before they decided they'd only take us to the airport.
Overall, we realized we overpaid for the trip we wanted and especially for the trip we got. We feel like we were fully taken advantage of and are unsure of the integrity/legitimacy of this company.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Trip of a Lifetime Ruined
I didn't want to write this and usually let my husband do these reviews but this experience was so horrible I wanted to share it and warn other people not to make the same mistake by hiring Mushra to plan your trip. I don't want to go over in detail all the painful memories again but needless to say, every day we had to spend hours of our vacation time dealing with problems not handled or created by Michaels' dishonesty or incompetence (e.g. hotels we arrived at with no reservations made and having to pay out of pocket to stay, no flights between destinations after this was in itinerary, no gorrila permits after having paid for them in April and personally assured everything was set, etc.) Don't want to relive it but anxiety coming from these things happening every day ruined what was planned as a trip of a lifetime.
GR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Terrible experience with Self Drive Safari/Vehicle rental
We selected Prime Uganda Safari as we through it was one of the best car rental companies in Uganda. Unfortunately we were so wrong.
Firstly, our poorly maintained and serviced vehicle broke down on New Year's day, and the company blamed us for a series of damages which of course were not created by us.
Then, the next day, they sent another vehicle with a driver to continue our journey in Uganda because they could not trust us. So on 2nd of January 2019, the driver, during an overtake, crashed the car into oncoming vehicle from the other side.
Not only the company did not apologize or provided another option (to leave the accident spot or to be moved elsewhere), but the only communication we received is an email with the costs of the alleged damages. They never reimbursed us for the daily rentals for the days that we did not have the car, and they also charged us for filling up two fuel tanks, while the delivered two car fuel empty.
I am really sorry to say that you should not trust Prime Uganda Safari as the whole altitude was completely inappropriate and unprofessional, let alone that they put our lives at risk twice without taking any responsibility.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Disappointing troublesome, frustrating and extremely dishonest in his services and dealings with us,
AFRICAN NIGHTMARE: AVOID THIS BUSINESS AT ALL COSTS
Michael Ahabwe Mugerwa of Mushra Travel, located in Uganda, has provided the WORST travel experience in our 35 years of roaming the globe.. After carefully planning out a 2 week dream vacation to Africa with our best friends (costing in the mid-20k range) our dream journey turned into a horrible nightmare as we discovered that our travel agent had run off with our money.
Michael, who had had made a number of glowing promises in his initial proposal and final itinerary and took our our deposits and told us everything had been arranged and reservations had been made. But while on our trip we soon discovered that was not true and that there were no reservations or payments made, leaving us having to pay twice for most of our hotels and activities promised in our carefully planned itinerary (e.g.the surprise of downgraded hotels, canceled flights, two days of gorilla trekking). So our dream visit to East Africa quickly melted into a pool of disappointment, frustration and uncertainty as to what problems we might encounter next.
Initially we tried to give Michael the benefit of the doubt. But after recurring problems over several days it become evident that these were not simple mistakes or accidental errors but were intentional actions by Michael to deceive, confuse and scam us as he had done with prior clients.
As problems kept recurring and we confronted Michael, he either lied, blamed others, and made excuses, all as a way of not taking any responsibility for these problems Being trusting souls, It took us a few days to realize that we had been scammed and did what we could to salvage some semblance of our planned African vacation. As before on our visits to Africa, we found the people to be warm and friendly and the animals and game drives fascinating
Honesty, integrity, direct communication, dedication, are all traits you would look for in a good travel agent and are critical to a well planned and executed vacation . Sadly, these are traits that do not exist in Michael Ahabwe Muge or Mushra Travel. Currently we are trying to recover some of the thousands of dollars taken from us .But that will never restore or change the complete picture. For Michael not only scammed us and stole our money, but more importantly, he broke our trust and tainted our dream of a wonderful African vacation.
Gary Buffone
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Twas terrible. The driver abandoned my parents halfway the trip. Didn't take them to all places
Terrible. Nathan doesn't like to answer calls. And they don't like issuing a refund when the services is below standard
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Peter was the worst person to deal with.
The communications with Peter was the worst, he did not give the Park fees to the driver and every time we got to a different park we would try and call him and as soon as he knows who was calling he said that I will call shortly then he would switch the phone off for the rest of the day. So I would have to pay myself again and for the driver and the car even though I had paid all inclusive. Up to yesterday the driver was calling me to say that he has not been paid yet if I could help, He even called me names once I called him in the afternoon and he was drunk. The driver was very accommodating as he was not also told what he was doing until the morning they both came to pick us from the hotel. We did the parks we had agreed but not in the order that we had agreed.PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY TO SAVE YOURSELF A HEADACHE
QA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Poor communication and questionable integrity of owner/director. Avoid this travel agency.
Did poor job and did not pay for services that had been paid for by us. Would not recommend.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Horrible experience! Stay Away
The guide Humphreys was disrespectful to stay the least. Our trip to Amboseli was the worse trip we have taken so far. It started with Humphreys coming late to pick us up at Nairobi and taking us via dirt road to Nairobi National park to "pay" some fees where he was turned down. We reached Amboseli late and the car broke down in the middle of the park! We were on a custom itinerary and we decided to meet at7:30 am and were having breakfast in the hotel. Humphrey claims that he came and was waiting but did not bother calling us. When we came out to the parking lot he was not there and his phone was not reachable. No-one in the hotel knew where he was either. He finally came and from the minute he came he started yelling at all of us (my husband, parents and in-laws) in front of the hotel staff for being late. He called us unprofessional several times in public and threw our luggage in the car. He cancelled our safari on his own without telling us and we came to know that only after we realized we were on our way to Nairobi. So much money paid for what?
When we came back to Nairobi and called the Bornfire office, initially they were sympathetic and agreed to look into the matter, and later sent us an email justifying each and every action of Humphrey and proved us wrong. Even the CEO was cc'ed in the email and we addressed an email to him and have not received a response. We have taken many trips to different part of the world, but this has been the absolute worse! Please please stay away unless you want to be humiliated.
NZ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Totally let down, simply heartbroken
Consider very carefully before booking with Mushra Travel, NOT a trustworthy company.
My husband and I travelled to Uganda in October , our itinerary was changed, we weren’t told. We booked as a group, Michael told us 4 other couples were aLready booked on our tour, but we were on our own, not bad you say, but we like to meet people. The tour went reasonably well, although our guide wasnt really interested in us and only did what he really needed to do.
Our last day was to see the gorillas, they messed up our permits even though we booked and paid 10 months in advance. We had to change our flights and extend the holiday by 2 days for them to sort new permits. Our driver repeatedly tried to get cash from us to pay for petrol as he said Michael was not sending him money. Then to end the holiday on a high at 8.30pm on our last night, travelling back to Kampala we were pulled over by armed police who told us they were repossessing the vehicle (and our suitcases) as Michael hadn’t paid the lease. The repossession company turned up and we were faced with 3 men and the police telling us we would not be let go until Michael paid up. Michael would not answer our calls or theirs, what a nightmare!
It’s hard to believe this feedback, especially as most people seem to have nothing but praise for Michael. Micheal promised us a refund of our additional expenses incurred due to their cock ups but we have been home for 2 months and no refund has been received, despite numerous messages being sent. I’m not surprised!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Extremely negative - driver was dishonest (took luggage and didn’t show up), bad car condition
I used Faustin’s driver and car because I joined another company - Gamily Tour to Selous Safari and their vehicle was not available one day before due to an accident. Faustin sent a driver John to cover for the transportation from Dar to Selous and driving within the game reserve.
First thing to state is that the drivers in this company are driving their own cars (instead of company provided vehicles) so the conditions of the vehicles are understandably more variable than other tour operators.
Several things which happened showed that John is dishonest and owns a car at very poor car condition (and other things eg drives aggressively)
1. Dishonest - he took my tour guide’s luggages and never show up!! On the last day of my tour, when John was driving me and my tour guide back to Dar, I discussed with my tour guide and decided that I would try to experience the “local public transport” thus he and I would get on the local bus for 2 hours. The plan was that John would drive and follow the bus to the station and continue driving me to the hotel. When we arrived at the bus station, John was still at the starting point where we got on the bus (not sure what he was doing for all those times!!). Luckily I got most of my luggages with me, and I didn’t want to wait for him another 2 hours so I took an Uber back to my hotel. My tour guide waited him for another 4 hours and John never showed up, until the next day after we contacted his company (I would have missed my Kilimanjaro hike if I put my luggage in his vehicle)
2. Bad car condition - across the 5 seats in the car, only 1 seat wasn’t suffering from water leakage. Some windows could never be closed. It also could not drive through the roads which other SUV were able to drive through - I was unable to see lions as his car could not drive through one of the flooded main roads leading to the “lion area”.
My experience with the driver and vehicle was extremely negative. While I wish that this is only an issue with an individual, seeing from other reviews, seems like there is a company-wide problem. Anyways, even if you happen to use Faustin services, you should request to avoid using John (and his vehicle) at all cost.