US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Don't book with Travelust. Very bad experience with this company & it's owner. Read others' reviews.
Absolutely do not make the mistake of booking with Travelust. Not only has our group had significant issues with this travel company and it's owner James Kateeba but so have many others before us. We waited to initiate our social media review of this company, hoping that the owner James Kateeba would do the right thing and refund us the $6700 he stole from us. But we have now waited for 2 months and have received excuse after excuse for why our money has not been refunded. We will also be reviewing Travelust on multiple other travel sites so that other unsuspecting travelers are not taken advantage of as we were. You can read many other peoples' negative reviews of this company in addition to ours. Here is what happened to us in Feb 2016:
James Kateeba and his travel company, Travelust, almost ruined our entire trip to Africa because he did not secure our gorilla trekking permits nor our golden monkey permits. We payed him 6 months in advance and when we arrived in Uganda and Rwanda to trek with the mountain gorillas, he had stolen our money and never booked the permits. Only because one of the people in my travel group had close connections with the tourism board in Uganda were we able to trek. We had to pay the money a second time and wait for hours of phone calls and special accommodation so that we could trek. Had she not known the right people, Travelust would have been responsible for completely ruining our entire trip since the whole reason we traveled to Uganda and Rwanda was to trek with mountain gorillas. We waited to post on social media, giving James the owner of Travelust a chance to refund the $6700 he owes to our group. But after months of excuses and delays and continued fraud, we are now speaking up. We only wish we had read other similar posts before we booked with him. But by the time we saw the other negative posts on line about this company, we had already paid him in full. I hope no one uses this travel company after reading my review. We even filed police reports in both Uganda and Rwanda to try to help keep this horrible experience from happening to others.
US
Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Travelust are thieves!!
Worst tour operator ever! Don't use them under any circumstances. They never purchased our gorilla permits, so after traveling across the world, we were almost unable to trek in either Uganda or Rwanda - luckily we were able to but we had to spend even more money to re-buy the permits. Travelust gave us a vehicle with a broken seat, missing seat belts, a window that wouldn't open, and no air conditioning. We even had to fork over $300 just to get out of the national park since their money card wouldn't work. They never returned our calls or emails, just left us hanging and we had to involve the Ugandan police. Our group had to lay out $7,000 over and above what we had already paid!!! James stole our money and won't pay us back. He's done this before to other people!! Don't get taken like we were!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Okavango Delta by Emily Rinaldi
The only activities for boat rides and a walking safari. We barely saw any animals at all on either of the boat or the walking safari. We even tried to fish and they were zero fish as our guide told us they already migrated when the water levels rose.
DE
do not book with amani tours!
We were supposed to do a 3 day Safari to Mikumi Nationalpark. We were picked up in DAR in the morning and arrived in Mikumi Nationalpark in the evening. When we were at the entrance of the Nationalpark, the driver did not have any money for the park entrance fee although we already paid the whole price for the trip that included park entry, accomodation, food, etc. So we needed to pay the entry by ourselves. Daniel, who we booked the trip with, did not answer his phone. The next day, we could not enter the park anymore since we only took a little amount of money with us because everything should be included in the price, that we already paid him and we drove back to DAR. So in the end, we had one afternoon safari (where we paid the extra entrance fee) and no safari on the other 2 days, that we had booked. He still does not answer his phone and we did not get any money back. Do not book with Amani tours, it's a trap.
US
20-35 years of age
Worst work ethic
My review might be the odd one among all the positive reviews. But I need to share my experience so others can avoid a similar experience with this tour operator. I booked a safari tour with Natural World Safari for Sept 2014 , paid all the advance, but had to cancel the tour in Aug 2014 for personal reasons. The experience and communications were fine until my cancellation but after that everything changed and was a nightmare. As per their terms and conditions, I was eligible for 80% refund. But every time I contacted them I was only getting false assurances that the refund shall be done shortly. This continued for the next 1 year 8months. After reporting this to KATO and other efforts from my side, I was finally able to get my refund in April 2016. I believe a good business should abide by their terms and conditions and also show professional ethics. Unfortunately this is not the case with this business once you cancel their service. I hope everyone booking safari with this tour operator understand these risks if you ever have to cancel.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Swindled by this company--avoid!
I was slated to do a 4-day trip to Nogorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara with this company back in October 2015. A day after I made the payment in full ($410) via M-PESA, I was informed by a company representative that the safari was canceled because the company director (Kristen Hubert) had had a serious accident on her way to Diani. Completely understandable, and I asked them not to rush with my refund, given the circumstances involved.
Fast forward to November: the company director's husband (Georgette Hubert) gets in touch with me and tells me that he will make a refund ASAP. However, since November 19, I have heard nothing from him, in spite of several reminders. Since I did not wish to be insensitive, I was patient, realizing that there could have been medical complications associated with Kristen's accident. However, intriguingly, since then, the company has continued advertising for safaris on their Facebook page (since then taken down) and has actually organized safaris for clients, as vouched by one of their recent clients with whom I have been in touch. To me, this reeks of corruption and hints rather strongly that I have been swindled of my money, as they are quite obviously flat-out ignoring my emails and Facebook messages. Considering that we are now in April, I do not envision receiving my money back again. That being said, I wanted to post this cautionary message, so that other travelers are not swindled by this company.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beware of this provider's rip off methods
Let's talk about the positive aspects first: The driver was nice and had practical knowledge of most animals and plants we were passing by. I sometimes wished he was a little more involved with us and our Safari rather than "doing business" on his mobile phone. So we did see all the animals we were expecting to see and also learned their names...
However I would not recommend booking any tour with this provider (Experience Kenya aka Bianka Investment aka Eric Nyankanga). Eric tried to rip us off several times and in the end he succeeded. Here's the story:
1.) Although the tours here on SafariBookings include "All Taxes/VAT", our first quote had the VAT listed on top of the initial price.
2.) After having booked and payed, one lodge (for two nights) was changed into a cheaper one (e.g. not having 24/7 electricity). The reason given was that the initially booked lodge could not cater vegetarian food, which is hard to believe since you get veggy meals everywhere in Kenya).
3.) "Park fees" listed as included on this site were silently removed in the quote, where these fees - according to Eric - are under "Any other item not mentioned". This did cost us additional 800 USD.
Conclusion: Pay a little bit more for your tour and avoid being screwed. We did so on our second Safari one week later and the experience was completely different.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Failed to Deliver what was Promised
I highly recommend not using Pega Tours. They take no pride in making your experience memorable. The driver was 3 hours late picking me up and then proceeded to rush me through the whole experience. (Even after the trip I waited an hour and a half to get picked up for Nakuru) After speaking with management about my problems, they proceeded to tell me I should have received 15 hours inside the park, but I was only in there for less than 10 hours. The boss refused to apologize and offered no compensation because the other customer "had no problems". He then lied to me that he wasn't the boss and the boss was "on holiday" even though he was right there in the room. Pega could care less about customer satisfaction; therefore I do not recommend!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Choose ANY other company!
The guide Simon is a tourist who moved to South Africa to do tours and it shows in his arrogant, opinionated, disrespect of the South African people (he made fun of the way they talk), disrespect of the animals (he was gleeful at the thought of witnessing a kill in stark contrast to how the local guides respectfully handled the same situation and he even defended poaching saying "poachers are just people trying to feed their families") and his disrespectful comments about americans which he repeatedly made. Kruger National Park was amazing, the South African people were wonderful-- do the tour, just do it with ANY company but this one!
US
Don't Use David Kiango!
David Daud Kaingo, you asked me to write you a review……here it is!
I have been waiting 2 months (2 credit card billing cycles), to write this review. I will not mince my words, just, DO NOT USE this crook. David (Daud) Kiango has no intention of helping you to book a hassle free trip. To make a long story short, he quoted me a rate, including lodging in 2 different locations, and private charter flights between locations…..and in the end, I was made to pay twice more, above the quoted rate. He was cordial and prompt at first, while initiating discussion, trip planning and rates. But, once I paid for the trip, communication was pretty much non-existent. He urged me to pay via bank transfer, but, for my security, I opted to pay the higher fees in order to have the insurance backing of my credit card company. I was later to learn, that was a very good investment on my part!
I was planning this trip, only one month before our travel date. Normally, I book all travel by myself. But, with time constraints and little knowledge of travel in Tanzania, I decided that I should use the assistance of an agent. My bad, and so unusual for me, I did not research well. There are only a few reviews of this David Kiango, a couple good, a couple minorly bad. I want to change that, along with a more recent review that was posted just before mine. Just move on, do not consider using him!
After a few days of correspondence, I booked and paid for our trip, on 11/10/16, for a trip to take place on 12/15/16. After I paid, I heard very little from David Kiango. He strung me along, saying he was waiting for my payment to be processed. That I should be patient. That funds would be disbursed for hotels and flights, and then he would send me vouchers. I sent many emails, asking for confirmation and trip vouchers. Finally, I heard from him 5 days before we were to embark upon our vacation. It was not the email I was expecting to see….. He said that the flight charter company changed their rates, and I would have to pay more. Not just a little more, but, A LOT more. 5 days before our trip, what was I supposed to do?! I paid again, with the knowledge that I would have to contact my CC company after the trip, in attempt to get my money back. Incredibly, though, this is not the end!
I contacted both of the lodges before our departure. Our safari lodge, the first stop, assured us that they were indeed expecting us, and incidentally, Kiango, just days earlier asked them to book our flights. WHAT?! Well, ok, they assured me everything would be ok. I never again contacted Kiango regarding logistics of the trip. We were picked up by an agent of the hotel, brought to our charter flight, and off to our Safari lodge. Everything was great…… until our last night at the lodge. Apologetically, the manager approached us and told us that Kiango still had not disbursed the balance of funds for our charter flights! The hotel had tried to resolve the situation quietly, while we were there, but, to no avail. You have got to be kidding me!!! ……we had to pay yet again.
What more can I say. Do not take the risk, do not use this crook, also known as:
David Daud Kiango
Kaingo Adventure Safaris
Tanzania Safaris
Zanzibar Travel Holidays Online Shop
ZanzibarMagic
Botanic Country Resort
Made In Tanzania Safaris
DaudKiango.com
I am lucky, I came home from our trip (which actually turned out to be great, despite paying 3 times for our flights), disputed the flight payments made to Kiango, with my CC company, and got that money back. Just trying to save you all from the hassles……don’t use him!