US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Enjoyed Safari in Tanzania
We were 4 people went to Tanzania north for safari. The trip was really good, we saw the migration in Serengeti. Sino Africa did a good job gave us good advice. We went to Lake Natron and spend two nights there, the hotel was good, and we saw lot of flamingos there. Thank you Sino Africa Safari, we became very good friends now, because you treated as part of your family. Please take care of yourself in Kenya. See you in Kenya next time!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
our dream trip to Kenya safari
From start to finish, we had an incredible experience planning our dream trip to Kenya safari with your company and your safari professional team. The safari specialist was so conversant about the region and gave us tons of wonderful and creative ideas and suggestions to plan a customized itinerary that mirrored our interests. The driver guide was responsive, kind, very organized, and always encouraging. We would absolutely plan another trip to Kenya with your organization.
We enjoyed the breathtaking view of the Great Rift Valley at the viewpoint on our way to Masai Mara. The driver guide Michael was very intelligent and competent, safe driver and nature addicted. The accommodation, safari vehicles were up to standard.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful authentic Ugandan experience - Best trip ever!
I am beyond grateful for the experiences we had with Mambo Gorilla Safaris. They gave us the most authentic experience of Uganda! It was without a doubt the best trip of our lives yet! The safari experience and gorilla tracking were a dream. We saw elephants, lions, water buffalos, zebras, giraffes, hippos… and many more animals. The experience of walking in the jungle tracking gorillas was epic! I never thought I could feel so comfortable next to huge gorillas. These animals are so peaceful and passive. But theses experiences were small in comparison to getting to know the children at Loving Hearts School. That was for sure a major highlight of our trip. It is inspiring to see people like Didan making the difference in these children’s lives. He is the owner of the resort and also the Loving Hearts School. It makes me happy to know that part of what we payed for our trip, a really fair price by the way, went to those children at that school.
The resort views right in front of Lake Bunyonyi are incredible! And the service there is really great too. We really enjoyed getting to know Sam and the other employees. They all try to make you feel very special and comfortable.
What made the trip even better was to have a guide like Paul Turyagumanawe. His knowledge, positive attitude towards life and hard work made us want to be a better person. If you come to Uganda, you need to make sure you choose Paul as your guide! He went out of his way just to show us the most beautiful views or to get us to try tasty and safe street food! His driving skills are impressive in those, sometimes, dusty and bumpy roads. We felt safe all the time with him. We had such an amazing and fun time and we are grateful to know that we have a long-life friend in Uganda now.
If you want an authentic, unique and unforgettable experience in Uganda, Mambo Gorilla Safaris did an amazing job doing that!
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful trip to Africa
I was very happy to go to Kenya for the first time, and I went to play with many good friends. The travel agency arranged a wonderful trip, each place has different characteristics, feel the local customs and customs, remember a lot of local indigenous people and different wild animals, see the legendary animal migration, I love this place！
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Totally dishonest and unreliable tour operator!
We booked a 15 day, slightly customized Kenya/Tanzania tour with Twinkle Star through safaribookings.com back in January.
Unfortunately our tour experience was pretty much ruined by the very unprofessional manner in which it was conducted and the dishonesty of James Collins Oketch- the person running Twinkle Star Tours.
Prior to booking the tour I exchanged multiple emails with Mr. Oketch in order to make sure that we will actually be getting the exact same deal that was being advertised on safaribookings.com and the the official website of Twinkle Star Tours.
As we had an elderly person in our group with serious spine problems I asked him specifically if the tour was suitable at all for such a person.
He assured me right away that the tour was more than suitable for all ages and that our companion's health problems will not be an issue during the tour. I also asked him if their tour vehicles are indeed as modern and comfortable as they advertise them to be on their website. He confirmed that their has invested in the most modern and comfortable vehicles possible.
I also asked him to confirm in writing that the advertised accommodations will not be changed at the last moment and that they are indeed up to our desired standards. He confirmed it all. I informed him that my companions and I are all vegetarians and that vegetarian menus should be made available to us during our stay. He said it'll be taken care of.
He kept repeating in his emails 'Our word is our bond my brother. Don't worry about anything.'
So far so good... only that it all turned out to be a big fat lie.
The moment we transferred him the money for the tour everything went south.
On the very first day after our arrival we were bluntly informed that one of the best and most expensive accommodations in our tour will be changed without our consent to a sub-standard one. Needless to say I protested immediately and reminded James about his promise and our contractual arrangements. Unfortunately, he and his sidekick Benson simply blamed it all on their Tanzanian partners and insisted that nothing could be done about it.
The car that picked us up for the tour was far from the 'modern, very comfortable safari vehicle' that they claimed to provide their customers with. Instead it was a beat up old minivan that met us in front of our Nairobi hotel.
The thing was in a terrible condition, with no air conditioning and absolutely not road worthy in any normal country around the world let alone be used as a safari vehicle.
The roads, especially in and around Maasai Mara and Amboseli are the closest experience you'll get to actually visiting the moon. It was indeed like a lunar landscape with craters and bumps on every step of the road through which we were speeding most of the time in order to reach our destinations on time.
It doesn't matter how careful our wonderful driver/tour guide Simon tried to drive, avoiding all the massive bumps and holes in that beat up minivan was simply impossible which left us all both emotional unfit to enjoy the safari and often physically bruised.
A funny fact is that most of the other tour companies seemed indeed to have provided proper safari SUV vehicles for their clients just not Twinkle Star.
We were often purposely brought to various tourist trap pit stops where they would try to sell us a tiny wooden keyholder for 25$, served us basic dishes like pizza 'Margherita' for the price one gets in some of the better restaurants in Venice or Paris.
Some of the accommodations we were brought to were very far from the nice, comfortable lodges and luxurious tent camps advertised by Twinkle Star Tours. They often lacked some very basic utilities like hot water and mosquito protection.
The vegetarian food they offered was scarce and badly prepared to say the very least while there was plenty of choice for meat eaters which made us realize we were basically paying all this money for other hotel guests' rich meals while we were often left to almost starve with just a simple vegetable soup, some bread and rice.
Our 25$ a piece take away meals were often either spoiled, filled with meat products instead of what we ordered or simply absent and believe me when I say, you don't want to find yourself starving in the middle of the savanna while driving through a lunar like surface in a beat up old minivan. The tour will NOT be enjoyable.
Often we had to shower with cold water. One time we were provided with greasy, dirty butter buckets from the hotel's kitchen with some hot water in one of the buckets and the second one to mix it with cold water so the temperature would be bearable.
We missed 1 morning game drive in Masai Mara, one afternoon game drive in Amboseli, one morning game drive in Amboseli and had to speed up and return only after a couple of hours during our supposed 'full day game drive' in Amboseli only because Twinkle Star had again not provided the otherwise wonderful lodge with our food requirements.
All of this was promptly communicated to James Oketch. Unfortunately, much to our disappointment, he turned out to be a person either unwilling or simply unable to assume responsibility for his and his company's failures. At first he blamed it all on the government for not improving the roads, the quote 'underdeveloped tanzanians', the accommodations themselves, the weather(which wasn't bad at all btw)and virtually everyone and everything just so the blame and responsibility won't fall on him.
However, after he finally dared blame it all on us, I provided him with many photos of the incidents which are an undeniable proof. I all told him that unless we get at least a humble 100$ pp refund for all of our troubles he can forget about that 5 star review he kept pushing us to give him. So in the beginning of February a refund was finally promised.
To no surprise considering Mr. James Oketch's dishonest and mischievous nature the date for the refund just kept getting pushed forward and forward citing the most ridiculous of reasons or no reason at all while after each and every empty promise we were being swayed into giving him the desired and completely false 5 star review both here and on another popular tour site.
Now finally, after about 2.5 months of waiting and blatant lies he told us to wait this time until May because they had 110 'Covid19' cases in Kenya when we have over 120 000 in Germany.
I asked him, why he hadn't refunded us earlier then, he had more than 70 days to that and back then there was no virus threat and business was still flourishing. No reply.
He just kept making new ridiculous excuses like he would totally refund us right away but all the banks were closed and if they were open he couldn't get out of his house at any time at all and Kenya you need to go directly to the bank and personally order the money transfer regardless of how small the sum is. All of this is obviously a lie. Online banking does exist virtually everywhere nowadays a d he does possess a PesaPal(the African PayPal) account through which he was able to receive our online payment for the tour and he could just as easily send us the small refund at any given time from the comfort of his home.
So bottomline, Twinkle Star Tours and Safaris is totally unreliable.
James Collins Oketch is an extremely dishonest person who will silver tongue you up until the moment you pay up and then you will be left in faith's hands as no responsibility will be assumed by him or his company for absolutely anything that happens to you or your family and friends during the tour.
He will keep lying through his teeth while calling you his 'brother', citing God and the Bible and telling you what an honest and honorable person he is and how his word is his bond.
Well the Bible says it's a mortal sin to lie Mr. Oketch and you 'sir' lie shamelessly and you lie A LOT. You show up hours late for your meetings without even excusing yourself.
You break your word of honor over and over again and you make empty promises.
The 2 stars this company/tour have received are only because of our wonderful driver/tour guide- Timothy Simon, the magnificent animals inhabiting Kenya and Tanzania and the breathtaking beauty of the nature there.
Anyone who wants a physical proof in the form of email/WhatsApp screenshots or photo evidence is more than welcome to contact me at any given time!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A huge disappointment.
I will start with the fact that the 2 stars in this review are given to the beautiful Kenyan and Tanzanian nature and our amazing tour guides Brian from '7 Wonders' and Timothy-Simon from 'Twinkle Star' who made up for a large portion of their superiors' countless failures. Poor guides were at the same time also drivers and on top of it had to deal with numerous misunderstandings and failures due to the badly organized schedules and itineraries courtesy of their supervisors.
People like Brian and Simon should be the ones running the companies and not the other way around.
I was a part of a small group that took part in a 15-day Kenya-Tanzania tour, organized by Twinkle Star Tours and Safaris.
Despite of me being an equal part of the group, paying the same price for the tour and ultimately sharing the same disappointment, I would not have written this review and kept my disappointment to myself had I not seen the reply from Benson of Twinkle Star Tours to my husband's review.
Benson's reply just confirms what was said in the previous review about this tour operator's behavior- a total refusal to assume responsibility for anything and twisting of simple facts.
My husband explicitly asked the owner of Twinkle Star- James if the original itinerary will still be preserved despite of the 11 day delay in payment due to PayPal refusing to mediate such a large payment to a private account in Kenya. However, we managed to take care of the situation and once James Oketch confirmed in writing that the original itinerary will be unaffected and preserved we initiated the payment.
We were only briefed about the changes in accommodation *after* we had arrived in Kenya. This was of course very well planned on Twinkle Star's behalf since we were left with very little choice in the given circumstances. What were we to do? Say 'No, thank you.' and pack our bags, buy new airplane tickets for 3 times the early booking price and fly back to Germany?
They knew exactly what they were doing when they only informed us about the changes once we were already in Kenya. A decent company would ask their clients prior to their departure if they would agree to itinerary changes for a lower standard accommodation and if not they would refund them. Unfortunately 'Twinkle Star Tours' is not such a company. Despite of it all my husband still protested on a number of occasions about the changed itineraries and the bad conditions in some of the places we stayed in, about the missed or messed up lunch boxes and etc. The tour guides knew it all and they communicated it to James Oketch and Benson and their Tanzanian counterparts and on some occasions my husband did that too.
Spending our nights in tented camps in the middle of the Savannah would've been perfectly fine for the younger people in our group but we also had an elderly person with us who has several non- negligible health conditions.
Having to shower with cold water due to yet more technical problems, being provided with scarce nutrition choices and being unable to go out of your tent at night because of the wild beasts roaming around was not our elderly companion's idea for a 350USD a night accommodation and it was not what we paid for and agreed on.
As for the so-called safari vehicle. On the official website of 'Twinkle Star Tours and Safaris' it states 'We have invested in top of the range and reliable landcruisers for all our Land Safaris'. James personally confirmed in writing to my husband that their safari vehicles are up to the best modern standards but then again they also advertise 'We select top of the range and luxury hotels and lodges for that extra ordinary service' on their website and then you end up having to either shower cold, shower with filthy buckets by mixing hot and cold water by yourself and either bringing you on the verge of starvation or food poisoning you and your tour guide like it happened in Tanzania.
The above-mentioned antiquated minivan was absolutely not to the task of taking us on time to our destinations or let alone offering us a comfortable ride.
It had no air conditioning in the scorching heat. The air filters of the rusty minivan were situated at such a low level that when the slightest amount of water splashed the vehicle it meant we had to either wait for it to dry up or miss a game drive entirely.
We missed a morning game drive in Maasai Mara because it had rained a little the previous night and our guide was afraid water might get into the air filters, we missed a game drive upon arriving to Amboseli because we had to take alternative roads just so we can avoid water getting into the air filters, the next day we had a hurried 2 hour game drive instead of a full day one because our food menu plan was again messed up/not communicated properly to the lodge and we were again starving during the game drive, we missed another morning game drive because water had gotten into the air filters and the minivan was barely operational. We had long waits to just cross muddy/wet areas because of the badly situated air filters of the old minivan while virtually every other tour vehicle around us was passing through with no difficulties whatsoever.
It was a nightmare...
As for the promised small refund that James kept lying about. It was not simply delayed like Benson is putting it in his comment, it simply never happened.
Dear Benson, a delay means a few days, maybe a couple of weeks in extraordinary circumstances but a delay is certainly not 70 days. A 70-day delay means unfulfillment of commitment.
Every couple of weeks James came up with new excuses and simple lies to delay the promised refund. The latest excuse is the virus crisis and that they are always confined to their homes(not true)and online banking doesn't exist in Kenya(obviously not true as they have that and they have PesaPal)but any slightly intelligent person could easily spot the dishonesty of James and Benson as the refund was promised and arranged for more than 70 days ago when there was no virus crisis in Europe, the US or Africa and when business was going as normal.
Twinkle Star Tours, your behavior is absolutely disgraceful.
In conclusion, I encourage other travelers to visit the breathtaking natural beauty and stunning wildlife variety of East Africa. Just not with 'Twinkle Star Tours' because with them things will only work out if all the right stars align perfectly for you and your group and if something goes wrong along the way, you will be on your own.
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Epic Kilimanjaro Adventure
First and foremost I have to mention that communication with Florent of Snow Africa Adventures via Email/Skype/Whatapp was really smooth. He was very helpful and flexible in tailoring our 7 day private Kilimanjaro Machame trek.
The actual trek was epic and unforgettable with our crew who did an amazing job of guiding us to the top keeping us safe and looking after our needs with great food, warm comfortable tents to the highest standards possible. They taught us so much about safe mountaineering, the animals, plants and different people of Tanzania.
The last stretch of the trek to the summit was tough struggling with mild AWS and we were lucky to have expert crew who patiently assisted and supported us to Uhuru Peak.
We are thinking of returning to Tanzania for another Adventure and hopefully Florent and your team will host us again
NO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Memorable experiences with professional company
I with my three siblings had an amazing and unforgettable experience on our safari in Murchison Falls national Park. We did a four day exploration of Murchison Falls and its environs and we enjoyed every minute of it.
Mukisa Safaris Uganda was flawless and we greatly enjoyed their excellent service. Richard made all the arrangements for us and he was a pleasure to work with. I would write to him at any time and he responded promptly and pleasantly.
We were in the company of Paul our guide and Phiona our female driver. They were such amazing, friendly, professional, knowledgeable, courteous people and we had a great connection with them. They ensured that we enjoyed every moment of our safari.
I must say that Uganda’s beauty won us over in every way. The lovely and friendly people in Uganda, the game drives and boat cruise experiences were exhilarating, the comfortable accommodation and nice food, the stunning views of the park and the entire northern region and the vegetation. With the memorable experiences, I highly recommend Mukisa Safaris and I intend to travel with them again very soon.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exceptionally fantastic holiday in Uganda
It was such an exceptionally and fantastic tour of Uganda. I and my wife had a trip of Two weeks which was professionally organized and executed. In fact, their service was far beyond what we aspired to have. Our communication with Richard was prompt, professional and inspiring both before and during the trip. Our decision to book with Mukisa was because of the trust that we developed in Richard. His responses were always prompt, advisory and at times made suggestions that would suit our package as we desired.
On our arrival at the airport, we were warmly received by Richard who introduced Veronica and Solomon whom we spent the entire two weeks with as our guide and driver respectively. These two made our stay in Uganda very interesting and memorable. They are such good people, kind, friendly, professional and knowledgeable about all that we wished to know.
Uganda is indeed a country for anyone to spend his or her holiday and Mukisa safaris is the company to travel with. I without any second thought recommend Mukisa Safaris for anyone who wishes to visit East Africa.
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
It Was Good To Be Back
After the long wait we have finally done our Tanzania trip. Snow Africa Adventures have delivered to the highest possible standards and we cannot possibly fault any aspect. Florent and his team took care of all the details from transport, accommodations and exciting game drives with Chiba. He was professional and very experienced with Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. He was our able go between with the Hadzabe Bushmen at Lake Eyasi.
As repeat guests it was great to be back in Tanzania with one our favorite operators in Africa.