Beyond Expectation!!!!!!
The trip was exceptional, exciting, and very accommodating in all its services, including hotels and activities. SafariHub staff was of high quality and our experiences with them were top-notch.. They were knowledgeable, caring, sensitive to our needs, gracious, warm and fun.The rates are competative I would love to use Safari Hub again for my next Trip to Africa and I highly recommend anyone to use Safari Hub to Africa.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent communication skills, great package deals, reasonable prices, ensures safety of all
Safari Hub has definitely lived up to its expectations in terms of having great communication and operational skills, they work hard to ensure that all your needs are being catered to and they do a great job at showcasing the beauty of Africa through their reasonably priced selection of package deals and offers. You can't go wrong with Safari Hub!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent budget safari
This was an amazing safari for the very affordable cost is presented. Dennis was our contact with the safari company, and he kindly picked us from our very remote locale in Kitui county and drove us to Nairobi where we met with the van. Our travel to and from the Maasai was quick and safe.
While there, we stayed in very nice tents, inside which were beds (fully apportioned), flush toilet, and hot water shower!!! (I had been living in a village without any of those amenities…) The campsite had wonderful food, but we had to pay for water. It's not expensive (~100Ksh for 1L) but it does add up; might be advisable to buy giant 5 gallon water jugs and bring those.
The safari drives started on-time and followed the trails in the park to show us the main animals. We didn't see any rhinos or black leopards, but we saw everything else. The driver was incredibly knowledgable about the park, the animals, and the history of the area. It was a fantastic tour on a budget and I'd recommend it without qualification!
IL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We canceled and never got our refund
** UPDATE JULY 2015
I have changed my rating for EASTCO company because they have refunded our money after 6 month. According to the EASTCO agent it was because of some financial problems that happened with the ebola fright.
I am not sure if its a sufficient excuse but at the end of the day they have refunded our money so i am satisfied.
** ORIGINAL REVIEW
I would like to share the reason why my wife and I rate EASTCO poorly. My Wife and I planed a safari tour for February which is something that we dreamed of doing for some time. We choose booking the safari with EASTCO because we read that they are a small family company and believed that they cared about there customers. We where in contact with Simon that seemed friendly in the mails. In the middle of December we found out that we couldn't take the vacation and asked Simon to cancel the Safari. He was very understanding and told us that we will get the refund according to the contract. After a week he replied to our refund request with that he will refund us after new year. And again after new year we did not get the refund and each time we asked him he came up with a different excuse (he was in the bushes, the internet crashed .. and more). Today i came to an understanding that we probably will never get refunded. I am sharing this experience so people will know that we do not recommend EASTCO and I personally do not trust them to take care of my family and me on a safari. And if you do choose to go with them to a safari then do not pay in advance.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My 4 days at Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru were pretty awesome, i can't wait for my next R&R next year
I really enjoyed more than my expectations the best bargain ever for my vacation. I will recommend anyone willing to take a vacation to Kenya to go for Crossriver Safaris. One more thing, the driver was a good guide and the most important he knows all the types of animals so you can imagine how it was.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Nairobi National Park
We enjoyed a wonderful one-day safari at Nairobi National Park. Setting it up was easy and straight forward. We are looking forward to using Sweet Africa Safaris again in the near future.
IL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excelent guide great experience!
We had an excellent guide Emma Bildad that made sure all our requests were met. We got to see a lot of wild life including cheetas hunt and leopards. Hotels were excellent and overall was great.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great trip and unforgettable memories !
We had an amazing time going on this safari with Africa Starpal ! Everything was well planned accordingly to what we wanted to see and do.
THe driver was friendly and knew all there is to know about the area, the history, the animals.
All in all it was a very agreable trip in amazing surroundings !
MN
Safari tour in Tanzania
It was increadable. Their service was exellent .
I am plannig come back next summer with group people .
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unsure solvency of the company - Definitively not a care free safari!
First of all: this review has nothing to do with the beauty of Kenya and Tansania nor our personal tour guides or cooks (they have been super helpful)! Both countries are beautiful and their people have been exceptionally friendly and accommodating!
However, if you want a carefree safari tour in which all bookings/reservations/parking fees are payed in advance (as discussed and payed for) then we suggest to book with a different company. We cannot express how disappointed and frustrated we were in regards to the organizational skills of Kenya Walking Safari's (KWS) management. It caused us many nerves/patience and most of all time during our 10 day safari.
In order to be fair with KWSS we would also like to say the at the end of our tour KWSS compensated us with approx 5% of the tour price for lost time and wrong calculations.
Anyway we would like to explain what happened:
We booked our safari tour in April 2016 for our trip in August 2016. We had extensive contact with KWS which gave us confidence because they were always very responsive and answered all of our many questions. We payed well in advance (a good amount of money!) and expected that all accommodations/services/park fees would be payed/booked for us in time for our arrival.We are very well aware that we can come across unforeseen circumstances and that flexibility is required. However only to a certain extent.
During our tour we encountered four issues which we would like to explain for others in more detail:
The first issue we encountered was during our first lodge in Maasai Mara. Taking KWS's suggestion, we swapped 1 day in our tour due to ongoing animal migration in the region (adding 1 day in Maasai Mara and take 1 day off from our Tanzania tour).This was a good idea because we were able to see the river crossing. However, we didn't receive the same standard room we booked for originally.We wrote KWS a mail to see how to proceed (since there was a clear down grade on our room).They didn't reply to us until the end of our safari tour.
Second issue:after wonderful game drives in Maasai Mara and a great time at Lake Navaisha we headed off for a very long drive (8h) to Amboseli National park. According to our itinerary (which was reconfirmed verbally and on print during our face to face briefing in the Nairobi office) we were booked at the Kibo Lodge (high class safari lodge). We were then surprised to hear from our tour guide that he had just received a text message from the office saying we would be spending 2 nights in the AA lodge instead of Kibo (another down grade as they have different room rates). Apparently Kibo was fully booked due to government officials.We decided to see for ourselves and were more surprised to hear onsite from Kibo lodge that they did have available rooms and no government officials! We of course did not take the room in the AA lodge and insisted on taking a room in Kibo (according to our tour program we had payed for). We then found out from the hotel manager that they no longer accept KWSS clients because the company has outstanding payments. We (including our tour guide) tried to call the KWSS office many times (including the "hotline number") because this was a situation we were not going to accept. We were not able to get the manager of KWSS on the phone and waited 4 long hours until we reached someone from the office.They suggested that we pay the 2 nights ourselves (400$) and we will get a refund. Obviously, after all that we had heard and experienced we were not ready to pay ourselves. Due to the kindness of the Kibo hotel manager and our persisting tour guide we were able to check in at 8.30 pm. KWSS had promised to send the money to Kibo the next day, which they then did the next afternoon.However, low and behold,we encountered another group from KWSS on the second night at Kibo. They had the same problem! Unfortunately they weren't as lucky as we were and had to go to another lodge.
Third issue: after transferring from Kenya to Tanzania,we slept a night in Fanaka lodge to be ready early morning to go to the famous Ngorongoro crater.We were supposed to depart at 8am.However, our tour guide told us that there was a problem because KWSS had again not yet sent the money for our accommodations and park fees for Tanzania. KWSS's Tanzanian business partner, contacted us and suggested we pay 440$ and KWSS will refund us as soon as the money has been wired (apparently there was a technical problem so money transferring was not available). As you may guess, this was not an option for us.KWSS's credibility was non existent. So we called the KWSS office and were surprised that they actually picked up the phone. However this wasn't very helpful and the Tanzanian business partner had to borrow the money from his relative (!) so we could go on with the tour.We waited for almost 3 hrs until we were able to leave.
Fourth issue: after all that had happened, we decided to cross check our past accommodations and realised that KWSS had double calculated the first hotel night in Nairobi. By the way: don't accept a booking at Henessis Hotel.This is a shabby hotel which by far did not meet the standards of our other accommodations. This could have been an honest mistake but we decided to list all the issues we had during our tour for full transparency.
To come to an end: After many emails and involvement of a 3rd party, KWSS management was cooperative and quick in refunding us (after we finished our tour) for wrong hotel accommodations and lost time (several hundred dollars in total).
In short:
- If you want to do a safari tour do it definitively in Tanzania and Kenya - people (incl. tour guides and cooks), nature and food are amazing!
- If you are looking for a carefree package KWS is not the best option
- If you insist and put pressure on KWSS you probably will get refunded for issues, however we believe this only worked for us because we involved a third party