HK
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unpleasant Trip SEP 2023
We planned our trip to Kenya three and a half years ago, but unfortunately due to COVID-19, our trip to Kenya finally took off this year.
We were excited and happy to go on a safari in Kenya. Unfortunately, we encountered a bad travel agency called Seven by Far and the person in charge was Sylvester. As a result, our itinerary could not be fulfilled one by one. In the end, part of the itinerary was not allowed to show up after the deadline. , we disputed and asked for a refund, so that we could complete this unforgettable and unpleasant trip.
The travel enthusiasts who like Kenya, when you choose a travel agent, don’t decide on a travel agent based on ratings alone. I wish you all a happy travel experience.
FR
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Biwakwango with Kgato Safaris 1/5: To be avoided. Prices top of the lines for services down of range
Biwakwango associated with Kgato Safaris 1/5: To be avoided. Prices top of the lines for services down of the range, or even much less!
Namibia part, rather poor, ensured by Thierry Pagnot, owner of Biwakwango. Very old vehicle without any comfort (rough suspensions, no air conditioning and no comfort equipment available in the fleet of other 4x4s such as refrigerators, chargers, etc.). Very ordinary animal guide (by far the worst on the 4 safaris experienced previously) and does what he wants without taking into account our wishes (we completely missed sites like Swakopmund, according to the people we met at the end of travel). In addition, he is someone who saves money on everything, hence the daily hungry and tasteless picnics, bottled water distributed by droppers (we had to buy it several times) and a problem of Accommodation over the 3 days at Ngepi camp for which we had to fight to get something decent. Other accommodations in Namibia were OK.
But the worst by far was the Botswana part which he subcontracted to a structure with which he is used to working, Kgato safaris run by a pastor named BK. It was truly a nightmare. 4x4 with trailer out of breath, overloaded and with worn tires. On the vehicle side, 3 predictable punctures with, for the first on the 1st day, the need for a repairer waited more than 1 hour because there was no jack in the 4x4. Several getting stuck in the sand with our help to collect branches of tree to put under the tires (no sand removal plate) and to push and even once to transport luggage and equipment a few hundred meters to reach the camp, the 4x4 being in waiting for other vehicles to be towed and get out of this mess (safari on evening canceled due to the late arrival and our tiredness. A fire started in our feet due to the faulty power supply in a fridge and which could have ended very badly. An engine overheated several times which required several stops, culminating in the explosion of the radiator which put an end, before the end, to our journey with this unprofessional structure, to say the least, that is Kgato Safaris and its boss BK. After hours of waiting in full sun (40° in the shade), we were rescued by Tony from Tony Mobile Safaris who we can never thank enough for getting us out of this bad situation and who led us to Kasane is 3 hours of slopes away, despite the 3 clients he was transporting who were kind enough to accept that we join their team. Not from Chobe River but finally extracted from this hell.
The only positive point is that the cook and BK's aide-de-camp, very friendly and always smiling, did their best to make our stay a little less stressful (in particular, the food was very good). Note that the so-called purified water was in fact that of the self-service tap at the entrance to each reserve via a large plastic pipe lying on the ground (another lie from BK).
But the worst part of all that is not there. We could have accepted all these hazards tinged with amateurism if at least we had been able to explore the Okavango Delta as we dreamed of since it was the essential reason for this expensive trip. Instead, to save money, BK and his Kgato Safaris have set up their camps outside areas of interest. For example, for the Moremi Game Reserve, they set up camp for us at Xini Lagoon, more than 20 km of track from the Moremi area indicated on the “Tracks 4 Africa” map. The place was dry and uninteresting while the photos and videos taken by Tony Mobile Safaris clients testified to this magical place that we completely missed. Same for Khwai and Savuti. I didn't take any photos during certain safaris as the areas explored were so uninteresting.
We therefore completely missed out on our trip, particularly in the Okavango, and this, mainly because of Thierry Pagnot from Biwakwango who bears full responsibility for organizing this entire awful trip.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fraud, stole 200€ from me. Police is involved.
I booked a hike in Bwindi, he quoted me $450. We agreed that I would pay a deposit of 200€ and then the rest would be “paid on the day of the hike”. Too bad the guy the company sent who was supposed to pay the park fees/guide didn’t actually have enough money and he only had cash (UWA does not accept cash). The guy there told me he would refund me the deposit after the hike, as I had to pay the entire sum myself on the spot despite the early booking. His boss then refused to refund me the deposit, claiming that I told him we were “EAC citizens”, even if I have the messages showing I told him we were “EAC residents”. He also claims we didn’t pay the full amount, which is true but we again we had agreed I would pay the rest ”the day of the hike”. And regardless, even if I had paid him everything in advance, we would have not been able to do the hike anyways because he made a mistake thinking we were “EAC citizens” instead of “EAC residents” and the guy he sent only had cash and UWA does not accept cash. I filed a police report and the Ugandan police said they will arrest him, let’s see.
Other than completely incompetent, he’s also dishonest and a brazen liar.
P.S: I told him I was ready to pay his services (meaning help on WhatsApp how the hike worked and the fact that a guy showed up at the hotel and went with us to the UWA HQ) regardless of all the mistakes, but he simply decided to take the 200€ that were supposed to pay the park fees/guide while he did not pay a single cent. This is malicious fraud, simple as that.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Extremely unorganized and I felt they didn’t provide me with the services I purchased
I booked a 10 day Kenya and Tanzania safari. I am well travelled and this is far from my first tour. Overall I found the company extremely disorganized, my first driver uninterested and rude to other guests, and that I didn’t receive the services agreed on without actively being extremely vocal to get them and some I still didn’t get at all.
There are three main reasons I leave a one star review for this company.
1) I had a morning Safari booked for Masai Mara, the night before I hear the itinerary is changed and we are no longer going there. They told me this is because the government changed the rules from 24 hour passes to 12 hour passes, I would have hopped that they could have either purchased passes on the next morning as that is what I had purchased or made it up in some other way. They seemed completely uninterested in doing either. I was in a group with many others on many different tours, none of theirs had this option, I felt like because mine was the only one with this option they decided to not do anything about this.
2) After a short morning safari at Nakuru we headed to Amboseli, however on the way we had to stop at a gas station and wait for over two hours to get an additional two members in our vehicle, this meant we got in very late that night. We later found out the 2 members we were waiting for had just started there drive late that day due to the driver. I would have hoped the company would have either let us stay in Nakuru longer or would have sent the two others in a separate car.
3) When we went for our game drive in Amboseli our driver didn’t have the correct payment options causing us to be delayed. He then asked if one of us could pay and he would pay back, he said it was $4 but turned out it was far more. The fact that this delayed us and the fact that he tried to get us to pay more than he said was very concerning. If my AMEX when through (they didn’t take AMEX) I would have been charged a lot more than I was told.
4) When I crossed the border to Tanzania I was left alone and told a bus would be there at 10:30 to pick me up, already an hour wait after I got through the border. The bus however didn’t come until around 12:30 and didn’t leave until 1:30. It is lucky I had data to communicate with them otherwise I would have been in trouble. The fact that they would never proactively communicate with me or give me accurate times was extremely frustrating.
5) Communication: this was an issue throughout the trip, you would often not know ahead of time what was happening or when to wake up, several nights I would message them throughout the day asking the plan for the next day and they would say “someone will come tell you” but no one ever would even after asking multiple times, then I would have to wake up in the middle of the night and message some more before finding out what time I had to wake up.
6) One day our whole party arrived at the hotel and the front desk told us there were no reservations for us. I never got an answer from the company as to what happened but clearly it didn’t get booked. We then had to spend a bunch of time trying to figure out where we would all stay for the night as there were not enough rooms. Through pure generosity of the other people I was on tour with they decided to all cram into one room so I could have a room as the hotel only had two left. If not we would have been in a very bad situation late at night with a company that had proven they would make you wait a long time and would not communicate well.
That all being said Juma, my driver for the Tanzania portion was phenomenal. I just can’t justify giving anything but one star based on the other factors.
Overall this was an extremely frustrating experience and I would recommend staying away from this company. Hopefully I can save someone the pain.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
DON’T BOOK WITH THEM
Purity was the operator that I was talking to by email. At the beginning she was answering quickly to my questions so I decided to book and pay the amount she told me. Once I paid I had to wait since 31st May to 29th June to have my confirmation. I had to send several emails (without answer) and that was feeling like a scam. After that, I had to write her a few days before to make sure everything was fine and that was when she told me the planning had changed “because the government increased the price of the entrance fee”, so we had 1 day of 5 without visit to any park. Even that happened and I was informed two days before arrival, the price stayed the same. When we arrived there hopefully we met the best driver ever, Ken, who was working for another company and took care of us with all his love. The last day he informed us that we were going to change into another car to arrive at Namanga border where we were supposed to take a bus that would bring us to our hotel in Arusha (final destination). We met that second driver at Amboseli’a date. He came driving his van very fast and shouting at us and at Ken. We couldn’t understand anything but finally he left us there without explanation and left driving unsafe. That was a nightmare for us, that were about to lose our shuttle bus and were scared. We had to change into a third van and arrived at Namanga border where we met Abbas, the man that was going to “help” us within there. He asked us the name of the hotel in Arusha and said Arusha wasn’t safe so they will going to bring us our hotel. Finally we took the bus but our destination changed again without explanation as he left us somewhere in Arusha. We had to take a taxi after being in the middle of 20-30 men trying to force us to go with them on their “taxis”, in a very unsafe area. When I reached Purity on WhatsApp she seemed surprised and worried but when I asked for the amount of the taxi she turned the same: no answer, no help, so I had to talk to my lawyer to start a process against the company. Sometimes you go for the cheapest and that turns into the most expensive experience. Think twice before booking…
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Avoid them !!! Robbed on safari !! No help whatsoever!!
Robbed on safari !
Stay away from them if you do not want a nightmare holiday !
An absolute disgrace to tourism and to foreign tourists
We have been robbed under this tour operator in their chooses hotel.
The hotel was guarded with 4 security, our door was locked but still got the door broken damaging the frame and hit the lock out without anyone hearing anything ?!?!?!?!! The theft walked out with our backpack on his back and the other guys £6K camera swinging it in his hand . If you wonder yes 2 of us door got jacked up and no one heard or saw anything.
The owner refused to come and show the CCTV to the police delaying everything! The hotel called HotelCityMax in Nakuru !!
When we finally meet Mr CEO John who by the way is an absolute joke and disgrace to the whole tourism industry and also to tourists! Didn’t even call the hotel or came to see us when the accident happened!
Was half way laying in his chairs while he was bullsh*tting us and lying to us constantly!
The way John was behaving, the posture he was maintaining, the way of his speaking, every single gesture he was making made to us very clear that he absolutely does care and we are just a pain in his a.. at that moment and would say anything to get rid of us.
Several times we caught him to lie about what action he took and how he will compensate us . When we challenged him to prove us somehow that he took actions I.e police report , asking the hotel what happened etc he couldn’t put anything on the table !
I never in my life meet someone like John in such a high position and still don’t care at all especially in a country that heavily relies on tourism!
He was keep telling us for 30 mins how his company operates and all of this filling stories what frankly we didn’t care as we had a bigger issue why we were there and wanted to sort it before we leave the country.
Of course no solution came from him ! Even He was not man enough to give me his business card at the end !
Honestly it was scary to see how much someone who is in charge doesn’t care at all about the 2 theft that happened under his watch and in his hotel from who is in charge !
At the end we have to leave without any paper or whatsoever. He didn’t care if we will return or not as he already had our money and he had no intention to ease up our pain to try to help us . He doesn’t care if you return or not !
Very poor customer service and lack of knowledge, Mr big CEO John clearly has no idea what this business is all about
Dear John let me tell you 1 thing it is all about trust reputation and returning clients !
Do yourself a favour and avoid him and his company!
I would highly recommend Super Eagles ! As I didn’t have any issues with them ! Always super helpful and ready to help Gents with a fantastic customer service who are truly appreciate us tourist visiting their country and would like us to return .
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very Bad
My wife and myself took a seven day prepaid luxury Safari with this tour company last February.The first four nights were good,the guide was friendly.When we were suppose to leave Lake Navaisha to Amboseli the guide was not there to pick us up from the hotel.Eventually another guide had his contact and he did show up.He informed us that to continue our trip we must provide him with $1500 usd cash.Upon contacting the agency we were told to pay him $1500 usd or equivalent.We then spent most of the day looking for working ATM machines.The driver compromised and allowed us to pay for the park entrance fee for the remaining $240.00.The tour operator texted us that we would be reimbursed for the extra money and even told us we would be reimbursed for the entire trip.So the driver did the last two days of this safari.We we’re suppose to change companies after this so after the last afternoon safari.When we went to check out “surprise the hotel had not been paid” so we paid that as well.The tour company explained that since the tour was going to be reimbursed they didn’t feel obligated to pay for our accommodation.The driver had already drove to Nairobi by the early morning.I have manuscripts of everything and messages from our guide admitting that we paid $1500.00 .Al receipts.I was eventually reimbursed the hotel and $1500.00.,no other compensation.I would never se these company again.Like I said I have the complete copy of every message from African Miles Travel and TourRadar .
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Possible Scam
We suppose to have safari on 16th of October. Today 14th of October. Company is not replying on our WhatsApp/Instagram/Email messages. When I tried to call them, two numbers don't pick up at all and in one, lady is picking up the phone. She laughs at me and tells me that she doesn't speak English.
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Misleading and dishonest
I cannot recommend booking any Safari tours with Elephant Herd.
We booked 2 tours with them on two subsequent days. Since the weather was supposed to be awful in the early morning on the second day, we thus discussed with Brendon & Rene to shift our private tour to start a bit later that day. They agreed to re-arrange our tour, picked us up at 7:30 am (instead of 5:30 am) but then brought us back 2 hours before tour end!! Instead of a 6-hour tour we only got a 4-hour Safari! We never received any money back nor did they apologize for miscommunicating and misleading us
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unacceptable.
We have recently returned from your classic wonders of Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar safari, our honeymoon. We in fact left for home before the end of the booking due to the poor quality of the holiday. Up to this point we have reframed from leaving any reviews about Classic Journeys on your website or on any other platform as I feel it only fair to give you an opportunity to explain why the service was so poor first.
We originally had to delay our safari due to covid (no fault of yours). However, once we had changed the dates to ensure we would be able to go, your communication was terrible, waiting days for confirmation of payment and to get questions answered.
We were informed in an email that as we arrived in Nairobi our transfer to our hotel would be waiting for us at the airport with a sign with our name on it. This was the not the case and our driver was not there. I was unable to reach the driver on the number given to me for him via email. Thankfully a local taxi driver offered to use his phone to call and when we did get though our driver was in bed. We spoke to the office of the company as well and they said that they would get a driver to us in an hour, meaning we would have been left stranded at the airport for over two hours. This is extremely poor service! Our first impression of your company and the start of our holiday ruined, and our first time in Kenya an already stressful situation made extensively worse by Classic Journeys’ awful organisation.
Eventually we arrived at Longview Suites hotel. The hotel was not up to standard in the slightest and did not look like the photo on your website. Our room was metres from a building site (which was the view from our window) and the shower did not work. We were also only provided breakfast in our package on the day of arrival bearing in mind we stayed there for 24 hours and needed four meals during this time. We therefore had to pay more for this. We paid nearly 7000 euro for this holiday and it had become outrageously disappointing at this stage. I appreciate that building work and so on needs to happen but you as a company need to be aware of where you are sending people to stay and change locations accordingly as this was not acceptable. I can send photos as proof of this.
Day one in the bush, again let down. After a long drive we arranged with out guide to go on a nature walk once we had settled in. We arrived at the meeting point but our guide did not, Classic Journeys making a habit of not showing up to where they should be. Nearly half an hour after the time agreed, our guide arrived, and then told us there was no point going for a walk because of the weather even though other walks were going out. This information could have been sent to us and saved us the trouble of getting ready to go out. At this point plans for the next day were sorted as we had become increasingly stressed about meeting drivers at agreed times (note that we had to ask the timings of the next day instead of being told in advance). This as well was very difficult to sort despite being face to face. Again, not good enough and let down.
After one game drive in Kenya with a very mediocre guide who often gave us the wrong information (this information was confirmed incorrect by our second driver), we moved onto Tanzania. Once we arrived at the border, we needed to obtain visas. The link you sent us to obtain visas before arrival did not work and no guidance on this was given. When we were applying for our visas, we were told we had to pay a fee in cash which we didn’t have (again causing more unwanted stress). We were not informed at any point that we needed to take a lot of cash to cover the time away. Cash was needed for almost everything as well as tipping every member of staff we encountered (we were not prepared for this). We were told credit cards were excessively used and they were not and that included some of the camps we were staying on.
After crossing the border and changing cars we settled in for the long drive. We were aware it was a long drive and we needed to get to our lodge for the night, however on a holiday that as previously stated cost nearly 7000 euro, the last place I thought I would be eating lunch was in a petrol station. Completely unacceptable.
When we completed the safari part of our trip. We were given tickets for our flight to Zanzibar only to find that Hannah’s ticket still had her maiden name and did not match her passport. We made it clear that this was our honeymoon a name change cannot have come as a surprise. Furthermore, you confirmed receipt of Hannah’s updated passport information on the 16th of March 2023 which gave plenty of time to change the tickets, however this never occurred. This again caused undue stress on a holiday that should have been simple and stress free.
As we arrived in Zanzibar, Classic Journeys doing their usual and not being at the airport to pick us up. Two transfers and two transfers not there. When we eventually did meet our driver, the Classic Journeys office felt the need to message me and explain how it wasn’t their fault and that the plane had arrived early which it did by a few minutes. However, this is irrelevant and it is up to you and your drivers to be tracking the flight to ensure this does not happen. If the flight was cancelled would the driver be aware of it or would he wait outside the airport for hours on end? This is yet again unacceptable and poor service. Ensuring you are at the airport on time for a transfer is one of the most basic tasks and yet Classic Journeys repeatedly failed at it.
Uroa Bay hotel. We were sold a relaxing few days on ivory sands and clear waters in a lovely hotel. What we received was an extremely bad day (only one day as we were far to annoyed at this point and we flew home early) on a filthy beach in a hotel where everything was at an extra charge including water a basic human necessity. You as a company need to go to the hotels where you send people to stay and ensure that what you are advertising matches what you are delivering as this did not. The photo of the Zanzibar beach on your web site is clearly not at Uroa Bay. Nowhere in your emails or website did it say we would have to pay extra tax on arrival to the hotel, this was not listed in the ‘not included’ section. Photos again can be sent as proof. I cannot believe how this hotel was selected for this holiday an unacceptable choice. Also, on the so-called ‘private’ beach which had a security guard, locals approached to try to sell us drugs. That is not the kind of thing I expect on a holiday resort that has cost me so much. We felt that after the safari part of the holiday, Classic Journeys no longer were responsible and we were left at a bad hotel to fend for ourselves – this is different to the expectation of a relaxing few days in a luxury hotel.
This information on your website and that which was sent to us was not good enough and in some cases just plain incorrect. A standard day on safari as described by your company was, ‘up before dawn for coffee and a drive before returning for breakfast and then to take part in other activities. All this before another game drive in the afternoon evening time.’ This was not the case, early mornings but not in time for sunrise, leave the lodge do not return till around 1600 with no time to take part in other activities. What you are advertising is not what we received.
The itinerary that was sent to us was the only information we received before the trip and this was before we even booked it (which was two years ago due to postponing). There were no updates to the itinerary to fit to the actual timetable of the week and we were not even sent any information to prepare for our trip, for example, a kit list would have been useful. This, bearing in mind, being our first time to Africa and not knowing what to expect. When we asked via email what was needed for the trip, Classic Journeys replied with ‘just luggage’. I’m sure we are not the only customers you have that haven’t been to Africa before either.
This was our honeymoon, it cost us nearly 7000 euros for your package, excluding flights.
Communication was poor.
We were left at the airport twice.
Stayed in a hotel with a not working shower and was practically on a building site.
Were left waiting for our guide only to be told our walk would not go ahead.
Were treated to a lunch in a petrol station.
Were provided tickets for a flight with an incorrect name.
Stayed in an awful hotel that was not anything like the description or photos you sent.
Paid taxes we were not informed of and that were not listed in the excluded cost list.
Were offered drugs in our resort by locals.This is awful on your part and something needs to be done. The price you charge for the standard to deliver is unacceptable.
Thankfully the one time your driver showed up on time was to get us to the air port so we could leave the horrendous holiday earlier than planned.
Also apon return to the UK I have repeatedly tried to contact you about these issues through email, WhatsApp and phone call only to have all of them ignored.