CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Be Careful with this tour operator
First of all Tanzania is a wonderful country, the people are great, and the animals are amazing.
About the tour operator. It appears that the owner Alpha made this great website offering tours but that's about as far as it goes. Alpha lives in Australia, not Tanzania, and wasn't there for the tour...
The motorcycles are old Honda 250's, the bike I was given was a 1991, twenty seven (27) years old. No horn, no speedo, but to Honda's credit the bike ran fine with only one break down in 7 days. When you're riding a motorcycle you need a horn, its dangerous not to have one. I complained, they fixed it but it stopped working a day later. The other bikes didn't appear to have horns either...
When we arrived Alpha was not there. We were met by his "associate" who picked us up at the airport and then dropped us off at the hotel saying someone would meet us there in the morning. The next morning we met Kalifa and David. There wasn't really any instruction or pre trip discussions about roads, hazards, hand signals, what to be careful of etc just hop on an go (David the lead rider, didn't speak english).
In retrospect the disaster that happened on the second day might have been avoided if the operators had talked a bit about the trip prior to setting off.
What happened is one of our party drove over a small road bump, wasn't paying attention and crashed at a low speed. He fell on his ankle and broke it, a freak accident but it ruined his trip. I know it was his fault but I think the operators should have emphasized to watch out for these sort of things. At least two other times we came over a rises in the road to find that the road was washed out. Numerous times there could have been horrible crashes. There was no warning from the lead rider David...
On that note, If you get hurt in this country you have a real problem. Seeing what happened to my friend with a broken leg opened our eyes to the level of medical attention in this area. In this area the hospitals are basically just clinics with limited resources.
If you are seriously hurt they have to get you on a plane to fly you out. Getting that plane can take hours... If you suffer an internal injury you could die waiting for medical attention. Subsequently you'd think that the operators would display a high level of safety... nope. If you take this tour make sure you bring pain pills in case you are hurt otherwise you will suffer as there is no pharmacy close by. (Tanzania for the most part is a third world county).
Having ridden motorcycles and dirt bikes (I'm 60 years old) for many years my understanding is the tour operator riding out front ( the lead rider) is responsible for leading the way and pointing out hazards to the clients. There was none of this.
Also the front rider tour operator constantly placed himself in front of me so that I was constantly covered with his dust. I complained twice but he just keep riding there, when I tried to pass he just accelerated. Finally I got him to back off and stop spraying me with his dust but I ended up with an eye and nose infection from the constant dust at the end of the trip.
We had 7 days riding and then got into a truck for a safari through the Serengeti. When we got to the park gates, the guy driving the truck (who had been subcontracted from Alpha) didn't have the money for the entrance fee, nor did the credit card that was given to him work. I had to pay the 475 dollar US fee.
They promised to pay me back when we got to town at the end of the trip, didn't happen. They promised to email me the payment by the end of the week, didn't happen. As of 7 weeks after the tour Alpha is paying me about 100 dollars every 2 weeks, and I am still owned a couple hundred dollars at this point. Having paid Alpha $4,800 US Dollars for this trip this is unacceptable.
I understand how things can happen, but when you make a mistake you should fix it and act responsibly. If I didn't harass this operator I don't believe he would have ever paid me anything.
The drivers, Mohammed, Kalifa and David were all nice, professional but I think they could use some feed back from the owner who is just absent. They should make the effort to stop every once in a while to explain to clients about the area and points of interest. I think these 3 guys did an ok job but the owner should give them more instruction, or the owner should be there...
Use caution with this operator
AR
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Driver and van very poor quality, camp good tents but poor meals
The driver had little experience in bad roads, we got stucked many times, the van was old and not comfortable and worst of all had not enough heigh for passing holes with water in the roads of Masai Mara.
The camp has good tents but food is not enough.
Personnel of the camp very kind !
IN
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
unprofessional
Very poor service.
I had talked on the phone with their Delhi office.
This was an inquiry for a trip I was planning.
But they didn't bother to even reply to the email.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Bait and switch by open africa
I was sold a trip with upgraded accommodations, then placed on a budget trip. First i was told the places we were staying were equivalent to my promised itinerary ( which i had luckily printed and brought with me). When i was able to go to the websites of places I’d paid for, and could see how untrue that was, i asked to be ensured i would be at paid spots going forward, i was then told that one place full the night i should be there and another having robberies. Both disputed by those places when i did go there, and patently untrue ( full site only half full when i there on planned night; no signs of repaired tents at place “ with robberies)
It was really unpleasant to have to argue, A Lot, while being repeatedly told lies, in order to get mt paid acccommodations for last two nights of six. When i contacted open africa on return, to request some refund for the two nights i was seriously downgraded, i was told by open africa’s john william that the leader of the tour group i was subcontracted to ( i saw the paperwork that our group used to enter the Serengeti, name was not open africa) that I had said i was happy with my trip , and then never heard from John again, despite contacting him.
So, buyer beware, Tanzania is fantastic, this tour operator not so much
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Chaos - another name for Galloping Safaris
More than nine month in advance we booked a helicopter flight to Mount Kilimanjaro with Galloping Safaris (920 US-$ per person). The mail contact was easy at the beginnig! later on difficult. For example twice we were promised that the agency would create a simpler - which means less costly - mode of payment --- nothing happened. At the end no mail was answered and twelve hours before our schedule departure we did not know the location for the take-off. The meeting point initial mentioned (Moshi Airport) was changed ten hours before departures to a place on the outskirts of Arusha - without priori notice. If we had not inquired we would not have known the new place for take-off. Since the first place of our departure was supposed to be Moshi we booked a hotel room there and had to travel from Moshi to Arusha early in the morning and without breakfast. By the way: departures time changed from 10 am to 8 am.
Apart from that the payment of the full amount was due well in advance.
Because of all this trouble we would not recommend Galloping Safaris.
SG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Poorly organised, poor communications which only improve near the end of tour.
Bad start to tour. Pickup came about 30mins late for pickup from CPT airport. No assurance about daily tour itinerary and dinner reservations. I had to asked every tour leaders lookalike at the door of my hotel to find my allocated tour. Went for prepaid dinner but restaurant rejected us for no reservation or info on our dinner after travelling a great distance to the restaurant in a foreign land. Everyday, we had to be on our toes to find our allocated tours searching the hall of the hotel and every hotels we stayed we had to make sure all meal and tour reservations were in order without knowing the time and location of meetup! I had to called the outsourced travel agency after I finally figured out who they were myself from the reception to arrange myself the time and place. At times, even this travel agent was unsure of my paid itineraries which further added on to our already messy and poorly arranged tour. Tour only improved at JNB with a dedicated tour leader in charge of us with clearer instructions. Overall, really bad start with so much fear and uncertainty that really ruin our holiday.
CN
We asked for refunds, but they ignored us
We are a family from China,In April 2017, I found Safarihub as an operator through safaribookings and helped me book my trip to Tanzania in August,but due to the change of itinerary, we had to inform Safarihub to cancel the itinerary in July 14th,Safarihub promised to actively deal with our refund problem, and we have been communicating smoothly,however, after September 16th, Safarihub never replied to my email again,I emailed them three times in October 16th, October 9th, and September, but nobody answered me,I think we were treated unfairly, even being cheated,We can't get in touch with Safarihub at the moment
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Half a day and a meal short
Went to Maasai Mara from/to Nairobi with Wildebeest Safaris. Reviewing the itinerary later, I see that I wasn't provided what was promised for the last day: instead of morning game drives and then an afternoon return to Nairobi by 5 PM, I got an early drive back that was passed off as a "game drive" and was returned to the city before lunch. I guess I wasn't paying adequate attention as this was my first time out. Oh well. I think the fault was with the safari organization rather than the guide, so I'll spare naming him in a negative review. In fact I think he did alright, and it was a pleasure to chat with him as we went.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Shell Company
I signed up with Usambara for a 5 day safari with an agreed upon itinerary and commitments for transfer from Moshi to Arusha.
After completing a Kilimanjaro trek, I was to be transferred from my hotel in Moshi to Arusha. The person picking me up was to arrive at 10am. At 10:15 I receive a call saying they cannot pick me up and I need to take the bus. I told them I would not (especially with advice from the hotel that it was not safe for my bags); I had to argue for 20 minutes to get them to agree to pay for a taxi to take me 2 hours to Arusha.
On arrival in Arusha, I met with another person who I was to pay the remaining amount owed on my safari. They tell me my itinerary is changing and that my group already left the day I arrived. I was told that it would start the following day and they had a group for me to join set up. Again I argued that I paid my deposit based upon the agreed itinerary that they had sold to me. Ultimately, they agreed to meet our agreed upon terms.
When I paid, I then realized I wasn't paying Usambara but another company. Then they said instead of staying at the hotel as expected, I would be joining the group at the campsite a night early. When I arrived, I realized I was joining yet another company.
On my last day I had to leave my group and be taxi'd to another group so I could visit another park.
It was an incredibly poor experience. I would not recommend signing up with Usambara.
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Masai Mara 3 day (but only 2)
Simba Oryx lodge and Mara itself are superb. Bonfire are either dishonest or incompetent. We paid for three days safari but, on the third day, the driver just took us home. We also gave the driver park fees to cover the third day. We are following this up with the company so will update this site if we get a refund, apology etc.