35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Park fees nightmare.
Day 1: My husband and I fully paid for a 4 night 5 day safari to Amboseli, Lake Nakuru and Mara.
The park fees was included in the package, but when we arrived at Amboseli our first stop, we were notified that our park fees had not been paid. We therefore had to wait for 30 plus minutes in the heat, while our driver tried to sort out the problem. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact out booking agent Peter Ndambuki, we were notified that we had to pay an additional park fees so as to be let into the park!!
Day 2: We were instructed to go by the office enroute to lake Nakuru, to pick up a refund for the park fees we paid on day 1, and additional park fees for Lake Nakuru and Mara trips, this added another one hour plus to our 5 hour plus drive. When we arrived at the office, the money was not ready for pick up and we had to wait for another 30 minutes for the money, despite the fact that the booking agent is the one who scheduled the pick up!! Needless to say, we arrived in Nakuru hungry and tired and only managed to have a very short game drive.
We are waiting to see whether we have a better experience for the next two days, but we don't intend to ever, ever use or recommend this company.
Still out of pocket
We had a good, and bad experience with Tembea. Despite paying 50% of our fee more than 3 months prior to travel, we found we had no bookings for our intended itinerary when we arrived in Tanzania in July this year. They appear to have cash flow problems, and only booked when we arrived with the balance of our fee. Luckily it was not peak travel time, and we were able to get into all but one of our intended lodges. However, in Ruaha, we had to pay again for 2 nights as the money transfer had not arrived from Kenya to Tazania, and we are still USD1000 out of pocket, 4 months later.
The safari, and driver were excellent, but not knowing if accommodation was going to be available as promised was a big disappointment, as was the extra cost. I would be very wary using them again, particularly in peak season.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Premlata Shah
hardly any game except baboons and some birds. Did not see a single tree lion for which the park is famous for. Very disappointed.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good Safari but improvable services
We were picked up at the hotel as agreed. However after cash payment we never received a receipt. Further they don´t accept dollar notes issued before 2006. This must be informed before.
The Safari itself went fine and we had luck and could see lots of animals in a short period of time. Actually the full day safari has been finished at 16:00, as there was nothing else to see. So we were left at the lodges until next day for the trip back.
The back journey was a bit stressed, as our schedule was very tight. They picked us 40 minutes too late in the morning. However the guide took time to do some shopping on the route (3 times, for fruits and even an alive chicken, for the chicken we had to wait in the car ca. 20 minutes). Then the car´s clutch was broken and we took lunch, while the other car was coming to pick us up. We were brought to a restaurant with the meals on a box. We were asked by the waiter to pay for a single juice 10.000 Shillings (10 USD) the guides instead of stop the cheating situation, just made fun of us and we had to complain by ourselves, so we got back 6 USD.
We changed the car and kept driving to Dar es Salaam. We were informed that the remained trip to Dar es Salaam was 1,5 hours, but it was 3 and really rushing (we almost crashed with another car in Dar). Finally and running we got the Ferry at the very last minute. I consider too much time has been wasted during the morning so we had this unneeded stress.
The lunch was both days the same, cold fried chips and chicken with a sausage and an boiled egg, all to the eaten with the hands.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Shannon
Limited wildlife viewing. If you are only in Tanzania one day, this might be ok for a day trip, but as far as a safari destination, I’d go for the bigger parks.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Needs better organization/communication
I successfully climbed up Mt. Kilimanjaro last year, but there were many things I felt the company should improve on.
#1: The day they picked me up from the airport, the driver asked if I had paid for the transport. Yes I had. I don't understand why the driver would not know this. I paid for this trip as a complete package. The tour operators should communicate this. I received no pamphlet, brochure, or information packet upon arriving at my hotel. I was told to go to bed and rest and the next morning I would be given an orientation.
#2: The morning of my trek, I woke up to have breakfast and was told I would have an orientation. I was expecting a detailed orientation, but didn't get this. Instead, a man in a business suit sat down next to me at breakfast, asked if I had comfortable shoes and everything I needed. He looked at me and said, "You look fit, you'll be fine. Your guide will be here soon." I was very shocked at how little information and preparation I was getting given how big this trip was to me!
#3: My guide was very nice and very patient. However, he spoke very broken English and could not offer me much guidance other than to walk beside me. My porters, cooks, and servers also did their job fine, but I could see that other trekkers had more guidance, advice, and preparation from their guides. They all had described a proper orientation. Their guides had devices to track their heartbeat and even oxygen supply. I had nothing.
#4: After the trek, I was transported to the hotel for my final night. I confirmed that next morning I would have a transfer to the airport. Again, I was asked if I had already paid for this. Why is there such a breakdown in communication among the staff? Anyway, I confirmed I had paid, and I wanted the pick up for 8am.
#5: The next morning at 7:55am, I report to the reception desk and ask for my driver. It turns out he already left with another customer to the airport! They left without me, and the boss had to call the driver to turn back! Both the other customer and I were frustrated by this lack of communication. Again, the driver asked if I had already paid for the service.
On a good note, prior to me booking, Dickson answered all of my questions thoroughly. He asked for all of my flight details and assured me I would be taken care of. However, his high level of professionalism led me to think that I was signing up with an organized company who managed all the details. But when I arrived in Arusha, it appears they had turned over my business to locals who lacked organization, communication, and professionalism. It's a good thing I'm an overall experienced and independent traveler and trekker who managed with such little guidance and ZERO orientation. But for someone who needs more guidance, this would be a disaster. Also, you are paying over $1000 for this once in a lifetime trek. You definitely need more than something so minimal. I honestly wouldn't recommend this company unless it's to someone I know is an experienced trekker who wants the lowest budget trek and doesn't mind little guidance and organization. I tipped my guides and porters well because they work SO HARD and deserve it. They are not educated, just extremely hard workers. You read stories about the harsh life these guys have without being paid a proper wage. I did not have the heart to complain about the service for fear they would suffer from my criticism. Truly, it is the responsibility of the tour operators.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Rather poor
Quick answer to the mails, friendly and helpful office staff. After booking and paying the contact ends, besides a voucher sent to you about 2-3 weeks before travel. At least a follow-up mail confirming flight details etc. one week before departure would be a nice move.
Pick up and transfer to ole sereni hotel worked well. However they charged me over 300 USD for that one night. On the website I found afterwards prices between 180-220 Dollars for a night. That's what I call a rip off, especially after paying a couple of thousands for a 8-day safari.
The 8-day cheetah safari: Generally confortable lodges and camps. Unfortunately the downside was our driver, he spent a lot of time on the phone taking personal calls - even during game drives!!!- very unmotivated just doing his job. Did not stop at different amazing sights like baby giraffes right next to our car. Everyone in our group was quite frustrated about this. Sometimes we had to intervene and demanded a stop. Otherwise he would have just drove by amazing photo opportunieties etc.
Take a shot while driving? Nearly impossible as our driver seamed to try escape someone - His driving was wreckless especially during the gamedrives. By far to much speed. I was lucky not to hurt myself as there where quite dangerous situations standing up in the vehicle and someone driving it like that. I almost fell a couple of times or bumped in really hard.
It certainly felt more like a formula one race rather than a game drive, and I think with this kind of driving a lot of animals heard us miles ahead.
The jeep was in quite bad conditions. One of the windows was broken, you could not open it anymore.
The windows quite dirty, never cleaned during the trip and old seats. Flat tire and breakdown aswell but not surprising.
Further our driver seemed to be really, really bored. Not many infos and a appalling attitude. Well I understand that the driver makes this safari most likely many times a year however for most of the customers it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's so sad if goes this way.
The somak lounge which you will be taken before and after the safari is just okay. Pre safari there was nothing on offer, just some drinks in the fridge which had to be payed for.
Upon arrival they gave us some fish and chips which was quite tasty with different sauces. Drinks at a surcharge as well. Wifi was not working, which would have been appreciated after 8 days offline.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Tania Daniels
I don’t think March was the right time to go. We didn’t see many animals or flamingo but it was a beautiful place.
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Gilbert Meon
It's a special NP with a thick forest, which makes game viewing very hard, especially big cats. It would be nice to come closer to the lake itself.
DE
Service and behaviour of Bruno Safari was disgusting and not professional.
We would like to inform you about some very irritating experiences we made while on safari with Bruno Safaris (http://www.brunosafaris.com/) in July 2014:
Our journey (July 14-20, 2014) including the chosen lodges in all the parks was planned and confirmed by Lawrence Kakai (representative of Bruno Safaris) in March 2014 (see details of this communication below). We paid the deposit as agreed and the rest in cash on arrival in Nairobi (USD 4600).
In the meantime however, our driver Joseph Nyaa had rebooked all the chosen and confirmed accommodation, replacing them with lodges that were of less, partly very poor, quality and presumably a lot cheaper. Of course, we were irritated and complained about the changes, but were given dubious reasons. We later learned, that the manager of all the new lodges was a friend of the driver.
In addition, one day of the Safari (we were meant to be driven to Lake Nakuru) was completely cancelled for reasons we did not understand either, so Bruno Safaris also saved the entrance fees for that park. All this was very disappointing and the numerous discussions with our very headstrong, sometimes even aggressive, driver lead to a lot of tedious situations.
After our return to Germany we contacted Bruno Safaris and at first Lawrence Kakai was very understanding, agreeing to a refund of part of the USD 4600 to our account. So far, nearly 2 months later, this money has not reached us and our numerous messages and questions to Bruno Safaris have remained without reply.
With a lot of tourists refraining from traveling to Kenya already - due to the political situation - unprofessional attitude like this, if not deceit, is very bad publicity for Kenya!