50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Update o n my previous review
I wrote earlier about the very unpleasant safari experience we had with Solaris that finished at the end of June, and the fact that they owed us over US$2,000 at the end of the safari. This week (a month later)I received a refund of the actual money I had paid to get into the Tanzanian parks, all of which were supposedly included in the itinerary. I was surprised and glad to receive this refund. I believe the fact that I received the refund had everything to do with our negative reviews here on SafariBookings and on TripAdviser, and my complaint to the Kenyan Tourism Regulatory Authority. Solaris then requested I take down my negative reviews.
However, receiving this refund back does not alter the fact that our safari with Solaris was a horrible and extremely stressful experience, and one which I hope others can learn from. It does not change the fact that our accommodation was downgraded from that shown on the itinerary at least half the time, and it does not change the fact that the vehicle allocated to us in Kenya was not the 4wd promised by the itinerary, causing us to spend at least one day extra on roads instead of in parks, and the driver in Kenya shouldn't have had a licence, let alone be allowed to drive with passengers. I told Solaris all this when I responded to their email and refund.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fraud
The man called Iga has stolen about 5000€. We are 4 friends, and we booked a safari with his company (it has good comments in internet). We suppose that now it works with different people because in a few weeks we've read more situations like this. When we asked to hotels to confirm the bookings (he send us fake receipts), they told us that there wasn't any booking for us. The man has dissappeared. DON'T TRUST TOUCH AFRICA ADVENTURES.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not use this safari tour company!
I had a very negative experience with a Tanzanian tour operator called Warrior Expeditions which is owned and operated by Pasangei Lasakai Laizer.
Here is a summary of the issues I had with Warrior:
1) Tour Operator, Pasangei Lasakai, conned me out of money.
2) Land Cruiser used for Safari was dangerously unsafe and kept breaking down (see photo album pictures on website).
3) Tour Operator did not provide the guide and chef with money to cover trip expenditures.
This was by far the worst travel experience I ever had! Visit https://warriorexpeditionsfraud.com for more details.
GR
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Nomad company has destroyed for me a lifetimes dream of traveling to S. African countries .
I'm an older woman and I had a dream to travel to S. Africa ,Namimbia, Botswana etc , so I flew from Athens to Istanbul and from there 11 hours direct flight to Cape Town . I chose nomad tours to make my dream come true.
After ALL was set and DONE we started our journey with one of their trucks . 2 hours later and while on the road, Nomad called the coach of the tour to say that I had to go back because Namimbia required a visa and there was nothing they could do about it. Can anyone imagine the disappointment??? We were way out of Cape Town and I had to take a taxi to go back. I'm a very experienced traveler and had asked all kinds if questions while we were on the process of booking the tour. On the issue of visas, they had informed me that there was NO need.
Being in business they should have known. Then, I had to struggle to get my money back. They didn't even want to
pay for the taxis fare, plus a very rude attitude. They didn't even offer a solution on their behalf, something to "sweeten" the situation.So,for me there was no choice left. I didn't have another opportunity to take another tour because that would have mean for me to search and stay for another 10 days or so at Cape Town and I couldn't afford to do that as already I had spent so much money waiting for their tour.I had to leave the country very dissapointed. To do all this again , it's not easy at all, " thanks " to NOMAD TOURS.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beautiful Mikumi and Udzungwa spot but choose another operator
We highly recommend to go to Mikumi and Udzungwa, but not with these folks.
Here is an excerpt of what we sent to the tour operator:
"
Our guide was great and both parks are stunning, however we are mostly disappointed by the trip.
First of all, the way to Mikumi was 8 hours. We could see on the map that it was not close but we expected 4-5 hours top to get to an activity. It was instead 8-9 hours both ways, which on a 3 days Safari is a lot of time spent travelling. Knowing that beforehand would have greatly impacted our decision to do this trip.
This also meant that we arrived late to Mikumi national park and did only about 2 hours of game drive, but still had to pay the 82.60 USD entrance fee, which we paid again on the second day.
At the end of that first day, the lodge was comfortable but we had no running water for the sink, shower and toilet.
On the second day, the last minute change to stay in Mikumi and not do the planned hike to a waterfall meant that we did a game drive for the entire day, this was really disappointing since we chose this Safari for the hikes and activities on foot, but after two days we only sat in the Jeep, which again would have make us greatly reconsider taking this trip in the first place. Now another important point is the fact that the park was being torched to leave soil for the new grass. Because of this, the park was somewhat empty due to animals running away from the fires. This is a yearly event which we did not know would happen as outsiders, but we would have expected you to warn us when we did the booking at that time. Especially since we were spending much more time in Mikumi. So for the second day we rolled in circles for hours looking at the same few antelopes and zebras. It got to such a point that at around 4pm we simply told the guide to go to the hotel. We would have done it much earlier but we wanted to be respectful of our guide who tried so hard to find something interesting.
On the third day, we finally got out of the car to do a hike, but looking at all the available hikes in the beautiful Udzungwa (94.40USD) we felt like we missed a great opportunity to hike more. That last day finished late, at around 9pm we were dropped at Dar but we did not have any diner along the way, leaving us to wander in Dar after dark for food.
As for the money, we were also disappointed that you did not told us before that the park fees were to be paid by credit card. We withdraw a lot of extra chillings which we did not use in our remaining days in Tanzania and which we cannot convert in Canada. Around 200,000 unused chillings which were withdraw with a 15,000 fee, and then converted in USD at the airport again at a large fee. Also, the entrance fees were supposed to be around 80 USD per day, but the last lark ended up being a total of 259.60 USD (not 240 USD)
Finally, there were a few other points in the description of the tour, such as a visit to the Masaii and a python in one of the Mikumi lake, which apparently did not exist according to our guide. We choose your tour among other reasons for that and did not visit the Madrid village.
Overall, the guide and parks were great, but the whole management of the tour is simply sub-par.
"
From there we would have written a 2-3 stars above, but the response of the operator was aggressive and accusing us of lying, which is pathetic since all of the promises were clearly written in an email, so we had proofs.
The last email we received mostly stated that since the tour was a budget one, it was okay to offer the minimum and cut on what they deemed unnecessary. So if you don't like being played with, I recommend choosing another operator.
AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Utmost disappointing
I have been on a 4 day Safari in 2015. Same route, same price, different company, amazing experience.
So I wanted to share this experience with my girlfriend but this time unfortunately the safari was not good at all due to very poor organization and customer care.
So I booked with a company called "Goshawk Tours". The Safari they offered sounded quite exactly like the one I did three years ago and it was about the same price (50€ more expensive this time). A guy named Eric sent me a few emails and I told him that we need to be transfered to Kilimanjaro airport on the last day of safari because we already booked the flight. The transfer was another 50$.
We spent the week before safari on Zanzibar and there i got a text from Eric. He said he will not be there next week so his business partner Ibrahim will organize it "just as we agreed".
So we travelled to Arusha and spent the night in a hotel and the next day we were supposed to get picked up at the hotel. We did, around 30 minutes late and then we were taken to the office. I was suprised because it was the office of Angose Travel Limited. There we met 2 other girls who also came with us. So we were sitting in the office and it passed another 1 hour until the driver arrived and we headed to Tarangire National park. It was agreed that we will go there pitch up at tent, go on a quick game drive before we get lunch at the campsite and the head for another game drive after lunch.
This was not the case. Our guide, an elderly gentleman called Adrian who was not the talkative kind of guy went really slowly to the park. All the other cars were overtaking and when we went uphill we hardly moved faster than 10 km/h. But this was not really the drivers fault. Because as it turned out later, the car was in a dangerously poor condition.
So we arrived in the afternoon at Tarangire National Park, we didn't pitch up a tent, we went directly in the park, where we were for only about 3 hours. Very disappointing, because we could have seen so much more. The driver just said "This is enough for today.". We disagreed. We headed for Sunblight Campsite where we got a room. But it was so dirty that we hoped we could've slept in a tent as agreed. Dinner was good. The driver said breakfast 8pm, departure 9pm.
After a loud night with hardly any sleep we had breakfast and then we went to the car. The driver and the cook were already inside, engine running and they said, they will come back soon. So they drove off. A lot of time passed until they came back and when we left the campsite it was already 11am!!
It was agreed that we would have an early game drive in Tarangire Park on this day again but that was not the case at all. When we left, we headed directly to the Serengeti. Going annoyingly slowly we lost a lot of time on the way there.
At the gate of Ngorongoro coservation area the driver had to patch a tire because there was brake fluid leaking out of it.
We were promised an evening game drive after pitching the tent but all we really saw were some animals on the way to the campsite where we arrived so late, that we had to pitch up the tent in the dark. By the way, 2 of 4 tents were broken and we had hardly had any hooks to place the tents so the driver just said "2 hooks are enough".
After that there was no game drive. So we had no game drive in the morning, no game drive in the evening. We had no game drive at all this day!!!
Next day we missed the sunrise in the Serengeti which we were promised because the driver didn't want to start so early. So we finally headed out for our game drive. The driver often took the wrong path and we got lost so many times (he said he was a guide for 30 years which i found hard to believe after that). Unfortunately we didn't see too many animals and when we came across some we had to yell STOP so many times until he finally did so. After a short drive we headed to a tourism center where we got an informational tour. It was nice but not really neccessary. Instead we would have prefered to see more of the Serengeti itself, not hear from it. After that we had to drive directly to the camp, pack up and leave for Ngornongoro Crater. It just felt so unsatisfying because we had so little time. On the way out, the driver asked the chef where to go at every crossroad. So we left Serengeti and headed to the crater at snail's pace. When we arrived at the camp, it was already dark and the guide and the cook didn't help us to put up the broken tents in the dark at first. So we had to tell them a couple of times that we need help until they finally did so. There was again no possibility to take a shower because it was already dark and freezing cold.
So we thought it couldn't be any worse but then the last day of safari came.
We got up early this time to descend the crater so we will be out in time to get to Arusha. On the way we had to get diesel but on the way to the gas station the car already ran out of gas and we stopped in an uphill grade. The car didn't have any hand break so he sent one of us to get one big rock and put it behind one of the back wheels. Then he went off to get the gas. After half an hour later he returned with a maasai who helped us to get the car running again. So we were late once again and I had a really bad feeling about getting OUT of the crater again with this car. So we had a game drive in the crater and left with quite some delay because the driver didn't know where he was going. Remember - we had to catch a flight in the evening.
So on the way up the car broke down again. But this time he didn't get it running again. And again we were standing in a really steep uphill grade with only one rock to prevent us from rolling backwards into our certain death.
So a car that stopped behind us took us to a place called Wildlife Lodge. I called Ibrahim, the guy from the office, a couple of times and he said there will be a rescue car coming for us. I also told him that I want them to refund the money for the flight if we wouldn't make it in time and he only said he won't because he didn't know of any flight (Eric said Ibrahim would organize everything just as we agreed, so he must have known of the flight). Anyway, after about 1.5 hours the car finally arrived and we already had a huge delay and we though we wouldn't make it. Furthermore the driver said he will only drive us to Arusha and from there we will get another car. On the way there we had to stop at the gate of Lake Manyara National park to pick up 2 other tourists from the UK and Spain who also went with Angose. They were also really disapointed with the organization and they also had a bad driver and the car was also in bad shape.
So after around 3 hours we arrived at rush hour in Arusha and we only had little time to get to the airport. We got in the other car and this driver was our rescue! After the traffic jam in Arusha he went up to 160 km/h to get to the airport in time. There could have gone so much wrong. The seatbelts didn't work and he was going really fast over speedbumps, overtaking left and right but we were used to nearly getting killed anyway. But because of him we arrived just in time! 10 minutes later and we would have missed the flight. When we got out he called Ibrahim who told me that Eric and I agreed that the airport transfer will be 50$. Weird. He didn't know of any flight but he knew of the money. We had no time to argue so I gave the money to the driver.
The other 5 guys from our car stayed in Arusha and went to the company to complain and they got 50$ back each. They told us so I texted Ibrahim that I also want my money back. He agreed, but only sent it via Mpesa (mobile phone transaction via local phones). So asked him to send it to my brother of my host family in Dar. There will be large fees now when transfers the money to my bank account now.
Summing up, it is really sad that the one thing you are really looking forward to the whole year is getting ruined by very bad organization and customer care. There could have gone so much wrong and we have been in some really dangerous situations due to non-existent maintainance. I'm asking myself - where does all the money go to? I know a lot goes into the admission for the park but the rest?
Our guide, well, for doing this job for 30 years he shared almost no knowledge with us and it often seemed that he just would not care.
The cook, Zaidi (I hope the spelling is right) was a nice guy. The food was ok. Even though it has almost always been quite the same.
Because of all that all of us were utmost disappointed. And we wouldn't recommend booking with Angose at all.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Does Tom kilongola work for your company
Tom Kilongola had us wire him $9200 USD in advance for 6-day Safari and then canceled the tour on the day we were flying to Tanzania.
He has asked us to be patient in the refund.
If Tom does not work for your company I don't know what we will do,
Yours
Gilbert Goodwin
Long Beach, California, USA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Worst driver and operators I have experienced
I, along with 5 friends had booked what we hoped to be an unforgettable safari experience. Unfortunately it was unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. The first day we were given a pop top van instead of a 4WD, with not enough room for more than 2 people to stand and our trip to our first lodge was terrifying with our driver who hardly spoke to us passing at great speed on blind corners nearly hitting oncoming vehicles. There was no communication from him about any of the wildlife in the parks. Our accommodation on several occasions was changed (downgraded) with us only finding out on the day. On the last day before going to the border with Tanzania to continue our safari that had been organised through Solaris we had to travel 9 hours instead of the 3 we were told as the vehicle could not go through the National Park - no 4WD.
In Tanzania the company who had been contracted by Solaris, Cross to Africa, had not been paid for our park entrance fees so our guide was constantly trying to get them to pay up. Our organiser, Judy, ended up paying for the park fees and after much persistence received a repayment a month after the end of the safari.
Our accommodation was also downgraded on several occasions in Tanzania by Solaris. It is a pity this experience has caused us to feel we cannot recommend going to Kenya.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
No concern for the animals or the other tour companies.
Wow. We spent a week on safari and had several encounters with Leopard Tours, none of them good. On several occasions the Leopard Tours would pull in front of other safari vehicles just so they could be closest. Also when a great dusk cloud would be racing towards us and passing at high speed driving in the grasses or any area to pass us , you could always be assured it was Leopard Tours. The best was when the Leopard Tours vehicle drove off road in front of many other tour vehicles and drove right towards a pack of 5 lions. Thus causing them to get up and leave the area because they were about to be hit by the vehicle driven by Leopard Tours. So if you want to be first in line without ever waiting your turn, you have no regard for the wildlife you area there to see, and you have no respect for other people on tour, then this is for sure the company you should book with. Other wise I would steer clear of this company. I have found similar complaints about this company on here, with a reply from the company. But it appears this Leopard has not changed its spots.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
TO AVOID !!
Some of sun splash safari reviews are really good but you don’t want to find yourself in my situation, having to pay more or not going to a safari so I will suggest to avoid sun splash safaris, there are many other great company. Even guides or drivers that I talked about this, seamed to know the non professionalism of this company.
I booked a 2 days safari to Amboseli a month ago, a quote was processed and approved.
I emailed Erick 3 days before the departure to have all the details about pick up time and place, he emailed me back only the day before the safari to tell me that the safari was cancelled (telling me it wasn’t any departure for amboseli on this date, even though of a confirmation and telling before that the group I meant to go with cancelled their safari) not even any apologies.
I had to call him for him to explain me the outcome, once again not even any apologies (if you see all his complaints answers online you can get the tone he takes with his customers), we argued 10min about what solution he could give me. He end up offering the 3 days trip for $50 more instead of $100 even though I only wanted 2 days to enjoy the rest of Nairobi.
- the driver came to pick me up at my hotel. Half way though to the safari company office, the driver gave me his phone to talk to Erick the manager of Sun splash safaris. Erick told me that he could not giving the 3 days safari for this price anymore and it will have to be $100 extra. I could not say no as I couldn’t organise another safari on this short notice, I was not really happy and really frustrated by the situation.
The safari itself was really good but it was not sun splash safaris who organised the safari but another one. Amboseli is a really nice destination with amazing views of the Kilimanjaro.