AE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The tour guide was only interested to get his job done asap. Low knowledge about animals and nature.
Booking was easy and professional. We were picked up by the wrong tour operator which had almost the same name but this was sorted out quickly. The car which we booked had technical issues so we ended up with an alternative for the first day. Our driver and guide was the worst ever. Very bad experience.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Scam bookings - denied plane boarding, unpaid park fees, missed pick-up & briefing etc.
Do not take the chance to have the same terrible and costly experience we had with Mr. Steve Biko, Africa Remote Safaris! As of today, 1/6/2016, we have not been reimbursed for our additional expenses, US $ 4,461, which we occurred due to Steve Biko's continued failings, and have not heard back from Mr. Biko.
Our safari was scheduled, Aug. 16 - Aug. 22, 2015. Day 1, we were not picked up as scheduled in Nairobi to continue to Masai Mara. The hotel arranged for transfer to Wilson Airport and from there we flew to Masai Mara. Upon arrival and being greeted by our driver, we were told our park fees, driver and car fees had not been paid. After waiting around and phoning with Mr. Biko, we were off to go about 1 hour after arriving. Day 3 our scheduled balloon ride did not happen. Day 4 we were supposed to continue to Serengeti, and were denied boarding the SafariLink plane due to Mr. Biko had failed to pay for the tickets. On day 5 after not being able to leave our hotel due to Mr. Biko not paying for our lodging, our family of four had no other option than to change our itinerary for the remaining day's. This cost us an additional $4,461 for accommodation and flights, not to mention the time we missed actually being out seeing animals, and instead dealt with the many failings of Steve Biko and a police report encouraged my the Manager of our hotel, who wants this type of scoundrels out of the Kenyan travel industry. Throughout our safari when running into unpaid services, Steve Biko continuously asked us to pay in order to be reimbursed later - we did not as our safari was paid in full well in advance.
With the experience and knowledge I have today, my advice to you would be to organize your own safari. It might seem overwhelming, but you can book your flights and hotels directly, and arrange for a car with knowledgeable drivers with the hotel you are staying at. Enjoy your travels, and stay away from Steve Biko and Africa Remote Safaris.
RO
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A total dissapointment! Avoid them at all costs!
I travelled around the world and I haven't found a travel agency worse than East Cape Tours. I booked with them a 4 night stay at Jackalberry Lodge, I paid 30% and I asked them to pay the difference after I would receive my visa for South Africa at the beginning of December. They spoke with The Reservation Department from Thornybush Game Reserve where Jackalberry is located and it was agreed that I will pay the difference after I have my visa issued. On November one month before leaving to SA, East Cape Tours have charged my credit card for the difference even if the agreement was to pay at the beginning of December. The bank was asking me if they should block the payment but in the end I have received the visa and I said no.
But the worst things were still to come.
3 weeks before leaving to South Africa Thornybush Reservation Department informed me that they have no availability for 4 nights at Jackalberry even if I paid in full our 4 night stay and I have received the confirmation of booking. East Cape Tours and Thornybush Reservation Department were so incompetent in dealing with me and my reservation and offered me a lower value lodge N'Kaya. I was very very dissapointed and frustrated to see that these 2 companies were trying to turn my holiday into a disaster. The accomodation that they were offering was 500 USD cheaper than Jackalberry. In the end I had to settle with N'Kaya because we had already paid the transfer to Thornybush and there was no lodge available left for the period before Christmas. I had to phone my bank 4-5 times to see if the difference was reimbursed of not, in the end the money entered my account.
I lost a lot of time speaking with East Cape Tours, with their stubborn manager Colin Diland which didn't apologize for the mess and harm done to us. i have all the emails and documents provin the harm done by these 2 companies. Anyone interested can contact me anytime. Try to stay away from East Cape Tours and Thornybush Reservation Department, otherwise your holiday can turn into a disaster!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Avoid at any cost!
While the web-site gives the impression of a real company with full stuff and an office, providing well-planned service to the tourists, this is very far from what we have experienced during our trip
Mr. George Nagol was very attentive during the initial stage when we interacted over E-mail, but once the money had been paid he essentially disappeared and did not answer any of the questions except saying that everything is ready for us.
In fact, when we have arrived to Arusha nothing was ready for us. Our first two days were completely ruined because the “Company” did not provide adequate transportations so one the first day we could not make a trip it to the Masai village (for which we paid $300) because ”the road was bad” and on the second day when we were supposed to do a short trek at 3000m ($600) the van provided by the company (which did not have a 4 wheel drive) got stuck in the mud and instead of trekking we had to push it uphill in the rain. We did not do our trek and got no apologies.
The things got only worse on Day 4 when we went for a hike about 200km from Arusha and were expected to be picked up be a vehicle assigned to us by Mr. Nagol at 1PM. The vehicle was supposed to drive us to the airport to take a flight to Lake Victoria (already paid) The vehicle did not show up on time – and we could not reach either Mr. Nagol nor the driver on the phone. Eventually we made it on foot to the camp where we waited until darkness descended (no light!) and still not being able to make contact with Mr. Nagol. We did contacted the driver and he gave us very elusive answers – first that the vehicle broke down then that he was driving someone else. As it turned out Mr. Nagol has sent the driver with other tourists to NgoroNgoro Park thus getting paid twice for the same service. The driver did show up at 7.30 PM with a vehicle full of passengers, drove like a madman and got us into the accident – only the side mirror was destroyed but a few inches to the right and it would have been a full head on collision at 900mph!
Despite fast driving, we missed the flight and thus the whole trip to Lake Victoria for which we have paid in full. Once again – no apologies!
When we have changed the plans and just decided to drive to Serengeti our misadventures did not end. The car kept breaking down on the hourly basis. A lot of time had been wasted. But far worse than that – at the Serengeti park we had to pay the park fees ($240) on our own since according to the driver the company credit card had no money on it. We were promised a refund and of course did not get it. When we got back to Arusha Mr. Nagol avoided meeting us in a hotel and made up many stories about why he can notget money. In fact we are sure that Kilimanjaro Champion is a one man operation with no office or employees engaged in defrauding the tourists.
While with all our negative experiences we had returned home in one piece, it is only a matter of time before something infinitely more serious happens when unsuspecting tourists like us entrust their fate to Kilimanjaro Champion, especially if they decide to do some serious climbing.
TR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Shame for Tanzania
I have never ever complaint about a travel agency until now, but in this era, people should know whom to trust and whom to not. Please do never use” jjtoursandsafaris”, JJ Tours”, “nzuri sana safaris, Nzurisana Safari” while you are travelling to Africa, Tanzania or any tours they are taking part at.
My husband and I visited Tanzania for a week in October for our honeymoon. We have booked Hilton Nungwi by ourselves, and asked Hilton to refer us an agency who would drive us to safari for two days. All our payments made by cash the day they have picked us from the airport. Our 4 days at Nungwi was perfect. Two days of our so called “safari”- there are no words to describe the awfulness and how we agitated our life safety.
1. JJ Tours and Safaris did not make the 4 night’s payment on behalf of us to the Hilton Nungwi even though we have paid all tour payment the first day we have arrived to Tanzania. Our agreement and booking was for 4 nights, but they only paid 3 nights to the hotel. Thus Hilton had charged extra 210 Dollars for us, and we needed to pay that money to check out from the hotel.
2. JJ Tours and Safari drove us to Mikumi National Park by the oldest car, which had no seat belt at the back seat, and which had stopped during our travel. Driver (Francisco Swebe- nzurisanasafaris) had bribed the police two times for breaking the speed limit, and once for not having the seat belt.
3. First Lie: On our way to “TanSwiss” he said he has talked to a friend and his friend mentioned him that the TanSwiss is full and they have no rooms for us- so he will take us to another hotel of his friend. (I have confirmed our booking with TanSwiss before our travel, so I have insisted that we have the confirmation and he should drive us to there. There was nothing left for him to do- so he drove us to TanSwiss. I swear to God, the hotel had maximum 15 guests, and it was like empty.
4. Second Lie: When we arrived the hotel- TanSwiss- we learned that this hotel is “bed and breakfast”, and although we have paid for full package for two days; our guide (Francisco Swebe ) tried to make us pay our dinner and lunch.
5. Third Lie: If I get the chance to upload pictures, I will upload the car that they have taken us to Safari. (We could not bear and asked driver to bring us back at the end of 2 hours). The car did not have a key and any protection. It was working hotwire(Putting cables together etc.…).
6. From October to December- we have been in touch with Kuya Mbogoma, to make him pay our 210 dollars back. Like a joke, he has sent us only 65 dollars!
7. Tours Company is “JJ Tours”, “JJTours and Safaris”. We have been defrauded by Kuya Mbogoma and his partner company “nzurisanasafaris” Francisco Swebe. The cars you see at their web pages are not the ones that they used while driving us. Do not believe in these two companies offerings. If this happened to us, it may happen to you too.
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Nairobi National Park by Hui Cheng Thong
Very difficult to spot animals
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Demanded 42% price increase after booking accepted
we had booked a one day tour with Go Wild Safaris on October 15 involving
Tala Game Park and Phezulu for November 27 for 4 people at 960 ZAR per person. Rowly
Midgley emailed us on November 23 to inform us that the price had increased by 42% to 1369 ZAR.
Although he claimed this was due to the game reserves increasing their fees, he did not include
any documentation to support this assertion. Other operators we spoke to did not support
Rowly's claim that there had been a dramatic rise in game park fees. In any case, normal business
practise would be for the tour operator to honour their agreement with their customer.
We cancelled our tour because we could not trust Rowly any more. We suspected that his actions
were an attempt to squeeze more money from us knowing that we had no time to organise an
alternative particularly as we were on a cruise ship. The end result is that we missed out on a
wildlife experience and the affair has left a bitter taste.
NZ
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Disappointed with tour organization and transportation issues
My partner and I did a 4 day Gorilla Tour in Uganda and while I would like to say the tour was great, I just can't it was filled with disappointment from Matoke Tours..
Our driver David was a good driver, and drove sensibly throughout the very long drive. However my partner and I didn't really know what was going on. David's communication with us and the other 4 tour guests that traveled with us was a bitter disappointment. He failed to give us any detailed itinerary of the day.... Yes he was only the driver but when you pay a lot of money for a trip of a lifetime I do expect some professionalism with all staff from reputable tour company.
It gets worse though.
We asked our driver to drop us off at Entebbe Airport along with another guest (so 3 of us travelling to airport) instead of going to Kampala and then going to Entebbe which can add another 1.5 hours to 2hours. The driver said he could drop us off and a Taxi would pick us up to take us to the airport. No mention of cost or price here. So one would assume that cause our driver didnt want to drive via Entebbe that Matoke should accomdate us and include this in our tour cost which was $1890 USD for the two of us.
When we got dropped of at the pickup point the taxi driver had been waiting for us for over 2 hours. We were then shocked that he was told to tell us the cost is $40 USD to take us to the airport from there. Which was a crazy price. We paid $23 USD from Entebbe airport to Kampala when we arrived, they charging over double the price and it was 15km shorter distance. We refused to be extorted like this and so the driver then called Eric one of the managers from Matoke to say we wouldnt pay that. He dropped the price to $30 USD which we had no choice to accept, it was late and we had been driving for 12 hours. When we got to airport I got driver to call Eric back and I spoke to him directory and said how unhappy I was with the situation and very disappointed and there lack of communication. He promised he would have someone email me the next day to recity the situation..... now 5 days later and nothing. Just confirms the type of company you are dealing with. You pay a lot of money and then they are trying to rip you off with a taxi.... Transport should really be included, pick up and drop off. Dont try and rip people off to make a few dollars so you can benefit more for tours that already cost us a lot of money.
The Gorilla Tours with the rangers at the National Park was perfect. But it should be and this part of the tour actually had nothing really to do with Matoke Tours as you get dropped at the national park and do the Trek with the rangers and scouts.... This part was great.. The Accommodation and the dinners we had was also amazing.
However the driver and logistics issues left a very sore taste in our month and really resent choosing Matoke Tours for our Gorilla Tour. My advice choose another company that has reliable communication.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Worst service at Addo Elephant Park
We arrived with no water at our accomodation and still had no water when we checked out. The park did not even have the decency to inform us of the problem let alone deliver a bucket of water for toilet use. We ended up having to go with bottles to reception to fill up so we could flush our toilet and at least wash our faces and brush our teeth last night and this morning.
This is disgusting for the amount you pay to stay in the park.
We won't be using Addo again.
i had no experience because i had to cancel and couldnt go
i phoned one of the operators and tell her i have to cancell due to circumstances and she said to me that they cant refund me but what i can do is making another booking within one year and i must try to book outside school holidays. When i tried to make another booking they said that i didnt make a booking within a certain time and now i have lost my money. i talked to Pascal and he said he will come back to me but nothing happened , the lady said that i have one year to make another booking and not within a certain time. thanks for all the effort