DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Attention! Lilac Adventures is untrustworthy and unreliable!
For an amount of nearly 6.000 USD, payed in advance for a safari in
Uganda supposed to start in March 2016, Lilac Adventures did not provide ANY of the services promised. Due to
negative reviews by former clients, we asked Lilac some time before the safari was
scheduled for details of the accommodation bookings and for copies of
the Gorilla Permits. The only thing they came up with were ever more
phantastic excuses why they allegedly could not provide us with any of
the documents requested. Therefore we contacted all the lodges ourselves and asked for bookings done by Lilac in our name - there were none. Being confronted with this, Lilac began to run out of
reasons and finally had to admit that 4 months after receiving
our money they had not prepared or booked anything. They also admitted that they would not be able to conduct the safari but did not give any valid reasons for that. At this point they
promised us a complete refund of our money - half a year on, we have not received anything.
So please do not make the same mistake we did, and especially do not
believe a word when they try to coax you into booking: they will go to
great lengths in trying to explain why they could not deliver the
services they were paid for by us and will give different reasons for this (delays in
the financial / banking system, political instability and / or unrest, etc. etc.), or perhaps they offer that you pay only a deposit (f.e. 20%) in advance. But please be aware that they are
completely untrustworthy and very likely they will just take your money without rendering anything for it.
DE
be careful - wrong itinerary
I'm so sorry, but be careful. You can't trust the company.
The itinerary was wrong (5 days Mt Kenya, 2 days Samburu NP)
and you can't trust the stuff:
I left my luggage in the office, and after the Climbing, I missed my electronical values.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Scam don't go near them
I booked with trips without borders for a part of our honeymoon. I paid some of the money in a wire transfer from the UK. They sent very credible sounding emails and a contract and I was in touch with them right up until my arrival in Kenya. Now the phone number they gave me doesn't work, they are not responding to email and I am reporting them to the police.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Do not book with this company
Do not book a tour with Seven Wonders in Arusha. In all of my travels, it was the worst experience I’ve ever had. This is not just a post about a bad tour company, this is a safety warning to all travellers – please do not use this company.
My boyfriend and I booked a safari to the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater for 3 days and 2 nights. Our cook was great, but our guide was awful. We shared the safari truck with two lovely French ladies, and we were all told that the guide spoke both French and English – but he didn’t speak either (other than a few basic phrases), which made communication very difficult.
He couldn’t tell time, and kept telling us to get up for breakfast at 2:00 am (which we actually did the first morning!). He was very disorganized and always late, which decreased the amount of time we got to spend each day in the national parks. We had to set-up and take down his tent each morning to try and speed up our departure time, as he didn’t know how to. He didn’t spot one single animal our entire trip! And when we spotted them he would drive past more than half of them. And on our second day when I spotted a leopard, and we requested to park for a better view, he kept driving and said that we had to go home for lunch, yet proceeded to stop for antelope!!! We’re not usually picky with driving, but he was honestly very unsafe and came close to hitting walls, trees and animals on the road on multiple occasions. He was always on his phone in the truck, and when he wasn’t talking on it he was taking creepy pictures of the young French girl (trying to disguise them as selfies). He made the experience so bad that it brought the French ladies in our truck to tears - they called Seven Wonders several times to complain and to try and get a replacement guide, but the manager of Seven Wonders yelled at them over the phone and called them “liars” and refused to compensate them in any way.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, on our last day we were scheduled to visit the Ngorongoro Crater. Our guide had forgotten to pay our tickets for entry the night before, so we were late entering and late leaving the park. Our guide on exiting the inner gate of the crater told us that we had to pay a $70 USD fee per person for exceeding our permit time. We explained to the ranger that it was our guide’s fault because we arrived late, and the guide lied and said that we had threatened to fight him in the truck (3 small girls and 1 guy vs. 2 grown men!), and that we had made him stay late. When we tried to exit the last gate of the park in a taxi, we were detained because the fee had not been paid. The head park ranger agreed that Seven Wonders should pay the fee, and he arranged over the phone with the manager the he should mobile transfer the money. He never did, and as a result we were kept at the gate until after dark before being allowed to finally leave at 8:30 pm (after waiting for 5 ½ hours).
The next day, we were approached at our hotel in Arusha by the manager of Seven Wonders, along with a group of 5 other men. He told us we needed to pay him the $140 USD. We tried to calmly reason with him, but he was simply aggressive and rude, and accused us of lying. They wouldn’t leave, and harassed us until we asked for the police to be called. The police warned us that these men were dangerous, and that they believed that if we didn’t give them what they wanted they were going to hurt us. The police were unable to charge them unless they did first harm us, so we filed a police report and had to be driven to a hotel outside of town where we were safe.
Please be warned – these are bad people. Do yourself a favour, there are many other tour companies you can choose from.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Don't use this agency!
I booked via internet a 3-day-safari with Amani Tours and Travel for me and my two daughters. One month before the trip starts I transfered 50% of the payment as deposit and the rest of the payment I payed cash when we arrived Tanzania.
On the evening before the trip should starts I got an email that the safari is cancelled... From this moment I couldn't reach Daniel/Donald??? and I'm still waiting for my money...
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Ngorongoro Crater by Joost
The Ngorongoro crater was the biggest disappointment for me. I imagined a crater full of wildlife but it was mainly a crater full of tourists. To see lions it is a good place but again, like the other popular parks in Tanzania, you will always have to share it with 70 other cars. In addition, I found the practical aspect of the crater a real obstacle. If you are not staying on the edge of the crater, but like most people in Karatu, it will easily take you 2.5 hours one way to get to the crater from your lodge. The crater is very small, so you can explore the vast majority of it in 2 hours. If there is something to see somewhere, you can recognize it by the dust cloud moving in the direction of the sighting...
I would strongly advise skipping this destination. It's better to stay an extra day in the Serengeti...(which I didn't like that much as well)
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
do not book with this company !
We are a victim of African Circuit Safaris (Paul Muthangya). We booked a 5 day safari in Nov 2015. And paid a 50% deposit in Dec 2015.
On July 16 2016 we mailed some questions to Paul on the safari trip but since did not receive any reply. After the mail we tried mailing him again and calling him without success. We also checked if the 1st night hotel in Nairobi was booked and it was not booked. Later we heard from Jeffrey Howgate's case (see previous review) that the office of African Circuit Safaris does not exist (anymore?).
SafariBookings.com was helpfull but can not prevent this kind of fraud.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very Dissapointing!
This is a very small preserve with few animals. You see the whole property in a day. After that it is very repetitive. They also have a few of the big five on premises. Nothing like a real natural park. The food is very mediocre, buffet style with little daily change to the menu. They group you together in groups of 10 people. Of the 10, 6 left Zulu Nya early because of the above reasons even though they had paid for a set number of days. They have signs all over saying that if anything is stolen on the property they are not responsible. We had quite a bit of cash taken and the management did nothing about it. There are so many other wonderful reserves and parks to go to, there is no reason to go to Zulu Nyala!
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Bogus Company
This so called company are not tour operators - they are fraudsters and we have reported them to the Kenyan Tourist Police who are looking to arrest the man behind the scam - Paul Muthangya.
Remove them from your site and be more diligent as to whome you promote.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They never sent me detailed info of my trip. I had to claim dinners and sunset safari :(
The Outlook Safaris made the transfers and there were always on time. We also stayed one night near the airpot. I like the accommodation and the food. The Hippo Hollow hotel was nice also and the Kurt Safari Co was great with good guides.
The only problem was Kruger Park Travel. We had to continually write asking for times of our trip because they never sent us detailed information. We also had to claim dinners, they are already paid and the hotel did not know it. They tried to give us a safari day instead of one morning and one afternoon . And it's not the same! in the heat of the day they are not animals.
We had to argue a lot with Kylie and got to give us a night safari on the last day ... but the information never came, we spend four days asking the guides and the staff if they knew what we had to do that day. I would never hire this agency.