US
I had a terrible experience and poor customer service. My booking was mishandled.
I live in the USA, I asked my sister to book a 3 day trip to Masai Mara for me. She was sent an email with options. We opted for the promotion bornfire adventures were offering at the time. We were not give much details of the place, no brochures or the name of the place we would be staying. The email said "Masai Mara budget tented camp" my goodness! I have never in my entire life seen such a filthy place by name
"manyata camp" Molded tents, dusty beddings, stinky pit latrine welcome toilets,flies all over the place not to mention the filthy bathrooms. When I asked to be upgraded I was told to cancel my booking and start a new one paying at a 100%. I opted to check out soonest, I was told that was going to cost me because I was inconveniencing other guests in the vehicle. I had 2 small children, I was left feeling helpless and forced to put up with the crapy place for 3 day. When i complained, I was told I had a personality issue because nobody else had ever complained of the place. I have pictures of the place.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Warning - do NOT book your air ticket with day safari adventure
I booked a return ticket to Australia on the 12th June 2017 and deposited Kshs 150,000 into Day Safari Adventure's account.
First she promised to get an emirates ticket, two days later no ticket then she said she was waiting for an upgrade then on before the date of travel she changed to Qatar and send out the itinerary. On arriving the airport, the ticket had been cancelled. 3 weeks later No refunds up to today and Amanda will NOT pick up calls she will only reply to text messages with excuses galore. I had to buy another ticket over the counter inevitable costing more!! Am in the process of instigating an official complaint to relevant authorities once i get all information in place - I will update this forum with the outcome
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We payed 630€ (half tour price) in advanced on the prefing day nobody showed up at the hotel!
My girlfriend and I booked a 4 day safari via safaribookings.com with http://tropicalvacationsinc.com/ for 29.12.16-01.01.17. We payed 630€ (half of the tour price) in advance. On the evening of 28.12.2016 we were waiting in our Hotel in Arusha for someone to come for the pre safari briefing as agreed before. But nobody showed up or even answered the phone. Bevor we had a lot of contact via whatsapp and email. Next day we still hoped to get picked up at 8am but of course nobody showed up. We couldn't reach the company for the next days any more. Until now I’am in email contact with Mathew Adams and try to get my back. I did not want to make this a police case but I gave him a lot of chances so far and he often promised to pay soon but until now nothing happened. Of course this is the short story and I can proof everything with the emails and Bank transaction.
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Do not deal with this company - it is a scam operator in my experience!
Booked a 9 day safari; sent $1500 by bank transfer; Sylvester Muthui said money had arrived and then 2 days later said the payment had been "reversed". No such thing. He apparently had transferred the money to another account. Still trying bro get money back but not hopeful.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Scammers!!!
I booked the '4 Days Ngorongoro and Serengeti Safari in Tanzania' at BookAllSafaris.com. The company is 'Back Of Africa Adventures' from Kenya. They outsourced is to Sandland Tour from Arusha, Tanzania.
Sandland Tour changed the totall program without telling me. Because of these changes, I had a lot less time in the parks. All the other people paid a lot less for this cheaper tour. I complained at 'Back Of Africa Adventures', but they told me they can not help me.
Day 1: Arusha - Tarangire (4 hours afternoon game drive) - Mto wa Mbu Campsite Sunbright
Instead of: Arusha - Ngorongoro Crater
Pick up from your hotel in Arusha.
Drive to Ngorongoro Crater (full day of tracking game with your guide).
Break for picnic lunch at the Ngoitoktok springs picnic site (a chance to see the Big Five).
Dinner and overnight will be at the campsite.
Day 2: Mto wa Mbu Campsite Sunbright - Serengeti (4 hours afternoon game drive)
Instead of: Ngorongoro Crater / Serengeti
Leave Ngorongoro after breakfast for Serengeti (arriving in time for lunch).
After lunch, proceed for afternoon game drive in this unique park to see the many animals.
Dinner and overnight will be at Serengeti Seronera campsite.
Day 3: Serengetie (7 hours morning game drive) - Ngorongoro campsite
Instead of: Serengeti
Morning and afternoon game drive in the Serengeti with a lunch and leisure break at the lodge or campsite in the mid afternoon.
Dinner and overnight will be at your campsite.
Day 4: Ngorongoro Crater (6 hours morning game drive) - Arusha
Instead of: Serengeti - Arusha
After breakfast, leave the campsite for game viewing on your way out of Serengeti.
Drive to Arusha via Mto wa Mbu village.
Tour ends in the afternoon to be dropped at the Kilimanjaro Airport Road (KIA).
I even had to pay for the airport transfer! While this was included...
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not use Bramwel Tours, William Amon, or Meru Treks. Awful experience and they owe me $382
In August 2016, I signed up for a 6 day camping safari with Bramwel tours, operated by William Amon in Arusha. The cost was $1,200 and the itinerary that William sent me included all transfers and one night stay at a hotel after the tour was over. I was traveling alone so I asked William if I could join another tour. He said yes. I chose William because he was responsive and helpful over email. He answered all my questions in a professional manner.
Two days before the tour started, William emailed me to tell me that the tourists I was supposed to join had cancelled. He found another tour operator with a 5 day tour the same days and I could join them. I was disappointed, especially because the shorter tour meant I wouldn't be able to see the great migration (the primary reason I wanted to go on Safari), but I understood that happens when you join other tourists. William suggested they would find a local activity in Arusha to fill my sixth day.
The tour operator William put me on (Meru Treks) was awful! We lost a lot of time because the jeep kept breaking down, and we started so late one day that we missed half the day. Another day, when we went to Ngorongoro crater, the driver told us we would only have half a day, even though the itinerary told us we'd have a full day. We had to argue with our driver to get a full day.
The driver was in a bad mood some of the time and explained very little to us. The cook was nice and did the best with the food he had, but some nights there wasn't enough food for the group.
Everything about the tour suggested Meru was trying to spend as little as possible. For example, we found out that the driver and cook had nowhere to sleep! The driver was sleeping in the car (no wonder he was in a bad mood and no wonder that some mornings we started late).
Along with me on my tour were five other people, all of whom told me they were very unhappy. Two of them paid $680 for four days. One paid $640 for four days. Two other tourists paid $900 for five days. They all purchased their tickets directly through Meru.
The night before I returned, I emailed William to tell him how awful Meru was. I told him I don't want to hire him for my sixth day, and I'd like a refund for the difference between the price of the Meru Trek tour and the tour I paid for. He agreed, told me he would meet me in Arusha and pay me the difference.
When I arrived in Arusha, the hotel that was supposed to be included in the cost of my trek told me that William had paid part of the room cost and I would have to pay the remaining $32.
I emailed William to tell him I thought the Meru Trek should have cost $850 (the tourists who paid $680 for a four day trip paid $170 per day; my five day trip should have cost $850). I told William I thought he owed me $382 ($1,200 - $850 + $32). He responded that he only owed $230. He tried to charge me $50 for airport transfers and $20 for the night in the hotel, even though both of these were listed as 'included' in the itinerary he sent me. After some arguing, he agreed to refund me $382.
On my last day in Arusha, William emailed me to apologize that he would not be able to meet me to refund my money. He said he would wire me the difference.
For the last ten months, we have been emailing back and forth. William keeps promising he will refund my money, but he never does. He once told me he sent it but the money did not arrive in my account.
Altogether, I am very upset at Bramwel, William, and at Meru Treks. The trek I went on was a big disappointment. William pushed me off onto a bad operator, and then tried to charge me extra for items that should have been included. While he has agreed to pay me $382, he has not refunded my money.
I strongly agree with all the other negative reviews posted on SafariBookings. I recommend you stay away from Bramwel Tours, William Amon, and Meru Treks. I have emailed the Tanzania Tourism Board to recommend that they take away Bramwel's license.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Tour to Lake Nakuru Park and Masai Mara
I booked two tours with Pega. The first one was to the Lake Nakuru National Park wich was a good experience due to the very nice guide John. The other one was to the Masai Mara. For that one Peter the Boss of Pega Tours gave me wrong information on the accommodation (stayed in a different camp than he said) and lied to me about the "Great Migration". I asked several times if it had really started early this year and he insisted it had. Before going to the Mara I heard from other sources that this was not the case. After arriving there the driver and guide confirmed that the Migration would probably start a month later. Very dishonest.
The home stay Pega offers in Nakuru is basic but offers tasty food and there are usually other interesting guests around.
The Safari Vehicle is fit for the good roads inside the Lake Nakuru Park but very unsafe for long distance travel.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Ibrahim the monster
I don't recommand meru treks at all frist of all the boss Ibrahim he's an asshole I would even say worse but I'll stay polite. It's an horrible person. We booked a 2 days safari with him for 280€ which extremely cheap, he was really nice friendly and professional at the beginning, so we were so happy to get a safari that cheap that we asked him if we could book a excursion to see the waterfalls, to do the coffee tour and to see the kilimanjaro. He said sure it's going to be 30€ more he said we'll take you from your place to the montain. We thought we were going by car obviously so we said yes . So the day after we were supposed to go at 7:30 no one came. We waited and called him he said the guide he's comming. And at 9am so 1:30 late 2 guides came and one of them was drunk and we were supposed to have only one guide. We told the drunk one to leave we went with the other one. And after 5min in car to get to the city centrer he told us that we were going to take the public transports to moshi which is at 2hours from arusha we were so angry because we paid to not take the public transports we could have done it ourselves. When we arrived in moshi we had to take another daladala to get to the mountain and we waited 1hour for the daladala to leave moshi and the guide was smoking talking to his friends so unprofessional. So basically we left at 9am to arrive at the place at 2pm. So we did the visit it was cool but the guide made us rush because he didn't want to miss the last dalala to get back to moshi so we couldn't take our time and enjoy. At the end obviously we missed the last daladala and the guide who was supposed to pay us everything didn't have enough money to pay for the motorbikes to take us to moshi so we had to pay. When we arrive in moshi we spend an hour in the street waiting for him to find money walking around the city to pay the bus to arusha, it was 8pm. Organisation 0 ! And then he finally got the money and we took the bus to Arusha and arrived at 10pm and we had the safari the day after at 7:30 am we didn't even have time to eat. My friend and I were so pissed off then we decided to complain to the boss. So we went to the office before going on safari. And ibrahim's real face appears, we talk to him very politely and he started shouting on us he got crazy he didn't even let us speak he had an answer for everything and he started saying "if you complain for that you're going to complain for the safari so don't go" we were so angry because we wanted to do the safari still but we had to complain about the day before because it was horrible. So he started to take off our bags from the car of the safari and he kept shouting waiting for us to apologise but we didn't, fortunately the driver was great and told him to let us go so we went on safari. Do you imagine 30€ for that ! And he didn't give us the money back obviously. But fortunately the driver joseph was amazing and the safari went well and we saw all the animals. So the 1 star I put is only for the safari and because at least it was cheap. But if you can avoid this company avoid it and especially Ibrahim this monster shouting on two 21 years old girls when he is the on who is wrong.
UA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They are Liars!
A plus:
It was a beautiful safari and we saw many animals. I want to say many thanks to the chef, his food was very tasty.
Minuses:
We went in the low season, so if you are hoping for what they told in the correspondence, do not believe it! They'll take you as they like. They will not follow the description that is said here. And you will have a safari only in the morning or only in the evening, do not expect that you will spend all the time looking at animals. Our car broke down and we drove 6 hours to the campsite at a speed of 10 km and no one came to our rescue.
We arrived when it was dark, nothing is visible and I hurt my leg, it was swollen and there was a hematoma, and they even do not have a usual first aid kit and they refused even to bring a bottle of cold water that I would put on my leg. On the last day of the safari, the people who were with us, ended their safaris, because they started earlier and we just joined them. At 11 o'clock in the afternoon we were taken to a camping place and we did not go anywhere else!
With all this, the director of this company blatantly lied and denied that everything was fine!
When I gave the guide a tip of $ 85 (4 days of safari for two), he also started to say that we should give tip the chef! Dear authorities, warn people that they themselves should distribute tips between employees, because I thought that they themselves share everything equally. That's why we paid even more!
I do not recommend this company to anyone. The most terrible and deceitful attitude!
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Liar, Thief, Coward and an Overall Scam!
I am absolutely disgusted with how horribly I was treated during my stay in Kenya after booking through Doyen Safaris. The owner, Kennedy, is the biggest liar, thief and coward I have ever met in my life. When we booked the trip in December, Kennedy was very responsive to my questions and concerns and gave me an itinerary with all of the hotels I would be staying in, so I felt comfortable and excited for the trip. But that was all a lie. From the moment we arrived in Kenya, there were several mix-ups and we were not delivered what we were promised. The hotels we stayed in were 3 of the most disgusting, dirty, old, and unsafe accommodations I have stayed in. The sheets we marked with blood from the mosquitoes and the beds had dirt on them. We were supposed to stay in glamorous tents when we went to Masai Mara, but I was shocked when we got there and I learned that first off I had to share a tent with a total stranger I had met in the car an hour before and second the place was a complete dump and even had a mouse in it. My group was promised a private tour but soon realized Kennedy had placed us with two other travelers. Every time we tried calling Kennedy to fix these issues he would tell our driver, Stanley, he was too busy to talk. The one great thing about the trip was our driver. Stanley was absolutely amazing and made the safari worth it, but anything else Kennedy was involved in was a complete disaster. The food was included in our package and it was the worst food I have ever eaten and I actually came home with typhoid fever because of the dire conditions of the camp. On my last night in Nairobi I was supposed to stay at the hotel Kennedy listed in my itinerary but of course when I got to Nairobi he said the plan had changed because the hotel was booked (he had already done this to us the day before with another hotel as well). I became very angry with Kennedy and began listing all the things that had gone wrong since the start of the trip and he acted like this was brand new information to him even though Stanley had been telling him all along what was going on. He denied everything and seemed shocked when I told him I had to share a tent with a stranger and he blamed the camp. He refused to take any responsibility and promised me he would put me in a 4 star hotel to make up for it. He had a driver take me to another hotel and as soon as we pulled up I knew this was not a 4 star hotel. It was a complete dump. They showed me to my room and when we walked in it turns out there was someone staying in that room already, so we went back to the lobby. I called him and told him this was not acceptable and that I had paid him a lot of money in order to stay in a nice hotel. I sent him several pictures of acceptable hotels I had found online and told him any of those would be fine. He asked me to go to booking.com and pay for the room and that he would send me money a week later through PayPal. Obviously I refused and told him he had to come to the hotel and sort it out right away. He finally came to the hotel and looked upset and annoyed and tried to convince me to stay there. I told him I would not stay there and he just sat around not saying or doing anything for about 20 minutes. Finally he got up and walked out of the hotel without saying a word. After 10 minutes I had the driver call him and he said he was figuring something out. An hour later I was still sitting in the lobby and now he was ignoring the driver's phone calls. I had the hotel call him and he told them to tell me I could either stay there or find my own place and pay for it myself. I was SO upset. What a liar, thief and a coward. Absolutely disgusted that these kinds of people actually exist. Do NOT book with this company. This man is only out for one thing. Your money. My goal is to spread this to as many people as possible so they don't have to experience what I did.