FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very unpleasant experience - I was charged twice for the trip
I used this company for a gorilla trip for myself and two members of my family.
I put a downpayment of $1966 in September using Pesapal, and then a week before the safari I wired $1890 to the company's bank account.
The company took us on the trip, which was fine, but they claimed that they hadn't received that last payment; on the last day, before agreeing to take us back to Kampala they forced me to pay $1890 by credit card, with the promise that the money would be refunded once the wire occurred.
Once back home I obtained all the necessary document from my bank proving that the money had indeed been transferred, but never heard back from Primate Safaris and never got the refund...
This is clearly extortion - I would not have written such a review if I had seen an attempt on their part to fix the situation with their bank
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Had to report to police. Buyer beware.
To cut a long story short, the driver, who was subcontracted by Mousebird Safaris Mr. Lema, one night of 4 took us to the wrong hotel upon instructions of Mousebird Safaris. He was then not able to take us to the correct hotel (Ascertained after he called his boss) due to the park closing and him not wanting to as it was 1.5 hours away and he "would not have taken this job on had he known this before" (quote from driver.) Upshot was that we had to pay 350 USD on TOP of what we had already paid because the driver would/could not take us to the hotel Mousebird had booked. We called the owner at Mousebird several times and he did not pick up. All my messages were, funnily enough, ignored.
After this, I had wanted Mousebird to settle this directly with the driver who had paid the new (and horrible) hotel, but the driver strongarmed us to his office and forced us to pay his boss for this 350 Dollar hotel he had taken us to in error. Mousebird Safaris Mr. Lema is refusing to pay us back. We have reported it to the police and a case against Mousebird Safari is ongoing.
Mousebird basically contracts their services to a driver who is working for several agencies so you constantly have to wait until others have been picked up from other agencies. Our driver from a firm called Avocet Safaris Tanzania, was picking up several people and messed up this trip entirely. The whole thing was an organisational mess.
I would never ever recommend Mousebird Safaris as I believe that they are not honest. We will see Mr. Lema from Mousebird Safaris in court.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Worst Safari ever
Ive done over 15 safaris in my life, been to Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania.This one here, in Kenya, is by far the worst Ive ever experienced!!! Its all about, squeezing out every single dollar of you and delivering the worst customer service ever. Here's my main points why i cannot recommend anyone to book with this company:
- Safety is not guaranteed
* No functional radio during the whole six day trip (see picture below), meaning not able to contact anyone in case of emergency.
* Safari vehicle in a very bad condition (we got stuck once and had to push the car out and that, is in middle of the national park, surrounded by wild animals).
* One screw of the wheel suspension broke during our game drive, so we lost two hours of game drive while waiting until the car is fixed (see picture), not even a glass of water was offered by the company while waiting.
- Not sticking to itinerary
* Left earlier than promised certain parks, to the extent that we missed to spot the leopard. Considering that we had to rush all the time and having problems with the car, i would have at least expected, to give us half an hour longer while seeing something great.
-brought us to different accommodation than planned (cheaper places)
* Changed the itinerary without giving any options
* Skipped certain destinations like Baboon hill and the Rhino sanctuary without giving any reason, was told is nothing special abt it.
* Food and beverages
We got basically every day the same, the lunch packages were just horrible. One juice, a chicken leg, a rotten banana and a sandwich with one slice of cucumber and tomato (see picture below)
- only 1 liter of water per day per person, even during a 8hours game drive and over 30 degrees
Communication:
According to my itinerary, I was supposed to stay one night in Naivasha. After leaving Lake Nakuru, I was told i had to go to Amboseli first and come back afterwards. Obviously, i did not agree on that, because it would mean, having 5hours more driving instead of leisure time. I simply asked to refund me the money but instead of giving me back a 130 $, I only got back 50$. On top of that I was told, I refused to do it. I don't know... but having the audacity to blame me for refusing to finish the trip is just crazy. The company was not able to stick to the plan. First, the manager Steve refused to talk to me and then it took them 3 days to tell me how much the refund is. And not once I've been told a sorry from Steve. Even worse he tried to twist the story and that everything is my fault. Honestly that's just bottom of the barrel excuse.
Conclusion:
On this trip, almost nothing went according to the plan and still the company insists, that they didn't do anything wrong. I dont see any point why anyone should book with this company. The only highlight was Joseph the driver, he did what he could do but he had a lot of pressure from his Manager Steve. We were rushed the whole trip and had to leave several times earlier than according to the itinerary. I just hope this review helps people, not to do the same mistake as me, to book a nightmare trip with them.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Worst experience ever and very rude manager
Ive done over 15 safaris in my life, been to Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania.This one here, in Kenya, is by far the worst Ive ever experienced!!! Its all about, squeezing out every single dollar of you and delivering the worst customer service ever. Here's my main points why i cannot recommend anyone to book with this company:
- Safety is not guaranteed
* No functional radio during the whole six day trip (see picture below), meaning not able to contact anyone in case of emergency.
* Safari vehicle in a very bad condition (we got stuck once and had to push the car out and that, is in middle of the national park, surrounded by wild animals).
* One screw of the wheel suspension broke during our game drive, so we lost two hours of game drive while waiting until the car is fixed (see picture), not even a glass of water was offered by the company while waiting.
- Not sticking to itinerary
* Left earlier than promised certain parks, to the extent that we missed to spot the leopard. Considering that we had to rush all the time and having problems with the car, i would have at least expected, to give us half an hour longer while seeing something great.
-brought us to different accomodation than planned (cheaper places)
* Changed the itinerary without giving any options
* Skipped certain destinations like Baboon hill and the Rhino sanctuary without giving any reason, was told is nothing special abt it.
* Food and beverages
We got basically every day the same, the lunch packages were just horrible. One juice, a chicken leg, a rotten banana and a sandwich with one slice of cucumber and tomato (see picture below)
- only 1 liter of water per day per person, even during a 8hours game drive and over 30 degrees
Communication:
According to my inetary, I was supposed to stay one night in Naiwasha. After leaving leaving Lake Nakuru, I was told i have to go to Amboseli first and come back afterwards. Obviously i did not agree on that, because it would mean, to have 5hours more driving instead of leisure time. I simply asked to refund me the money but instead of giving me back a 130 $, i only got back 50$. On top of that i was told, i refused to do it. I dont know... but having the audacity to blame me for refusing to finish the trip is just crazy. The company was not able to stick to the plan. First the manager Steve refused to talk to me and then it took them 3 days to tell me how much the refund is. And not once ive been told a sorry from Steve. Even worse he tried to twist the story and that everything is my fault. Honestly thats just bottom of the barrel excuse.
Conclusion:
On this trip, almost nothing went according to the plan and still the company insists, that they didnt do anything wrong. I really dont see any point why anyone should book with this company. The only highlight was Joseph the driver, he did what he could do but he had a lot of pressure from his Manager Steve. We were rushed the whole trip and had to leave several times earlier than according to the itinerary. I just hope this review helps people, not to do the same mistake as me, to book a nightmare trip with them.
ES
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Disrespectful persecution of the chimpanzee to get a picture
I was in the Park a few days ago and surprisingly, it was one of the worst experiences I have ever had. More than 50 people (usually there are about 80), chasing and harassing an animal to get a photo with it. The security policy, the respect and the privacy on the part of the Rangers was zero: no distances kept, no masks on, no speaking in a low tone, no control over the crowds and running of people after the animal. Very disappointing, nothing respectful of the animals and absolutely nothing professional at all. They talk about training more families to split over humans and thus expand the number of visitors and, consequently, their economic income. I don't understand why a wild animal has to be trained to the presence of humans @s, with the simple purpose of photographing it and increasing the visits and income of the Park. They should manage it in a more controlled way and reduce the number of visitors per day. I do not recommend it at all. I give it a star because the website does not allow me to put zero.
I hardly believe that the only goal from the Park is to get as much income as possible no matter the treatment of animals in it.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We had multiple issues
We would not book again with Jocky tours due to the following issues:
Pre tour:
- Communication - spoke to 3 different people to organise the tour, kept getting transferred to different phone numbers on Whatsapp
- Payment Issues- We tried to organise bank transfer (lower fees) and did not receive a reply until we followed up, when they told us it was then too late to do so. We were told certain payment methods attracted a 5% fee, this was incorrect for us.
- Airport pick up - the website and jocky emails say this is included. I was told on the day that this attracted a further 20 usd fee. I questioned this with 2 different people and it was eventually agreed it was included. We later were told our tour price had an extra 20 usd per person compared to others on the tour for airport pick up, I would suggest specifying not to include this in the price as Uber costed us <$10 USD.
Day 1: we waited in jeep for over an hour after paying - unsure what for. Delayed the afternoon game drive, possibly shortening it as other Jeeps left earlier.
Day 2: our guide/driver got stuck in mud twice for an hour each time, possibly further shortening game drive.
Day 3: the itinerary on the Jocky website and Safaribookings site says an early morning game drive - this did not occur. No game drive this day at all.
Day 4: guide told us to be ready by 7am - at 745 he was having breakfast. Jeep arrived at 8am. Guide's card did not work to pay park entry fees due to what he said was a bank issue - he asked us to pay and he would give us cash. Our cards did not work due to being unable to 2 factor authenticate, when asking guide about other options he raised his voice at us and I felt uncomfortable. We waited over 1 hour to get into the park.
We were initially told by the guide the boat ride was an extra 20 USD - I checked our itinerary which showed it was included and had to tell the guide this.
During game drives, the guide was speaking on his phone almost constantly on speaker phone. We were told to look out for animals while he did this and almost missed some rhinos. I was ignored when I asked a question as he was on his phone.
Day 5: the visit to the geothermal power plant and hot springs was not included - despite being in the park we were not given the option to do this. When we asked the guide, they said this was because some tour members had to go to the airport however they arrived there 5 hours early. We were not informed of this until after leaving the park.
IE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Didn't Deliver Purchased Safari Itinerary
Unfortunately we chose Pride of Africa (PoA) Safaris, as we believed they were an actual safari operator and they would be able to deliver the itinerary that they offered us when we contacted them by email. Sadly, they turned out to be more of a travel agent then anything. In our 10 day safari, we found ourselves pushed along from one operator to the next, as we experienced 5 different groups and 5 different guides. This created a very incohesive experience, where on occasion, lots of time was wasted and lost, and we did not get to visit all the locations and do all the drives on the purchased itinerary.
On the first day, the taxi driver who collected us from the airport affirmed that he had not been paid by PoA, when that was supposed to be included in the tour, so we paid him again. When we met Stephen, he had previously said over email that I could pay by card on arrival - but failed to be transparent about his physical card machine charging a significant fee. Considering that the safari was several thousand USD, the fee was very high. This caused quite some hassle as I walked around Nairobi to ATMs to withdraw a significant amount of cash and incurred almost as much fees in ATM transactions.
Stephen advised us there was a slight change to our itinerary. It wasn't immediately apparent what it was. It ended up being that they had downgraded one of our accommodations from a resort-type accommodation to a tented camp. Thanks to the power of the internet I could clearly see there was a price difference, so I requested they change it back to what we had purchased, which was completed.
The safari guides themselves (not PoA staff) varied significantly in customer service skill and knowledge about the wildlife. Amolo in particular was absolutely outstanding, where as Richard was somewhat short-tempered and ending up arguing with some of the tourists... which was peculiar.
We travelled all the way to the Serengeti just to do one morning drive. The itinerary suggested two days at this location. This was a result of being in placed into a school group of 14 students (who had probably paid a much lower price than we paid PoA) and there was numerous delays resulting from being in this large group. Getting into the national park alone took over two hours, due to some administrative error on all the passengers and vehicles paperwork. PoA had promised small group (max 8) safaris. They did not deliver.
Since travelling to Africa, I have held back on leaving a review. There felt like there was some discouragement to review our experience online. However, I have noticed that quite a number of Pride of Africa's online reviews are likely not genuine. This is apparent once you have travelled because you can recognise several office staff members names on review accounts, or notice that a number of review profiles have only ever left one single review. Be more careful than us. When people ask me which provider I chose in Africa, I encourage them to do their own research.
You'll have a great time if you choose wisely.
BD
35-50 years of age
I wouldn't recommend you trust Moyo
I never went on the tour but I had paid him $600 to make a booking . When I canceled the trip 2 months before going and asked for my refund he pretended to refund me but the money never came through . It’s Feb 2024 and I’ve not been paid. When I asked for proof of refund he never gave me that. Kept lying and saying it’s been sent . I have proof of payment on my credit card but Mr Pankaj the owner till date never sent me a receipt of refund despite me asking for it 7/8 times . So be very careful and don’t trust him . My $600 is now gone .
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very expensive for nothing in the plate for lunch and 1 hour less on the planned program!
It’s could be arrive, but when we went to take lunch at the buffet, there was no more meat, almost no more drinks. Maybe the other participants were served too much before, but that's not my problem, I paid the same as the other… I remember that I only ate rice and few vegetables. The plane took off more than 30 minutes late and we left 30 minutes earlier than planned! result, 1 hour less safari. Bad experience
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
An huffy tour operator
We didn' travel with this operator because their first travel proposal (by Mirta- Director) included hotels and accommodation for 200USD per night and more. So I asked for a lower level of accommodation so that we could have a more affordable price, and I asked for some changes to the program, in order to have a customization closer to our needs.
Although these requests are normal, at least in the early stages of the negotiations, her answer was peremptory and without the possibility of reply. In practice, in addition to not having accepted my requests for adaptation to the program, he told me to turn to someone else.
It is unfortunate to see that it is the Director who is so touchy. Probably this operator don’t need new customers who can expand their portfolio.