CZ
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unscrupulous behavior
If you want a preview of the contract, before paying the deposit, they will end all communication with you. That doesn't sound too serious. It seems more like they want to have you in their fist first and then you will have zero chance of negotiating any changes.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
I had a horrible exprience. A strong NO. I wouldn't recommend going with her!
Two travelers, who paid 7000+500 USD for a 9 day trip in Tanzania.
Communication - won't give transparency on breakdown, very nice before you pay her, not at all responsive, no solution mindset and a heavy attack mindset
Service- horrible
Value for money- negative, will loot you
Reliability - not at all (as we learned)
Tour itself- very bad design, didn't take into account our preferences, gave us a very bad driver, the safari jeep had a huge crack, windows won't close properly...
1. The trip experience was horrible.
Most expensive trip we ever did, which turned out to be the most horrible trips we have done.
2. The driver assigned was horrible, didn't give us any space, made personal remarks and commented on our clothing, personality, money we have etc....didnt let us eat a single meal by ourselves.
3. We asked for a day in ngorongoro and we just got half. When requested to add more time, we had to pay 500 USD from our own pocket.
4. Didn't cater to our interests at all. Didn't ask if we want to see migration in Serengeti. Booked all the activities in Zanzibar on the day we were supposed to fly out. The day was known to her and confirmed by her.
5. Lack of professionalism - the communication is not at all professional. She makes personal attacks and guilts you in. Will use a lot of karma and other BS to guilt you to pay her, feel bad.
7. Changing accommodation every night unnecessarily.
8. No transparency on breakdown of prices. Not worth at all.
Don't go with her. Not at all worth it. Infact you will end up mentally stressed throughout. Till date, the prices charged were exorbitantly expensive. A strong NO.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Service advertised was not what was delivered
The service that we received was horrible thus making our holiday not enjoyable
Would not recommend this your company at all
Book at your own risk
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Luxury prices, economy experience
I had been to Kenya before with a high-end travel company and thought I knew what to expect. The price from Freedom Africa was a bit of a shock at over £14k but included Giraffe Manor in Nairobi. I was therefore expecting a high standard of accommodation and safari guides.
I had arranged to go to the Nairobi Elephant Nursery on the first morning before we were taken to Giraffe Manor. There was absolutely no flexibility in transportation so we had to pay an extra £140 for what amounted to a 20 minute taxi ride. After Giraffe Manor we went to Sweetwaters with what we thought was going to be our safari guide for the holiday. He was excellent and the accommodation on our first stop was quite good.
After Sweetwaters we went back to Nairobi and were put on a train to Amboseli (fare: £5 for first class). That was the last we saw of our guide until the final hotel when we bumped into him driving another party.
From then on the quality of the trip deteriorated with every stop. We did not have our own guides, we had hotel drivers who in our opinion are not safari guides. We spotted lions before they did, we heard the story of elephants' teeth from every one of them. Some didn't speak English very well. We were booked on a walking safari and they tried to charge extra. Every time we entered a national park we were asked for the entry fees which we had already paid.
Lodges were variable but none are what I would call luxury standard, and some are in fact described as basic. The worst lodge was Salt Lick at Taita HIlls - it was overcrowded and we had to wait for a table at dinner time. The drivers were silent and the cars were full, with people talking on their phones. We went to a rock which had a lone lioness and I counted 35 cars jostling for position to see an ear. The lodge is in two parts, the accommodation block with a restaurant and another block which has the pool and spa. On our second day we didn't leave the accommodation block or go on any drives because we couldn't bear the noise. It was the best day there. We couldn't wait to leave,
When I got back I complained to Freedom Africa. They said they were "surprised" to hear I wasn't entirely happy with my holiday. Further emails went unanswered. They didn't want to listen to any of my comments and insisted Salt Lick was one of their most popular lodges.
I had also booked a holiday with Freedom Asia which is part of the same group and had even worse problems with them.
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not trustable
My advice is for you not to trust Manyara Travel Climb Company!
We booked a climb and a safari week with them and no news after the climb. The person took our money and left us in bad trouble. We had to pay again with another company to save our trip. So my advice is really to avoid this dishonest company!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Disappointing
My family and I booked travel to East Africa through Leopard Tours and the Krish Group. We traveled from June 25-July 9, 2024. We have had multiple issues during this trip. I have emailed Leopard Tours and the Krish Group several times, with no resolution of the issues, nor accountability.
Specifically, we signed off an itinerary created by Leopard Tours and the Krish Group that stated that we will be staying at Singita Faru Faru in a family suite--and per them, this was confirmed. Instead, once we arrived to Africa, I discovered that we were staying at Singita Sabora in two tented camps. They are both very unique properties, and we had signed off on Singita Faru Faru, not Singita Sabora. I reached out to Leopard Tours and the Krish Group immediately on finding this out and all they could tell me was that there was nothing he could do to rectify the situation as Faru Faru had no availability, and because we were booked a "similar" lodge, neither would do nothing further. This is extremely disappointing as they never took any accountability, nor did they apologize for the error. My husband and I had extended our travels dates (paid extra to change our tickets) and took off additional days from work to stay at Singita Faru Faru - which Leopard Tours and the Krish Group had told us that they had secured for us, however, as stated above, they had not. This felt like the classic "bait and switch."
Additionally, Leopard Tours and the Krish Group suggested we travel to Tarangire. Unfortunately, once we arrived to Tarangire, we came to learn that it was a bad time to travel to Tarangire National Park due to the heavy rainfall the area had over the past several months. Due to the heavy rain/tall brushes we could not see any animals. Even the owner of the lodge in Tarangire stated that the tour companies should have let us know that as he had notified all guests who had booked directly of this.
Lastly, we noticed that there was an option to use open vehicles for safari game rides. We were never given this option when booking the trip. It seems that Leopard Travel does not have any open vehicles. When we asked to change some of our game drives to open vehicles operated by the lodges, we were advised to do it ourselves and pay for the additional cost.
Leopard tours has essentially asked me to contact Krish Group for any issues and has taken no accountability in this matter. The Krish Group has done the same.
Very disappointing trip, service and company. I would strongly advise to AVOID LEOPARD TOURS and THE KRISH GROUP.
OM
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Difficult to enter
I am unable to write a review of South Africa, its wildlife, or its landscapes due to the frustrating experience with the online eVisa system.
Our first application was rejected after nearly three weeks without any update on the website, despite being notified of a decision. It took several phone calls, emails, and text messages to receive the official verdict.
We are still waiting for a decision on our second application, two weeks after submission.
Our travel plans for July had to be rescheduled for August in the hope that the visa will be approved in time.
Having traveled to numerous countries, we find this process to be the most exasperating. While most countries have their peculiarities in documentation requests, requiring copies of our deceased parents' death certificates appeared unreasonable.
Other eVisas we've applied for were processed within hours or days, but this takes weeks.
CA
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
I wanted to give them a 0 star.
We were supposed to go to a Kenya Safari in late August 2024. I dealt with Muretti and after some issues, we settled on a trip and price. He asked for a deposit and I asked for terms and conditions for the booking. He wrote back that as long as I cancelled 6 weeks before the start of the trip, deposit is completely refundable. Based on thus, I sent him a deposit. Something unexpected came up regarding my health about mid June. I wrote to him that I may have to cancel and reminded him of the terms and conditions of cancellation. I confirmed our cancellation on July 1 which was almost 8 weeks before the start of the trip.
He even said that he will begin the process of refunding the deposit. Then, after a week, he started giving excuses that the Lodges are not refunding and their terms are different. I reminded him that my dealing is with Treeswift and not the individual Lodges. He still was coming up with excuses and finally did not even answer my messages or answer his phone.
Do not give your money to this company. They have lied to us and very unprofessional. I have told everybody about their lies and fraudulent behavior. You are better off staying away from them.
Sudhindra Dey
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very stressful safari experience; we felt scammed!
We booked a 5-day midrange safari tour. We had a horrible experience with Benson. The night before the start of the tour we received a message of Benson if we could pay 55 dollars extra for the hotel because it had become more expensive. Of course, we would not pay extra as this was not stated in the quote, but Benson was persistent and kept messaging us for an hour straight. Then the next thing came up; the visit to the Masai village. The quote stated that this was included, but Benson called our driver that this was not the case. We sent a screenshot of the quote to Benson, but he did not agree with this. Benson kept calling us and the driver and even screamed a couple of times. This is insane! He told us that he already fixed the problem with the extra charge of the hotel, so now we had to fix this. This was very unreasonable because he caused these problems, not us! Of course, we did not pay for this as it was included. Now the third problem occurred. Before the safari, we agreed to pay extra to get another hotel; instead of the Citymax hotel we wanted to stay at the Waterbuck hotel. This was confirmed multiple times by e-mail and WhatsApp. The extra charge was paid on the first day of the safari. Our driver told us he would take us to the Citymax hotel, but we explained and showed him we paid extra to go to the Waterbuck hotel. The driver understood it, and called Benson. Benson said it was not true; we did not pay extra and we did not agree to go to the Waterbuck hotel. We discussed it for 3 hours!! We showed him multiple times the emails and WhatsApp, but he did not want to help. Finally, he wanted to pay back the dollars we paid extra, but he wanted to reimburse us in shillings which which didn't equal the amount we paid. Another hour of discussing went by and he finally paid us back. It was a very stressful experience for us. Something you do not want during your holiday. Benson did everything he could to screw us over. Fortunately, we had proof of everything, but this was the worst experience ever. I would not recommend booking with this agency!!
IT
Take a different tour operator.
I would not recommend Focus in Africa and neither the tour we did.
We did the budget safari and as one can immagine, the accomodation was budget (mostly tents), the food was basic, and the car was not of high quality (the door kept on opening and our cook had to hold it the whole drive). Sometimes our lunch boxes had no cutlery. But this is okay. The sleeping bags were of low quality and outdated for which reason sleeping in the Ngorongoro crater camp was extremely cold. The agency only seemed in the mood to answer when they needed something but completely ignored us when we had requests.
But what we found really not nice was our guide Brisont. He really did not put any effort in making this more that a basic experience for my fellow 5 travellers and I. He did not tell us anything about Tanzania or himself and left us always as soon as we arrived at the camps. In the national parks he did not search for animals or explain anything to us but just drove from A to B. Also we were always the first ones to arrive at the camps in the afternoon and the last ones to leave in the morning. But what we found was most annoying is that we had less time than we should have had in Serengeti Np. Briston himself explained that the permit was 12 hours long- but we entered at 15:00pm and left it at 12:30pm the next day, only to arrive way to early at our next destination again, where he left us as soon as he had dropped us.
Do yourself the favour and spend more money on a tour agency that knows what professionalism means.