BR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This company is a SCAM!! BEWARE!!
I did a 15-day tour booked with this company (they also call themselves Cheno Travel Safari Tours sometimes) ant it was just terrible!! They did not follow the schedule, didn´ t put us in the accomodations we were planned to stay. We never had water or lunch during our trips (but we paid for it!). It was just a big mess and we had to argue the whole way of our trip, until a point on the 10th day where our driver just abandoned us in our hotel in the Nxai Pans and never returned. We had to figure out a way to keep our trip by ourselves and they never refund us or made anything easier for us. We are still in touch with the Botswana Ministry of Tourism and the police as well to put these guys out of the market forever! If you don´t believe me, just ask for pictures of their cars and their tourism licenses before booking anything. All tour company cars in Botswana must have the logo of the company on the car door. Just ask to see what they have... We rode on an old honda fit without a/c... you just don´ t wanna any of this in your vacations!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Stole our money
We were supposed to do a Safari in Tanzania for my birthday and our honeymoon with It Started In Africa. They disappeared the day before we got there. Never answered our emails and stole our money!
IS
50-65 years of age
Beware
Beware! Don't trust this company by sending money ahead of your journey.
We paid in full one month prior to departure and then the manager Alpha Malinda started spinning his web of lies about new taxes and fees, he even was cheeky enough to try to convince us that 18% VAT been added by the government on June 1. 2017 all though everybody is aware of that it came in on July 1. 2016. We even had one of his subcontractors to contact him on our behalf and then he asserted that we had bought our trip prior to July 1. 2016 so we were supposed to to pay this extra 18%. Our receipt is dated January 27. 2017.
We took off 3rd of September and soon it was very clear to us that the money we sent had been spent on something else then our accommodation and food, every morning we started with bargaining with him trough our tour guide since Alpha was in Australia at the time. When our guides were totally out of money we took over budgeting and paying for gas and everything else and with their help we managed to book the rest of the tour as it had previously been scheduled. We ended up with total cost that was about 45% higher than Alphas offer.
The four tour guides we had were very helpful trough all of this and we had a really good relationship with them, it's such a shame that they are working fore a shitty company like this.
Any further information I will gladly give in PM.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible experience, Seka gave us a lot of trouble
Do not book with this company! We had a terrible experience with Taste of Afrika for our five day safari in Tanzania. First of all they mixed the dates up. When we arrived and called they knew nothing about our booking, even though we had paid a deposit. Then on the morning of our safari they told us we weren't going that day, but the day after. Instead the offered us a coffee tour, which was very boring. Then they were going to send us to the wrong national park. When we told them that we booked for another park they send us with very last minute with a different guide. We had to join our original guide later that day, but our guide refused to bring us there initially. When we insisted he became very angry and unpleasant. We tried to bargain for a discount for the inconvenience and after a long discussion we were promised a discount of 400USD. But then later that day they denied this promise and threatened to skip our last day if we didn't pay up. Especially Seka, the owner, was very unpleasant to deal with and made a lot of mistakes in communicating with us.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Avoid avoid avoid
This tour was equally upsetting and angering. Unfortunately I booked with another agent, and was pooled with other bookings, all from different agents. We should have been suspicious that ours was the only vehicle without any branding...it took 4 days to establish which tour company was actually running our trip.
From the outset, it was a shambles. We wasted the entire first morning waiting for various other bookings, essentially until the vehicle was full. I then also had my paid for itinerary changed immediately. To cap it off, the driver / guide was extremely rude, and offered no insight into either the schedule or the wildlife.
During my 5 day trip, the irritation continued. Our vehicle was clearly the slowest on the road, costing us hours of game driving every day. In addition, every time we reached camp, we were the last to leave, and last to eat. And even more, the game driving was not at all in line with the promised schedule. We spent a mere 3 hours in Ngorongoro crater...
Overall the entire trip was awful. It was hard to enjoy the wildlife beauty, as we were all so constantly harassed by the awful experience.
Please do not use this company, and help others to avoid such disappointment too.
NO
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Worst safari agent ever!
This is the most unprofessional and worst agent we've dealt with ever!
We booked our safari through a company in Kenya but for the Tanzanian part we were outsourced to Sandland Tour, Arusha.
We and also an other girl in our group (who had booked with different agent in Kenya) had to all the time argue and pin point what was included in our intiniary. If we haven't had the out print to show them they would have over ruled us on everything and cut things off. Ex: in our intinary we were supposed to drive to Serengeti via Olduvai Gorge. We drove right passed it. We were even supposed to have our lunch there, whitch did not happen.
First day 2 individually travelling guys joined us, both of them with different intinary. Second day they were sent to a different group. They were supposed to leave 30 min before us but they were there still waiting when we left.
First night at camp my husband and I got a tent together as we were a couple but the girl and the two guys , who all traveleld indvidually and didn't know each other, were placed in the same tent. The girl of course argued and after hard discussion the girl got a tent for her self. But the guys still had to share.
As they also changed the order of the itiniary we were short cut on things.
Also they took us to Tarangire park, whitch we did not have in our itiniary. This led to that we had far less time in Serengeti than what our plan said and we payed for.
They also skipped breakfast one day. When they wanted to do so second day we told the guide and the chef that we won't have it. So they ahd to give us breakfast anyway. But of course resulting in less time game driving as they didn't start the day earlier like we requested to not to miss out on time of game drives. We saw other groups start earlier with breakfasts so they could get sunrise in the parks.
Our guide, George, was not competent and showed very little interest in making a good safari for us. He knew less about animals/trees/plants/birds than we did. Many questions he didn't even answer. We did not enjoy the atmosphere on the safari and didn't feel comfortable at all. In the end we were just happy to be finished with the safari in Tanzania and hoped we would arrive safetly back to Kenya as we felt we could not trust them at all.
When the safari was over and we were supposed to get transport back to Arusha as the other girl had one more day with safari. George, the guide just left both us and the girl with no words. Him and 2 others drove off, and we never saw them again. The girl was supposed to have an afternoon game drive but at 5pm she was still at the camp.
We sat there with a stranger who spoke barely english as our driver and with no information and we were waiting for almost 2 hours before we left for Arusha. 2 hours we could have spent more on game drive or been in Arusha for sight seeing.
The day we were supposed to get bak to Nairobi we were supposed to have breakfast at 7am as our transport was to leave at 7.30 from the hotel. We were in the restaurant at 6.55am, they didn't give us the food before 7.25 even the chef and 2 waitress's were there fromt he moment we came. We tried to tell them several times that we have to leave at 7.30 but to no help.
The day we arrived in Arusha from Nairobi the boss, Abraham wouldn't give us dinner as they said it was not included. After showing them the intiniary and discussing and making us wait 3 hours they said we could have dinner.
It was very unprofessional and very unfriendly customer service. If we knew what we knew to day we would have skipped Tanzania all together as it actually led to no pleasant part of our holiday than what it did good. Unfortunately waste of money. Make sure when you book safari that it's the same agent handling your safari all the journey.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beware, avoid this company
We booked a safari through another company in Kenya for a safari in Kenya and Tanzania. This company outsourced Tanzania to sandland tours. Sandland tours did not keep the itinerary agreed upon, they changed our lodges and tented camps to cheaper ones. The owner is Abraham and his side kick is Simon. They are both liars and cheats and will do anything forore money. DO not book with this company and make sure you ask your safari company if they are outsourcing any part of your safari!!!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A whole disaster and very terrible experience - watch out with this agency! Not trustful at all
We found Mercury Tours on Safari-Bookings and Ndamungu (tour operator) seemed to be nice and helpful. We were having email contact for about two weeks in which Mercury Tours explained the Program in detail and gave us all information etc. In November 2016 we booked the 7 day safari with him (Selous-Mikumi-Ruahu Safari) to start on January, 1st 2017. We transferred half of the money to Ndamungu in November (1330 Dollar) and agreed to pay the other half directly to the tourguide when the safari would start. Ndamungu confirmed that the tourguide would pick us up at 8.40AM in our Hotel. Well, we were all excited to start the Safari and on January, 1st we waited to be picked up in our hotel reception. Unfortunately, no one from Mercury Tours appeared, so after 30 minutes waiting, we called Ndamungu. He said, that the driver had an "accident" and would come within 20 minutes. Unfortunately, this was not true. We waited for hours, calling Mercury Tours several times and Ndamungu said the guide could come very soon and hung up on us with no more information. So, we ended up waiting for about 4,5 (!) with another disappointment. Ndamungu confirmed in November that our driver would be our guide at the same time and would speak English. The person who picked us up just spoke barely English and had no idea of our program and where to go, so he had to explain him everything. Above all, he forced us to pay him 200 dollar otherwise he wouldn't drive us and explained us the actual guide was waiting for us at the camp. Well, we were very angry at the time, but paid him and hoping that the real guide would actually speak English and we could finally start our safari without more stress and headache. When we arrived at the camp, unfortunately no guide was waiting for us. The driver and Ndamungu explained, the guide would come the next day but this was another lie. The next day, the driver was gone without saying a word, no guide appeared and we were left alone literally in the bush. The people at the camp were really helpful and called Ndamungu serval time, but he just switched off his phone. Nothing was organised, nothing was paid for us. So, we lost 1530 Dollar and didn't receive anything for it. We went for a game drive with another guide but had to pay all by ourselves. Our safari was a whole disaster and tomorrow we are heading to the police and embassy here in Tanzania to report on this. Luckily we have all confirmations made by Ndamungu. So be very careful with Mercury Tours and Ndamungu - they are criminals.
FR
Shaban the scam artist
Within the first 10 minute Mr Shaban had broken his own contract. The itinerary had changed, and indeed the accommodation and the company as well. I chose this company as the reviews appeared to be good. I was put with another cheaper company with poor reviews but had to pay the higher price. Mr shaban would not answer his phone to discuss the situation and refund the difference. Eventually he replied to my texts and was very rude and aggressive in his responses. He told me i should go to the police about him breaking the contract. Terrible man. No one should book with this company
PH
The company did not deliver the 5-day trip as agreed upon, and until now is unable to refund us.
We booked a 5-day Meru-Samburu tour with the Malindi-based Afrikan Buffalo Wildlife Safaris Ltd. on 09-13 March 2024. We chose it because it is one of the few companies we found that offer such package, and we saw good reviews online.
We have already paid the full amount for the tour at least a month before the scheduled trip. The trip commenced on 09 March, in Meru National Park, but it got cut short on 11 March. As we were trying to check out from the camp in Meru in the morning, we were informed by the camp management that the tour company had not yet settled our bill. The camp did not allow us to leave the premises until the company is able to pay the balance.
The company's representative told us that he was still on his way to the bank, and later on, said they were scammed by another tourist so they are at a police station in Malindi, and many other excuses. It took the company seven (7) hours to send the payment to the hotel (not even full payment, and we even had to cover some remaining amount). This meant we were stuck in the hotel parking lot for seven hours, much to our embarrassment in front of other hotel guests and staff. It also meant that the next leg of the trip, going to Samburu, was no longer feasible, so we headed back to Nairobi in the afternoon of 11 March.
We even had to pay for the gas money for our trip back to Nairobi as we found out that the company had not given the driver enough money for fuel for the whole duration of the 5-day trip.
The company expressed its apologies and promised to provide a refund within 10 days, but until today (almost a month) has not made any.
The company also insists on providing only partial refund, but according to its very own Contract and Booking and Cancellation Policy, we are entitled not only to full refund, but also to compensation, as the cancellation of the rest of the trip was the company's fault.
We had a horrible experience with Afrikan Buffalo Wildlife Safaris Ltd. They made the decision to send us to Meru, fully knowing that they have not paid the hotel yet, and they concealed this information to us, the clients. The company has also been unresponsive and non-committal about its timeline for refunding us. We sought the intervention of the TRA, but despite this, the company remains unable to give us our refund, in accordance with the terms of the company's contract/booking and cancellation policy.