US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great guides… bait and switch accommodations
Great guides, but bait and switch on accommodations which were purchased six months prior to departure but changed at two weeks before travel. Reason we booked with Sunset in Africa tour company was the itinerary which included a two night stay in Ngorngoro Crater. In actuality we only had a four hour game drive through the park and they booked our stay 3 1/2 hours away. The venue there was a pleasant small hotel, but no electricity after 9pm.
Last night of our tour was listed on their itinerary as Tarangiere Park Sopa Lodge but turned out to be another small venue in Arusha (biggest city in Tanzania). Did not receive what we signed up and paid for. Be careful about this company. I was deceived and would not recommend them.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Lack of communication
Complete lack of communication. Had us pay for a person that wasn’t even there! If a deposit means something different in Tanzania than America it would have been nice to know. African Big Cats advertises one lodge on their website but downgrades last minute to another. The downgraded lodge is on the complete opposite side (East/West-of Zanzibar) and rooms smell terribly of mold/mildew. Two safari days were not needed (the first and last). Those need to be removed from the itinerary completely. Note that most of these safari companies go to the same exact spots. As evidenced by the massive amount of jeeps at every stop and animal sighting. Skip African Big Cats and go with one of the MANY other companies. Our guides (Zab and Jumma) were good!!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unprofessional
We planned a 5 day safari with Beacon via Robert. What should have been a memorable and enjoyable experience turned out to be full of stress thanks to their mismanagement. Avoid if you want a company that works with you to make your trip enjoyable!
Beacon/ Robert promised and received payment for a customized 5 day safari. Our driver was Anthony and it was apparent early on that Robert did not discuss the itinerary with Anthony. Anthony would frequently refuse to follow the itinerary saying it was impractical/ unfeasible. When we tried to contact Robert to mediate, he would be unavailable. Ultimately, we were made to skip game drives or pay extra to go on game drives that were already included in the original invoice. We were told to pay extra because Robert wasn't aware of change in park fees. At the end of the trip, we were dropped off not at our hotel but in the middle of Nairobi. Again thanks to miscommunication between Robert and Anthony. The only reason this isn't a 1 star review is that Robert agreed to split the cost of the additional safari drives even though he had already received payment for it.
I wish this review was about Kenya's beautiful parks and the game drives we went on with Anthony. But our lasting impression of the trip was uncertainty and stress. Robert and Anthony at Beacon, while not dishonest, were disorganized, unprofessional and uncaring about giving you an enjoyable safari experience.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It is not a pleasant tour which offered by this agency.
It is not a pleasant tour which offered by this agency.
First, the person who contact me during my booking sent a full itinerary of our 7-day trip. According to the itinerary, our transport vehicle is 4x4 Landcruiser, which is written in large bold font in the email. However, they offered us a small ugly van during all 7 days. They changed our vehicle without any inform, so we are demoted to a lower van but not any refund. We paid for the 4x4 Landcruiser, but got a small van finally.
Second, our guide always showed dirty look at most time like that he was not pleasant with us. And during the tour, he provided little useful lesson or knowledge about the safari. We don't think he is a competent guide. Even there is a time when he set a departure time as 4pm, we arrived at the van at 4:03pm. He blamed me that we were not on time. He made us feel that he was not offering service but disciplining even that we gave him tips everyday. Once we changed the tip time from morning to the evening, he asked us in the afternoon that why no tip that day.
By the way, we lost our card reader and mosquito repellent in the car when we are at hotel.
To sum up, the experience during this safari trip is not as pleasant as we expect.
Next year when I take my family here, I will not choose this agency any more.
NZ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Untrue and dishonest to secure our budged joining safari booking
In Aug 2023 my wife and I signed with African Paradise Safaris (APS) to join a 6-day budget safari of Masai Mara, Nakuru and Amboseli National Parks. We loved the parks, saw plenty of animals, and enjoyed the park environments. We were very disappointed with the arrangements made by APS, the blatant untruths told to us in order to secure our safari booking, and the unprofessional manner in which they avoided addressing issues that we had regarding their safari arrangements.
Prior to arriving in Kenya, APS was very communicative in answering all of my questions. On the basis of the information they provided, we signed up to join their budget safari. Unfortunately, it turned out that a lot of the information provided to us was completely untrue.
APS guaranteed that we would be in a safari van with a maximum of 6 passengers, but the van had 8 seats and 8 passengers, which makes the small van too crowded, particularly when you are trying to stand on the game drives. It also means that at least two people sit in the middle, without direct access to a window.
We were told that the safari would be operated by APS and not by another company. On the day, APS was nowhere to be seen, and we were told that we were joining a safari operated by Big Time Safaris. There were people from 3 different safari companies in the van, all with different itineraries. When we raised these issues with Big Time Safaris, they told us to contact the safari companies that we had booked with. (APS).
We were told by APS that all participants in the safari would stay with the safari throughout. This wasn't true, with some people leaving the safari at different points.
We were told by APS that everyone would be staying the same accommodation on the safari (so time wouldn't be wasted picking people up before the game drives). This wasn't true. People were staying in up to three different lodges and both budget and moderate accommodation each night.
In our itinerary we paid for 7 game drives. 3 at Maasai Mara, 1 at Nakuru and 3 at Amboseli. Our safari van broke down on two occasions, taking a total of 5 hours to repair on the roadside. As a result, two evening game drives in Masai Mara and Nakuru were shorter than they should have been. Due to changes to the itinerary as a result of vehicle repairs, and to changes in Masai Mara ticketing fees that were not communicated to us by APS, we missed a further two game drives completely - 1 in Masai Mara, and one in Amboseli. When we brought all of these issues up with African Paradise Safaris, they completely ignored us, and would not correspond with us regarding all the misinformation they had provided, the issues with the vehicle, or the missed game drives. In fact, we never met or saw any APS staff at any time either before or after our safari. The other members of our safari were met by staff from their companies at the drop off in Nairobi and at least one received some compensation for their missed game drives. APS was nowhere to be seen.
APS have many great reviews and I suspect that if we had booked a private safari with African Paradise, our experience would have been completely different, but be aware that if you are booking a budget joining safari, there is a good chance that APS will tell you whatever they think will secure a safari booking, but it will not necessarily be the truth. I would recommend you look for a more trustworthy company for a joining safari.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Looking for a quick BUCK, DO NOT RECOMMEND this company
This outfit came recommended by the Serengeti guide. We were comfortable with the offer, timing and online reviews. However, what was on paper did not translate into proper action plan, neither was there any client care, and attention to important details. We were rushed into picking out our rental apparel. First night on the mountain we found out that one of the sleeping bags, provided as part of the package, was a junior one. My wife did not fit in it and had a horrible first night. This would have gone horribly wrong if it wasn't for Peter, our guide, for exchangung his sleeping bag with the junior one. We were still at a lower elevation yet. There were some agreements that the owner, Fadhiki, did not fulfill as well. Regardless, when we probed other tourists/climbers, and their packages, they were all comparable. However, we felt that we could have gone with a more reputable company for the same price and for sure a better quality of service. Having said that, our guide and his peeps were incredible. From what we learned, the guide and the team are self employed and were contracted out. Hence, a well established company will have their own trained and experienced staff with much better attention to details and client care. I do not recommend Marangu Treks. A big disappointment. Go with a well established company.
BR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unorganized
Well, we made a safari tour from 22 of august to 24 of August of 2023
And our experience was not that great !
I was traveling with my wife, and Amos the contact of us, since the beginning was very impatient and changed a lot of things.
First of all, it was planned to stay in a particular hotel mid range, and we book 4 months in advance.
And 3 days before we arrive they changed our hotel because told that hotel was full!!!
Very unorganized the company!!
Besides that it’s was arranged that we were going to pay by transfer, and Amos again changed what he had combined and told 1 day before that we had to pay in cash…
After all they told a 3rd different hotel to the guide and we were driven to the wrong place after the first safari !!
The second day the same thing happened and the hotel was told that we were going to stay just one night there ! What was not arranged !
The guide was great ( boni) but I don’t recommend this company because the assistance is very bad !!
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Messing up accomodations
Best experience of our safari was with our guide Isaac. He is a safe driver, very good game spotter and a lovely fellow. Asante sana to him.
With the accomodations Kate was supposed to organize we were not so lucky and happy.
We did the 7 day's safari with drop off at kenyan coast.
About 8 months prior we agreed with her on an itinerary that was finally matching the offer on safaribookings.com in terms of accomodations.
We paid her the deposit of 25% to make all the reservations.
When we arrived in Nairobi we've found out that there were just reservations made for the first 3 night's!
The rest of the hotels such as Sentrim Amboseli, Ngulia Lodge and Voi were not booked for us but completely full at that time in high season.
Kate is a very emotional person and was very pissed that we've found out about that prior.
We belived her to get us the acomodations of our intinerary as she promissed once again. So we paid the 75% balance of the tour in cash on the day we started, just as agreed prior.
We started without knowing where we would stay the other night's. For most of them she found somehow comparable stay's.
Except for one night. We had to stay in a
lowest budget sh*ty zero star place called "Kilimanjaro Cottages Amboseli" https://www.google.com/travel/hotels/s/3yQTuqmxLhfF4mkE8
instead of the exclusive Sentrim Amboseli Lodge, https://sentrim-amboseli-lodge.hotel-mix.de/
We requested a refund of 150$ for that.
She did not refund for that!
We didn't tip for that.
We told her to give the refund straight to the driver, so everyone is happy again.
She didn't.
We can not recommend to book through her.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Bad driver did not deliver tour itinerary.
Maybe this experience is idiosyncratic, but our driver was not delivering the booked tour itinerary.
We booked a 3 days Amboseli safari, with a morning game drive on the last day.
The driver refused to deliver the morning game drive even though it was clearly on the itinerary. He also got aggressive ans insulting when we brought up the topic. My conjecture is that the driver wanted to pocket in the entrance fee for the park.
Further, on the way back, driver did not pay toll for expressway in Nairobi, letting us stand in traffic jam for 2 hours and unnecessarily prolonging the journey.
Also the convenience fee they charge on online payments is unreasonable.
Otherwise the service was okay but for the price I would expect differently.
Stay away from this provider.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good guide but contracts not honored
I booked a tour (2 days Safari Maasai Mara). Did the 50% prepayment.
One day the company owner contacted me telling me that park fees got raised and that he wants me to top up my fee about another 80USD per person.
I told him out of generiosity, that I can take over 50% of the increased fees, because thats his business risk and not mine (and package+price was already negotioated).
He declined and didnt even try to find a good solution here, just wanted me to take the whole fee. As client paying hundreds of Dollars for that tour already, that behaviour just felt really wrong and "greedy".
So just wanted to warn you that if you book with that agency, you might end up paying for additional stuff that was not negotiated (maybe he will also charge you for inceased gas prices, who knows.)
Tour itself was good. We had a great guide. Just be careful with your prepayment. Cheers