US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Failed to Deliver what was Promised
I highly recommend not using Pega Tours. They take no pride in making your experience memorable. The driver was 3 hours late picking me up and then proceeded to rush me through the whole experience. (Even after the trip I waited an hour and a half to get picked up for Nakuru) After speaking with management about my problems, they proceeded to tell me I should have received 15 hours inside the park, but I was only in there for less than 10 hours. The boss refused to apologize and offered no compensation because the other customer "had no problems". He then lied to me that he wasn't the boss and the boss was "on holiday" even though he was right there in the room. Pega could care less about customer satisfaction; therefore I do not recommend!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Choose ANY other company!
The guide Simon is a tourist who moved to South Africa to do tours and it shows in his arrogant, opinionated, disrespect of the South African people (he made fun of the way they talk), disrespect of the animals (he was gleeful at the thought of witnessing a kill in stark contrast to how the local guides respectfully handled the same situation and he even defended poaching saying "poachers are just people trying to feed their families") and his disrespectful comments about americans which he repeatedly made. Kruger National Park was amazing, the South African people were wonderful-- do the tour, just do it with ANY company but this one!
US
Don't Use David Kiango!
David Daud Kaingo, you asked me to write you a review……here it is!
I have been waiting 2 months (2 credit card billing cycles), to write this review. I will not mince my words, just, DO NOT USE this crook. David (Daud) Kiango has no intention of helping you to book a hassle free trip. To make a long story short, he quoted me a rate, including lodging in 2 different locations, and private charter flights between locations…..and in the end, I was made to pay twice more, above the quoted rate. He was cordial and prompt at first, while initiating discussion, trip planning and rates. But, once I paid for the trip, communication was pretty much non-existent. He urged me to pay via bank transfer, but, for my security, I opted to pay the higher fees in order to have the insurance backing of my credit card company. I was later to learn, that was a very good investment on my part!
I was planning this trip, only one month before our travel date. Normally, I book all travel by myself. But, with time constraints and little knowledge of travel in Tanzania, I decided that I should use the assistance of an agent. My bad, and so unusual for me, I did not research well. There are only a few reviews of this David Kiango, a couple good, a couple minorly bad. I want to change that, along with a more recent review that was posted just before mine. Just move on, do not consider using him!
After a few days of correspondence, I booked and paid for our trip, on 11/10/16, for a trip to take place on 12/15/16. After I paid, I heard very little from David Kiango. He strung me along, saying he was waiting for my payment to be processed. That I should be patient. That funds would be disbursed for hotels and flights, and then he would send me vouchers. I sent many emails, asking for confirmation and trip vouchers. Finally, I heard from him 5 days before we were to embark upon our vacation. It was not the email I was expecting to see….. He said that the flight charter company changed their rates, and I would have to pay more. Not just a little more, but, A LOT more. 5 days before our trip, what was I supposed to do?! I paid again, with the knowledge that I would have to contact my CC company after the trip, in attempt to get my money back. Incredibly, though, this is not the end!
I contacted both of the lodges before our departure. Our safari lodge, the first stop, assured us that they were indeed expecting us, and incidentally, Kiango, just days earlier asked them to book our flights. WHAT?! Well, ok, they assured me everything would be ok. I never again contacted Kiango regarding logistics of the trip. We were picked up by an agent of the hotel, brought to our charter flight, and off to our Safari lodge. Everything was great…… until our last night at the lodge. Apologetically, the manager approached us and told us that Kiango still had not disbursed the balance of funds for our charter flights! The hotel had tried to resolve the situation quietly, while we were there, but, to no avail. You have got to be kidding me!!! ……we had to pay yet again.
What more can I say. Do not take the risk, do not use this crook, also known as:
David Daud Kiango
Kaingo Adventure Safaris
Tanzania Safaris
Zanzibar Travel Holidays Online Shop
ZanzibarMagic
Botanic Country Resort
Made In Tanzania Safaris
DaudKiango.com
I am lucky, I came home from our trip (which actually turned out to be great, despite paying 3 times for our flights), disputed the flight payments made to Kiango, with my CC company, and got that money back. Just trying to save you all from the hassles……don’t use him!
65+ years of age
Trek to Kilimanjaro;change of plans; poor decisions;no real interest in clients;unsatisfactory; bad
Not what expected; "ladies group"? I was told on the day "just you" but luckily one more lady otherwise me at 75 and 7 or 8 local men. Route changed for doubtful reason . Staying at Kibo Hut for 2 cold nights a bad decision. No breakfast and a few dry biscuits, peanuts after a 5 hour climb, starting at 5am. Should have been 4 am but guides overslept. Could have reached final summit easily with a good group. Physically fit, no altitude problems just terribly hungry. I am quite small. A fuss at the hotel over security of items left "in Storage". A plan to drive 2 more hours was changed by me. Trauma in Arusha when Tony attacked a man.
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Terribly
Cheating at every step. 1 liter of water for two persons for 4 days safari!!!! Calls Eric did not help. We had to buy in the budget camp. In the car was 9 persons instead of 6. 9 !!! The car is very very old and dirty. We did not see a leopard, the driver did not stop when we passed monkeys and other animals. view time was on his way. The food was just disgusting. Pancakes and beans. National park covered with roads, animals, even pity.
In Nakuru are pile of garbage along the lake. It's shame for the National Park.
There is no transfer back to the airport. Avoid this operator.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awful experience, use this company at your peril.
I was on the same tour as Eric, so there is little I can add, simply reinforce the truth of what Eric has written. I have never had such a stressful holiday in my life...
I have never been in the position before where I felt it was necessary to contact my Embassy (Irish). Frances, from the Embassy was very helpful; sourcing flight information - the day before we were due to leave Uganda – as Clement had not sent us any details. We did not receive flight confirmation info from Clement until 00:30 the day of our flight. This added additional stress to an already very stressful trip. Sunrise Eco Tours is an extremely badly organised company with an owner, Clement Kanamugire, who has no qualms about lying to his customers, and taking their money under false pretences. Various members of our group spoke to him on the phone during the trip (this is why we are sure of the lies), and he took our money and didn’t book activities, chimpanzee trek in Uganda, rhino sanctuary visit, failure to pay hotel bills. He did ofer compensation on our return home (nearly two months ago), to date, this has not arrived.
20-35 years of age
Disappointing, Scary and terrible service
I did a very disappointing 6 day trekking trip with Kapolondo. I was told i would be trekking Rongai route and will be doing camping at nights. But after landing in Tanzania, Tony the owner of the tour tells me that route is changed its marangu and no camping we will be staying in huts. I was shocked! After arranging everything and paying money upfront, they changed the plans without even consulting me. He also asked for a 250 dollar for porter tips when i confronted that since we are using tents and not camping he said i am mistaken and he meant 250,000 shillings.
The guide failed to wake up on the day of the summit and didnt give us any food when we started. We have good reason in believing that he was drunk most of the time. On reaching back, my climbing partner had to witness Tony beating and punching a guide who was just talking to her.
Couple of other people like our assistant guide david and another guide Mike was who assisted us with airport transfer and Arusha town sightseeing was really good. But on the whole the trip was just disappointing.
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Authentic Rip-off
I was promised 3 days of Walking Safari with "Camping in Comfort" in Ruaha N.Park. These "experts" didn't know that standard procedure this time of year is to close all walking trails due to high grass - so no walking. As for comfort - I had more in the army; of course the location was great and so on - it is Ruaha after all, no credit to Authentic. Food was barely OK, portions miserly. Equipment shoddy, badly maintained. You would do a lot better going fly-camping with a local company for a fraction of the price.
Bottom line : these guys are only after money, a disgrace to the safari business
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very suspicious
We did not travel in the end with Visit Tanzania Tours & Safaris but would like to share our experience of the booking process with them. We have been left very disappointed and frustrated after many weeks of correspondence with this operator but fortunately did not put down a deposit due to suspicions we had with regard to the way they did business.
*Having confirmed an itinerary and price with Visit Tanzania we were asked to pay a deposit. The operator confirmed reservations had been made and would be held for seven days.
*I called the accommodation and found out however there were no reservations for us.
*Visit Tanzania said that their agent in South Africa agent was working on this.
*I called the SA agent and they confirmed they had not yet made reservations!
*A week or so later Visit Tanzania confirmed the reservations had now been made and the total price.
*I questioned the total price on several occasions as it seemed too good to be true – Visit Tanzania simply said it was due to the discounts they can get with the suppliers. The price was included on several emails along with inclusions/exclusions so seemed very clear.
*Due to the previous "confusion" I confirmed with the agent in SA that reservations were in place and they told us they were.
*We returned to Visit Tanzania to pay the deposit (we were asked for 30% upfront which is not unusual). I asked what contract there was between us and for confirmation of their T&Cs as we only had email correspondence to confirm the price etc.
*Visit Tanzania sent me a very short booking form on my request (this asked for passenger details only).
*By this point, discomfort and suspicions had grown so I asked the agent in SA if we could deal directly with them.
*At this point the price Visit Tanzania had quoted was investigated - it transpired that Visit Tanzania had “forgotten” to include all items of the booking and the actual price was over double that quoted.
I do not see how an experienced operator could misquote so significantly and I find it vey negligent that the deposit was requested before reservations were in place. We are lucky we did not pay the deposit as who knows how difficult it would be to get this back (we are not proceeding with either Visit Tanzania or the agent in SA as have found a more competitive offer with a reputable operator in SA).
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beware - Unilateral changes in Itinerary, last minute flight changes, hotels not reserved
We booked a 10 day safari to Kenya and Tanzania followed by 4 days in Zanzibar. We were a group of four. Upon arrival, we were picked up at the airport and transported to our hotel, only to find out there was no reservation for us and the hotel was full. This required us to move to another hotel (much inferior in quality). The next morning, a representative of Africa Remote met us and indicated that the payments we had made one month earlier were still being held by their credit card agency and we would have to pay for the night's hotel plus US $160 (cash) for that day's entrance into Nakuru Nat'l Park - but that they would refund the money to our credit card. This they did but because we are not American, we do not travel with a lot of U.S. cash. We were told the money we paid should soon be available and everything would be O.K. Not so. When traveling from the Masai Mara to Amboseli Nat'l Park, we passed through Nairobi and were told the same representative needed to see us again. This time, were told we were required to pay the entrance fees into Amboseli - another $160 cash. Our U.S. cash reserves were getting very low at this time. We were assured everything would be O.K. once we crossed into Tanzania. The next day when we met our Tanzanian, guide we asked if all fees were paid. His response was that we were to pay the entrance fees for the parks. It took him over an hour to clarify our situation with the Nairobi office, but still we had to pay the entrance fee to Tarangire Nat'l Park. All these fees were eventually refunded. This is when things really started to go wrong. On our drive from Tarangire to Ndutu Tented Camp, our guide received a text message from the office that advised him to stop early at a 1 star (at best) roadside hotel until he could complete some necessary banking the next day. In other words, our accommodation at Ndutu had not been reserved or paid for. We wasted half a day at this hotel with absolutely nothing to see or do. The next day, we set off again and had to wait over 2 hours while our guide completed the banking. This resulted in a very late drive over some questionable tracks after the sun had set. To say it was nerve racking is an understatement. On our way out of Ndutu, it was obvious that no accommodation had been booked for the night. We had paid in advance to stay at the Rhino Lodge but ended up in the Bouganvillea Lodge (very pleasant, but cheaper) after our guide had a heated exchange with his office. What a surprise in the morning when we found out we had to pay for the night at the hotel ($186). That day was our flight to Zanzibar, which, at the request of Africa Remote, we had paid $280 each in May of 2015 - we were told it was necessary to pay early because the flights sell out. We had asked for the flight itinerary and when we passed through Nairobi were told that we were flying Precision Air at 1:15 from Arusha's domestic airport. At 9:00 a.m. we finally got our flight itinerary. We were now flying Fast Jet at 12:30 from Kilimanjero airport - over 2 1/2 hours driving away. They had booked us at the last minute on a Low Cost carrier (the tickets cost them less than $124 each -in other words, they made a lot of money). Our driver drove at breakneck speed to get us to the airport. We made it to the check in counter with less than 2 minutes to spare. Then we found out our flight not only had a 6 hour layover in Dar es Salaam, but we were charged luggage fees for each flight segment (another $ 70). Upon arrival late in the evening in Zanzibar, there was no one to meet us as had been promised. We made our way by taxi to the hotel listed on our itinerary (Pongwe Beach Hotel) only to find, once again, that no reservation had been made. Fortunately, the manager was very accommodating, had room for us and said he would work everything out the next day. He got an e-mail in the morning telling him to expect our arrival and "customer to pay". In other words, they had not paid for this hotel either. The manager tried to contact Africa Remote by e-mail and phone but had no luck. We ended up paying for this hotel for the three nights we stayed ($600). Pongwe Beach Hotel is a gem! Pongwe Beach even arranged our transfer and stay at our next destination in Stone Town. Africa Remote ended up owing us a considerable amount of money. It took them almost a month to process a refund. We are lucky because we had the resources to weather this situation. It might not be so for other travelers. Even though the two guides we had were excellent (Simon in Kenya and Hamza in Tanzania) the front office ruined this experience. We wasted time in hotels, while they were banking and sitting in an airport departure lounge. They caused us far more stress than any other trip that I have taken - and I have traveled to over 90 countries. I would never recommend this company!