BE
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Horrible vehicle for a luxury safari
We booked a 8 day luxury private safari. They sent an old land cruiser, dirty, no air bags, no operational seat belts, no air conditioning and a wild driver. We spent about 60 hours in that véhicule of which about 30 hours on dangerous roads between the 4 parks. Horrible, no value for money!
RO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing tour guide, great tour overall, but the attitude of the management was absolutely terrible
Everything started when we first met their contact person, Daniel, who came to brief us and take the rest of the payment for the tour, which we chose to pay in cash. We paid 60 USD more, as, of course, he did not have change. He promised he will give us the change back when the tour ends.
We started the tour everything was ok until the second day when we ate the lunch prepared by their hotel, Suricata Boma Lodge, where we stayed the first night. The food was bad and we had got food poisoning, exactly what you need in a safari.
Considering this, when we arrived at the next accommodation we asked them to prepare a lunch with rice and more solid stuff so we avoid getting sick again. Guess what, they did not care about what we asked, we ate only part of the food and we got sick again.
We were promised by Daniel, who we believe lied to us, that we will have our own chef which will prepare exactly what we want, considering some limited options. We never seen such a guy.
Besides this, the tour guide was kind and helpful and he did his best to make us comfortable. He planned the days in a very smart way and we were most of the time almost alone with a lot of animals. Thank you again Paul!!
Now, let's move to the nasty part. On the last day, got back to Arusha and we were supposed to meet with Daniel, for a feedback session and of course, as promised to return us the money he owed us.
Guess what?
He kept saying that he is coming soon, and at some point he called saying that we should do the debriefing via the phone, because he is stuck in traffic and during the discussion he asked us to not mention anything about the food poisoning as he wouldn't want us to generate a bad image for the company. And then he promised again that in 30 minutes he will come with the money. It was already past 9 pm. At around 10:30 PM he said that we will get the money from the driver who is going to drive us to the airport. Of course the driver did not have the money and did not know anything about this.
I discussed with Daniel again and he said the money were left at another hotel reception, then that the money were in the company's office and then that the driver actually had the money and forgot to give them to us. He was clearly lying. These different versions are from a Whatsapp conversation with him.
He clearly wanted to keep the money.
Now, it is not about the money, it is about their attitude in regards to this.
I told them that I want to get the money back via a bank transfer. They said they only do western union, which was not an option for me at all. I am not going to waste time to open accounts and run arround in my holiday at different western union places to get back the money I was owed. After multiple different conversations and pressure, I was told I will receive the refund via Revolut, and that the money were already sent. They lied again. This is the moment when I started to threaten them with a bank claim (I did pay the deposit via a bank payment). After threatening them, I got the money back the day after, from another Revolut account, which is an instant bank transfer (so they cannot say anything about the transfer taking longer than a day).
I would never recommend them and I feel lucky that nothing really bad happened during the trip. Considering their attitude, I am pretty sure they would have not done anything.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Disaster! We felt totally lied to and scammed! Give Us the Money Back!
From my experience Run! It's my opinion that this Company is dangerous and unreliable!
We lost around USD 6,000 because this Company did not pay for our fees of the Serengeti National Park and accommodations, and it still does not give us any refund until now. We will gradually share the evidence in our every reviews to reveal the fraud of this Company.
This Company has already given a Red Alert by Safarigo because it defrauded other travellers in the same way. It has defrauded at least 20 people from 4 groups, and each group lost USD 3,000 to 7,000 because of its fraud. All good reviews to this Company recently are fake reviews because its management team has been arrested by the police of Arusha for many days and its boss, Mdee, is hiding. What its boss is doing everyday now is lying to the victim clients, the police and the platforms, and writing fake good reviews to attract more innocent potential travellers to fall into its traps.
Actually we have reached an agreement with the Company that it will make equal repayments in 4-months installments, and we will receive USD 1,521 by the end of November, while we will stop writing bad reviews to it. However, this Company told the police yesterday that it will only give us USD 400 on DECEMBER 30, which broke its promise aaaaagain.
This terrible review is a reward for its breaking the words yesterday. I do hope this Company will really give us the money back. Once it gives us the refund, I will update here. If there is not any update...Wow, dear traveler, you will be the next.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My advise is you do not trust, they stole our money
Booked and super nasty stole our money, I recommend do not trust
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very rude and disrespectful guide
Very rude and disrespectful guide
The guide did not respect the schedule and made us leave later than planned every day.
We were supposed to spend 2 full days in Serengeti and that turned into 2 short half days (the agency saved a day's pass on our backs)
He didn't want to stop when we wanted and barely answered our questions
Fortunately the cook was very nice!
(automatic translation from French)
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My advise is you avoid this company – we felt scammed
we were quoted on numerous quotations for morning safari and a boat ride. When we exchanged cash on the morning i was told the boat would be extra. If that wasn't annoying the night before our final day and morning safari, i was told it was there mistake we had no safari, and to do it we were to pay over $1200. I challenged this, with quotes which clearly stated it was
included i got no where and was told it wouldn't be happening unless i paid the money they demanded
CN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very very bad experience, I advise you don't choose it
From my experience, this is a very irresponsible travel agency, not only did they not fulfill the arrangement according to the contract, but when we found the problem and contacted them, at first they said they needed to confirmation and would not reply the email and answer the phone or WhatsApp when we contacted them later. According to the contract, we paid an extra $112.5 dollors each person (we have 4 people) to arrange a private car to take us to the airport and two nights of dinner in Arusha. But they didin't arrage, and didn't not give us any reply. If we didn't ask help from the local people in Tanzania by ourself, we almost didin't make it home in time for our flight. The second problem is that the driver and the car they arranged in Kenya is very bad. The driver deliberately delayed and drove very slowly, so that we could not reach the Masai Mara Park according to the schedule on the first day.
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bankrupt agency
I paid to go on a 7 day safari and a few days before leaving he wrote to me that they were bankrupt
(automatic translation from Italian)
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Their guide Jacob gave my wife a bad look and said a lot.
We went on a seven-day safari tour with Affordable Kilimanjaro Tour Company. I went on tour with my family. My wife, myself and my little daughter were with us. I paid them $2500 in advance for seven days. And the first two days we were fine, but during the day their guide Jacob gave my wife a bad look and said a lot. And he always wanted to rub my wife's back. We have had a lot of arguments about this and he has left us halfway and I will definitely take legal action for him. And will never recommend this tour company and none of you will be cheated by them.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
I recommend you don’t book with Simian Safaris
From our experience, Simian Safaris is not Safe!
We had the worst experience with a safari to Amboseli with this company. They made us first wait for half a day in a gas station waiting for the van.
They also promised a tour that, since the beginning, the driver said it was never planned, even though we paid more more for that specific tour. When we asked for a compensation or a refund, they stopped answering our calls. They even didn’t want to pay the driver for our way back to Nairobi (which was part of the deal and was paid) and THEY LEFT US ABANDONED IN THE NATIONAL PARK with no alternative to come back to the city. After making a lot of pressure from our side, the driver and the lodge, they ended up giving a solution, but our experience was obviously ruined.