35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Overall polite and professional team
I lost KES. 20,000 shillings with Pamela who’s the key person of Magical retreat. After all my support to her and the company she took my money despite of several requests and communication.
So not trust worthy!!!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Stolen Money
Though the actual experience of the safari was great, the company stole our money. They led us to believe that due to a switch in lodges (due to a flood), the money that we paid several months in advanced had not been able to transfer from one lodge to the next. They then told us that they we would have to pay for the fees again and they would refund us. Our driver's name was Dennis. He gave us the name and number of his "boss", Noah who was suppose to drop of the money in USD at the hotel we were staying at. Of course he never showed up and promised that he would transfer the money into our accounts when we arrived in the us. Of course, he lied again. Till this day, we have no received our refund. This company will steal your money. Do not book with them. The driver smiled in our face the entire time and then ripped us off and refused to drive us into Nairobi unless we paid the fees. BE AWARE. My friends and I are posting this review on every website we possibly can to warn others.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Danger of robbery, low reliability
We made a one week safari in December 2019 with this agency, 2 adults and 4 children. The quality of the different services was acceptable except for the age of the vehicle and the poor reliability of the information offered by e-mail when making the reservation. In our case, the "peculiarity" of the trip with 4 children and the need to ensure their well-being and safety was emphasized. Although we were repeatedly confirmed that everything was safe and according to the needs of children, the result was that what had to have been a dream trip became a nightmare. This agency does not care or take responsibility for the safety of its clients during the trip and as a result of this lack of responsibility they attacked us at knife point when we were with 4 children. The feeling of insecurity in areas outside the national parks resulted in the fact that we could not enjoy the hired trip. From what we have been able to find out, it is an agency that strives to provide rapid responses in the bidding phase with competitive prices, but once you are on the trip completely neglect the clients and their needs, being the most serious and dangerous the fact that they cannot ensure their safety. I would recommend being very careful with this agency, especially if you intend to make a trip with children. In case you have the trip hired, I would recommend having emergency telephone numbers for the Spanish consulate, as well as contracting private insurance with good coverage.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
He turned up every morning looking like a hobo .
Extremely poor customer experience. . He was extremely unprofessional and arrogant on at least 20 occasions. Clive looked like a Hobo every morning. He made many promises as to timing and service levels that were a complete lie . I will list these travesties over a 10 day period. We pulled out early due to his extremely unprofessional behaviour.
Mala Mala . A guide that took us close to a White Rhino ( 20 feet ) and it was going to charge . Clive did nothing and said nothing ??? He thinks that , TIA , This is Africa , is an excuse for condoning exploitation of animals . He asked us to arrive 3 hours early to Joburg Airport on our way to Victoria Falls airport so he could secure seats right up the front because he spoke the local language. He being the tour leader took the 1B seat on the bulkhead and his clients got the 63 row . He constantly crapped on about being shot 9 times when he owned a farm near Krocodile river when in in reality he was shot once with a shotgun with SSG nine ball . I have 2 friends that have been shot by 9 ball shotgun. 1 survived , one didn’t and he carried on like he was special. A Racist cunt and I have recordings of you . We were promised the Okavango Delta but were not even taken close . Nwambe Lodge was a no electricity, cold water , cluster fuck .
Clive , we have unfinished business after Your garbage service .
Beware of this company’s propaganda.
We have been on many international tours , and these people suck .
Best of luck, Side Show Clive .
Improve your service .
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Experience with helinassafaris during trip to amboseli national park
Booked for the tour for dec 2019. Owner gladys very polite n arranged the tour. Tour guide took us to amboseli park.
Was very good driver n knowledgeable. Enjoyed the wildlife viewing.
Booked at sentrim amboseli lodge. Road to kimana gate n lodge very uncomfortable. The lodge needs a proper road.
Problems started when it stated raining heavily. Roads got flooded n so park flooded n v could nt go wildlife viewing.
The day v had to leave roads became impassible. Had a bad experience. It became lunch hr. The owner of this tour companydid nt want to take
Responsibility to our safety or provide us with lunch. The van got struck in the muddy, broken washed road.
V were stuck in the hot van with flies, while the guide or driver would go n help others vans or their driver get out of the mess they were in.
He did this several times all the way home.
V reached late at night feeling very sick n had nothing to eat after breakfast. V will nt take a tour with this company again.
They need to know their priority is to first serve the clients by taking them home instead of helping other vans to get out of the mess they were
In. Therefore v had a bad experience n felt ill the next day.
BE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Decent driver and lodge, very rude boos
We picked Yebo tour to support local tourism in Masindi. It was also one of the cheapest solution we've found. We thought to go a bit rustic on accommodation and transport, but we ended up having a stupid discussion about the already agreed on price. We paid in dollars, as agreed, and they started complaining something about the different exchange rate they were given. Still not sure how that would be our problem, since we had our entire booking discussion in dollars, the boss decided to close our discussion walking out on us while we were still talking. The rudest thing I've had in 40 days in Uganda, ridiculous.
The driver was nonetheless a good driver, safe, very good at spotting animals.
The car was old, with a broken window, 2 doors that wouldn't open from the inside, hanging handles, extremely dirty back seats and back window and a couple of alive chickens traveling with us in the trunk, which was actually fairly fun!
The Yebo lodge is generally speaking decent, for the price paid, placed close by both the game drive ferry and the boat ride. In our room, the toilet was leaking water and the door couldn't close. the net was slightly too small for the bed and the sheets were placed in a heart shape, which is cute, but it also meant we had to do our own bed: in between sweet and unhandy, I wouldn't know what to choose! Food is not good, one of the worse I've had in Uganda. The staff is nice and kind.
IT
So and so
Left middle afternoon to reach to campsite and stayed one night there.Supposed to leave for the Ngorongoro park early morning but just got in there around 1130 am!!!the lunch was terrible but wasn't the worst thing;didn't see elephants, giraffes and rhinos not just for a case but because we left too late!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Incompetent at best, likely misleading, possibly even scamming
We are based in Nairobi but arranged a safari to the Masai Mara with transportation, accommodation and game drives. The travel agent did not disclose all of the fees, and, we're not sure, but suspect there may be some kind of kick-back scam. Were were also mislead us about the quality and type of safari vehicle, and then tried to back-date an email (which, of course, doesn't work), to try to "prove" we were given the information up front (we were not). The same vehicle was used to drive from Nairobi to the Mara as was used for the game drives. At least two of the seat belts were not functioning, and the ones that did clip were questionable if they would hold during an accident because they were so worn out. The vehicle was fine for the game drives, but certainly not a safe way to travel on Kenyan roads, particularly on the escarpment road with heavy truck traffic, lots of potholes, passing, and no guard rails. That said, the driver/guide was good.
Strongly recommend against booking with this company because of questionable ethics.
IL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A big disappointing from the guide level
I have done dip research on the internet before booking with Bestday, and I Choose them because of there good rating.
We took the four days budget safari.
We saw a lot of animals and the national parks are amazing.
We have Good Luck as our driver/guiding, and I must say he wasn’t knowledgeable at all! I found myself reading from Wikipedia all the time to know a little bit more about what I’m seeing because it’s not just about seeing the animals it’s learning about them too.
Also, his English wasn’t clear at all.
In addition to that, he barely knew where the camps are and even didn’t know how to build a tent, told us that it’s his first time sleeping in a camp, although he said that he is doing safaris for already three years. Go figure it out.
Also, the camp equipment was poorly; I expected to have better chairs for eating. We were the only group that has this kind of chairs. Also, the sleeping bags were disgusting, and their zippers we're broke, so we freeze at night in the Ngorongoro National Park.
The only thing that I can't say that was good is the fact that we had Emanuel as our chef. My wife I and I are vegans, so he made us delicious food and also functioned as our guide when he joins us once to the game drive.
So, unfortunately, I must say, stay away from that safari company!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
First time on a safari (10 day) and had a mixed experience
I did the 10 day kenya/tanzania safari tour and went to all the main, big parks...(Maasai mara, Amboseli, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater)
The 10 day safari tour went to a lot of great locations although you spend a lot of time traveling between destinations....The airport pickup didn't go that smoothly and we got stuck in Nairobi rush hour traffic for a long time....I ended up having 3 or 4 guides during the 6 day Kenyan portion of the tour..(felt like a hot potato).....They were good guides/drivers but it would have been nice to remain with one of them for the duration..(I think the original plan was to have one driver/guide)....Obama was the best driver and pretty knowlegable....
By contrast, the guide/driver for the 3 to 4 days in Tanzania, Sayed, was very hard to understand half of the time and a very poor listener.....(poor english skills overall)....He couldn't find animals on the game drives, had lots of engine problems in the Serengeti and generally complained way too much about a variety of things......To try to compensate for his many inadequacies, he resorted to offering to buy us beer and ganja/marijuana for us in the van ..(which I think is illegal in Tanzania).....I was told that African Habitat safaris wasn't going to use him anymore as a guide....Excellent choice..
Overall, it was a good time... August is a good time to visit Kenya/Tanzania with a large concentrations of animals... But the tour seemed disorganized at times, the accomodations a mixed bag and the quality of guides dropped a lot in Tanzania...