US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our Safari experience was a mixed bag..
we recently returned from a 14 day Kenya and Tanzania trip with this operator.
Overall our safari experience was overshadowed by the multiple negative experiences our group faced due to poor planning by the tour operator.
It started day one in Nairobi..with confusion regarding number of rooms, and number of days they were booked for..confusion regarding number
veg Vs non veg eaters...etc
there were booking confusions practically at every location...every evening after we had reached our destination, we were to deal with a new problem ..change of itinerary / cancellation for the next day...
Hot air balloon ride over Masai Mara was promised...which got cancelled the previous night, and we were told we would enjoy that at at the end of the trip at Amboseli park...Once at Amboselli, we were told only 28 folks out of 30 can take the ride...which again was sprung as a surprise... at the last minute the balloon operator very casually and callously told us , decide which two of the group would miss the ride...
the tour coordinator travelling with us was not given proper information and authority to resolve the issues...
On the positive side...all the guides/ drivers provided were very good, with deep understanding of the park , animals and environment they were introducing to us...they made sure we got all the experiences of the safari..and were genuinely interested in our trip...
please be very careful if you are planning a trip with Seven By Far Safari...
IE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible company
I was unfortunately really disappointed with this tour company. They are almost con artists and extremely unprofessional.
I was doing this tour as a solo female traveller. I requested to be part of a group and waited until other people were booked before booking myself. I was told that there were other people booked in for the same dates and I could join that tour. When I was collected by the tour company, I was very casually told that everyone else had cancelled and I would be alone for the entire trip. This was never communicated to me before being collected in Entebbe. I specifically asked when booking to be a part of a group as I wanted to meet other people on my travels and wanted to have company for meals and long car journeys. Eddie’s attitude about this was very disrespectful and casual, as if it was not a big deal. It appears this company does not understand that a tour is supposed to be more than one person.
Day 1 of the itinerary was a 40 minute drive from Entebbe to Kampala. I was not offered a city tour. Day 1 started at 10am and was finished at 11am and I was in the room alone until day 2. As I was the only person on the tour, I couldn’t go for a walk with people or eat in company and meet new people as I had planned and had to stay in my room all day. When checking out of the accommodation on day 3, I had to very uncomfortably ask my guide to pay for my dinners numerous times as I was told these were included in the price. There was a breakdown in language here that meant I had to go back and forth with him to get him to pay. A very uncomfortable situation that could have easily been avoided if the tour company communicated with their staff better.
On Day 3, it was a total of 11.5 hours to get to the accommodation. We stopped for 15mins at the equator to take a picture and use the toilet. There was no informative talk as it said in my itinerary. My driver got lost twice and asked me to use my Google maps for him as he had no data? When I eventually arrived at the camp and began check in, my guide told me that a different camp had called to ask where we were. Then Eddie called to say we were at the wrong camp even though I had the name of the camp in my itinerary from Northern Fox. My accommodation had been changed without any notice and we then had to drive back the way we came from to get to the new accommodation. I was then texted by Eddie to say that I would only be staying for 1 night instead of 2 and I was being moved to a different accommodation again for the last night which was not the plan I was given. I was told the new camp would be “better” but I was the only person staying at the entire camp and again, did not get to meet any other travellers.
Day 4 was finished by 3pm and I was taken to my accommodation which looked nice and I was happy to hear there was a pool. The pool was absolutely filthy. I could not swim in it. Again, I was the only person from a tour staying at this accommodation so I ate alone again in an empty restaurant and did not get to meet anyone.
On Day 5, while travelling back towards Entebbe, my guide mentioned we were 2 hours from the Forest Cottages. I asked how far that was from Entebbe and he said “no we are going to Kampala”. I told him I needed to be dropped at a specific hotel in Entebbe, as I had an early morning flight, and I had already told Eddie this prior to booking the tour. I had also told my guide this the day that he collected me. Again, he just laughed casually and said “no problem”.
I am very disappointed with this tour and I am very confused why it cost $1540. I know the gorilla permit cost $740, but given the poor quality accommodation on day 1,2 and 3 I don’t know why this trip was so expensive. There were no bottles of water available for me in the car either, which I always had on my tour in Kenya so this was very annoying as it was supposed to be covered in the cost and I had to keep asking for it to be provided.
A warning to people considering booking this - this is NOT a 5 day itinerary. It is 2 days of activities and 3 days of travel.
I had good intentions to support a local company rather than an international travel company but I will not do it again. This company were very unprofessional and treated everything very casually when it was clearly causing me upset. If this were an international company I would be seeking a partial refund but given how carelessly Northern Fox treated my custom, I know they would not provide it. I understand there is a large cultural difference and that Ugandan people are very calm and take things very easy, but this approach does not meet international or European standards for service. You do not get what you pay for here. The issues I encountered while traveling alone were stressful and I would never book with them again. The two days of activities were fun, but this company ruined my trip.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
This whole Company seems like one big scam
Dont book with SCB Tours and Travel!
My friend Andrea and I fell for them and feel that we got scammed!
We booked a trip with them for March 2023 to do a round trip in Uganda. We decided to book it because of the attractive pricing. We checked with them whats included and they told us, that everything is already included in the price (permits, car, tourguide, accomodation, food...), so we did the initial payment. Right after that the let us know that the offer was sent by a IT guy and he forgot to put tax in the offer, but as its their fault, we don't have to pay anything extra.
The tour started and it was good for the first few days. We even asked if we could extend the reip for 2 more days and paid 500€ extra in cash for that. But right before we should go to see the gorillas Solomon (owner of the company) told us, that our vegetarian diet exceeds the budget and he has no money left to pay during the trip if we go one like this. We were stupid enough (and maybe annoyed enough) that we made a deal with him: we agreed we would pay for the accomodation and he would manage the rest so we can go on with our trip as planned.
The next day we had a long drive and I remember waking up in the car because it stopped. The other guide (abraham) and the driver left the car and now it was only Solomon and us. We were standing at the roadside in the middle of no where and Solomon told us we need to pay 900€ extra to proceed the trip, otherwise he hasn't any money left. He put such high pressure on us that we considered paying for a second. After lots of tears the trip was being canceled. And they brought us back to Kampala (btw we even had to pay for the gas).
In Kampala we had a lot oft extra costs and we contacted Solomon to ask for a refund of at least the 500€ for the extension if the trip, that obviously did not take place. We are discussing this with him since March. We didn't want to give bad reviews immediately as we were still hoping for our money.
Solomon will answer to our comments and threathens us to contact our workplace to leave bad comments about us, he threatens that he will let my friend be arrested in Kenya and he tells lies about us being racists. He even tells people that we are lesbians which is concerning due to the fact that homosexuals can go to prison for that in Uganda or even get sentenced with death penalty. He not only seem to be a scammer but threatens us as persons and considering to harm us.
*Screenshots removed for privacy reasons.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
CAUTION! My friend and I felt scammed by SCB Tours and Travel, lost Money & where forced to pay
CAUTION! We cannot recommend SCB Tours and Travel under any circumstances, as we believe that we have been severely scammed and coerced, leading to the cancellation of our safari. We are now left with over €800 in additional costs and were almost forced to pay another €900 on top. Allegedly, no one had ever encountered problems before, and we truly hope this is the case, because we wouldn't wish what happened to us on anyone. Here's our entire story.
First I would like to say, for the first days of the trip I would have given 5 stars because it was amazing – but what happened afterwards was one of the worst things that could happen.
Due to the attractive offer from SCB Tours and Travel, we decided to choose them, as the price seemed relatively affordable. We inquired multiple times to confirm that everything was truly included, and we were assured that chimpanzee and gorilla trekking, transportation, meals, non-alcoholic beverages, entrance fees, etc., were all completely included. After accepting the offer and making the initial payment, we were informed that taxes were not accounted for. Allegedly, the offer was created by an IT employee who wasn't authorized to do so. Despite the deposit being made, we were told that no further charges would be applied due to goodwill.
Just a few days into our trip, Solomon began blaming us for the high costs, asserting that we should have known that the taxes were not included. (We still wonder how we were supposed to know this, as when presented with an offer explicitly stating that everything is included for a specific price, we assume everything is indeed included. Unfortunately, our knowledge doesn't extend to Ugandan tax law.) We were also repeatedly blamed for the expenses of our vegetarian diet, and even when we ordered an additional pot of tea in a cold location, we were again reprimanded for how expensive everything was.
The situation escalated the day before our gorilla trekking, and we were essentially coerced into either paying for our accommodation here because the funds were depleted, or optionally, paying for entrance fees to the next parks since the money was simply not enough. Solomon cited reasons like accommodations demanding double the agreed amount, among others. However, this is also something beyond our control, and being in the off-season, we could have easily chosen alternative accommodations.
With the agreement that if we paid for our accommodation before the gorilla trekking, we could continue the trip without further discussions, we paid for the accommodation ourselves. However, in the preceding days, we had already paid for some of our meals (which were supposed to be included in the offer) out of pocket.
After the gorilla trekking, during our journey, we were suddenly stopped in a small town and more or less coerced into paying an additional $900, as we were told the trip couldn't be financed otherwise. Feeling uneasy about the situation and considering $900 to be a significant amount, we decided to terminate the trip. We also had to cover the fuel cost to return home, as we wouldn't have been able to make it back to Kampala otherwise and would have been stranded in the middle of nowhere.
The fact that we were stopped on the roadside and almost forced by Solomon to pay an additional $900 to continue the trip amounts to coercion and is illegal.
In Kampala itself, we incurred many extra costs as we had to independently cover accommodation, food, and drinks, which were supposed to be included.
Since April, we've made regular attempts to receive a response, all in vain.
Whenever we contacted Solomon recently, he shifted the blame and came up with various excuses. He has written that he will send us the $500, but we still haven't received a response regarding when this will happen.
Consequently, we cannot recommend SCB Tours and Travel under any circumstances and hope that no one else gets scammed like we did – this will forever be our impression of Uganda.
Screenshots are available in the images, unless they are deleted. Our trip started on March 6 and had to be prematurely terminated on March 18.
Since the end of the trip, we have made multiple attempts to get answers, at least regarding WHEN we will finally receive the money. We were only ever blamed for everything, Solomon even started playing mind games at times. Among other things, he told us that he hadn't even eaten because of us for a long time, and asked if we wanted him to kill himself because of us. In the end, he told us that he has a million-dollar business and he doesn't even care about SCB Tours and Travel because he doesn't need the money. Well, we are still stuck with our extra costs to this day, and most likely forever.
In conclusion, all things come back in life, or as Solomon said in his last message to us: "God (...) knows the truth and he will judge us all."
*Screenshots removed for privacy reasons.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Nightmare
Terrible experience. Totally disorganized. They don't even give you a receipt when you give them money, they didn't book the rooms they told you or the flights. Unreliable! They don't give you back a single euro of what they promised you. Rely on an agency that rather charges you more but doesn't screw you over because it ruins a beautiful experience.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Thieves and disorganized
I decided to organize a safari with this local agency and I couldn't have made a WORSE choice!
We left on July 9 and finished on July 12 and there was not a single day when anything was arranged as planned. All the places that he had arranged for us to sleep were then changed at the last minute, WITHOUT EVEN NOTIFYING US. I can understand that the period was loaded with tourism and that there could be changes in the process but giving notice seems to me to be a matter of fairness. In addition we were asked for 300 euros at the time for a tented, of course we refused to pay them but had to fight for more than an hour.
He had told us he would arrange, INCLUDED ALREADY IN THE PRICE, both the outbound and return flights (Zanzibar - Kilimanjiaro Airport and Arusha - Zanzibar). I PERSONALLY PAID for the first one from Italy because he couldn't arrange it and he guaranteed that he would at least make arrangements for our return flight.... OBVIOUSLY, WE ALSO HAD TO PAY FOR THE RETURN FLIGHT, HAVING ALSO HAD TO POSTPONE THE RETURN BY ONE DAY because THERE WERE NO MORE FLIGHTS. The total lost for hotel + flight is 530 euros. He promised that at least that money would be given back to us but clearly not even that.
For a modest 2700 euros we had 3 days of INCUBE safari, luckily the incredible animals seen soothed our spirits a bit, otherwise it would have been a real tragedy.
Do not book with this totally INAFFIDABLE agency!!! DAVID, is the name of the man who "organizes" your tour and he is practically a scammer since in addition to the money we gave him, he also stole our money that he never returned!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Chaotic and did not take ownership or control
This was my first safari and while the overall park experience was amazing we had a poor experience relative to tour management
Our chief tour planner delegated day to day management to junior and inexperienced staff
We experienced numerous snags and snafus
1) original agreed upon schedule was not supported and we had to make numerous unpleasant adjustments
2) tour leader was unresponsive and candidly avoiding any contact
3) we had to check out of a lodge in serengetti and find last minute accommodations because tour operator booked only 1 night as opposed to agreed upon 2 night stay
4) we were misinformed and hotel booked was different and of a lower grade than what was agreed upon in the itinerary
I would not recommend this tour operator as we did not have a satisfactory experience
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beware of Wild Race Africa: A Disheartening Experience
Let me begin by confessing that I'm not one to leave feedback often, but my experience with Wild Race Africa and its co-owner, Simon, compels me to share my story to protect fellow travelers from a similar ordeal. I hope my advice can prevent others from enduring unnecessary stress, disappointment, and wasted resources during their highly anticipated holidays.
Before I delve into the details, it's essential to note that 25% of the last 16 feedbacks have rated Simon's services as terrible – that's one in every four tourists. Proceed with caution and read on.
I stumbled upon Wild Race Africa through a Google search before traveling from Europe to Kenya with my fiancé (who is Kenyan) that I wanted to surprise. Though I didn't thoroughly compare options, I was immediately impressed by Simon's responsive and kind demeanor. He seemed genuinely committed to making our customer experience unforgettable, which led me to make a grave mistake.
After a few exchanges via WhatsApp and email, I chose a 2-day/1-night luxury safari to Masai Mara for approximately 1800 USD. Simon requested a deposit of 30% (550 USD) to secure the accommodation.
Here's where the problem started. Simon presented four accommodation options for the luxury safari and insisted on a primary and backup choice. I selected Mara Serena Lodge as my top preference, clearly stating that it was my desired option. However, Simon later claimed that it was unavailable and booked Keekorok Lodge instead.
Subsequent attempts to secure my stay at Serena Lodge were met with delays and excuses. Simon's conduct became increasingly unprofessional, offering reasons such as Keekorok's inability to provide a credit note and false claims of website problems at Mara Serena Lodge.
The situation escalated as I asked for a receipt for my deposit, and Simon's communication became evasive and disrespectful. He even blamed me and others on my side, resorted to threats, and displayed an overall lack of accountability.
My trust in Simon shattered when I requested pictures of the safari vehicle, which turned out to be an everyday Toyota RAV4 rather than the high-profile Safari Jeep promised in the offer. Simon dismissed this discrepancy arrogantly.
After careful consideration and consulting with my fiancé, we decided to cancel the safari to avoid further complications. Simon retained the deposit, placing the blame on me, the customer.
To salvage our holiday, we booked a different safari with Olare Kempinski, which proved to be an outstanding experience with exceptional customer care, top-notch safari jeeps, accommodations, food, and game drives.
In closing, I urge all potential customers to exercise extreme caution when dealing with Simon and Wild Race Africa. Refrain from making any deposit until you receive a firm reservation for your chosen accommodation, and demand a written assurance that any future changes will lead to a full refund.
Based on my experience and years of business leadership, it's evident that honesty, respect, and integrity are not part of Simon's core values. Should you encounter discomfort or unsafe circumstances during your interactions with Wild Race Africa, prioritize your safety, even if you've already paid the deposit. Consider filing a complaint with your credit card provider to protect your interests.
Kenya offers excellent, honest, and reputable businesses worthy of your investment, but Wild Race Africa is not one of them.
Now, brace yourself for Simon's expected reply, where he will likely resort to his typical approach of deflecting blame onto customers and refusing to take responsibility. This will only validate the concerns I've shared above, confirming that any issues during your trip will be blamed on you, the paying customer, rather than the service provider.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
The tour owner had no control over self planned / sub contracted portions of the tour.
The tour started on a wrong note and things went south from day 1. Internal communications or lack thereof led to confusion and ultimately exclusion of agreed upon destinations (Equator). The tour was plagued with lesser number/s of rooms being booked (for a party 30 strong) which led to endless arguments and compromises wherein the tour operator took a back seat and 'never' stepped in to take ownership of the situation. On multiple occasions the party was starving for food with the last meal having been taken 10 hours or so back. There were tourists with medical condition/s (diabetes for me) which literally put us at huge risks all due to the lack of planning and foresight of the tour operators. The balloon ride was booked for 28 people only whereas our party was 30 strong. Here again the operator just took a back seat during the proceedings and we finally had a couple of volunteers who gave up their spot/s for the rest of us. No compensation was offered to the folks who gave up their seats. The tour was in the planning for almost a year and the end product was flawed all the way thru. The tour owner met us on day 1 and then on the last day whereas during the planning phases he had committed to being with our party on all the days. The tour owner was also not 'Contactable' throughout the ordeal. The scant respect and lack of support to the touring party is the worst I have seen in my lifetime and believe me I have seen a few in all of my 65 years.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Never arrived
Never arrived at pick up point for a booked and paid for activity.
Very poor communication.
Please stay away.