50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Thieves
The safari was wonderful but we can never get over the fact that we were robbed by someone called John William. We were told the company was having trouble transferring money from America for the park fees and asked to take some money out which we would get back on our return.
Luckily we couldn't get out the full amount as, despite a number of promises, we are now £400 or so worse off.
Do not book with this company.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Dishonesty and deception , Avoid!!!
Unfortunately we regrettably made the mistake of organising a Safari with this company run by Calvin Onkendi for a group of 4. We gave him our budget & he agreed to offer a midrange Safari for which he sent us pictures of what to expect and confirmed it would be private camp, he also promised we will have a private bathroom not shared and with hot water. He gave a $20 discount for the students amongst us. We paid him in cash full payment a day before the Safari and at every stage we confirmed what we were to expect. (He still has not given us a receipt)Calvin reassured us multiple times and we have this all documented in writing.
Unfortunately to our surprise we were put in a public camp site with a dirty public toilet to share with more than 50 people! I brought this up with our safari guide (who was wonderful and I will review him separately) who advised I speak to Calvin as he doesnt know anything about private camping. I contacted Calvin via message and he apologised and said he paid for private camping but somehow ‘the government’ did not fulfil its promise. He promised to give us a partial refund as soon as he gets it back from the government as he paid for private camping but they gave public camping instead. (We have this in writing)
To this day he has not honoured this despite multiple correspondence which we can provide as evidence. Instead he has changed the story and lied multiple times. In fact he even went on to make derogatory comments about me as an African woman . He also used our pictures without permission to advertise and to my friend’s horror stole her pictures from Facebook and used them without permission.
Calvin will not hesitate to lie and change the story despite all the documented evidence we have. Despite clearly documented agreement he did not honour instead went forth with excuses, insults and more unscrupulous behaviour. He is currently insisting our ‘budget was low’ as his excuse as if he was not the one who provided the price for the service and we agreed to it and despite clear correspondence that shows he acknowledged his mistake and promised to make ammends I am appalled that anyone thinks this is a good way to run a business.
Definitely would not recommend Calvin, please spare yourself the trouble and find a more honest and trustworthy broker
PL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
BOTSWANA - SURPRISE
I am an experienced traveler, travelled all continents, only in Africa I did 11 countries mainly alone. Travelled difficult and sometimes really dangerous paths, I have never met such bad service as I encountered this August during "6 Days of Moremi Game Reserve" in Botswana. The service was provided by Waterlime Mobile Safaris.
And this is what Waterlime Mobile Safaris can provide:
1. Guides (Frank and Katee) who lie about travel conditions, change the route without your approval, refuse fresh water, shout at and ignore requests and protests of their customers.
2. Guides who are very reluctant to give their telephones to call their agency, and when communicating with their boss speak only their language so that others couldn’t figure out what they talk about.
3. Guide/ driver (Frank) who instead of driving along the paths for vehicles in National Parks, drives across the bush chasing animals, incl. a female elephant with a baby.
4. Guide/driver (Frank) who probably knows nothing about nature and tracing animals and cannot give any information about the area and traces basic animals with big difficulty.
5. Guide/driver (Frank) who is very willing to sleep with you in your tent and offers his service also at night.
Now it all looks a little funny but it was not on the spot.
It was a surprise, and not a pleasant one. I have never expected such a treatment in Africa.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Worst than worst!!!Police do something!!
My first safari. I was saving many months and now I feel robbed! The owner still writes to me today asking not to write wrong review but doesnt care that everything went wrong , is a liar and like the rest of the comments said, is true he does not care. I did ask before booking if he had partners in Tanzania and said no, well that is a lie, Mr.Seth Vincent is partner with SANDLAND ( Abraham Shaidi who also ruin us). I see on another review that he lies again, he still has same partner. Same story first you pay (for us was 1750euros each for 8days safari) then he changes the itinerary. we did less than half of the games we paid for, one day car broke, (waited 5h) another day no entrance to park paid waited 4h, even we were stucked half a day on one accommodation Panorama camp"because it was not been paid for, the police had to come to rescue us, sounds incredible but this are only a few examples, I am sure I will get a reply full of lies but this company needs to be stopped , people save money to come to this beautiful countries to have the dream holidays and they are ruined like this is not right!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fraudulent operator
I need to make people aware of a major issue and prevent others being ripped off. I have travelled in 80+ countries, and never had an experience like this.
Initial contact: speedy response by Barack to all queries. I booked a gorilla trek plus volcano climb in DRC, and paid the deposit. It then became difficult to get a response to further messages.This was until asking me for a balance payment 2 months before the tour - he said the national park had started calling them 'asking for the money'. They also asked for a scan of my passport, to arrange my DRC visa directly.
However, Virunga Park closed several months ago, due to safety concerns, plus an ongoing ebola health risk. I contacted the park directly - they confirmed they will be closed for at least another 4 months, have not been and will not be taking payments for permits, and nobody can (legally) enter the park.
This company never told me about the closure, and tried to fraudulently obtain funds from me for permits and a tour that can not exist (in addition I have heard no reply about refunding my deposit - surprise surprise). Also, a DRC visa can not be obtained with a passport scan, other documents/photographs are needed to make an application.
Do not give this company you money under any circumstances!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
If I could rate this tour 0 stars, I would
We traveled with Discovery for a 3 day Sossusvlei tour in Namibia. This was hands down the worse tour I've ever been on in my life. Right from the beginning the tour was riddled with problems. There was a cockroach infestation in the truck. We weren't served breakfast or lunch on our first day. After being picked up, we spent 2 hours handling logistics of the tour (signing papers, picking up camping gear for other travelers, stopping for groceries). These were the least of our problems. They set us off on this tour in a car that had terrible mechanical problems. We drove through 6 hours of gravel road on shock absorbers that were not working causing headaches and three blown tires. Our tour guide left us on a stretch of deserted road (in the car) for 2.5 hours to go get help. Definitely not what anyone would want on their vacation.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unsafe, unprofessional and extremely expensive - do not use!
We paid almost as much for an overnight trip to Hwange as we did for a 10 day trip with Nomad and got little for it, as it was little more than 29 hours all up. You would be better to hire a car and drive to the park, as it is quite safe, and use the safari options at any of the lodges in and around the park.
Our issues started from at pick up. Mr Moyo emailed he would pick us up, then sent a young driver who was lovely, but no tour guide, and he did not seem to know what was happening or when (but was keen to find out how to get a girlfriend - and visa - in Australia)!
On arrival, our safari truck was broken down and the contracted provider was clearly struggling. A replacement was found after an hour, but both vehicles had clearly been in significant accidents / rollovers. We cancelled the safari the following morning trip as my partner (a mechanic who owned a garage for 15 years) said the vehicle was too unsafe. Pic avail.
The guide was also lovely as was the lunch, but he was an inexperienced driver and needed more training in guiding. Unlike our highly professional Nomad tour guides and day trip guides, we generally stopped where the guide could see the game but our view was obscured by bush! Each time we had to ask for him to move the vehicle, which resulted in a lot of revving and an overshoot back and forth. By the time we could see, the game had often left! We were also rushing to a schedule, and not following the game. On three occasions we left a spot with game and went to another empty waterhole and waited.
To top it off, we also found that dinner had not been specified, and had to get the hotel to call to get this sorted. All up, it was a truly disappointing and very expensive experience. Given the professionalism of all of the other operators we dealt with in a month in Africa, this was definitely an outlier. Go somewhere else.
AR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Horrible experience
Me and a friend ended up with Abraham Shaidi's company (Sandland) as a third party booking. We didn't knew about them at the beginning.
The first day it took us 12 hours to arrive from Arusha to Serengeti, because we made like 6 stops waiting for everything that was supposed to be arranged before (the chef, the food, the vegetables, going to the office, etc).. so we only got to see the animals that day for only one hour.
In the meanwhile, in the same car there was a lady that had a totally different itinerary than ours. We were supposed to be 2 days in Serengeti and 1 in Nogorongo, in campsites. Hers was 3 days in Serengeti and 1 in Nogorongo, in lodges. Nobody (even the guide) knew what will happen with this differences..
Finally it happened that our third day we were supposed to go very early to nogorongo and spent the day there, but we had to wait for almost 4 hours for Shaidi to pay the Lodge of the lady so they would let her and the guide go. For that reason, we couldn't do the crater that day so we had to stay one more day. The chef didn't have food enough because he calculated for 3 days, not 4. And we didn't have any mattress for the third night!
The guide was payed only for three days so he had to return to Arusha an leave us in nogorongo de third night. We didn't know what was going to happen the next day. Finally when we woke up the 4day the other lady was again waiting for Shaidi to pay the Lodge. Another driver went to pick her up and pay for it. Then they came to pick us up, but the crater permit wasn't payed.. so we have to wait again almost 3 hours, and finally we had been in the crater only for 2.
The new driver was just a driver, he didn't know anything about animals.
To sum up, this company and Abraham Shaidi are a shame. Please don't book with them. Nobody knows what he does with the money. Is nonsense.
ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Masai Mara National Reserve by CATERINA S.
Only a few animals.
No lions, no leopards.
Scenic place, very dry landscape.
Disappointing.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
If you can avoid this company, do it - it will be better for your Tanzanian experience
We booked a safari for 3 nights and 4 days in October 2018. The tent they provided had holes all over and water came inside when it rained. Poor equipement for everything. Food was great though.
To sum up our experience (with the management, not the drivers), if everything is ok then alright, if a problem occurs then it's your loss.
We had a faboulous driver, he showed us many wonderful things, and always went the extra mile to show us what we wanted and caring for us when one of us was sick.
But the management of the company and mainly from the manager : Kassim Abdallah, was one of the worst management I ever seen. The company gave our driven a broken car, that stopped several times during our trip. Every time, our driver tried to fix it (and sometimes paying with his own money!). But what was supposed to happen, happened eventually. On our evening in the Serengeti, the car broke completely. We had to push the car to make it start again, which worked at first, but then it stopped again and for good. So we waited in the car for half a day, in the middle of the wildlife, while our driver was left alone by the company to find a solution for us. Our driver finally found a fellow driver that was able to bring us to our camp for the last night but we never saw our driver again.
We requested the same driver for our last day but they sent another one anyway. What was worse is that the manager, Kassim, did not event try to get in touch with us to keep us updated and to ask us if the arrangments made were ok for us. We were left waiting, not knowing what would happen since our cook did not have any news, and did not speak english enough to explain even if he knew. On our last day, we asked the new driver to take us to the office to speak with the manager but when the new driver called him, we overheard him ordering not to bring us to the office and "offer" our ride back to the airport.
Client service = 0. If I could go back, I would have paid more instead of saving money and be treated as badly as Bobby Tours treated us.