PH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our guide was great
No complaint about our guide, he was absolutely great. He tried his best to make us comfortable and satisfied with the tour. He also shared a lot of wonderful insights about safaris and the animals in the savannah. 5 stars for Lion!
However, the road going to Masaii Mara from Nairobi was terrible and we were not informed beforehand. The driver also made a lot of detours before we got to our destination. On our way back to the airport, the traffic was terrible and we almost missed our flight, not to mention, the hotel we booked for us to get a shower before the flight.
TH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Polwach Wudhikulprapan
Lake Manyara is pretty small comparing to other national parks we visited. What we like about this place is that we saw lions resting on the trees which was quite spectacular, thanks to the springwater that has an influence on their behaviors. There were not so many kinds of wild animals to see here although olive baboons were notably abundant. The lanscape is a mix of plain and forest and not so scenic as Serengeti or Ngorongoro.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
A little disappointing.
The weather was very nice. Wildlife not as abundant as I expected but then it was the dry season. MY accommodations were NOT what I paid to have---I paid for a mid-range tented lodge and ended up in a tent on the ground and shorted one day stay in the Serengeti. MY agent took the money I paid (in advance) and did not make any hotel arrangements, no one day hike on Kilimanjaro nor did he provide any arrangements for the 2 day stay in Kenya for Amboseli National Park or the Park fees in Tanzania National Parks (3). This is at least $1,000 loss and time wasted. I actually had to spend a day filing a police report on [email protected] Nagol. This site needs to be shut down to prevent this scum from hurting other travelers and ruining the safari business in Tanzania. Most of the people were extremely nice in trying to help sort all of this out for me and make sure I saw what I came to see. I was in a group of 6 but it was a little stressful as the guide/driver never knew what to do with me. Please DO NOT advertise for this site. He is a crook
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Safari was good; Roho Ya Chui was Disappointing
This was my second safari trip and third tour in Sub-Saharan Africa and my first journey with Roho Ya Chui. We traveled to Tanzania (Ruaha, Selous and Zanzibar)
The good: Ute was very responsive throughout the booking process. I selected the parks we visited and Ute recommended the lodges. The Zanzibar hotel she selected for us at the end of the trip was a particularly good choice.
The bad: I asked for a modification of the itinerary 10 days after booking and deposits because I had done some further reading and had gotten some negative signals about one the lodges she booked us in. Her response was an immediate no as it turns out she had bought an end to end package from a local operator in Tanzania who owned both the lodges and the air carrier responsible for our transfers. She was dismissive of my concerns about the lodge, but I asked if she could humor me and at least inquire about a modification before giving me an automatic no so I could make my own decision. She investigated and informed me the change would have meant the forfiture of my deposits so I stuck with her plan.
The really bad: Before our journey I reconfirmed our arrival information and asked specifically who would be meeting us, how they would be identified and with whom would they be affiliated as I hadn't been provided that information. She furnished me with the number of the local duty manager and received no additional details other than that they would have a sign with my name. She also said I could also contact her with any issues if they arose. We arrived as scheduled at 4 am to Dar Es Salaam and no one was there to meet us. I called the local duty manager - no answer. I called, texted and emailed Ute - no response. It was left to me how to figure out ground transportation in an unfamiliar African city. I managed, but it was not the best experience after 30 hours of travel. A couple hours later Ute responded and asked me why I hadn't called her. I said I had and she said she insisted she didn't get a call from me. I sent her a screen cap of my call - and she then admitted she had missed the call. I found it a bit strange that she would intimate that I had somehow mishandled the situation considering I was the client who was needing assistance - but as I said to her - I took care of it and no harm done. The local operator did refund me the money I paid to get to our hotel.
Our first camp/lodge was great. Our third and final stop was great. Our second (the one I had been concerned about) was less so. The property was under renovation and some services that were advertised were not available (pool out of commission; bar/main lodge being re-roofed, no hot water, and no view from our accommodation). These were minor issues as for me it is really all about the animals. More concerning was that the promised animal drives (the whole point of the exercise) were not available to us on two (out of four) occasions. When this happened the second time - I had to put my foot down. The manager admitted (what I already knew from observation) that they were fully booked and didn't have enough capacity to accommodate the drives for all guests. I found this very disappointing - doubly so as this was at the location I had told Ute I was concerned about. Ute was informed but, once again, it was up to me to get the issue resolved in real time. She said she was contacting the camp manager, but I never did hear from Ute if she spoke with the manager, what the excuse was or any particular apology. Ute did offer that no one had ever complained about that particular lodge in the past which was sort of besides the point. I don't know if she was suggesting that I am particularly difficult or if other people's good experiences were supposed to make up for my bad experience. In the end, a simple apology would have sufficed.
In sum, the booking process through payment was very smooth, but I cannot say she was helpful when problems arose and rather than being helpful or at least soothing when things went wrong was strangely defensive. Based on my experience, she gets the basic job done but if you run into any problems, you are on your own.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not Great!
This is the review of the service received from Raja Tours ( https://www.rajatours.org/) for the private 5-day Safari (Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro) for two, July 2018.
Summary: Overall experience: 3/5 (could have been a lot better only if we had a better guide)
A) Itinerary: 5/5 (Rajab worked with us to customize the plan and select the parks and accommodation we wanted).
B) Driver/Guide: Driving skills 4/5 (Hashim/Hashimu was a very safe driver), Guiding skills: 1/5 (Sadly Hashim wasn't familiar with the parks, hot spots, and routs, however we were lucky enough to follow other drivers/guides to find and see some of the animals. Also, other factors contributed to this rating such as lack of communication, being unfriendly, strong focus on getting out of the park by certain time (we typically ended up at the gate 1 hr ahead of the schedule).
C) Vehicle: 2/5 (old beat-up vehicle (Toyota) with no A/C (cooling/heating), non-reclining seats, and barley functioning windows/doors (some windows wouldn't open/close, some doors wouldn't open, etc)
Again, Rajab was very responsive throughout the booking process and provided us with a great itinerary. However, considering this's a once-in-a-life-time trip, it was disappointing to have an inexperienced unfriendly guide.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
7-day tanzania wildlife safari
My trip started from Tarangire National Park, and ended at Serengeti National Park. Everything went well until the day before my trip ended. We had a flat tire and the our truck was not equipped with proper tools to change a spare tire. So we got help from other guides. The spare tire was not in a good shape. So the next day (last day of our trip) we had another flat ; which turned out to be the spare tire. Now we don't have any spare tire . So I felt unsafe to continue on our game drive for the rest of the day. Not only that, while entering the Serengeti, the fuel tank strap broke thus hanging on one strap all the way. That slowed us down too.
I believe for any company the vehicles should be double checked for basic things such as proper inflation in tires, spare tires in good condition, overall health of the engine , check all the fluids, etc. And last but not the least , tools to change spare tires that are in working order.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Arusha National Park by Sunil
the park was not big. only saw giraffe, few monkeys, flamingos, and some zebras.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Sunil
mostly baboons and elephants.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The trip was very good, Omar is very nice!
Walter is a nice man, but he is very intrusive. If I don't respond yet, he has sent me another message a couple of times. The same goes for booking a safari: we had not yet arrived at our hotel for 5 minutes or he was already on the pavement.
Walter, you can regulate the trips well but a little less intrusive please
CN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Bogoria National Reserve by Linda Chen
We chose Lake Bogoria instead of Nakuru for the flamingo, but there weren't many in this time of year, much less than that in Amboseli.