NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
2WD car rented out instead of 4WD and failing camping gear
Unfortunately, we had quite a bad experience with Bushtroop Safaris. We hired a 4WD car with them including camping equipment. At some point, however, we got stuck in the mud in a national park and that’s when we found out the car wasn’t a 4WD, but a 2WD. By then, we had already driven on roads that were 4WD only and realized we had taken some risks there. Also, we had to change our plans as we weren’t able to access all roads anymore.
We contacted Jacqueline, who was always quick to respond and friendly, and she was feeling really bad about this and said that they hired the car from someone else and didn’t know about it. We agreed to get a refund on the car, but we’re now 4 months in and still haven’t received it. We have had contact with Jacqueline several times in the past months ensuring us that the money was on the way, but it never arrived.
Beside the issues with the car, the camping equipment wasn’t in good shape either. The tent poles had been repaired very often and were only barely useable. Also, after the first night we found out that the air mattress was leaking. We tried to have it fixed, but weren’t able to and they apparently don’t sell them outside Nairobi so we couldn’t get a replacement. Finally the gas muzzle didn’t work properly as it took an hour to get a pan of water to get warm. That last thing was an easy and cheap fix, but on the whole we weren’t really able to camp out.
So, unfortunately, it wasn’t at all what we hoped for.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our group was scammed out of $700 USD at the end of our 3 day stay at Masai Mara -AVOID THIS COMPANY
While I would have loved to leave a positive review after my 3 day stay at Masai Mara, I cannot and will not support or endorse a booking with this company after my experience being scammed at the end of the stay. The group of young women (a total of 5 of us) booked our 3 day tour with Masai Mara since Oct 2019, paying nearly $600 USD that included all lodging accommodations, game adventures, meals and travel to and from our hotel. Not included was the gracious tip we provided to our server, driver and individuals who aided with our luggage during the course of our stay. On the first evening of our stay (Wednesday 2/2/2020)we were told by our driver Dennis (not the owner of the company)t that there was an "issue" with processing our tickets that served as entrance to and from the safari. This issue in no way had anything to do with us of course because we had paid all fees months in advance but clearly this company operates at a deficit and did not have enough revenue to pay for entrance fees that should have been taken care of months before. The issue would now require that each of us pay $140 USD (a total of $700) that would be refunded back to us. Given that none of us had $140 USD in cash, we asked if it would be possible to pay by card to which they responded yes. From this moment it was clear that none of us had enough cash to pay for the park entrance fees that should have already been handled so I would assume if this was a priority they would be diligent about making sure they recieved the payment as soon as possible. The following day (Thursday 2/13/2020), which apparently so happened to be the last day we could pay by card, we never heard anything from Dennis or who we now know as the business owner, Noah Kuti, about this matter. Now we get to our final day (Friday 2/14/2020)...after breakfast we did a brief tour through the safari and began making our way to Naroibi since it was a 6 hour drive away. Roughly an hour later at our first stop (for souvenirs - this is included in the cost), Dennis brings up the payment matter to one of us who had remained in the vehicle during the stop. At this time he stresses that it cannot be paid by card anymore and that we would have to take out cash at an atm or else we would not be able to get back to Nairobi. This was absolutely unacceptable, disgusting, unprofessional and rude. To assume that because we were american we had $700 amongst the 5 us easily laying around to make up for the companys mistake still to this day completely irritates my core. To make a long story short, Dennis ends up bringing us to an atm where one of us is successfully able to withdraw the money after a handful of attempts. Dennis then wires the money to Noah who is able to process the entrance fees. During this time Dennis passes Noah the phones who tells us that he will meet us our hotel at 6:30pm that evening to give us back that full amount in addition to the bank fees we accrued (an additional 40 USD). Please note: We are scheduled to leave nairobi on a 7am flight the following morning and we would make it to our hotel a little before 5pm on that Friday. Now that the payment is made, Dennis drives us to our hotel and provides us with both his and Noahs contact information before leaving. 6:30pm arrives and nothing. At 7:10pm we decide to give Noah a call who tells us that he is at the bank and will be there by 8pm. A little after 8pm while we are eating dinner Noah calls and gives us an excuse about not being able to retrieve money from the bank location he was in. He asks for the account number that we withdrew the money from which we quickly denied as we are told by our banks here in the states to never provide that information. We have since tried to follow up with him (Noah) via email to which the two emails he have responded back have been short and to the effect of "we are working on your issue", despite us providing multiple options for him to send the money to us (cashapp, paypal, venmo etc.). It has now been over two weeks and we are still short over $740 as a group for a 3 day safari trip that we paid nearly $3,200 for (including tips). We have now taken this to our banks to report this company as spam and intend to take every single measure to ensure this never happens to anyone again! While we enjoyed seeing the animals this experience was absolutely despicable and a disgrace - my goal is to see that Wildebeest Safaris goes out of business so that company's with integrity can thrive.
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Horrible experience
I have already visited a lot of country all around the world but this safari was probably the most horrible experience of my life : bad quality of service, horrible driver.
One night, the car with our tents and mattress never arrived at the camp: we stayed at the camp in the middle of nowhere with no food and no place to rest. The ranger of the camp (who was trying to do his best) suggested me to sleep in a place with the garbages. I couldn’t believe it!
And, of course, after making a complaint, I never got back a compensation. Horrible!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Terrible, tour cancelled and no money refunded
I booked a safari with Levi from shika through viator. He proceeded to cancel to the tour and asked me to book directly through himself. 2 weeks from the trip he cancelled the safari claiming that the price he had charged us would not be financially viable for his company. Over the last few months he has made many excuses regarding why a refund has not been provided and eventually not replying to any messages/emails.
Do not book with these guys, there are many other tour groups for safari.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
This company is a scam.
Based on doing an 8-day self-drive tour with this company and subsequent communication afterwards, I have come to the conclusion that this company is a scam.
1) My assumption was that they had made all bookings in advance when I paid my fees. This was not the case. They told me they had gotten the start date wrong despite me getting a confirmation of the itinerary with the correct dates, but my suspicion is that this was to cover up the fact they hadn't made any bookings. Instead of making all the bookings on the day this error was found, the location for accommodation changed nearly every day. In only one case had a booking been made and payment completed before our arrival out of 7 overnight stays.
2) The places where we actually ended up staying was consistently changed to a hotel or lodge at a lower price point than what was advertised on the itinerary we used for booking.
3) Twice we ended up having to pay for the stay ourselves (conveniently the 3 most expensive nights of the trip) and the company still hasn't reimbursed us despite repeated requests over the last month. The stress of never knowing if a booking had been made was a detraction from our trip. If we hadn't paid already, we would have set everything up on our own, but we were trying to get him to pay for accommodations whenever it was possible.
I have filed a complaint with the Namibia Tourism Board about Enrico's Tours and Safari World Tours, since they changed their name but are still the same operation.
All this said, you should absolutely go to Namibia because it's an incredible and magical place. But absolutely DO NOT book through Enrico's Tours or Safari World Tours.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible experience
It will be a long review, but here you'll have all the details of how it goes with Bencia africa because it's seems a bit tricky to find a good safari agency. We did a safari in Masai Mara with them in january, they sold us 15 hours and 30 minutes of game drive in three days (first evening, then full day, and last one during the last morning). We bought it 280usd (you can find cheaper in other agencies and probably with them also...) for transportation (2 ways from Nairobi), food and tent (like military ones with shower inside). First, we left Nairobi 2 hours late, so we arrive at the Gate of the park, 2 hours late the first day (of course...). The van was so old it broken down the first day 200 meters after the entrance of the park, so no game drive the first day. The second one the program said "game drive from 8.00am to 6.30pm". At 5.00pm the driver reached the exit gate, we asked why so early, he answered "it's a rule setted by the park"... And the next morning the program said "game drive from 6.30am to 9.30am", we did just one hour and then again the driver tried to explain that we were too late to continue the game drive... The driver doesn't care about the program (and passengers), so we requested the company to compensate the hours we didn't do inside the park, they sold 15hours and we did 10 !! Here start their funny answers. They first answered "the 2 people we shared the van with were happy, so the company cannot make any refund". I replied that we don't care about the feelings of the others in the van, we had a contract and nothing of it was respected. So they answered "our driver made a detour of 40 minutes, so we consider this as a compensation". Then i replied that we never asked for a detour but to be dropped on the way back to Nairobi to take a local bus to naivasha (but the driver brought us to naivasha even if i told him that we'll find a bus). Just for you to know, public transportation for Naivasha is about 1 dollar from there... So they tried to compensate the 5 hours in the park they stole us with a one dollar drive.
Then we continue to talk with them and finally they said that there will be a refund but we wait and we wait and nothing happen.
We just leave one star for George the cooker who's a really nice person and the only one with honesty in this company.
If you want more informations about our experience, don't hesitate to contact me. I have the screenshots of the WhatsApp conversation as a proof of what i write, and that i don't exagerate/inflate the reality. It's just for you to not make same bad choice than us.
JP
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Amboseli National Park by badblue
I reccomend The lake nakuru !
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Thieves and Scam Artists!!!
PLEASE DO NOT book a safari with Claudious Tours and Safaris!!! I paid in full and received an email 24 hours before I was supposed to leave saying that my safari was cancelled! I never got any money back!!! Claudious Tours and Safaris are FRAUDS, THIEVES And SCAM ARTISTS!!!!!!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Dishonest and unprofessional
Firstly it is important to understand that Adventure My Take is not a tour operator, but a travel agent. No matter how much the owner of the company, Tamara, will try and convince you that they use their own vehicles and drivers/guides, this is not true. They have only 3 employees, of which one is a driver/guide and who make take guests on tour during the high season. They also handle airport transfers and city tours in-house, but otherwise they will pass you on to whichever company can squeeze you into their van. The other guests’ tour might look very different from yours, but at no point will you be able to get this information from the company, no matter how many times you ask.
But let me start at the beginning. I chose to book my 3-day Maasai Mara tour with this company, as they were very responsive and offered different options regarding accommodation. I did not want to stay in the most basic option, so paid extra to stay in a lodge rather than a tent.
I also arranged all my transfers through Adventure My Take, as it made sense to work with a single service provider while in Kenya. The confusion around my transfers as well as the lack of professionally by the owner raised some red flags long before I went on tour, but as I had already paid a deposit, there was nothing I could do but hope for the best. I had to keep reconfirming my arrival times, the owner of the company was late on both occasions that she transferred me to the airport, she drove erratically and played loud music and generally would not answer my questions about the Maasai Mara trip.
On the departure day I was not driven to their office to complete the payment as per the itinerary, but straight to the departure point, where Tamara proceeded to tell me that I needed to pay additional “service fees”. As this had not been communicated to me at any point during our many emails and discussions, I refused. It was an extremely uncomfortable start to the trip.
After a long day of driving to the Maasai Mara, the other passengers were dropped off at their accommodation. I was however told that my accommodation was another 80 km away! If you have ever been to this region, you will know how long it takes to drive just a few kilometers on the very bad roads and it was inconceivable that I would have to spend another couple of hours getting to my accommodation and then drive back those couple of hours in the early morning to be at the gate for the 6am game drive. I’m sure the hope had been that I would be so tired that I would just agree to stay in the cheaper accommodation, but I refused. The driver was kind enough to contact his boss, who arranged for me to stay at a camp nearby. The quality of the accommodation was still not what I had paid for and the food was not good, but the staff were incredibly kind and did their best to make my stay pleasant.
Although I have nothing but praise for Edgar and Jonathan who work for this company, I would strongly advise against booking a tour with Adventure My Take. Tamara will promise the earth, but she is not in a position to deliver on those promises. She is unprofessional and dishonest and does not care what happens to you once she has your money. Avoid Adventure My Take!
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Chased by Armed Park Rangers with kids inside the Jeep
Be very careful, Silas’ tour driver, lied to my an my family about the Jeep being broke down. He stole the money I payed to entered the Masai Mara Park & left us stranded at the hotel instead of taking us to the National Reserve. Silas made excuses not to refund the money stolen and never payed back. The day before, this driver Peter didn’t stop at a Ranger security checkpoint, and the rangers chased our Jeep with guns while I had 3 small kids & 1 baby inside the car. After raising a formal complaint to Silas about his driver, He never reimbursed the money stolen and the time we lost. Be very careful with this company, don’t be fooled. Awful experience in a Africa with kids, being robbed and chased with family when we just wanted to have fun at the Masai Mara Park. I will never come back to that place and never would consider using this thieves’ company.