SE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
5 day safari became 4 days...
We pre-booked a 5 day safari in November 2019 with Uhuru and Mr Abdallah. Good reviews on Tripadvisar and SafariBookings.com together with a fair pricing made us choose this company.
This review is only for the company of Uhuru Travel & Tours Ltd and the owner Mr Abdallah and not for the safari and our guide Zabron which were both great!
We prepaid 60% of $4400 in November and the rest was supposed to be paid 10 days prior safari start. When trying to pay the rest (40% of $4400) the link sent by Mr Abdallah didn't work. I quickly responded and two days later I got a new link which worked and now 100% of the safari was paid. We had a conversation on WhatsApp and Mr Abdallah responded fairly quick that everything was fine and that we should enjoy our safari. When we asked for a pickup time the day before departure he responded "Pick up can be 0730am or 0800am or 0900am."
We waited. At 0747am we sent a message that we were ready for take off and Mr Abdallah responded: "My Opertion manager will arrive there in time." He did not.
5 minutes later he replied: "We have a small problem with credit card payments... please pay $1300 for park fees". " We have cash flow problems".
We responded that we already paid $4400 and did not trust him on paying an extra $1300.
3 hrs later a van came and picked us up and drove us to Mr Abdallahs hotel McEllys in Arusha were we had lunch on his account. That's when we realized that there won't be a 5 day safari. Several hours in the hotel restaurant and no response from Mr Abdallah on WhatsApp made us choose to stay one night at the hotel on his account. He now promised through his local manager Mr Roy to arrange a 4 day safari starting at 10am tomorrow.
Even after we started our now 4 day long safari Mr Abdallah did not communicate with us and we demanded to have some sort of compensation after missing an entire day of safari. It ended up with an upgrade to Acacia Luxury tent worth about $500 but this was not near our expectations of a compensation.
Please be aware of Uhuru Travels & Tours Ltd since their owner Mr Abdallah is not trustworthy nor reliable.
Since Mr Abdallah is replying on many reviews on both Tripadvisor and SafariBookings.com I hope yo understand that we had a horrible experience with him and his company regardless of what he replies.
Our safari ended well with a good view of the big 5 and many many more animals. Our driver and guide Mr Zabron was super!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Lies lies lies- false promises and overpriced
Promised amazing accommodation totally private Safari . Originally priced competitively but when Seth received his payment the details changed . Different accommodation outside of the reserve instead of inside as agreed. Then charged even more for accommodation he originally stated was inferior . Which we paid because we couldn’t trust him anymore but we had already paid a lot and money to this con artist. Told me balloon Safari was private, wasn’t . Changed our dates of balloon without our consent after we arrived having previously stated we couldn’t have money back as already booked and paid for. After our Safari we travelled back to Nairobi and heard many more stories about this company but that is for other travellers to comment. There are so many genuine companies out there don’t use this one
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Bait and Switch Scam - AVOID
We booked a 12 day Luxury+ tour through Kenya and Tanzania with Orongai. Despite Orongai confirming all the lodges were booked and paid for (included a number of the high end luxury AndBeyond lodges), itinerary we were promised was nothing like what we got. After 4 days of the 12 days, we cancelled the trip in the middle of the Masai Mara due to serious safety concerns and made our own arrangements to get home. We have never received a dollar of refund from Orongai despite multiple attempts.
Some key experiences:
- The vehicle provided was an old and unroadworthy 2WD van completely unfit for driving through national parks. Side door did not open from the inside, so you couldn’t get out without being let out from the outside. Driver was not a qualified safari guide, but a Nairobi taxi/van driver.
- We had our accommodations changed last minute or without notice from high-end luxury lodges to cheap tent accommodation. After this, we called ahead to the lodges booked according to our itinerary, and only 3 of the 9 remaining nights had been booked. Orongai was unable to be contacted and dismissed emails requesting the confirmation of bookings. We were stuck in the Masai Mara without knowing where we would be sleeping the following night.
- On the second day, we were forced to leave the lodge at 6am, missed the planned game drive, and had to sit in the unairconditioned van for 8 hours till we arrived at the next lodge. We had to use a pit in a village for a toilet break, which felt far from safe. When we arrived at the lodge, they had no record of our booking and hadn’t heard of Orongai. After an hour of the driver trying to contact Orongai to find out where we were staying, we then had to spend another 3 hours in the van to drive to a grossly inferior tent camp on the other side of the Masai Mara.
- Attempts to contact Orongai to confirm our lodgings and provide booking vouchers were futile. At this point, we discovered from reviews that others who had booked this trip had been held against their will, demanded more money be paid for fuel concessions, park fees etc, extorted, made to miss international flights and been in serious car accidents. Note: we couldn’t get out of the van from the inside!
- We realised at this stage that not only had we been completely scammed on the promised accommodation, activities included and itinerary in general, but we were not safe remaining on the tour, and informed our driver we would not be continuing. He became distressed and seemed petrified of what might happen to him if he did not deliver us to the Tanzanian border the following day. This only reinforced our fears, and we had another lodge come to pick us up as soon as possible.
We have been unable to get any refund from Orongai, and since the trip, I have experienced a large amount of serious fraudulent/scam activity on my email and personal accounts. This may be unrelated to Orongai, but seems more than coincidental.
I am sure if we continued the trip, this review would likely have far more sinister content. Glad we got out safely, despite out of pocket a very large some of money.
Bottom line: AVOID. Book your dream trip with a reputable travel agent.
IE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Aquila is terrible. May as well go to a zoo!!
Terrible. Not really a safari. Beside main road, loads of fences and gates. Few animals. Day at zoo would.be better
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Dens Safaris is a fake agency, do not book here.
Denver Mbewe is the owner at Dens Safaris, he stoled us the money we paid him for the hotels and tours. He "get confused" 3 times during our trip to Zambia and we had to pay twice, as he is not paying for accommodations nor the tours we already booked with him. Be aware and far from Dens Safaris.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Did not use him for our tour. Horrible experience dealing with his unprofessionalism.
Rude and impolite communicator. Insists he will use Whatsapp due to being on the road and will not send a detailed itinerary. Make sure you ask him which hotels, cars (if they have AC) and where food is provided.
He goes back on his word and is a poor organizer.
We opted not to use him and politely asked him to stop writing us and he became even more aggressive and rude and made inappropriate comments.
Use your own judgment to use his services.
IT
Do not use
A dishonest man, a crook. We booked a 11-day tour with Enrico’s Tour and Safari, fully paid in advance. What happened was incredible. When we arrived we found out that he had not booked two guides and two cars as planned, and not all hotels rooms and dinner were paid for as well as all the activities. This person calls himself Clarence or Enrico, and acts at the expense of tourists. He left us in a torrential rain in an unassembled tent with no beds. We ended up paying the accommodation and visits again. Do not trust him.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Most Misrepresented Unorganized Tour Ever Experienced
The tour "12 Days Best of Kenya and Tanzania" was without a doubt the most MISREPRESENTED and POORLY ORGANIZED tour I have EVER experienced. Our transfers were all late and we constantly had to pry the itinerary information from our guides - especially in Tanzania. Once off the paved roads, the roughest roads, travelled at break-neck speeds to get to the next park on time, left us with headaches and feeling like we had concussions. The Accommodations posted were NOT where we stayed. Our $400 per day got us backpacker, communal, horrible campsites/campgrounds (NOT CAMPS as they advertised), sleeping on the ground with a 1 inch ripped foam pad, sleeping bags that were so over-laundered the fill was lumpy (mine was pink with fun-fur around the top), NO pillows, NO towels provided and NO notice given that they would NOT be provided (at Ngorongoro Crater in in Serengeti Park). Further we were required to leave one of our duffel bags behind at the first camp, as we were told there was no room for our luggage - also were never informed there were space restrictions. Our itineraries were always changing and our last transfer information - back to Nairobi - was not received until 10pm at night. After spending an hour at a repair shop to fix the safari truck and told the Tour Rep would come to the hotel with our transfer information - he refused to attend the hotel and texted our transfer information at 10 pm.
After many persistent complaints made with the booking company -TourRadar - where WE provided internet research with photos, to provide proof of East Africa Safari Bookers' - and their counterpart in Tanzanias' MISREPRESENTATION and fly-by-night operation', we were given a partial refund.
We do see that their descriptions have now changed for this tour to indicate 'basic' accommodations, but let me inform anyone who is considering booking this tour - your accommodation in Amboseli - while being a cute camp at the base of Kilimanjero - the floors in the cabins are so slanted you will roll across your bed, The 'campsite' in Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti is backpacker/ communal where all the camp staff make so much noise you will not sleep before 11 pm and then will be jarred awake at about 4:30 am. Your tent could be set as far as 100 yards/meters from the washroom buildings - so be sure to say your prayers if you need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. This tour is rated for AGES 2 to 85. I would love to see a 2 year old or 85 year old survive these accommodations.
The only good part of this trip were the animals we were able to see, though our tour guide/driver in Tanzania did little to position the vehicle for good photos - we had to keep asking to move ahead of back.
Please see the photos posted on the TourRadar review platform to see for yourself what we paid for and WHAT WE GOT!!!!
AT
50-65 years of age
Terrible Organization and Not Holding the Promises
We went as two families with 3 children in August 2019 to Namibia and Botswana. Andre von Flotow and his team were in charge to organize the entire trip. We paid everything in advance. Never do this to this Impala Tours!
We had multiple issues along our trip. I will start mentioning them one by one in seperate reviews, as they touch different aspects.
As a start:
1) We were suggested to take a guide for our trip through Botswana and paid for 7 days.
The guide
- arrived one day late
- was not briefed where to go, We had to tell him the trip. We had the maps to tell him the way.
- did not have own coordinates of the night bookings. As the bookings were not correctly done by Andre and his team for 2 of the four locations, we had to find alternatives those days. Not nice if you have kids dont knwo where to stay and you see the sun setting.
Andre did therefore not prepare properly this guide, the guide tried to do his best!
The guide left after 4 of 7 days, although lodge bookings were done for him and we paid them to Andre. We did not receive any money back, although we took a long time to argue on this.
In fact, Andre cuts any communication related to those topics.
Be careful, use other organizers.
Please send personal message, in case you want to discuss.
Best wishes
Christoph
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awfull experience, cheaters!
I had a tour with this "company" in december.
First of all, they do not do tours, they just resell tours of the BIG TIME Safaris - https://www.safaribookings.com/p570
Or maybe it is the same company operating under 2 names...
Due to bad communication from their side I lost 1 day of my safari + I had to pay 350$ extra for their mistake! They did not send me any compensation. Instead - they just started to ignore me once the issue appeared they, so I had to find solution by myself.
I Higly DO NOT Recoomend neither this company as well as Big Time Safaris!