IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Horrible Experience
Completely un-organized, a scammer. We booked 11 days with him many months in advance, we paid beforehead but still when we got there nothing was ready for us. We paid for 2 cars but we had one. Everything was done very last minute. Do not use!!!
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Stay away from this company!!!!!!!
We booked a 10 day trip in 9 friends in Botwana. The trip included a program and services that were not respected in the least. There had to be 2 jeeps, 2 guides, a panoramic flight, instead we had only one Jeep, a totally incompetent guide who has never been able to answer. We were forced to find alternative solutions at our expense to alleviate the inconvenience caused by the bad organization. We didn’t enjoy the trip because every day we had to face unexpected and bad surprises.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Stole our money - do not book with Ken Rwema or Barack Nari
Congo Discovery Tours / Ken is a con artist - do NOT book a tour with them or send them money. He stole $3,000 from us.
On June 30th, 2019, we sent Ken $3,000 for two gorilla trekking permits. We were nervous sending so much money to a tour operator in Africa but given his reviews we thought we'd be fine. On July 2, Ken assured us the permits had been attained.
When we arrived in Rwanda on August 31st, Ken met us at our hotel and explained that his company had gone bankrupt, that he didn't have our permits, and that he could drive us to the National Park but we'd have to buy permits a second time. Having flown half way around the world we didn't have a choice. He drove us to the National Park and we paid the park $3,000 directly.
Ken promised he would pay us back within 10 days and when the park rangers heard what had happened they made Ken agree to a contract (attached). Of course, we were skeptical. More than 3 months have passed and, unsurprisingly, Ken has not paid us back.
He has an excuse for everything and a new story every day about why he needs just one more day. But ultimately, he is a con man. As per the reviews below, we aren't the first he's stolen from. Do not book a tour with Congo Discovery Tour or Hakuna Matata Safaris - or any tour group Ken Rwema or Barack Nari is involved in (passport attached below).
Since he's the king of excuses - I've attached screenshots to my tripadvisor review of our Whatsapp dialogue, his passport and the 'contract' the Park Rangers at the National Park wrote up when they heard what had happened.
IL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Horrible safari
The safari was ok but the service was really bad!
For one day we did not have breakfast after we woke up at 6 a.m.- and it was written in the schedual that we suppose to have a full breakfast!
We went for the safari with a broken car and we had 3 flat tire!
So we spent half of the day just trying to fix it! And the guide was so relaxing and "hakuna matata", he did not apologise for us and he worked very slowly.
So in the end we fixed one of the flat tires!
It was really bad experience. When I came back from the safari so the manager asked "how was the safari" and I said "that it was not good and I want to talk with you" he just said ok and than he just gone and I could not talk with him!
Hope for you to take other company!
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Simply a crook
Clarence Enrico Goastoeb appears as a crook. Simply. We even had to submit a criminal complaint to the Namibian Police and to the Tourist Officie, involving Diplomatic Authorities and discovering he has several other cases pending. We have booked a 11 days safari with some friends, all experienced travellers in Botzwana and Namibia. We have faced several serious problems since the beginning: to make a long story short different service (or no service at all) from what booked, total lack of comunication. The most serious experience was the following: We were abandoned in the middle of the Jungle and we had to find an emergency place to survive and to book a private plane to escape from that mess. For what we understood Mr. Enrico's policy seems to be simple: to play with the good faith of his suppliers and clients and, at the end, to try to not pay them/not give to them the service booked....keeping the clients'money in his pockets. Moreover Mr. Enrico uses as guides freelances in order to claim him unresponsable for them and vice-versa. Therefore sometimes the suppliers abandon him and his clients. In our experiences Mr. Enrico just ignored the problems hoping that the clients will find a solution by theirselves and they will not prosecute him for relative small money. All is organization and way of doing business is based on that "philosofy". Stay away from him.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Incompetent
I took my family on a trip using this company to Zimbabwe. It was a nightmare from start to finish. I'm firing my travel agent because they work with this company. The trip was poorly planned and we had nothing but problems. They did not do enough to resolve our issues. They are very unethical, unprincipled, and dishonorable. They have no integrity. They only care about the bottom line. Don't let them trick you into booking with you. Tell your travel agent not to work with this company.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We've traveled around the world, and this is the worst travel agency we've ever encountered.
We went on the 11-day Kenya and Tanzania Safari this August. The itinerary they give you can only be taken as a rough approximation of the actual trip. This company has no concept of contractual obligation whatsoever. We were promised on our contract that our van would carry no more than 7 people, but on the first day we were immediately put in a van with 8 people. Only after we made several calls back to the company did they put us on another van, and the Kenyan portion of our trip had to be completely rearranged. This incident left a bad taste, but when we arrived in Tanzania, things only got worse. Adventure My Take's tour operator in Tanzania is a company called Seven Wonders Safaris. According to our itinerary, we're supposed to visit Lake Manyara, then Ngorongoro Crater, and lastly Serengeti National Park. If you look at the map on our safari's web page (https://www.safaribookings.com/tours/t20766), this route allows the shortest travel time between parks, and it's one of the main reasons we chose Adventure My Take over other companies with similar-priced safaris. When we met with the representative from Seven Wonders, she told us that they don't offer that route and that they never have. When their representative called Adventure My Take to ask why our itinerary was incorrect, Adventure My Take agreed to send a van to take us on a private safari along the route given in our itinerary. Not half an hour later, our contact with Adventure My Take (the CEO of the company, actually) called back to say that she had changed her mind and that since we were unhappy with her company's dishonesty, she would cancel the rest of our safari and refund us for the remainder of our tour. She did not consult us about this decision whatsoever. This is extremely unprofessional and unethical behavior. Firstly, as a company, if you make a promise to do something, you should do it no matter what in order to maintain your credibility. Adventure My Take did not honor their promised itinerary. Secondly, dropping us in the middle of Tanzania in the middle of our trip is not a solution to our problems and in fact made it much worse. We now had to look for another company to complete our safari and still make it back to Nairobi in time for our flight. Thankfully, the representative from Seven Wonders was extremely helpful since she saw what Adventure My Take did to us, and we were able to rebook with them.
This was a horrible experience. Stay away from Adventure My Take at all costs!
SG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very slow in responding
Have to improve their speed of communication and responding. Been several occasions without response and they kept customer waiting. Have know idea what is going on. First, I didn’t want to write about this thinking it is just one time and they are a small company. But it has been so many times and it is very annoying when I don’t know what is going on with what I have requested and I have already put down the deposit. To be fair for them, the lady who has been helping me has been helpful in answering the question but it doesn’t help when my message was sent and no one attended to the question for one week. They might be all on holidays but I am not sure if this works for everyone especially when it comes to business and we need to get something rolling for the trip in advance.
MX
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
cancelation of safari 4 weeks in advance and they are refusing refund
I have to cancel our safari tour 4 weeks in advance due the cruise company cancel Mombasa port of call for safety reasons. it supposed to be refundable without any penalties and they are not responding my request for the refund, so be careful booking with this company. Hope to receive response and refund to update this claim and clean the name of this safari tour company, other wise I will let you know
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Ken stole our money
My girlfriend and I booked a 4-day Gorilla and Chimpanzee safari with Ken that was supposed to take place from November 10 – 13. We paid $2608USD upfront for the pair of us for this tour. Ken failed to deliver all aspects of this tour. We were supposed to receive a refund in person in Kigali on November 13, but Ken showed up with no money. He then promised to refund us by November 20, but there was nothing. On November 27 we were supposed to get a full refund, instead we received a partial refund of $570CAD (we live in Canada), about $430USD, but we are still owed $2178. We were then told December 6 that we would receive the rest of the money, but nothing came.
When we first met Ken in Kigali we had some questions about a few recent negative reviews he had written about his businesses. He had excuses for every one, and how the client was wrong and trying to slander him. We gave him the benefit of the doubt, and we were wrong. Do not book with Ken or any of his tour companies. He stole money from us, he has waisted countless hours of our time, and he does not take responsibility for any of it - it is always somebody else's fault. Reports regarding Ken and Congo Discovery Safari Company Limited (incorporated in Kampala on September 19, 2018) are being filled with both the Rwandan and Ugandan Tourism boards in hopes that other travelers do not have to endure what we had to endue in dealing with Ken and his company.
