ES
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Lost 50% of our game drive time at Serengeti. When called Planet Africa for help, they could do noth
Planet Africa Safari organized our trip. They proposed us to go in north Serengeti to the "Luxury" Mara
Mara Lodge of TANGANYKA WILDERNESS CAMPS.
Planet Africa Safari never informed us that the Lodge was 1 hour away from the river where all the action
and animals are, and even less informed us that the lodge chain is on a complete much much much
lower level than the others Asilia Lodges we were. Lower in everything: lodges, food, cars, drivers and
managers.
They completely ruined our holiday, see below the details.
When called Planet Africa for help at the lodge, they could do nothing.
We are claiming to Planet Africa a partial refund for all the mess the Lodge driver and managers did to
us.
DO NOT TRUST PLANET AFRICA SAFARI SUGGESTIONS OF LODGES AND DRIVERS!!! .If
something goes wrong, is entirely up to you to solve it.
---DETAILED NARRATION---:
We arrived at Kogatende Airstrip with our pack lunches from our previous Lodge, our Asilia driver
organized us to have them so we could profit the whole day upon our arrival in Serengeti. Alex, the driver
we got assigned, tricked us and suggested us to go back to lodge for lunch at 13:00, and stay there till
16:00 before going back to river again: he said because animals hide when is hot and we would not see
them. And we were so stupid to believe him.
We wasted half of our days there before realizing we were being tricked by an extremely lazy driver
whose only goal was to have hot lunch at 13:00 o'clock and a little “siesta” everyday.
We realized the trick when we were HUMILIATED, being the ONLY table having lunch at the Lodge the
second day of our stay, while at dinner there were like 30 persons. I have never felt so stupid in my life.
When we asked the driver to leave immediately after lunch, he started negotiating with me, that he
needed some allowance, that were many hours and so on.
We then decided to ask for a drive change to the managers of the lodge while at lunch. Managers let the
diver came to our table. The driver insisted with us like 20 minutes to give him a second change. I could
not had lunch. No manager was there, extremely violent situation.
We insisted on the change of driver and managers punished us making us stay 2 hours at the
Kogatende airstrip waiting for a new driver to come. They sent us without telling us that would be 2 hours
wait.
2 long hours at Kogatende airstrip, with full afternoon sun, on an open car without A/C, with kids,rounded
by tse-tse flys, while paying $$$ for a luxury Lodge with swimming pool. That's crazy!. We had to make a
denounce at the police at Kogatende airstrip, see attached photo of the text.
We lost half the time of our stage at north Serengeti because of this incredible problems, and we were
humiliated in an unbelievable way: first by the lazy driver tricking us, second by the managers backing up
the lazy driver and making us stay 2 hours at the airport waiting for the new driver, and third by the lodge
employees when at dinner they put us at a table right next to where Alex the driver we just changed
was.So that we could hear his loud comments and laughs.
Unbelievable.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Urbema Safaris a Scam-Avoid
Urbema Safaris are a scam. When I arrived in Nairobi, I arranged a safari and made payment ($1100.00), only to be told by the shady owner Benard Orero that the lodge was full. It is over three weeks later, with multiple conversations with Benard Orero, and no refund. I’m having to file a criminal complaint with Kenyan National Police and charge it back through the bank. Avoid Urbema Safaris and Benard Orero at all costs.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bad service
Service poor, tried to follow up told me they can only refund 60 dollars ,till yet no refund just apologises I been following up .never will I spent my money on them again .try at your own risk ,
SA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very Bad Experience, DO NOT TRUST AT ALL
After the advance payment he changed the package & started bargaining.
Finally we cancelled the trip due to high rate and he did not returned the advance payment.
So Do not trust this team at all.
NZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
WARNING!! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!
WARNING!!! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!
We were booked on a seven night safari with Enrico’s. We booked about 6 months in advance and paid in advance.
The day that our safari was supposed to commence, no one showed up. We could not get in contact with the company to find out what was going on (we tried their phone numbers, whatsapp, email, Facebook etc). When we finally got in contact (after hours and hours of trying), we were told someone would be there by 2:30pm at the latest. Again, no one showed up. Again, we could not get in contact with Enrico’s to find out what was going on. When we did get in contact, he suggested that we arrange and pay for our own transfer to what was supposed to be our first stop?? Eventually our then-current accommodation offered for us to stay another night and Enrico’s promised to pick us up at 9am the next morning. Enrico’s said they would pay for the accomodation, but they did not and we had to pay for it.
At 9am the next morning, surprise surprise, no one showed up!! And again we could not get in contact with Enrico’s to find out what was going on!! We were finally picked up at around 11:30am (1.5 days late for our six day tour...) in a minivan with worn out suspension that was supposed to drive us on sand/gravel roads in between destinations - even our driver said it was unsafe and that he didn’t think the car would be able to make the journey!
We found out our was a freelancer that was called by Enrico’s at 7am on the day that our safari was meant to commence to get to us in Kasane from Windhoek. It is 1,400kms and 14 hours away from our pick up point. There was no way they were going to be able to pick us up at the scheduled pick up time and no way they would even get to us by 2:30pm so I have no idea why this was promised by Enrico’s. It also meant that Enrico’s knew that this would not be possible before 7am the day of our safari and they never contacted us to tell us this. We could have done activities that day through our then-current accomodation, but instead spent an entire day in reception trying to get in contact with Enrico’s!!
When we finally arrived at our first accommodation, NOTHING had been booked or paid for! The accomodation had never heard from Enrico’s and did not know we were coming! Apparently this is a very common occurrence and our driver had heard of this happening regularly before. Luckily we could get in for one night (the last two rooms) but again had to pay for this ourselves!!! We were paying for our whole trip twice!!
We found out we had not been booked into our next accommodation and none of our activities had been booked. Again, we could not get hold of him to find out what the hell was going on! One time we called off our driver’s phone and when he heard our voice he hung up!! When we finally got in contact much later, he said he could get us into some other accommodation but we would have to pay for it and be refunded. Obviously we were not going to do that, and after such an incomprehensibly terrible experience.
We found out that he has been banned from the camps in National Parks in Namibia for non-payment. He doesn’t pay his drivers or guides on time. Our driver says he has a reputation for being a terrible tour operator - I have no idea how his business survives.
He lied to us continuously to try cover the mess up. He should not be allowed to offer these services. We are reporting him to tourist organisations so that our experience does not become someone else’s.
Luckily we booked through Tour Radar so we were able to get a full refund.
BE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We found a agency on Safaribookings and we have been scamed
WE FOUND A SAFARI ON SAFARIBOOKING BUT WE HAVE BEEN SCAMED. SAFARIBOOKING HAS DONE NOTHING TO HELP US AND DIDN'T TOOK THEIR RESPONSIBILITY. WE LOST OUR MONEY AND OUR TRIP TO KENYA. COMPLETE DISASTER!!
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not use this company! Terrible professionalism.
My wife and I did the 7 night wildebeest migration safari in mid-August 2019.
We were picked up at the airport and driven to Arusha to meet Daniel and asked to handover the full trip cost in cash – several thousand USD. Do not do this as if we hadn’t we would have cancelled and used another company due to issues which occurred later. I suggest you ‘pay as you go’, only pay by credit card and get a receipt. Others did this on our tour. Once we paid the money Daniel failed to answer any of our calls during the trip when we tried to inform him of the guide’s behaviour or seek his assistance. It was really unprofessional.
The first night, the guide, Malaki came to our hotel and told us he would pick us up the next day at 8am for our drive into the Serengeti. We were ready at 7.45am at reception having checked out of the hotel but Malaki did not arrive until 10.45am without bothering to answer our calls or inform us of the delay. Upon arrival Malaki informed us that he was late because the others on the tour wanted to sleep in. This caused an argument between us and the other tour members which was a disaster for starting our week long safari experience together. We later found out after bonding with the group that Malaki was in fact lying and the delay was due to the tour company not having all the equipment for the campers. This really was an awful start to the camaraderie of the group and almost ruined the holiday. One customer even left the group after this day due to having experienced the late departure twice in two days and the lies.
The second night after a long drive to the Serengeti we arrived at what Malaki said was our hotel at 7pm only for us to be told at reception that it was full. Our hotel was in fact an hour’s drive away through the pitch black wilderness and Malaki with reckless driving hit a buffalo on the way and failed to stop or show any concern. The other tour members were camping near the first hotel so it meant we lost 2 hours of safari in the morning going to collect them. I would advise that either all members of the tour either stay in a hotel or camp. As we stayed in hotels but frequently had to wait for lengthy periods of time to pack up and set up the camping equipment for others in the morning and evening which made us miss a lot of the best time for safari experiences. The organisation was very poor especially when the hotel package is very expensive.
The serengti heritage camp and kilimanjoa accommodation were really good with super staff but the rest were quite poor. The sernegeti heritage camp boss ensured we had a hot breakfast at 5.30am when all the others just gave us packed boxes. We never really got to enjoy the hotels during daylight as most of the time we were waiting for the campers to set up or pack up which again was really poor organisation. We repeatedly requested that he could drop us at the hotels whilst all the camp site activity was being done but Malaki just repeatedly ignored us and did whatever he felt like. This after spending double what the customers staying at the camp site paid.
Wildlife was great. We saw the big 5 plus wildebeest migration and a lot more. However, after a while Malaki would not wait very long for us to take in the sites or see animals that we wanted to as he had a mind of his own and was always on the phone.
On the way out of the Sernegti Malaki took us to a Masai camp of one of his friends and they tried to charge us $20 each just to visit the village. We all said no and Malaki spent the rest of the tour sulking, being grumpy and not listening to anything we requested.
At the end one of the tour one member chose to give a tip to the chef but not Malaki due to his behaviour and Malaki, due to his arrogance, started shouting at him. It was really shocking.
I really wouldn’t recommend this company. I would recommend you hire a private bus with a group of 4-6 friends/family and there were many tour companies which looked much more professional than this one.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
SCAM - STAY AWAY
SCAM - PLEASE STAY AWAY
Enrico's tour was a nightmare, he took all our money and STOPPED PAYING for our accomodions and meals after day 3. He left us alone with the driver and no tour guide. WE HAD TO PAY FOR OUR OWN ACCOMODATION FOR TWO NIGHTS, AS WELL AS ALL THE MEALS AND ACTIVITIES WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED. He simply booked everything, and we were forced to pay out of pocket if we wanted a bed for the night. When we called Enrico, he was never reachable and when he did respond, he repeatedly lied to us. He even said he would give us our money back upon return to Windhoek, which never happened. The driver stopped multiple times because Enrico did not send the payment for the gas, which kept us waiting for hours. Please stay away from Enrico's tours.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fraudulent company stole our money and ruined our holiday.
In March my partner and I paid for and booked a safari with KWSS for 21 days, over July and August.
Things started okay, as we met an amazing driver named Sam, however things didn’t run smoothly.
Upon arrival we went to the KWSS office and a slight change was made. To save on driving times the owner (Otieno Lysaniash) recommended we would spend an extra night in the Masai Mara and not spend any time in Amboselli. It’s also important to know that the accommodation that was being changed was a 4.5star camp to a 2 star camp.
As we set off, Sam was keeping all his receipts and paying with his own money, and always on the phone away from us. When we questioned him he said ‘You shouldn’t have to worry about this’. After our 4 days with the driver, we exchanged numbers and were told a new driver would pick us, Sam was not sure what time, but said be ready at 6am.
We have not heard anything from the KWSS office since meeting them in the office. We tried calling Otieno or his team over 100 times and sent emails to no avail. We were very lucky to have met Sam, as he was in contact with us from 9am, letting us know any updates as he found them. At approximately 7pm Sam was in Nairobi and confirmed with us the Mr Otieno had run away with our money, and the police were at the office.
I feel horrible as it’s very hard to get my money back whilst living in a different country. We are also aware that Sam paid for the first 5 days of our safari out of pocket, and he hasn’t received any money back. We are in contact with Sam, trying to get updates, however he is a very busy man who has a family to feed.
If you were looking for a different company we can recommend Bateluer Eagle Safari’s, as they saved our holiday. Sam sent his brother to come and pick us up, who drove us around for 2 days to the police in Nairobi. The owners also went above and beyond, spending over 7 hours as we tried to get a payment sorted for a new safari, on last minute notice. Everything with them ran very smoothly and the upfront communication was very much needed, at a time where we had zero trust in anything.
KWSS was run by a thief who stole our money and many others. I just hope he doesn’t use that money to bribe the officials and get off without paying. We need our money back!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Scam and terrible experience
This is a scam, terrible experience and the Kenya authorities should take action against this man called Otieno