35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Be aware!!!! Avoid this travel agency!!!!
The owner of Mushra travel agency Michael Ahabwe Mugerwa is such a untrustworthy!!!!
I am writing this review because I don’t want anyone to have the same bad experience as me and lose any money. Also they shouldn’t be in this business.
If I write about the whole experience I had with this company it would be such a long review so I will keep it simple but still quite long, sorry.
1, Micheal changed the original itinerary on Tourradar because on the first day of the tour no one picked me up from the hotel so the 7 day tour became a 6 day tour and I had to pay for an extra nights accommodation upfront which he has never refunded.
2, The accommodation near to the Queen Elizabeth National Park for the 3 night safari was actually 2 hours drive away from the National park! The first morning game drive we had to leave the hotel at 4am in the morning! So I had to ask to change the accommodation to something closer to the park.
3, They didn’t pay the activity fee on time to my guide, so I almost missed a few of the activities. For example, the chimpanzee trekking and even the main activity of the GORILLA TREKKING!!!!! Which is the main reason I went to Uganda in the first place!!!! I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to meet the gorillas so I had to pay the permit fee of $600 from my own pocket, of course! Micheal has never refunded that money either.
They use a payment system called ‘mobile money’ which supposed to be easy and quick so there are no excuses for them to not complete the money transfer to the guide.
4, During the tour the hotel asked my guide to pay the bill upfront but he didn’t have any money because Michael hadn’t transferred it to the guide on time so I had to pay again! Of course, he has never paid me back for that either.
5, On the last day of the tour in the evening I sent some messages to Michael about refunding all of the out of pocket expenses I had accrued and how much stress he had put me under during this tour. He messaged me back and said ‘my returning day in Kampala is 1st January which is a public holiday so no one is in the office.’ He promised me that he would meet up with me to pay me back when I was back in Kampala!!! There were many excuses to escape from the payment.
6, In the message he said “I am a dishonest person”, “I am taking advantage of them” and he said "he thinks I was treating them like slaves” etc.. Shocking!!!!
I went to Uganda because I just wanted to enjoy my holiday and meet the gorillas not to have extra stress and spend extra money unnecessarily. So please, please, please be careful with this Mushra travel agency and the owner Michael!!!!
I truly hope Tourradar team will investigate my issues and will protect the future innocent customers.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Awesome safaris!
We travelled 13 days with Reny safaris and overall we had a fantastic experience. Our guide and a member of staff picked us up at the airport early in the morning and we immediately drove to Tsavo. Although this park was not supposed to be the highlight of the tour, for us it was one of the best experiences, maybe because it was the first, or perhaps because of the red elephants. The tour was overall well organized and we loved most of the lodges and tented camps. Our itinerary was well thought out, starting from Tsavo, then Amboseli, Nanyuki and Ol Pejeta, Nakuru, Naivasha, Hell's Gate and ending in Masai Mara. We discussed the itinerary with Regina before booking and she was very helpful to accomodate our requests for a few changes. Our guide, George, was amazing and surely one of the reasons why the travel was so enjoyable and everything ran smoothly. He was always available, very informative and very knowledgeable and we always appreciated his suggestions for activities. Our minivan was always well taken care off, was very comfortable and it was able to climb mountain roads as well as sandy, muddy and rocky trails in parks. 13 days may seem like a lot of time, but for us it was just one discovery after the other and it never got boring. We could easily have stayed another 13 days and I would certainly come back to see the locations that we skimmed but didn't have time to visit, like Mount Kenya, Mount Longonot etc. Overall, highly recommended!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This tour operator is hands down the best trip experience I've ever had to date!
So I cannot rave enough about our experience with High Peaks Expedition!! Lisa and Elias were phenomenal. Meeting and exceeding our expectations!! The safari we did went off without a hitch. If you ever need a company while in Tanzania...this is the one!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Incredible experience in Tanzania
Thank you for perfect organized safari in Tarangere-Ngorongoro-Lake Manyara. All 4-days trip was exciting, well-planned and comfortable. Our 8yo daughter is delighted with lions, leopard, amounts of elephants, pumbas and other animals from opened air zoo.
Big thanks for our guide for this days!
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very good service and nice trip!
We were going on a trip for 5 days in Kenya, Tsavo east, amboseli, Tsavo west an Taita hills, wow! it was very beautiful and good service. Antony is the best driver!! He drives very good and save and knows a lot of information about almost everything. The lodges are very good, but Tsavo west maybe you can get another lodge. When we go back, we book our trip again with Ewamanns Safaris. It's a faithfull company.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Outstanding tour operator with excellent communication and excellent choice of accommodations
The communication with the tour operator before my trip was excellent. Sander answered my questions at once and finalized my tailor-made tour itinerary with a map and day by day itinerary.
Emma is a fantastic driver, very friendly and made our tough 4 days safari possible.
The accomodations were all beautiful. Lake Chahafi Resort was outstanding - friendly staff, big rooms and beautiful located close to a lake and a volcano. If we had more time we would have stayed there longer.
Hiking Mount Sabinyo was tough but a good decision. The landscape was amazing.
Also the Gorilla tracking in Nkoringo sector was tough but totally rewarding.
Emma drove us to a nice lunch stop overlooking lake Buyani. Furthermore our game drive at Queen Elisabeth Nationalpark was successful, we even saw tree climbing lions. The kazinga chanel cruise with a smaller village people boat was also very rewarding. We could get closer to the coastline than the bigger tourist boats.
I knew that 4days with all those activities would be strenious but it was definetely worth it!!!
SG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beyond expectation 8-day safari with Fidelis at Gemuka Adventures
We celebrated my husband 40th birthday in Tanzania with a long sought after photo safari. We chose Gemuka because the itinerary and order of the national parks was spot on (Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengenti, Ngorongoro) and we got options for hotels upgrades in the first quote. This was helpful to assess our budget.
Our trip was amazing thanks to Fidelis,
Super friendly, gentle and easy going. We clicked as soon as we met him.
Not chatty for the sake of it, but genuinely sharing his knowledge.
Super careful and serious driver.
An excellent host for us, even through long days of driving and being our guide:
- going through the pain of shutting down his window when too much dust because of my allergies
- Making sure there was always a coke for lunch for my husband once he noticed it was his drink
- Setting up a proper table with napkin and real plates/ cutlery that he would clean before dressing the table
- Putting us ahead of himself
As he always drives the same car, he takes extra care of it. Always cleaned the car in and out himself every evening (even after a long day and even if the car will be dirty again within an hour in the morning), with bottles of water ready for us in the morning. The high quality tires were in excellent conditions compared to most other safari tours.
Excellent guide, tracking animals while driving and very knowledgeable about anything in Tanzania and safari; you realise it overhearing people in other cars when they don’t know why a lion has a collar. Their driver didn’t tell them it’s for tracking and research.
We were lucky to see all the wild animals we were hoping to spot (cheetah and leopards not only in trees or bushes but hunting, a rhino, plenty of lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras...).
Fidelis was super flexible on the timing, accommodating our departure time or lunch time to maximise our experience & comfort (eg. driving further to stop for lunch at a picnic area with proper bathroom for me).
Lake Manyara was great for elephants but as it was not the rainy season we could have skipped it.
The walk of the Ngorongoro rim with a ranger in the afternoon after Serengeti was great as it allowed to have a full view of the crater and more knowledge about nature and tribes. The view is usually blocked in the morning because of the mist. The following morning, we drove into the crater and below the mist enjoyed a last perfect game drive before heading to the airport
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My first Safari with the great guys from Benson was Mindblowing
In October my long expected dream came true: A trip to Tanzania for my first Safari Experience!
The trip was organized by some good friends. They have a lot of Safari travel experience, so the trip for me was a big surprise without any expectations. My expectations would be exceeded.
In five days, i've been overwhelmed by the beauty of Tanzania and her wildlife. We visited several parks like Arusha National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and the great Serengeti National Park.
We stayed in some beautiful lodges in the middle of the savannah, which gives you even more connection with nature. In the Serengeti we slept in two beautiful lodges: Mbugani Migration Camp (Northern Serengeti) & Serengeti Tortilla Camp (Central Serengeti) and in the Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge with a great view over the Ngorongoro Valley.
It was impressive to see animals in real life. You literally enter their habitat. In addition to see the big 5 and other beautiful animals, we also saw several action moments: A river crossing of wildebeest in the north of Tanzania, a birth of a zebra foal and a leopard who fed her two cubs.
Our guides Peter and Richard from Benson were fantastic to lead our trip, they have a lot of experience to spot animals and knowledge about the nature and you can laugh with them.
Tanzania you have stolen my heart! It was an overwhelming experience that I will never forget.
SE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Recommend
Really recommend Mlimani Safari! They helped us with our safaritrip to Tarangire, Ngorogoro and Serengetti, and all went perfectly well!
SE
Recommended, Recommended!
Really recommend Mlimani Safari! They helped us with our safaritrip to Tarangire, Ngorogoro and Serengetti, and all went perfectly well!