65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Hustlers thieves, officials,police,ruin what would otherwise be a wonderful tourist destination
Zambia is a beautiful country with so much to offer, but traveling up from Botswana, there is a stark difference -the official's police and the Botswana people are friendly and efficient, (been several times) , have never been hustled in Botswana -the moment you arrive in Zambia there will be a hustler at your door -the Botswana officials expedite you quickly and efficiently -The Zambian side will keep you for hours -But that we can deal with.Livingstone(Vic Falls,) was empty this year of tourists, one would think they would welcome the ones who do come,but there we felt immediately like we were a mark, and constantly harassed and hustled, beware of the money exchangers and hustlers, do NOT deal with them,even if it costs a bit more, use a bank or ATM, where you are nor surrounded -they will come at you in gangs and try to distract you as others steal from you -this happened to us with our international guests who had money stolen, the police are no help,so don't expect any help there, we did go to the Livingstone police but they laughed at us and said we most probably dropped the money ourselves -so they find it a joke and obviously are not there to help tourists -our guests said it spoilt their experience there, and I doubt will recommend anyone else to go there
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Motto Tours and Travels gave us hard time during our Kenya visit
Hello,
We traveled to Kenya for a safari from July 18th to July 25th, 2021.
While the price is attractive and the contact person (Paul) spoke impeccable English to ensure we felt comfortable, the on-field performance had many ups and downs.
The properties that Motto had chosen were for our stay were beautiful. However, the vehicles brokedown 5 to 6 times during the 5 days of Safari.
We were 4 families and had chosen 2 large land cruisers. Both the vehicles broke down alternatively every day.
Mr. Paul did not pick up our calls for almost an hour on the last day when we had to catch our flight. The Nairobi airport was around 150 km away from Naivasha. We had a few stressful moments while at the same time we enjoyed the properties and the sight of majestic wild animals that we got to see in Kenya.
I highly recommend visiting Kenya. However, get a better tour operator.
Regards
Harish Dunakhe
Dubai
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A responsive operator yet to improve on value for money
We did a 3-day tour to Gombe national park to visit the chimpanzees.
The planning and organization was very professional, with very fast responses and someone was expecting us when we arrived.
Once in the park, the accommodation was as expected - mid-range tents - far from the premium and cleaning standard you may get in other Safari experiences.
The experience in the park was great. We got really close to the chimps, while respecting their boundaries and always well guided by the local experts. The staff was also great and food was very good.
Our rating of 3/5 stars is based on two main elements:
1) On the second day (out of 3 days program) we arrived at Kigoma at 4pm. First the driver left us in a wrong hotel - we’ve noticed that and finally were redirected to the one that had been communicated - Sunset Vista Hotel. Secondly, at Sunset Vista Hotel we were put first in a very small room with a tiny toilet and wifi internet wasn’t working. Joshua, the operator manager, was responsive to our complaint and came the hotel to upgrade us to a better room. The improved room was still far from the expectations over mid-range on European or Serengeti standards.
2) The overall price of 350 USD per day is clearly overpriced - as 1st you profit only 2 out of 3 days, as the 3rd day you travel early in the morning back to Dar. And 2nd, you’re paying luxury daily rates when comparing to Serengeti, while getting a mid/low range service.
Overall we were very happy to see chimps from very close and Joshua was very professional and responsive.
We hope this constructive feedback improves the overall service delivery for future travelers.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
3 night safari in Ruaha
The initial communications with Wild Gaze was efficient. Emails were answered promptly and questions where answered clearly. We booked a budget safari staying at the Tanapa Bandas in Ruaha National Park. While the bandas where clean, confortable and well located it was not made clear that there would be no options of food and we would be served the same thing everyday. While it was adequate it was not very tasty. The safari truck was comfortable and had plenty of sockets for charging electronics. Our guide, Ben, was accommodating, a careful driver and appeared knowledgeable. Overall a good experience and we would book with them again.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Its hit and miss - and the big five are no way guaranteed
Crowd: It's the year of Corona and the crater is not too crowded these days. At one picnic site, there were about 15 cars for lunch - throughout the park we never saw more than two other cars.
Wildlife: Obviously it was a quite unlucky day, because everyone else seems to have the best wildlife experiences here. We saw one pack of lion very very far away (barely detectable with good binoculars), no other cats, no rhino, one elephant hiding deep in the bush, a few smaller herds and ostriches.. so its no way guaranteed to see anything here. It was a normal day, not too windy, a bit cloudy, in the middle of dry season. There was no obvious reason why there was nothing around, but you have to accept it's just nature. But after a day like that I really don't get the hype.
Scenery: The scenery is very unique though and the views into the crater made the day.
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Elephants make the park
Huts okay. A little inconvenient that cooking and washing up facilities not on premises. A clean-up needs to be undertaken around the vegetation as quite a bit of litter lying around
Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Addo Elephant National Park by Marilyn
Did not see that much game and park very dry
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Striving but Lots of laissez-faire
I was on a trip to Mombasa organized by MAS. The set activities were fan with reflection of value for money. However, Communication was extremely poor and this got us into un called for long delays and fatigue that at times took out the joyous moments.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good timewise
Time keeping... The staff responded in good time and communicated in detail and in a timely manner whenever information needed was to be relayed
NL
under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Nice view but poor guides.
We booked the Ndere Island Tour, of one day. Although the views were amazing, we had issues with the tour guides. We were on a boat for quite a long time and were very curious about Lake Victoria, but the guides seemed not interested in us and mostly kept to themselves, which was okay since it was early in the morning and not really part of the tour. However, we had to stop to pay parkfees to the Kenyan Wildlife Center, where our Hallmark guides started to argue with the employees about prices. We got a great but annoyed guide from the KWC and he showed all of us around on Ndere Island. Once again, nice views, but our own guides were having a vacation too: they made plenty of pictures of both the view and us, and seemed to be there for the first time. There seemed to be a rush and in high tempo we walked across the island at noon in full sun. Requests to rest or even look for more animals than the ones we bumped into were not taken seriously. Afterwards we asked to see hippos as they said they would do, but they laughed us off. Long story short, we paid a lot of money for our guides to basically have a tour too, next time we will just book at the Kenyan Wildlife Center and do without the Hallmark guides!