AT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
TERRIBLE
NOT RECOMMENDED. Avoid booking tours with this company. We reserved a private safari with this company and agreed on an itinerary including two game drives (3 hours in the afternoon and 2 hours in the morning next day) for every national park in our tour. The day of our tour, the driver (not even the tour office) informed us that the game drives in the morning were not possible because the parks changed their re-entry policies. The change in policies is totally understandable, but the lack of transparency is not. We did not have the option to decide whether a tour with only 3 hours of game drive a day nor had we replacement activities in the mornings. The tour was very expensive and we spent most of the day driving to the parks. Furthermore, the driver was very rude, poor in English communication and very irresponsible on the road. The first day when we had only 3 hours in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy park, the driver took us to the park very late (3 PM) even if we were ready to leave at 1:30 PM. It rained that day so we were not able to see the chimpanzees, which was the main reason to visit that park. When we arrived to see the rhinos he did not even explain us where to go or what to do, so we also missed that. In general, very bad organization from this company.
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very disappointing - we had to cancel due to medical urgencynand received NO help at all !
We booked on short notice but had to cancel due to medical emergency.the day after we transfered the money. So they had not had make any cost yet. They hid behind their general conditions to do nothing. Flights were booked by their organisation so they had to negotiate and rebook with airline - no initiative; no compensation. Disappointing and very costly’
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
TERRIBLE BUSINESS PEOPLE
We have a charter with them in February 2022 for our VIP clients, and our charter was to pick up the guest from the hotel on Zanzibar Island and drop them at the Zanzibar Airport. They cancelled our prepaid flight last minute. The client was so angry and had taken us to court for this.
When we demanded a refund, they said they will but to date, we still waiting for a full refund. We feel we are scammed but the owner Albert Gombanila and is a very difficult person to deal with and always gets away with excuses. We would say that they are irresponsible liars and frauds.
Stay away from them
US
Crook, thief - Takes customers' money and does not deliver- Do not use this company.
Mike is a crook and thief. I trusted him and gave him a booking for 4 clients. The ran with the money and gave all sorts of excuses. After I sent the Tourism Police after him, he made all sorts of promises to refund my company. Used his children to make me feel sorry for him. I am still waiting for the payment.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Every day stress
The experience is fantastic, seeing animals every day is amazing. The problem is that we never knew what was going to happen that day or the next, the guide had no information. Every morning we would leave and we didn't even know in which hotel we would sleep. Everyone in the group had different itineraries with different hotels and different activities (many of which we didn't do). We made the reservation and payment with them more than six months ago. But then we found out that nothing was paid for. Neither the hotels, nor the entrance fees to the parks. We have had to pay our entrance fee to the Serengeti park and we don't know at this point if we will get our money back, the other people in the group don't even know if they will be able to travel tomorrow (we suspect that the company Capture Tanzania has not yet bought the tickets). The whole problem seems to be one of the owners, who seems to have had an accident (of which we have three different versions) has not been able to send the money to his partner who does nothing but lie to us on the phone saying that we will get what we paid for and at the end of the day we are still staying in hotels that were not in the offer, of lower quality and every day we have done less hours of game driving. If you are thinking of doing a tour with them we recommend looking for a serious company, because so far the only thing I can say is that we feel scammed by this company.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Horrible experience
We are of the opinion that we have been scammed by this company. We paid them but they never showed up to get us at the hotel. They said they will reimburse us but at the time of writing this review we still got no money back. I have all the proofs from the airlines companies and hotel where we were supposed to stay, that the bookings were never made. We advise against booking with Capture Tanzania. You can contact me for proofs.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Scammy! Avoid!
If it wasn't for the avant practices, this would have been a good safari. I paid to upgrade, and was still dumped at a hotel that was equal to a half a star, in a neighborhood that was scary, even for a wild traveler as myself. When I brought this to Stephan's attention, he pretended that he was shocked, when I was there when he gave the driver the command to dump me there. He dodged the rest of my emails.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Didn't get what we paid for!
The communication with Martin was hard, I had to repeat what I wanted several times. His first offer for a package was more expensive than the individual things combined.
After several emails we agreed to a price.
But we did not get what we paid for.
As an example we paid for 1st class seats on the train but we got the second cheapest tickets.
He never mentioned it and kept the difference in price even after we told him that we want it back.
The camp was very very basic with no electricity except for half an hour after dinner. Which is not enough to charge your phone. No warm water. Lunch and dinner were extremely cheap. Breakfast was good.
The car we used for the game drives was old and broken in several places (one window, again no electricity, mirrors, armrest of one seat was missing and a sharp metal remained on which I cut myself).
When we complained to Martin we were ignored.
I cannot recommend this company at all!
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY
Long story short we paid for a 5 Safari days.
On the day 4 we found out that the 5th day of the Safari was… going to the airport.
So the amount that we paid to this company, included the entrance in Tarangiri park 1 morning + the use of the Jeep for a morning safari and they just took us to the airport and kept that money to them. When I spoke with the person in charge he said that he wanted to make it right so he would do a refund of 318€. 10 days have passed and Haron is ignoring my emails. First he gave an excuse that he was in Nairobi and after then ignoring emails and phone calls… not happy at all.
Besides this incident, we also paid based on accommodation. On the 3rd night we paid for a Serena Hotel in Ngorongoro cratera and we found out, once we left the cratera, that we werent staying there….
Keep in mind that there are thousands of Safari companies who will definitely provide a better service. As an example, during lunch time, we always had a very basic lunch box (cold items) and we saw several companies coming with warm meal and providing a total different (and better) experience to the customer.
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Seka, where is our money?
We made a kili tour and a safari in 2020. We had to pay another amount that we could started our safari. They had no money, even though we paid in advance.
Seka owes us more than $3000! Since 2 years! He always promised that we will get our money back.