US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Almost Killed by Blue Crane Safaris
I almost got KILLED by using Blue Crane Safaris Namibia for my tour in August 2024.
On a perfectly sunny day with no wind and no other vehicles near us at all, the driver from Blue Crane Safaris crashed our vehicle while making a right turn going downhill. The vehicle rolled over about 300 feet to the bottom of the rocky cliff. There were no shoulder seat belts in the backseats, so the passengers in the back were thrown out of the car window onto the rocky ground. Among the 5 passengers in the car, 3 got seriously injured and hospitalized (one with a broken Femur, two with broken ribs) and 2 suffered minor injuries. After the accident, Blue Crane Safaris refused to pay any expenses including medical expenses, or lost & damaged items since according to their contract, under no circumstances they are responsible for any death, injuries or losses whatsoever.
Unbelievably reckless and irresponsible –I would recommend you avoid at all cost.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Owner Amani ran away with the money
Amani (the owner) or nobody else from Kipok showed up to pick us up and did not answer any of our several calls. They left us alone in Tanzania and kept the deposit we paid.
We later found out that other tourists had the same experience. The police department in Arusha is taking care of this case. You can check other people’s reviews on Google and TripAdvisor too.
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Really disappointed...
I had a safari with Absolute Holidays Safari in Tanzania. For 2 nights, the lodge booked was not the expected one (a little bit not so good of course). Another day, instead of lodge, I had a camp, with no compensation. Also company in Kenya doesn't want to give name and info about the corresponding company in Tanzania. Transportation was low quality (old vehicle, driver always lost, really not a guide). Last day, I quite missed my plane (several changes in cars; arriving at airport 2 minutes before door closing !). For other people in the car (2 from Miami, 2 from Melbourne) with the same problem in lodges bookings. Avoid this company to organize your tour.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Breach of trust and stole our money
We had excellent service from the guide and the supervisor on site but sadly we add a really bad experience with Mack. We add to pay 1400$ US more on site because if we did not our safari could not happen and we already paid a deposit and the plane ticket. It was suppose to be refund by the end of the trip. We did trust Mack because we already did a safari in 2019 and we as a great Experience but this time we happen to be stoled 1400$ us so we really dont recommend this company
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We were scammed by this company - do not book with them!
Amani, the manager, stole our money and gave us alone in Kenya. We already paid everything to him before coming to Kenya, it’s our honeymoon so we wanted to relax. He did not book everything and We had to pay for the hotels, park fees and driver again to be able to finish our trip and arrive to our last destination. We went to the police to report this. Do not trust him, he lied to us and stole our money !
US
irresponsible, terrible at planning.
John Bow Tours ruined our wildlife safari. They assured us they knew where to find the animals, but when we arrived, they clearly had no idea where to go. We waited for hours to witness the wildebeest migration, but it never happened. Other tour groups saw it just miles away, but we were stuck in a dead zone because our guide hadn’t done the necessary research. It was incredibly frustrating, especially after hearing that other people had amazing experiences. The lack of preparation was glaringly obvious, and when we complained, they simply brushed us off.
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awful experience, not professional, no integrity
It is quite an annoying experience. I can list three main mistake they maid:
During the trip
1. Change our accommodation during the safari. We were supposed to stay in Naivasha Sopa, also we expected most for the whole trip. However when we arrived in the hotel, they told us no room booked for us. I argued with both the hotel and jastro for one hour and forced to transfer to Naivasha simba. Simba has no giraffe(we want to take photos with giraffes), food is terrible. We even self paid to go back to sopa to have dinner. Every one, including our driver and sopa hotel manager, say they never encounter this before. The only reason is jastro didn’t pay the hotel in required time even though I have paid for everything.
what’s more, before this trip I saw some negative review about they change customer’s hotels. So I told victor several time before the trip to confirm my accommodation and I don’t want to see anything changes. However it still happens and this ruined the whole trip. Sopa is fancy and simba is terrible and they insist they are the same level.
I get 50 dollar refund at the end of the trip at my insiste but this cann’t compensate for anything.
Before the trip
2. One week after we paid the deposit, victor suddenly told me I have to pay more 200usd for each person because he forgot to add first day game drive in massi mara. This is cheating! I don’t agree and so we cut 8 day trip to 7 days, and still make up another 500 dollar.
3. Then I asked victor to list details for my total cash balance in case he made any more mistakes, which turned out to be another nightmare. He keep making mistakes for everything. For the first version, he say the government tax is 3%, but list 800usd more for my hotel cost(not match hotel receipt). After I point out the hotel overcharge, he make that 800usd to government tax, raised it to 6% instead of return back to me. So haha jastro can decide government tax rate?? All under their control and customer has no choice.
The only cons is our guide Jonathon is good. But he also annoyed when they change our hotels and know nothing during the trip, he is also innocent.
All in all, before u pay them, they reply quick and say all good. After the deposit, everything just change. They became robbery and cost u too much energy to argue with them.
I would recommend you don't choose them. They're not professional at all.
(images removed for privacy reasons)
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
I would advise not book with them
I recommend you avoid at all costs!
Our experience with Jastro was a complete disaster. From start to finish, their disorganization caused constant stress. We faced numerous last-minute changes to accommodations, timings, and pick-ups, leaving us in limbo about where we’d stay or when we’d be picked up next.
But what made it worse was that every change came with an extra charge—surprise, surprise! It felt like they were always trying to squeeze more money out of us. For example, they asked us to cover train tickets for $90, yet the tickets were clearly sold for $30. That level of dishonesty was infuriating.
Communication with them was another nightmare. They made several mistakes with our bookings, tickets, and timings, and when we tried to address these issues, they were dismissive and uncooperative. It felt like we were talking to a wall, and at times they treated us like idiots.
Victor (our admin contact) and Jared (the company director), were THE WORST. Both lied, withheld information, and dodged our questions. Even one of our local drivers, who tried to help resolve an issue with park tickets, mentioned how unprofessional and uncooperative Jared was.
Jastro turned what was supposed to be a relaxing holiday into a nightmare. I’ve traveled extensively and never experienced anything as chaotic and stressful as this. I strongly advise anyone considering this company to look elsewhere. They are dishonest, unprofessional, and frankly, they treat their customers like if we were idiots!
ES
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
unsuitable car, irresponsible guide and agency does not take responsability
They put us in a car without power because of the slopes of Knongoro, the car finally broke down, they took us to the wrong hotel in the Serengeti but the guide did not recognize it, we ended up in a mechanic's car, traveling through the Serengeti at night for an hour and a half without knowing what was going to happen to us, Moises said that he would compensate us financially but he blocked our cell phone when we arrived in Spain
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Choose an another one
Do not book this company! Avoid Focus in Africa!
Before starting with the bad things, I would like to thank the driver (Stanley) and the cook (Matthias), they were simply great, Stanley was able to share all his knowledge with us whenever he could! Matthias also knew how to make us travel through his cuisine!
Regarding the safari, we did a 5-day tour, the first 3 days were great but when we got to the 4th day, our camp was 20 minutes from Ngorongoro, but the driver was forced to pick up two other passengers more than 1 hour from our camp, we missed 2.5 hours (out of 6 hours of visiting) of our day at the crater, it is simply unacceptable, we pay a certain amount to have a quality service to end up missing animals and making journeys for nothing at all, our alarm was still at 5:30 am to leave the camp at 6 am and finally arrive at 8:30 am at the crater!
But it's not over, the next day, we leave our camp at 7:30 am to go to Lake Manyara and guess what? We stay more than an hour in front of the park because their organization is pitiful, we had to wait for another person from another camp to join us! But you should know that the driver, who was only visiting the lake, wanted us all to go together to get the one who was missing and return to the lake but we contested because we did not take the safari to do the taxi tours but to fully enjoy our vacation! It is not the fault of the driver but simply of the organization of this company, Focus in Africa. But it is not always over! After the visit to the lake, we had our flight to Kilimanjaro, and of course the head of the company Focus in Africa, Nelson, told us that a driver would pick us up after the lake to take us to the airport and make a journey of more than 3 hours and in the end, the driver was not at all aware that he had to drop us off at the airport. Another pitiful organization.
I absolutely do not recommend this company if you want to be at peace during your vacation!