NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Good accommodation, unmotivated guide
We did Masai Mara, Lake Naivasha, Amboseli and Tsavo.
Contact with Silas was good before the trip. Accommodation was good and we had a wonderful Christmas at Lake Naivasha. I would give 4 stars for this, but we went to Kenya for the safaris.
On arrival in Masai Mara we would have a late afternoon safari. However, because of too many and ong stops, a lot of traffic and bad road conditions we arrived too late. We were disappointed we missed our first safari. Our guide/driver Isaiah promised we would get a long game drive the next day in Masai Mara till closing time 6.30pm. However, after a good day game driving we arrived at the gate at 5pm. I said Isaiah this is not what he promised us and then he got mad. He first did not want to go back into the park, but when I asked it again he turned around, clearly demotivated and driving very slowly. He also spoke ill over us against other drivers.
After this, all safaris were very disappointing. Isaiah did not even try to look for wildlife anymore. He kept on driving very slowly, did not communicate wit us at all and followed roads in the park were no other driver went.
In tsavo we really had it and I contacted Silas through Whatsapp. He said sorry to hear and he would talk to Isaiah soon. Our last day was a little better, although we did not see much game.
I did not get any response from Silas after this. We really feel it was a very poor trip thanks to isaiah. I did 22 trips in Africa before, but I never experienced such a terrible guide.
Our trip could have been much better
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not safe
Amboseli was good with a lot of Animals, but tswo East e west are not good. 2 days driving and we saw few or not Animals.
On the beach, beachboys are so boring and you can't live your Sea experience in peace. I cant suggest Kenya Just for this reason. Sea and beach are Maldive level for me
SG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Glorified accomodation booking service
The booking process with Spirit of Kenya started positive. However when trying to get more detailed information on the accomodation booked, itinerary specific etc things started to get less impressive. I never managed to get booking details from our Tanzania accomodation from the operator. So we tried to get this info from the accomodation. However without the booking confirmation code ( which Spirit never provided) they could not helps us either. So it became a guessing game in what kind of room, which what inclusions we would stay. Worst part was that Spirit seriously understated all travel times. As I read in a few other recent reviews. This seems to be serial. A quoted 1.5 hrs drive would be 3 hours. And a 6 hour drive became a 11.5 hrs on the road!!!! On top of this they forgot to book Serengeti entry tickets. Causing a 90 minute wait at the gate while our guide was trying to sort this out.
In regards advise on what parts of the parks were good or not to stay in we received absolutely no recommendations leading to very long drives from accomodation to known hot spots for animals.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tour Vehicle Unacceptable
My wife and I arranged our honeymoon through Gosheni Safaris. I had developed the plan for our honeymoon in advance and contacted Gosheni simply to make the arrangements for us for a custom safari. They made reservations for the accommodations per my instructions and everything was fine from that side of things. Our guides were also very good at their jobs and we appreciated their insight and expertise. However, when it came to the vehicle that was assigned to us for our safari, it was far from acceptable. These are a list of issues with the vehicle in which we spent 7-12 hours a day:
no functioning air conditioning
no functioning outlets
broken cooler
musty/moldy smell
rusty and broken seat belts
huge cracks in windshield
broken shock/spring day 3
broken interior handle
exposed broken wires
broken strap for pop up roof
dirty ripped slipcovers
Gosheni claims that its vehicles are new and well maintained. Our vehicle was neither. The odometer on our vehicle read 99242km, and obviously the vehicle was not well maintained due to the issues listed. I will note that every other Gosheni vehicle we saw appeared to be in much better condition, so why we were assigned this vehicle during the low season is beyond me.
I contacted to Gosheni about the vehicle just a couple of days into our safari. They responding continuing to claim that the vehicle was new. I pushed back and asked that we be flown back from Serengeti to Manyara, rather than having to ride in this vehicle for an entire day. Gosheni did arrange this flight for us and paid for it, and the vehicle that met us in Manyara was indeed new and well maintained. However, spending several days of our honeymoon in the vehicle provided was simply unacceptable and not what we expected or paid for when we booked with Gosheni. If you decide to book with Gosheni, please inspect your vehicle before you head off on safari. But, I would suggest you look elsewhere for your safari needs.
As a side note, I should inform everyone that Gosheni pushes guests to pay $20 per day as a standard tip for guides. This is not in line with the other safari organizers in the region, which recommend around $10 per day. Please Google this yourself and do not get bamboozled by Gosheni.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Possibly poor computer security
We contacted Jocky Tours for a quote. They responded and we started communicating with them through the email address on their website [email protected]. All communication was to / from this email. We sent payment as requested. When we got to Nairobi, they had no record of the emails or the payment. We suspect their email was hacked and our communications were being directed to a fraudulent third party. We have opened a fraud investigation on our side but caution anyone to be careful doing business with them.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not as informed and lack of communication
Before I paid a deposit I specifically checked through email communication if the safari would be in the order I saw on the safari booking website, i.e., day 1 Lake Naivasha, day 2 Lake Nakuru and days 3-4 at Masai Mara. This was so we would get as close to 2 full days at Masai Mara as possible as I was aware the trip would involve a lot of travelling. I was assured by the agent I communicated with by email it would be in this order.
On day 1 of the tour, when I was picked up, it wasn't until we were almost there and I asked before I was told we were headed to Masai Mara. In the end most of day 1 was spent travelling to Masai Mara and we only spent 2.5 hours on the safari. The very thing I was trying to avoid with my questions! Day 2 was a full day at Masai Mara. To add, the Lodger we stayed at, Jambo Mara, I really liked.
Day 3 was Lake Nakuru (which in the itinerary I was given we were supposed to go to on day 2). The accommodation, the Waterbuck Hotel is not great. Good breakfast but very rundown rooms with too much noise from outside so it's hard to sleep. Plus no fan or air conditioning.
Day 4 was Lake Naivasha and Hell's Gate, which was supposed to be on day 1. The accommodation, Masada hotel, was better than Waterbuck, bit still not very good and bathroom was quite smelly and mine toilet didn't have a toilet seat.
What I liked about the safari:
1. I enjoyed the actual safari itself and seeing all the animals.
2. I liked Jambo Mara Safari Lodge.
What I didnt like:
1. Not correctly informed about the itinerary of the trip, even though I asked.
2. I did a shared safari and everyone was given a different itinerary (i.e., each person was given a different order and some were told we would do a pre-breakfast drive at Masai Mara, which we didnt do). We were all on the safari for a different amount of days so I think the issue was they were trying to accommodate everyone's different schedules. This should have been explained when I asked.
3. The tour guide didn't explain from day to day where we were going and what we would be doing and seemed annoyed when we would ask for information. We were all quite confused from day to day and were never sure what we would be doing.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Elize
We hardly saw anything that entire trip.
CL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Dissapointing
The experience in Kruger Park was ok but not how we expected, we didnt saw too many animals. We think that our guide wasnt good, he drive for the same part of the park most of the time, we spend our without seeing animals.
We didnt saw any cheetas, leopards and Rhinos. The thing is that most of the time you can see them there, so we think that our guide wasnt good. We’ve been in Tanzania but there is another thing, we really enjoy there, the parks, the tour guide and we saw a lot of animals.
We noticed that many people that pay a lot in the private reserve they has more chances to see animals and different species, I dont know if that a point to consider because they own a lot of animals , and the know exactlu where they are, but is very expensive too. Or maybe the option to drive by yourself could bebetter because you can go everywhere..
Also the communication during the tour with the agency wasnt good (Shinzelle Safaris).
We regret to add Kruger Park in our trip to Africa, that money could worth it, in another place, because we visited Tanzania and Uganda and everything there was amazing.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Was great with communication until we were in country & checked in; after that, it was crickets
Don’t book with Kennafrica - a possible SCAMMER!
When we booked, everything was supposed to be included (transport, accommodations, taxes and all activities. Once we were picked up, our driver said we had to pay park fees which aren’t cheap then upon checkout the hotel made us pay the remaining bill. Then had to go file a police report and still have yet to hear from him, Joseph Too. Luckily we still went but with all the added fees was not a fun surprise.
Don’t use him - go somewhere else to save you time and money!
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Poor communicators, frustrating with many changes
We felt that communication was a huge issue in dealing with Sunsets during the tour. There did not seem to be a single point of contact for the group (e.g. various contact points via Gladys, Haron, Lucy, using the Messages function in the booking app). There were times when calls were not taken, and promised return calls not received.
Changes to the itinerary prior to the tour were not specifically pointed out, and still there were more changes during the tour that were not communicated - these changes impacted some of the key highlights that we had all expected from the original itinerary we had paid for.
It was emotionally and physically exhausting having to deal with all the recurrent problems during the tour, even till late at night.
Initial itineraries indicated that a meeting would be held on Day 1 at 18:00 with the guide and that all members of the group should attend that meeting so as not to miss out on any critical information. This did not occur - we met our guide at the start of day 2. He was surprised to have 7 people on the tour in one vehicle and also at the amount of luggage - which was a problem for him to accomodate safely and securely. No ”PRE-TOUR” information was provided about luggage or clothing requirements, although this had been requested by many of the group members. This resulted in the tour truck being overcrowded with luggage.
There was confusion about where the tour ended - Arusha or Nairobi. 4 of the 7 people on the tour had confirmed that the tour was to end in Arusha and it was up to them to arrange return either to Nairobi or elsewhere. This was not consistent with the name being called a “Circuit” and as it transpired, it became clear (once on the tour) that we could have all been transported back to Nairobi by road to end the tour - but this was not known to those of us who paid additional money to fly from Arusha to Nairobi.
The drivers/tour guides in both Kenya and Tanzania were friendly and helpful, but they were not employed by Sunsets and had limited ability to fix operational issues - other than be the go -between with the company. However the safari drives were good and we saw lots of wonderful animals thankfully.
I would recommend being very careful about arranging a tour with Sunsets of Africa based on our experience.
We had booked through Tourradar who did help us with some monetary compensation on our return - as all 7 of us agreed we had not received what we had paid for.