HK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It’s safe for me to travel with my guide.
I think my guide is average.
It’s my second time doing safari in Africa.
I paid quite a lot for a private tour this time as the designated dates and duration of group tour are quite hard to match my own schedule. But I feel a bit disappointed as I didn’t get better service than last time. I feel safe to be with my guide. But he definitely needs rooms of improvement for photo taking skills as the photos are often tilted for no reason.
Also my guide always asked me to help him take photos in my phone and then send him back. I think it’s an inappropriate action. It’s like a few times per day but not one or two times. I sometimes feel a bit annoyed about it as I’m not supposed to be his photographer. I’m the one who paid!
PL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Could be better...
The contact during the booking was OK - they were quick and detailed in their responses. We exchanged many emails, but none of them mentioned that the Boteti River has been completely dry for several years. However, about two weeks before our arrival (when everything was confirmed and fully paid) we received an email informing us about the change of plan due to drought. The Boteti River does not exist, the Okavango Delta in the part we visited is completely dry!!! If we had been informed about the lack of water in the Delta, we would not have come and spent such a huge amount of money! It was supposed to be an experience of a lifetime, but it was a huge disappointment :(
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Tarangire National Park by Arisa
There are definitely a lot of elephants here, but the landscape isn't as captivating as the Serengeti.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Arisa
There wasn't as much life here as I expected. We also did a canoe safari the afternoon we were here. It was a nice break from being in the jeep.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
The employees are wonderful, Lochinvar as a company ?
I suggest customers thoroughly research safarirs confirm where you are staying and the costs that are not included in the trip. There may be a lot of surprises. This was only the beginning of my 3 separate bad experiences.(the other 2 were Kenya julimas safaris (demanding cash for park entry fees). I googled and called the park and confirmed they accept credit cards)and Sabilom Kenya tours. (They canceled the balloon option after collecting $900, then offered, only after asking, $675.
I didn’t have to pay extra for Hwange Park because I chose not to agree with the “change.
” there was supposed to be a waiver. I never saw a waiver. Unfortunately, a lady on our budget trip was charged extra to go to hWange Park(according to her). I was told, She was advised to cancel that Hwange park game Drive and go to Zambizi Park instead. I was told they cited dangerous roads as the reason for the “change”She said she wasn’t granted any partial refund for the lesser Park, but says she felt intimidated in to canceling the hwange park. We went anyway( my partner and I refused to cancel Hwange) and she had to pay $420 extra cash or they would not take her, but we were going anyway . How can that cost $420 extra when it was included initially? . I feel bad for her and for all the other travelers that may have done the same thing and canceled that hWange Park. It was lovely. So many animals and the roads were the usual bumpy dirt roads but nothing serious. In the future, I would spend a little more money and get better hotels and be much more aware of the itinerary and reconfirm in writing.
Dealing with her problems($420) for the entire 8 days was troublesome. Mark( the owner I think) even asked my partner to write up a release for the customers to sign!!! I was there on vacation!
By the way Victoria Falls was dried up on the Zambia side.
I also want to say the The best company I’ve ever used for booking tours is: “Get Your Guide” they care, and have assisted in getting my refunds. The lady says tour radar has not helped yet to recover her $420 , that she feels was an over payment.
Make no mistake their employees are very good!! Fines, Cynthia, Lucky
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly recommend our guide Peta but not this agency Unscripted Safaris
We don't appreciate the dishonesty or carelessness that Lewis (our contact guy of Unscripted Safari) has shown during the whole thing.
1. We first reached different agencies under the same term that we (a group of 8 people) will use 2 Landcruisers. But when we arrived, there was only one. Lewis said it could fit us all, or we can pay $300 per day (it is a 8-day safari) extra for another vehicle. It is ridiculous.
2. We stayed in Massai Mara for 3 nights. When discussing the change of the accommodation, we double checked with Lewis that extra payment was $50 in total, not per night. Until a week before our arrival to Kenya, he said he had misspoken, it should be $150 added in total. The new camp is great but the communication should be less careless.
3.The biggest problem is with the Crescent Island. The boat took us to a fake island while charged us each $60. As we pointed out, the boat guy didn’t take us to the real Crescent Island right away, instead he waited for the call from our agency. We believe it is a common trick played in tourism here. Be alert.
In all, we had an unforgettable experience in Kenya, especially our guide Peta is great, very experienced and helpful. But the business here need more transparency and regulation.
IE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Mixed experience but kept asking for 5 star review
We had a mixed experience on our 4 day safari. Our first three days were very good, but our final day they changed our group and car which led to a lot of sitting on side of road or on curb waiting. We were never communicated with about what was happening. If you have the same group/guide I say you'll have a better experience but we were not told till 10pm before our 6am tour start that we were to have two different groups. We found the communication poor - at the end when they meet you they kept pushing for us to give 5 star review rather than listening to our experience and feedback. The food on the tour was excellent and our jeep was very good.
SI
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Very unprofessional and disruptive to mix different budgets (accommodations) in the same tour
So the feelings are mixed.
We did a 4 day safari with them, including Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire.
The driver David was very good and knowledgeable and we are really happy about him, his skills and the professionalism from his side. 10/10 for the driver himself.
Food was good (our chef was Richard). First night in a lodge was nice. Second night in Serengeti camp wasn't the best (facilities were super dirty and shower was only cold, but maybe also rain had something to do with it), but Ngorongoro camp was just lovely.
However, there were lot's of organizational issues that did significantly bother us.
What they did is they put 7 people from different companies and with different accomodations in the same vehicle - meaning that everytime everyone had to be delivered and picked up at a different location (sometimes literally 1 hour apart), so we lost a lot of time every single evening and then morning for pickups (things also didn't go so smooth with packing up) - very sadly on the account of our precious time for game drives (keep in mind that the best time to see animals is as early in the morning as possible). The 7th person was put in the last minute and so there wasn't any space left for our cook, which made it very inconvenient form him and us trying to find ways to get him to our destinations.
The driver wasn't really aware about plans of different people in our vehicle after the end of this trip - like that half of the group was supposed to continue the tour and that the rest were to go to the airport, and this wasn't communicated and caused some confusion, we also were not really sure about our luggage pickup (we were told to pack light and so we left half of the luggage at our hotel, to be delivered to the airport pickup on the last day).
So as said, the lack of organization did really bother us and we're not happy about this.
We've done many safaris elsewhere and nowhere in the world did "a sharing safari" mean different accomodations (but instead just a mixed random group of people, enjoying the same standard of the trip). I don't know how it seems to be the norm in Tanzania, as if everyone is doing it - we were joined by people from agencies like Serengeti African Tours and another company and they all said that they just share clients all the time.
Now I don't wanna be that "nothing was ok" person, but I just have to mention this -
we ran out of soda and wine on the second day (how can you promise wine, beer and soda with our meals and then provide only 1 bottle of wine for 7 people for 4 days?
The animals and the guide shed a nice light on the whole experience, but I have to say that organization-wise, this was by far the worst experience we've had in any safari. So my advice here seems to be - just take the cheapest tour as it obviously makes zero sense to pay more for a "preferably better company", or maybe make sure that people in your group will have the same standard or accommodations, to make things go smoothly.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Subpar. It would have been great to see the Falls
It was fun. Try to visit when the Falls aren’t dry
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Friendly but wish the company was more proactive in communicating with the tour group
Philip from African Wildlife plains was friendly and chose amazing accommodation regarding our safari experience -we stayed at a beautiful place called Kapama Lodge, myself and the group certainly felt that this was a highlight of the trip. However, I do think overall he could have been more proactive in his communication with us, often we were contacting him to find out logistics of the trip. For example, we were asking for our flight details and this would often only be sent on the day or evening before our flight (very anxiety provoking and although he might of been wanting us to trust that he would handle it) as a group we felt that if he has sent this to us in good time, we would be less anxious overall of how were were transferring on each leg of the journey. As a psychologist, I really feel that more open and transparent communication and information not less is always best for people.
A further example, on our second leg of our holiday to Victoria Falls, it would have been helpful to stress that international tourists required a multi entry visa to cross the boarder from Zimbabwe to Zambia (we were staying in Zambia) but we were flying out back on the Zimbabwe side and would need to cross the boarder and pay again at the end of this leg to do so. In addition, since it was low season at the falls, on the Zambia side (which we were staying on) we would not see much of the falls. The group wanted to to go over the Zimbabwe side to see this extraordinary world wonder (it truly is) and so bought a multi entry visa at this point, had he just clarified this upfront and the costs for this (some of our group didn't have the cash on hand), it would have made things much easier for us to navigate. Secondly, we were looking forward to engaging with him at the end of this leg before we traveled to Stellenbosch and he did not meet us for a meet and greet even though it was indicated that he would do this as well as I was told the night before traveling back to Cape Town that they were not going to transfer us to our accommodation even though its was indicated as such. Overall I think better organization in terms of communicating proactively with the group, sending all relevant documentation well in advance to everyone and updating information in good time when plans change would have helped us a great deal. If you want to go on an excellent safari experience, this group is great just ensure that you have all the information before hand, ask for updated itineraries and tickets before you leave to ensure you have not missed something.