Owned and managed by Magda Vrijs and Edward Mollel
Flash Safaris and Photography
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2005)
- Member Of:
- TATO & TTB
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $250 to $950 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
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Email Brad and Marlene | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Created great memories and opportunities for amazing wildlife viewing.
Flash was very good at communicating before the trip. Henry responded to our questions immediately by email and we had several video conference calls as well.
We did a private, camping safari, where we stayed in the public campsites in a tent. We enjoyed the campsites and being in the middle of everything. We did stay at a private campsite the first night at Lake Manyara, Migombani Campsite, it was really great. I would hope Flash would include that in all their camping itineraries.
The animals were amazing! We saw so many things. Our guide and cook took good care of us.
Our only negative was the condition of our particular safari vehicle was not good and we had multiple breakdowns. We missed some game drive time because of this.
Otherwise the safari was great.
US
Email Erick | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great Expierence and our Guide, Adam - Awesome!
Having just returned from probably the most memorable holiday and we contribute this to Flash Safari. The company was recommended by friends and, after having been daunted by the multiple millions of Safari companies out there, it was a huge relief to be able to have a reliable organization to contact. They were efficient and helpful right from the start. All communications were quickly replied to, advice and alternatives offered where appropriate and recommendations for everything we required. Our experience was superb through the entire trip to the various national parks.Tented camps were far more substantial than they sound and the facilities were remarkable. Small and personal, full of character and an absolute treasure. The food in each was excellent and we enjoyed the ambiance and their attention to each visitor.
Adam, our driver, guide and on a couple of occasions mechanic was the best! He was absolutely brilliant! We swear he could spot any animal a mile away and knew the area like it was his back yard. He found us everything we could possibly have asked for and much, much more. In addition he certainly respected Nature, and was hugely knowledgeable about the parks. He was sensitive to the domain of the animals and was careful not to disturb anything in the parks. A true gent, and great fun too.
We would recommend Flash to anyone wanting an absolutely exceptional safari, and hope to get a chance to relive their delights on another occasion ourselves. Requesting Adam as your guide would only add to the experience and highly recommended.
NL
Email Margriet | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Walking safari Arusha National PArk
Our last day in Tanzania (after work)we booked the walking safari at Flash safari's. The car, the game driver, the lunch, water, koffie tea, was good as usual with Flash. I can recommend the Walking Safari. It's a great experience to walk and "nearly touch" a giraf, buffalo etc. The Arusha national park is small but has a lot of animals. The walking safari goes to the foot of The Mount Meru and is a nice walk, safe with a ranger (with rifle) to join you.
The driver brought us to a nice little shop with textile to buy some souveniers and we arrived in time at the airport.
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Email Emily | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great trip
The trip was great - the Flash team met us at the hotel when we arrived, and gave us a quick debrief of what to expect over the next few days. They were really friendly and communicative. Everything was well organized, we didn't run into any issues.
CH
Email sue & tony & noa | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
perfect, except the vehicle
our guide was absolutely perfect! Halisi Camp was soso. The vehicle was poor!
HK
Email GZ | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
very good experience, friendly staff, helpful guides
amazing trip as expected. guides were caring and helpful. Food was good. Accommodation was exceptional.
HK
Email Jeff | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari/ Kilimanjaro
the Safari was generally smooth sailing and bar the disappointment of not seeing the Rhino, it was very enjoyable. John is a very knowledgeable guide and a great spotter! The tented lodge are very comfortable, complete with shower, running water and flushing toilets. Food was very good too and the pre dinner camp fire is also something to look forward to each time.
Kilimanjaro - had a very enjoyable climb and John and his team are very professional and experienced. The ascent was successful, all of us made it, and this is largely because of his team efforts to ensure we have maximum chance. John had 2 experienced porters together with his 2 assist. guides and himself to accompany the 5 of us up Kilimanjaro. A point to note is the gears that the porters have are mostly very basic and old, so I would encourage future visitors to bring their old gears in using conditions and donate to the team.
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Kenners met smaak en inlevingsvermogen
Een fantastische reis! Niet alleen qua samenstelling, de sfeer die je als extraatje mee krijgt was slagroom op de taart. Je wordt opgenomen in een familie van lokale gidsen, wat als thuiskomen voelt. Magda stelt haar netwerk voor je open om het beste van het beste te kunnen verzorgen en regelen. Daar waar de planning door welke omstandigheid ook, moet worden aangepast, worden alternatieven voorgelegd en besproken. Helder en eerlijk.
Tanzania heeft haar mooiste kant aan ons laten zien en met al veel landen in onze rugzak, is zij degene waar we zeker nog een keer terug zullen komen. De bemiddeling van Flash heeft daar een belangrijke bijdrage aan geleverd. TOP!
PL
Email Leszek, Marcin and family | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Please do not make a mistake of booking your safari with Flash
We recently came back from a safari with Flash. We couldn’t have been more disappointed. Not only their cars are broken, they don’t pay their drivers and they also tried denying obvious problems we experienced during our trip which we have video proof of.
The Car:
4wd drive didn’t work. This caused us and other people to be put in a life-threatening situations when for example the car was sliding down a very steep hill, unable to go up without being pushed up by another car after our driver, Jerry, with help of drivers from other companies tried fixing it with a RUBBER BAND FROM THE ROOF-LOCKING MECHANISM. This wasn’t the only case when someone had to push us. The gears didn’t really work either. Going uphill, on an asphalt road with a speed limit of 80 km/h, their car could reach a maximum speed of 20 km/h, causing massive traffic jams behind us. Going down, we of course were able to reach 80 km/h easily. If that wasn’t enough, the car’s shock absorber broke down on the second day. We know that accidents happen, but during our trip it was mostly Flash cars that we saw broken on the side of the road.
The Unpaid Driver:
On the last day after finishing the safari, our driver dropped us off at our hotel and we were getting ready for a well-deserved sleep. Half an hour later we were shocked to see him knocking at our doors in tears. It turned out that HE DID NOT GET PAID A SINGLE DOLLAR from Flash. That’s disgusting! As he explained, all his money comes from tips. We omitted them, because Flash assured us that everything is already paid for and we were really irritated with our safari on the last day because of continuous problems with the car and Flash’s inability to deliver a quality service.
The Lies:
“Nowadays at most part of our roads there is a speed limit of 50 km per hours and you must have seen all the police control posts. In the parks there is also a maximum speed limit and I want our guides to hold to this as we can lose our permit.” - that’s clearly not what we were talking about. We have video proof of car struggling at 20 km/h on a road with 80 km/h speed limit.
“I asked Jerry about the starting problems, he told me that this did happen once and then some people had to push the car to get it started, there were no other incidents” - It happened numerous times, with the most dangerous incident on a steep hill where another car had to push us. Not only we have a video proof of that, at that time in our car, there were also other Flash clients whose car broke down completely earlier that day.
“Jerry also told us that he never used a rubber to fix or repair the 4WD, you must have taken that wrong.” - again, on that day we were accompanied by other people who have also seen it. Jerry clearly told us that he has a problem with activating 4WD and this rubber would hopefully temporarily solve the issue.
We asked: “Please clarify for me how much was driver paid by your company. We want to understand how big is the tipping part of his total salary. Please confirm that our driver was paid by the company (what was the amount?) and that our tips were only the form of extra bonus for him.”
To which they replied that “Jerry get paid a good salary”.
Well clearly if your driver comes up to our room after safari in tears something is wrong.
“On the way to the crater you indeed met with another car from Flash Safaris, it is very common that guides do help each other. Jerry stopped and you talked with the other clients. Then you asked Jerry to help and to take the clients with you. I really appreciate your gesture in this.” - Just shows how “good with words” Edward, the company’s co-owner tried to be in his emails. Of course, we accepted the other people on board (for the whole day) because your car broke down completely and they were stuck in full sun for few hours with small kids in the middle of nowhere and you didn’t manage to secure a replacement car!
SUMMARY:
4WD not working, problems with gears above 2, car not starting, broken shock-absorber, dishonest management unable to even admit the obvious problems, driver working for 0$ for 5 days in extreme conditions.
If you don’t want this to happen to you, just choose another company.
Reply from Flash Safaris and Photography
Posted on Sep 30, 2019Dear Marcin,
Greetings and thank you for reviewing your safari with us. I am really sorry to hear that your safari was not as per your expectations.
You have been in contact several times with my business partner Edward Mollel, as from the beginning he has had contact with our safari guide Jerry, network allowing. The 4WD safari car is equipped with a GPS tracking system and as explained to you previously , we could cover for lost time , furthermore your guide arranged that you could enjoy maximum time in all the parks to cover for lost time.
It is for sure not our intention to ignore any complaint from you. We thrive to provide our guests an unforgettable safari in our beautiful country hence the fantastic reviews online.
Meanwhile, we have taken steps that in the future this will not happen again, although this is a very common problem that can happen to any company whom are taking guests on safari, nevertheless, It's our strong opinion that we have conducted your safari according to our good standards and once again we do apologize for the inconvenience caused.