Kenya Safari Bookings
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Tour Types:
- Small & medium group tours (Budget & mid-range)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $100 to $350 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
US
Email Carolyn K Davis | 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.
Email Liam and Jessica March | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
words can barely describe!
My experience of the masimara please read!!!
Day one consisted of the guide being 30 minutes late we were escorted into the mini bus after asking for a jeep as it was only me and my wife for the entire trip. We were asked for payment upfront that was £770 the guy who took the cash made it very clear to me and my wife that this did not include a tip! After around 10 minutes the guy who took the cash left the minibus ( I’m assuming to go back to the office) the guide and the “cook” Hardly spoke to me and my wife the majority of the journey.
When we got to the off-road road for the masimara we had seen many different animals like the zebra giraffe etc, we didn’t get to stop to take a photo of these animals but instead had to wait until we had got to the masimara. On another part of the off-road there was another minibus that had got stuck so our driver Sammy and the “cook” got out the car and abandoned me and my wife with the the vehicle. At this point we were then surrounded by the locals (children and adults ) it took around 20 minutes for our guide to return, we then continued with our trip
We finally reached the masimara and had gone on our first game drive for 2 hours. our drive consisted of what looked like Sammy catching up with his colleagues. And towing more people out of the mud. We saw an elephant which he did not stop so we could take photos! This was a very bad first game drive.
Day two of the masimara. We had woken up early to get a start in our long day of game drive, at first I was very disappointed in the lack of water available to me and my wife after all this was included in that £770 price. We drove around for a while taking photos of animals it was very hard to get a photo as Sammy wouldn’t stop moving the bus but just drove slowly. We had to ask him a few times to stop the vehicle before he finally got it! During our drive Sammy decided to go off road in the masimara ( this is not allowed) to see cheetah cubs. We just about got to where they were hiding before we turned around and returned to the road. This was because the KWS had spotted Sammy going off road. Sammy and a few other guides got out of the vehicles and spoke to the KWS (Kenya wildlife services) my wife took a photo of Sammy bribing the KWS (we thought he was paying a fine). when Sammy finally arrived back in the car we asked him what was going on. He told us he had to pay $30 to see the cheetah cubs as off roading is not allowed, this is around 3000 ksh just over. We then proceeded to drive to the cubs though I had asked Sammy not to and just let the cubs be. And I must admit when we got to the cheetah cubs they were beautiful we took a photo but felt terrible doing so. Not to mention they were not good photos because Sammy would not keep the vehicle still. We proceeded on with our drive and it was finally lunch time. We were starving! So my wife is vegan and when arranging the tour online my wife had told the office she was vegan in multiple occasions and when my wife told the cook she was vegan he was shocked after finding out what a vegan was, and asked if she ate chicken. That part is not important but it was funny. Anyway more to the point. We hadn’t eaten much before lunch and when we sat down to have our picnic she unwrapped her sandwich to find she had butter on her bread! It was a good job a monkey stole that sandwich because this was just another example of how unorganised this company really was!
Day 3 this was our final game drive after telling Sammy a few times we did not want to see the masih villages, we headed out! We took the same route as the day before and the day before that but it was a good job we went the same way again as we saw a family of lions! This was probably the best part of our trip. We stayed there for a while before everyone else started swarming in and then we left. On the way back to the gate one of the other drivers had asked Sammy if we can take some one past the gate on the way out. Now bare in mind me and my wife paid for a private tour this was that £770 I mentioned. Sammy had agreed to this and we would stop and talk to this lady and even drive past animals we wanted to photograph the drive back to the gate took around an hour.
Sammy treated our tour as he would a group tour. We would watch animals for as long as he deemed necessary he was on his phone for most of the safari either talking or texting and on a few occasions even in social media (Facebook) a few times me and my wife heard him make jokes to his colleagues about the coronavirus ( covid19 ) this wasn’t funny! And I was very annoyed by this!
I would rate this safari tour with 2 stars as from start to finish as we were greeted with just pure unprofessionalism. This tour was unprofessional disrespectful to the animals and unethical.
I ask anyone that is thinking of going with this safari tour company to please rethink! I regret my decision booking with this company!