One of our experienced guide and staffs
Bienvenido Kenya Tours and Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 1992)
- Member Of:
- American Society of Travel Agents
- Tour Types:
- Budget & mid-range tours with set start dates and a fixed itinerary
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $103 to $460 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
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Reviews
Email Tim | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Could do better
4 Day Masi Mara & Lake Nakuru
Communication in booking was ok, payed deposit and balance on arrival, some questions asked wasn’t answered or content missing.
The first half of our trip was great the second part not so great, the pick up was ok as we meet at the organised place, we had Joseph as our driver who drove for 4 hours had a lunch stop then another 3 hrs to our camp, this was as expected, apart from no running cold water was ok, our game drives from here went well with Joseph giving information during these.
When it was time to leave for our next destination (lake Nakuru) this was roughly 100km but the route taken was far more taking almost 8hrs with a lunch stop and pick up passengers that were also from our same camp.
We changed drivers during the lunch stop, our new driver Edu was extremely erratic almost crashing on numerous occasions, we finally arrived at our hotel where the driver gave no information about what times to meet or any details to help out.
After dinner the driver finally gave us info at 10pm for a meet up at 6:30 to check out and take our game drive at lake Nakuru.
When we arrived at the gate the driver informs us that he forgot to purchase the tickets for entry and they wouldn’t accept cash, so we had to pay for ourselves and the other passengers or we wouldn’t be going, the driver gave us the cash for this but not all as he never had enough change!
During the drive he never gave any information and was speeding around not stopping long when needed, and kept moving the vehicle when we were trying to take photos.
When we left we thought we was heading back to Nairobi as this was our agreed place for drop off, except we went in the opposite direction to pick up more passengers even though there wasn’t enough seats, so one had to sit on a cool box.
After this on our way to Nairobi we crashed into the back of another jeep as he was going to fast in the wet! After this the driving never changed almost crashing another couple of times. When we finally arrived in Nairobi after driving round for 45mins, we kept trying to get info as we had a flight to catch and others had their destinations to get to.
Our agreement was drop off at the collection point and given a time to arrange flights, if I’d had followed these we would of missed our flight due to the extra time spent travelling around rather than going direct to our locations.
I had to call the head office about this while still being driven round Nairobi as the driver was laughing about the situation.
I wouldn’t recommend these as I’m sure some of the journeys could have been a lot shorter giving more time to relax before taking drives and allowing a less stressful time for all.
This wasn’t the experience we was expecting after all that had been payed out
GH
Email Leila | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Poor management, lack of flexibility but great guide
Before confirming our tour with Bienvenido Kenya Tours and Safaris, I made sure to ask explicitly if the place we were going to stay at was the one I had mentioned, even sending a link for reference. To our surprise, the camp they confirmed via email had nothing to do with the one I had asked about. They offered us another camp for a much higher price. We suggested splitting the additional costs, but they refused.
I don't think they intended to scam us, but their lack of flexibility and taking responsibility for their mistake left a bad taste. However, the two employees we dealt with remained polite, but it was not their call to make things right. I blame the director/CEO who didn't want to discuss the matter at all or take any final accountability despite recognizing their mistake.
On a positive note, Nico, our guide, was fantastic. He knew a lot, was happy to answer questions, and was just a really nice person to spend time with during those two days.
DE
Email Eunice | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our tour was poorly organized,never again
We booked a 4days tour with Purity to Mara and Nakuru,before the payments communication was fast and good.Afterwards on day 3 when we ended up in Naivasha and had to pack for 4hrs with no clear information from our tour guide who also seemed stressed the whole tour and couldn’t answer our questions and had to confirm everytime from the management.We contacted Purity for clarification and promised to call us back which she never did and her phone was off for the rest of the day.The guide had to ask us where we were to sleep in Nakuru since he couldn’t get any information.In short a whole day wasted just driving.Day 4 was a mess but we didn’t expect anything better,all we wanted is to get back to Nairobi,we left at 6:30am went for the game drive till11am thereafter the other guests were to be dropped somewhere to join other groups as we proceed to Nairobi,the dropoff point was not clear and had to stop again in Naivasha for almost 2hrs though lunch was offered after we complained to the guide .We reached Nairobi after 5pm very tired.Book at your own risk,never again.
US
Email Juanita | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Poor service
I booked an 8 day Kenya/Tanzania safari for my 2 children and I. Purity was amazing to work with prior to leaving my home country. She was very responsive and even went to the embassy on my behalf when I was having problems with my visa. However, once on the safari things started to go wrong. We were picked up from Nairobi and took the long drive to Masai Mara, we did an evening game drive that first day and was brought to our tent camp for the night. Camp was very basic, only had working electricity in the main cafeteria area, so had only a few hours to charge devices. The 2nd day was a full day game drive and visit to Masai village which was wonderful. Day 3 (which was my birthday) is where the itinerary changed. We were supposed to visit Lake Nakuru for a safari boat tour, but that was canceled, there were no other plans for the day besides to drive back to Nairobi and go to a hotel, the next day the plans were to drive from Nairobi to Tanzania and check into hotel upon arrival. That was 2 days back to back filled with just driving. That was not fair to my kids or myself as that was not in the itenerary and I did not pay for 2 days of driving. I emailed purity as I was unsure of what to do and she apologized for the inconvenience. I decided to cancel and book with a different company as I really did not want to spend the entire next day driving. I asked to be dropped off at the airport and took a flight to Tanzania and was picked up from another tour company and had an exceptional experience. Essentially I paid more for the 3 days I was with this company than the 5 days with the second one. The food provided was very subpar, for lunch having boxed sandwiches with cucumber and tomato. Our tour guide was nice however not very helpful with telling us about the things we were seeing. It was a very frustrating experience to say the least, but I am glad it ended on a more positive note with a different company. Please do your research prior to booking. Research the lodges, the amount of driving that will be done and if possible request a specific tour guide. I was hoping for a very positive learning experience for my kids and that was not the case. I also requested a hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara and was told that would be available at an extra cost and was not available to us while there.
DE
Email Thomas | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Changed the program. I had to stay 1 day in a not booked hotel without any program. Never again
During the Safari my program was changed by Bienvenido Tours. I had wait 1 day and night for another group from a different tour company to continue the trip. I lost 1 1/2 days with waiting in the accomodation and waiting for the other Minivan. I even had to pay the hotel that I booked after the Safari and couldnt use because of the delay. Bienvenido Tours didnt accept a money refund. I'd not book with this company again. The Mara, Nakuru and Amboseli are wonderful places to see. The accomodations in the parks are very basic, but that I knew before