Reviews
Email Juliet | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Stay away from Solaris Tours & Safaris, a scam tour operator!!
Thank you Safari Bookings! It’s about time this “fraudster Solaris Tours & Safaris” finally be stopped & be exposed for their fraudulent activities as tour operator in Kenya. We became victims ourselves and only recently. Solaris Tours & Safaris a scam , liars and no credibility at all to be in a position as Safari tour operators. To start with, they will offer you, perhaps cheaper than other operators , smooth itinerary & professionally done & impressive (who would have thought...) but reality is once you paid them full 6 months in advanced for all your accommodations, park fees, entrance fees, etc. when we start our supposedly once in a lifetime safari experience, it was all a nightmare!! Complete & utterly nightmare, words not even enough to describe our disgust with Solaris Tours & Safaris. Angry, understatement! All bunch of liars!!! You’re a disgrace to your own country!! Shame on all of you at Solaris!!! You should be all ashamed of yourselves for giving Kenyan tourism in Safari a very bad reputation. Even your Tanzanian counterpart, who witnessed first hand how you operate your scam doesn’t want to do future business with you . To all unsuspecting victims, please don’t use Solaris Tours & Safaris, not too late yet to save yourselves ....
Email Judy | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
This company misappropriates client funds
The itinerary looked good, with 3-4 star hotels on a 14 day safari in Kenya and Tanzania. The reality was a disaster.
1. The itinerary offered a 4WD. In Kenya, we were given a 2WD van (for 6 of us). Had 8 seats so only room for 2 to stand at a time. Van very uncomfortable and not suited AT ALL to Kenyan conditions. Masai Mara in particular has many 4WD roads only, including the road to the border. Because of the van, we were forced to spend 9 hours going around the park to the border instead of 3 hours through the park. Cost us a day as we didn't get through the border until 6 p.m. and couldn't then drive 5 hours to our next stop in Serengeti until next day.
2. Driver/guide in Kenya was a disgrace. His driving was downright terrifying, and his guiding non-existent. He didn't communicate with us and I didn't even know he spoke english until the end of the second day when there was an accommodation problem. My requests to Solaris to replace the driver and vehicle were ignored.
3. We only stayed in the hotels shown in our itinerary for 5 of the 13 nights. All others were a downgrade, once to a place with no water in showers. Looking on TA, the prices for the quoted hotels was about $300+ pn pp, the ones we stayed in as low as $120. Once in Tanzania, our guide there (fortunately we'd left Joe and his van in Kenya) tried his best to get us accommodated each night, and spent hours on the phone cajoling and fighting with the Solaris office staff. He was terrific and his company Cross to Africa to be recommended.
4. Game park fees, included in our itinerary, were paid in Kenya but not in Tanzania. We ended up more than US$2100 out of pocket as we had to pay our own way in. There have been repeated promises to repay the amounts, but of course nothing came of them.
5. I have reported this company to the Kenyan Tourism Regulatory Authority, and trust that they will soon be out of business. The best outcome would be to see the "Boss" and the directors charged with misappropriation of funds and theft. I live in hope! Sadly, when people ask about our East Africa experience, my response is that Uganda and Tanzania are fantastic, but tread warily in Kenya.
US
Email Anonymous | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Solaris is an absolute fraud, DO NOT BOOK YOUR SAFARI WITH THEM. If I could give 0 stars, I would.
Solaris Safaris is an absolute fraud, DO NOT BOOK YOUR SAFARI WITH THEM.
We booked a 6-night safari with Solaris in Tanzania. We prepaid everything in two installments, as they required, and they promised to provide 6 nights of hotels, all of our park fees, a private car/driver for the two of us, and all of our meals while on safari. In short, they provided almost none of these things and we ended up paying additional thousands of dollars to keep our safari going that has not been refunded to us despite many promises from the company that it would be.
Hours after we arrived, the problems began. Our driver (who was not a Solaris employee, but rather a local guide contracted by Solaris) was several hours late to pick us up because Solaris did not provide the necessary funds and information for our trip to begin. We missed out on a few hours of game drives that day, and Solaris had not organized our lunch for us. Later that evening, our local driver came to find us at the lodge to tell us that Solaris was supposed to have sent him money that evening for the next day but had not yet. We had to call Solaris several times to try and figure out the issue and they wouldn't do anything for us. The next morning, our driver was again several hours late because Solaris kept telling him they'd send money and never did. We ended up having to pay our driver directly for 4 of the 6 days out of pocket on top of what we had already paid - this was required up front to allow our driver to get enough fuel for our 4 days in the Serengeti where there are only dirt roads and no gas stations. We also had to pay for all of our park entrance fees, which were supposed to have been included, plus a balance on our final hotel. We ended up paying another 50% on top of the total trip cost while on the ground in Tanzania just to continue our trip. Meanwhile, Solaris kept telling us everything would be fine and they would sort it out and this never, ever happened. We wasted several expensive hours on the phone with them instead of in the parks doing game drives.
At the end of our safari, Solaris agreed to refund us everything we paid out of pocket and set a date to do so a few weeks later. We never received the refund after several reminders and emails to them, and they have stopped responding to our emails. This company is an absolute fraud. We have reason to believe they embezzled this money for their own personal gain.
Email Martin | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best adventures in safari i have seen in a long time.
My wife and i travelled on our honeymoon throughout the serengeti, Ngorogori and Tangire National Park. Our tour guide was phillipo who was absolutely incredible over our 5 days adventure from the start to finish.our guide drove for hours and answered any questions we had with pleasure and an upbeat attiude.for anyone considering a safari in Tanzania, we highly recommend **Solaris Tours and Safaris.**
NL
Email Kawila | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Heading- A Great and Memomorable Safari
Communication and service and safari itself was good.So next time I choose again for Solaris Tours and Safaris.
Email Tobias | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent service
Good day, just want to take this opportunity to congratulate Solaris Tours and Safaris for a unforgettable tour and the precious memories build on our 10 day Kenyan safari holiday. The tour was professionally planned and conducted in each and every way imaginable and the fact that we will not use any other tour operator, speaks for itself.
DE
Email Luck Maingo | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
we are so happy to be with our Guido and his office
We had an incridible time! Tanzania is an unbelievable place! The landscape and surroundings of the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti are just wonderful! The Guidoguide Philipo was a professional and knew the whereabouts of the animals in all the parks. During our Safari we where lucky enough to see the famos wildebeest migration and lion kill, absolutely surreal experiens. We surely recommend Solaris Tours and Safaris to any one interested in visiting East Africa.
Email AJ | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience
It was really well done!!! Had a great experience!! I enjoyed so much!! I would recommend it for sure!!
Email wahida | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
they know what to deliver to their clients
Wow, what a tour company and great, i have really enjoyed to be of their servise, actually they know there job perfect, communication skills are perfect, which i find very poor in other tour, in case i choose again for safari, definately i will go back to them
Bravo guys, good team and strong spirit, keep it up
They are always there to make yu happy and informed at a timely fashion
Email Patricia | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect structuring
I can't help but recommend them to anyone and everyone.because you get your money's worth