Brilliant Adventures and Safaris

Good but many hiccups

Overall we had a great safari and were able to see all of the big 5. We went on a safari at the beginning of November 2025 for our honeymoon. We began the planning process over a year before, and communication during the planning process was smooth and easy. We booked a luxury safari as we wanted to splurge for our honeymoon. Our trip was confirmed by October 2024, one year before our arrival. We planned to stay in Arusha one night then go to Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Serengeti and then Zanzibar. We did a private tour.

However there were a few hiccups during our safari that made us feel that Brilliant did not live up to the expectations we had or would expect to receive from a tour provider.

We understand that there were political events that happened on October 29, 2025 during the election process in Tanzania. The internet was shut down by the government and we had not heard from Brilliant prior to our expected arrival on November 3. We understand that this was out of Brilliant's control and so we made the long distance phone calls to contact the company to ask whether continuing our safari would be safe for both our safari guide and ourselves. We did hear other tour providers did call their guests to inform then of the situation unlike Brilliant. However this was a very unfortunate and unforseen incident so we could understand that perhaps our information was not available to Brilliant to reach us. So we did not hold it against Brilliant that all communication the couple days before the safari was on us to call. I would say it would have been appreciated that maybe a week before arrival that it would have been nice for Brilliant to contact us and provide us information prior to the safari and that would have been prior to the October 29 election incident.

Now during the safari. We had several different incidents that made us feel that perhaps Brilliant was not as experienced of a tour provider or one that does luxury safaris. We were greeted by our safari guide in Arusha and had a telephone call with Julieth to go over our planned itinerary. Our driver did not have our plane tickets for our flight from the Serengeti to Zanzibar, which they said we would have to stop in the office to get a copy of but then once we got into the car, our driver said it wouldn't be an issue and we could get the tickets later.

On arrival at Tarangire park, you have to complete registration with the park to enter. At this point internet had just been restored to Tanzania after the election incident so we were prepared that there may be some delays with checking in. However, we were left to wait 2 and a half hours before getting in. It was very disappointing to see literally every other tour group, even groups that arrived after us, be let in and not us. We were not informed what was happening but that there was some issue with the registration. We felt that Brilliant dropped the ball with our park fees or registration given that literally every single vehicle got into the park except us. If this was an internet issue then all tour groups would be delayed and it would not have been just us left to wait over 2 hours before getting in.

The next issue arose on our second day in Tarangire. We booked a night game drive and around 430pm, Julieth text my husband advising that the night game drive (scheduled for 7pm) had been cancelled as the tour operator for the night game drive had been affected by the election incident and did not have any petrol. Julieth advised we would receive a refund. We were disappointed but understood the situation. Then when we were eating our dinner, at our camp Lemala Mpingo Ridge, the Lemala staff asked us why we cancelled our night game drive when it was paid for. We told them we didn't cancel and showed them the WhatsApp message from Julieth. Then the Lemala manager came to discuss this with us. He said that the night game drive had been arranged with Lemala and that the vehicle had been prepared and there was no petrol shortage and they did not know why we were cancelling. They told us we could make the night game drive since we already paid but had to go now as it was leaving. So we rushed to finish dinner and rushed to go on the night game drive. Nobody from Brilliant called us or messaged us to clarify why they told us it was cancelled supposedly because the tour operator had no petrol, when Lemala the operator of the night game drive said the exact opposite and said they never cancelled it. This lead us to believe that Brilliant didn't know who they booked the night game drive with and no communication was made to us, and we almost missed this except for the lovely staff at Lemala catching Brilliant's error. Had it not been for the Lemala staff we would have missed the game drive because Brilliant tpld us it was cancelled. We were disappointed that nobody contacted us after to clarify what happened.

Then in the Serengeti when we checked into the Lemala Nanyukie, we were advised that there was an outstanding balance that needed to be sorted before checking in. We advised we paid in full to Brilliant and to please sort it with them. The Lemala staff said they would let us go to our room and would call Brilliant. Once in the room, the Lemala manager called me in the room to advise that I needed to contact Brilliant as they were saying we had a balance. Luckily Julieth answered my call and she said that she would sort this out. I asked for her to call me after this was sorted to update me. We then went for dinner and after 2 hours still had no update. So we went to talk to the Lemala manager who said his head office was sorting it with Brilliant. Again I would have appreciated if Brilliant contacted me to advise an update instead of me waiting a few hours and getting the update myself. I sent Julieth a message advising her I talked to the Lemala manager and that he said they were sorting it. After that I never received any explanation as to why there was an issue with the booking, but it was not pleasant being told I owed a few thousand dollars upon check in and not even getting a call from Brilliant to explain the situation.

Then upon check out from the Serengeti, we had our flight from the Serengeti to Zanzibar at 11:30am. The day before we discussed with our driver that our flight was 11:30am (last time for check in is 40 minutes before the flight time) and discussed that we would check out at 9am to arrive at the Serengeti airport for 10am. That morning our driver did not show up until 930am saying there were car problems. However he never called or messaged us, we just waited not knowing why he was late. However during the drive I started to get worried as our driver kept stopping and was driving very slowly and I said its almost 1030am and we need to be at the airport by 1050am to make our check in. Our driver was shocked and said I thought your flight was at noon and I said no. He then had to drive like a maniac to get us there in time. I don't understand why our driver would not verify our flight time (when he sent us a copy of the flights) and why I had to clarify this with him when it was planned the day before but this was very stressful especially not knowing the airport rules or how strict they are. We barely made it to the Airstrip to make our flight.

Then in Zanzibar, when we were dropped off by our transfer driver at the resort, he was confirming our pick up time to go to the airport when we leave and said I will get you November 12. We said no, we are not checking out until November 13. He showed us the email from Brilliant telling him to pick us up on November 12. We were confused again why it would say November 12, when they booked our stay and our check out was November 13. This was again another mistake in the process and made us feel that although our trip was planned a year before that somehow Brilliant did not fully plan our trip before arrival.

I left a comment card with Brilliant before we left the Serengeti and advised of some of the communication complaints and the manager for Brilliant emailed me but again nothing was explained. The Tarangire delay was blamed on the internet, when clearly that was not the issue. They said the night game drive proceeded as scheduled, and that there was a petrol issue that caused the confusion but again that is not what we were told by Lemala. Then for the Lamala Nanyukie issue they said that it was a short delay in check in with the payment but that it got sorted. But what we were looking for was some accountability and the truth. We felt we were not told what actually happened by Brilliant and that the excuses they were giving were not truthful.

I did not want to leave a bad review for our driver as he was a lovely individual however we did have a few issues as well. In Ngorongoro he did not know where our camp was and we drove to the wrong camp for him to ask directions. I would expect a driver to confirm camp locations beforehand. Also in the Serengeti there was an issue with gas. Our second to last day we finished our game drive at 2pm and planned our last day to do a game drive from 7am to 12 and then again from 4 to 6pm. When we were picked up at 4pm on our last day in the Serengeti we were told by our driver we needed gas, so he spent 1 hour driving to the gas station to get gas and then the last hour driving back to the camp. I am not sure why our last game drive was just to drive and get gas. A good driver would have gotten gas the day before, when we ended at 2pm or gotten gas during the break from 12 pm to 4pm, it was very disappointing to have our last game drive not even be a game drive but just a drive to get gas.

Although we did ultimately enjoy our time, I do not believe that Brilliant provided a flawless tour. I am not sure if I could recommend them given the number of issues we experienced.