The Safari Soles Team
Safari Soles
- Offices In:
-
United Kingdom
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2018)
- Member Of:
- TTB, KPAP & TAT0
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $300 to $1,800 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
PT
Email Garima | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good experience, but expected better organization for $6,000+
We did a 9-day trip with Safari Soles. Overall, we enjoyed the trip because Tanzania’s wildlife never disappoints—we saw everything, the Big 5 and the Ugly 5. But honestly, if we had gone with any other company, the wildlife part would have been the same. The difference is the service, and for the money we spent (over $6,000), there were too many "hiccups" that really bothered us.
Guide : First, the guide situation felt like a total last-minute decision. We saw reviews mentioning specific guides, but we were assigned a freelancer with no info given to us beforehand. When we met him, he was very quiet. For the first 2 days, we had to ask him for info instead of him telling us. By the end of the trip, we actually became very good friends and he was a great driver/knowledgeable, but when you pay this much, you expect more from day one, not someone you have to warm up for days.
We talked about it to Safari Soles on very first day, they said they'd talk to management. But we're already deep in the parks for 3 days, so there's nothing they can actually do at that point. We just had to accept it and make the best of it which we did eventually.
Food: We told them multiple times "no beef, no pork," but we were still served beef. The guide/lodges clearly weren't informed properly.
Hotel : During the initial discussion we were proposed a booking for Serengeti Safari Haven, but then the company told us there was some "confusion" about availability and moved us to Tukaone Camps instead.
Accommodation Quality: One of our stays (supposed to be mid-range) was the worst night ever. No AC, no fan, and full of mosquitoes. We couldn't sleep at all. At another hotel, they didn't even have our booking on file when we arrived.They don't actually check these places out, or they know they're bad and book them anyway because they're cheap.
Transport: On our day trip to Kilimanjaro, they sent a car with AC not working. We were driving on broken, dusty roads with windows open in the heat.
Overall, the management is nice and very reactive when things go wrong, but these small things add up. When you spend this kind of money, you don't expect to deal with basic issues like booking errors or hot cars. We left wondering if we should have booked with a different operator.
DK
Email Anders | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An overall good experience with room for improvement
What we liked
- Our main contact person (Boniface) was super quick at responding and always very friendly and informative.
- The lodge we mainly stayed at (Arusha Farm House) was beautifully constructed, had a nice garden with pool, bar and sofas and a well equipped gym
- Both the safaris at Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro were absolutely amazing and we saw many of the animals that we hoped to see
- Between the two safari days we stayed at Suricata Boma Lodge, which blew our minds with its stunning views over Lake Manyara, friendly staff and authentically designed rooms
- Our guide on the Foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro tour (Balthazary) was happy and cheerful, and very knowledgeable. He shared lots of stories and facts about the places we visited, giving us insights into the life of the Tanzanian people today.
The coffee farm was also an incredible experience. We were given thorough insights into the production of coffee, from coffee berry to processing, and finally, to drinking it. It was the best coffee we have had in years, and the lunch we were given was the best food of our two weeks in Tanzania.
What could be improved
- The food was generally of a low quality. On the last day of our time with Safari Soles, one of us had a severe stomach infection (Campylobacter) because of the food. As we are writing, it has been two weeks since we came home and the infection has still not gone away. No guests should ever experience this again and we hope that this will be looked into.
- Although Arusha Farm House was beautiful on the outside, it was a terrible experience in. The acustics were awful, our entrance card had to be activated every day, the bed was hard, there was no hand soap, only half of the sockets worked, there were no bed lights and in the end, our toilet got clogged. Luckily, many of these things can be fixed quite easily and we really hope that this will be improved going forward.
- Our safari guide (Abouu) was mostly very quiet and did not communicate a lot with us. This was especially present on the first day in Tarangire National Park where he several times drove on, although we wanted to see the animals for longer, e.g. the giraffes, that we only saw once.
After we posted the above review, the owner of Safari Soles got back to us with a long and sincere response. He apologized for our inconveniences and promised to follow up with the relevant parties. Although it does not change the mixed experiences we had with Safari Soles, we very much appreciated the sincerity in this response.