Golden Trips Tanzania

Excellent on safari, not so good in the pre-trip organisation

We booked a three night Serengeti safari, through Golden Trips Tanzania. First thing to say, is that Dan, our guide and driver was fantastic. Freindly and knowledgable, he did everything he could to give us an amazing experience, and it was fantastic, and none of what I talk about below was his fault. He was brilliant.

However, the arrangements before we got to Tanzania is another story. At first the company was great. Very flexible when costing up different scenarios and happy to suggest lodges and areas to visit. Great. We ended up booking a three night trip, flying into the Serengeti on day one, and flying out of Arusha on day four. We paid a deposit early, then we had to pay 40% deposit three months before the trip, as they had to book the flights, so needed the cash - no problem.

The issues started about two weeks before the trip. I had to really press hard to get any update on the flight bookings, sending multiple messages asking for the fligth details and the tickets. But five days before we left for Africa, they 'suggested' a different flight on day four. At that point, it became clear that although they'd had my money for three months, no flight had been booked. I was able to look at the flight they originally told me we'd be on, on the airlines web-site, and it was fully booked. So I had to agree to a different flight. They told me it was because the airline had changed it's schedule, but the web-sie said otherwise. Nothing I could at that point, so we had to take the change.

The next issue came the day before we left for Africa, when they contacted me suggesting a change of accomodation on the second night, as it would be 'easier' for us and give us a better experiance. Again, I suspect the real reason behind the change was that they had failed to book the second night at all. I know that because that day I emailed the three accomodations we were due to stay at under the original plan, and received a confirmation from two of them, but not the third. There was no booking. As you might imagine, this caused a significant amount of stress, 24 hours before leaving for the trip.

During the correspondance on the flight and the accomodation, I kept getting apologies and promises that they would do everything to make the experience amazing when I arrived in Africa. Which brings me to the last issue. We arrived at the Serengeti airstrip at 8am on day one, along with lots of other people, who were all meeting their various guides from different tour operators. Over the course of an hour, every other group had been picked up, while myself and my family were still waiting. Even the airport staff started asking us why we were still there. I had to message the company numerous times during the wait and they kept promising the guide was 5, 10, 15 mins away. The guide eventually turned up 90 minutes late, and told us that there had been a mix up in the bookings and the company had originally sent him to a different airstrip to pick up a different group, before contacting him and turnign him around.

So in summary, fine on initial contact and organisation, total nightmare in the two weeks leading up to the trip, brilliant while on the ground in the Serengeti.