Reviews

Average User Rating
1.0/5

Rating Breakdown
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  • 4 star 0
  • 3 star 0
  • 2 star 0
  • 1 star 4

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Sharon   –  
United States US
Visited: February 2016 Reviewed: May 11, 2016

Email Sharon  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Sharon and not that of SafariBookings.
lies, unsafe vehicle and thief owner
1/5

I have to give this one star since 0 stars is not an option. The one star is for the good guide that Travelust gave us for the first four days of our trip. The guide was very good but then abandoned our group in Bwindi when he left for a family emergency. We lost thousands of dollars to Travelust and owner James Kateeba, had to ride in an unsafe, rusty vehicle with broken seats, windows and missing seat belts. Travelust took our money but never purchased our gorilla and monkey permits. In addition, we had to come up with cash to leave Murchinson National park when Travelust's Uganda Wildlife card had no funds on it. We also had to pay for a new guide and vehicle when our original guide left us at our Bwindi hotel. Before our original guide abandoned us, he told us that he would not be able to take us over the border for the Rwanda portion of our trip since our vehicle was unsafe and we had a police report filed for James Kateeba/Travelust when he scammed us out of $6700 . Fortunately the eight of us on the safari are well traveled and made the best of a bad situation . Despite all the issues, we enjoyed Uganda and Rwanda and gorilla and chimp trekking but please use a reputable tour operator and NOT Travelust.

Reply from Travelust African Safaris
Posted on Jul 1, 2016

We apologize and take full responsibility for the inconveniences you experienced when whilst on tour with us. It was discovered at the last minute that one of our former employees had only made part payment for the gorilla permits and left the company.

It is sad that due to Anti Money Laundering (AML) Regulations 2010, we couldn’t process your refund on time. Otherwise, we have been in contact with your tour leader and I can confirm that the credit card company has been able to charge back some of the payments to you. She is presently on holiday and has informed me, she will get back to me on the balances due and repayment plan as we try to resolve the bank issues. Otherwise, we would like to once again apologize for the inconveniences and the sad events during your visit and hope to have this resolved in the shortest time possible.

Megan   –  
United States US
Visited: February 2016 Reviewed: May 4, 2016

Email Megan  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Megan and not that of SafariBookings.
Find a reputable Ugandan or US Safari company
1/5

James Kateeba - the owner of Travelust- scammed us by taking our money for gorilla and golden monkey trekking permits and not buying them! Run from this company - DO NOT BOOK with Travelust or any company associated with James Kateeba. We are pursuing this with the Ugandan police, UWA and Ugandan travel authorities. He keeps promising repayment - but never follows through.

Lisa   –  
United States US
Visited: February 2016 Reviewed: Apr 27, 2016

Email Lisa  |  35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

The review below is the personal opinion of Lisa and not that of SafariBookings.
Don't book with Travelust. Very bad experience with this company & it's owner. Read others' reviews.
1/5

Absolutely do not make the mistake of booking with Travelust. Not only has our group had significant issues with this travel company and it's owner James Kateeba but so have many others before us. We waited to initiate our social media review of this company, hoping that the owner James Kateeba would do the right thing and refund us the $6700 he stole from us. But we have now waited for 2 months and have received excuse after excuse for why our money has not been refunded. We will also be reviewing Travelust on multiple other travel sites so that other unsuspecting travelers are not taken advantage of as we were. You can read many other peoples' negative reviews of this company in addition to ours. Here is what happened to us in Feb 2016:
James Kateeba and his travel company, Travelust, almost ruined our entire trip to Africa because he did not secure our gorilla trekking permits nor our golden monkey permits. We payed him 6 months in advance and when we arrived in Uganda and Rwanda to trek with the mountain gorillas, he had stolen our money and never booked the permits. Only because one of the people in my travel group had close connections with the tourism board in Uganda were we able to trek. We had to pay the money a second time and wait for hours of phone calls and special accommodation so that we could trek. Had she not known the right people, Travelust would have been responsible for completely ruining our entire trip since the whole reason we traveled to Uganda and Rwanda was to trek with mountain gorillas. We waited to post on social media, giving James the owner of Travelust a chance to refund the $6700 he owes to our group. But after months of excuses and delays and continued fraud, we are now speaking up. We only wish we had read other similar posts before we booked with him. But by the time we saw the other negative posts on line about this company, we had already paid him in full. I hope no one uses this travel company after reading my review. We even filed police reports in both Uganda and Rwanda to try to help keep this horrible experience from happening to others.

Lori   –  
United States US
Visited: February 2016 Reviewed: Apr 27, 2016

Email Lori  |  Experience level: 2-5 safaris

The review below is the personal opinion of Lori and not that of SafariBookings.
Travelust are thieves!!
1/5

Worst tour operator ever! Don't use them under any circumstances. They never purchased our gorilla permits, so after traveling across the world, we were almost unable to trek in either Uganda or Rwanda - luckily we were able to but we had to spend even more money to re-buy the permits. Travelust gave us a vehicle with a broken seat, missing seat belts, a window that wouldn't open, and no air conditioning. We even had to fork over $300 just to get out of the national park since their money card wouldn't work. They never returned our calls or emails, just left us hanging and we had to involve the Ugandan police. Our group had to lay out $7,000 over and above what we had already paid!!! James stole our money and won't pay us back. He's done this before to other people!! Don't get taken like we were!

Average User Rating
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