Aquiline Safaris

They Stranded Us

This review is not for the tour itself—it was a great experience. This review is for Aquiline Safaris, specifically Brian and his awful handling of my tour.

I originally purchased my tour through Viator. Brian immediately contacted me and told me to cancel with Viator and book directly with Aquiline because “your seats have to be held by a deposit and viator takes a whole month to pay us for your booking.” I knew it was really to cut out Viator’s commission fees, but I wanted to help out a local company. Stupid move on my part—this actually cost me more as I lost cash back from Viator’s rewards program as well as from my credit card for booking through Viator. On top of this, Aquiline charged me an additional 3% credit card fee (Viator does not) which is significant for a tour that isn’t exactly cheap. Most importantly, I lost all protections Viator, a U.S.-based company I’ve always had great experiences with, would’ve provided me if I purchased through them.

The tour started off terribly. Aquiline overbooked the tour, so we were delayed about 30 minutes while the tour guides asked everyone if they wanted to split up and sit in separate vehicles from their friends/spouse/travel partner. Eventually they convinced these two friends who did not know anyone else to ride in separate vehicles so we could finally get going.

Where Aquiline really screwed us was after the tour and my wife and I were dropped off at the safari base lodge in Mto Wa Mbu. We were exhausted after a long day of driving and the safari itself, and just wanted to get back home to rest. After waiting awhile with no one collecting us and driving us the 3 hours back to Arusha, I contacted Brian and his response was “A transfer will be arranged back to Arusha.”

Turns out, no such transfer was arranged. Through some oversight or whatever reason, he effectively stranded us 3 hours away. And had the nerve to blame it on us, when we were told to wait for our ride back after the safari. Instead of doing what normal, good businesses do and take accountability and problem solve, he spent the whole time wanting to blame and argue. I couldn’t call Viator for help, because of my mistake of canceling with them. To Brian’s credit, he eventually offered to find us a private car to take us home—at our own expense of course. Why should I pay for a transfer that I already paid for as part of the tour cost? As that would have been ridiculously expensive, especially with the mzungu tax I would’ve no doubt been charged, I declined. We just ended up taking a dala dala (local bus) all the way back home, a crowded and almost 4 hour journey.

Aquiline dropped the ball. Not a single apology or follow up with us, nothing. I don’t recommend booking any tour with Aquiline. There are so many great tour operators around Arusha. Don’t make a mistake going with a company that appeared to care more about maximizing profit over customer satisfaction.