Tracks Berg Travel Office
Tracks Berg Travel
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2008)
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $515 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
AE
Email Serena | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It is a scam company, Eric took $400 deposit from us and disappeared!! Don’t book with them!!
Don’t book with them at all, it is a SCAM company!!! We lost $400 and two days time! The guy called Eric Muchai took our money and disappeared!!
Here is our story:
We contacted this guy Eric who is the owner of Tracks Berg Travel couples of weeks ago before our trip to Kenya on the 21st Feb 2019. He replied to all my emails with a price of $580 which including pick up service on the 21st Feb, girafe center visit, and 25-26th trip to Nakuru with game drive and one night hotel, as we need to leave Nairobi on the 26th noon time back to airport.
He came and picked us at the airport on the 21st with a driver in a silver old car, and we paid him $400 cash as I said I would pay him the remaining amount by 25th when we meet again to Nakuru.
He was still reachable by 24th evening through the phone and promised he would pick us in our hotel Nairobi and drive us to Nakuru on the 25th morning 7:30am. We waited for about 2 hours in the morning and nobody came...we called him and emailed him, his phone was off all the time and never reply to our emails...we have to take taxi to his office which claimed to be at Vision Plaza, Mombasa on his website and the attached receipt, which it turned out to be a fake company, there’s no such office at all there, we wasted another 3 hours to search around and have to report this to the police!
It is such a nightmare for us as we planed our two last days in Nakuru to enjoy our last moment here, but we have to stay in Nairobi from 25-26th calling and visiting police and searching for him. Eric Muchai is a cheater, liar and scammer! Everything he said is fake, there’s no office, no driver, no booking to hotel (as we called the hotel in Nakuru that he said he booked, the hotel told us there’s no booking under us or him...). We are very disappointed and surprised to see there’s such company / people would scam tourists in Kenya. Hope the police can find him very soon as what we saw, this is not the first time he is scamming tourists.
The trip ended up unpleasant wasting our time and money, and we want to make sure NOBODY ELSE WOULD EVER BOOK WITH HIM ANYMORE! It is a SCAM and avoid this company and Eric forever!!!
Email Michael | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Terrible safari with Tracks Berg Travel and KABS (kenyan adventures and beyond)
I am usually reluctant to give a poor review as sometimes circumstances arise that can make things difficult for tour operators, in this case though I have no qualms in writing this review on two companies that should quite frankly not be allowed to work in this industry. Below are the facts of what happened with our Safari, its long winded but I think it’s important to be accurate. The excuses and lies, the attempts to shift blame backwards and forwards were appalling. I don’t doubt the same excuses will be thrown up in response to my review.
We contacted Kenyan Adventures and Beyond (KABS) (owned by Doc Wilfred Omae) to organise our safari, we had used him 5 years ago, and things had gone pretty well. I paid Doc a 50% deposit several weeks before arriving in Kenya as requested so that he could secure and pay for all our accommodation. The remainder was to be paid on arrival in Kenya a few days before our safari started. Three days before the safari Doc sent Erick Muchai who introduced himself as our driver/guide for the safari to collect the remainder of our payment. Erick arrived with another man who he introduced as A###(not sure he was involved in this so will keep his name) . I paid Erick the balance in cash for the amount previously agreed, Erick had no means of giving a receipt so I had him hand write a receipt and he promised doc would send an official one (never received). Erick soon returned saying I was $50 short, on talking to Doc he told me he uses the KWS rate for exchange not the international rate, on this I did not agree but told him with a smooth safari I’d be happy to pay the $50 as a bonus.
On the day of our safari Erick arrived in a van again with A### . We were wondering whether we had a driver and guide or what, we loaded our gear and left our friends house. Around the corner about 500 meters from departure the van stopped at a Matatu stop and Erick got out of the Van and told us as he had a family emergency and could not take us on safari and that A### would be our driver(quite obviously Erick had no intention of being our guide, the first of many lies). As we had distance to make to our first park and afternoon game drive we decided to keep our questions till we got to the lodge. On arrival, I immediately sat down with the driver and asked him who Erick actually was, he produced a card for Tracks Berg Travel (owned by Erick Muchai) on asking the driver who he worked for he said Erick, clearly though the van had another companies name on it. It became apparent that Doc had subcontracted to Erick who had subcontracted to another company . The Driver had no idea of our program and had us returning a day earlier than what we had booked.
On the second night in Amboseli A### approached our dinner table with the news that the 2 nights’ accommodation had not been paid for, phone calls to Erick and Doc both came with assurances that it was sorted, when asked how it was sorted I continually got "don’t worry its sorted" over and over and was cut off several times, a complete loss of appetite and a sleepless night followed. As we were about to depart the lodge in the morning we were informed the accommodation bill still had not been paid. The lodge manager very kindly let us go and said he would pursue KABS for payment, at this time also A### informed us that he only had money for 1 more days’ park fees in Tsavo West. At this point we made the decision we would not dip into our pocket as we felt that we would never see that money again, and we would return to Nairobi if we had to and pursue the matter through the police.
Erick was blaming Doc for not sending money, Doc was blaming Erick for subcontracting further (I have the emails detailing all this). Erick also would not agree that as he had accepted the contract and a large pile of cash from us already that he was responsible for getting money from Doc and would not spend any of that money for our accommodation, neither taking any responsibility and blaming each other we had no way to turn, it reeked of a very well-orchestrated scam.
On arrival in Tsavo West I enquired if that accommodation there and the accom at Tsavo East had been paid for, I was told by lodge staff that it had been.
After leaving Tsavo west, the driver had no money for park fees so more phone calls were made and we waited in Voi for quite some time for money to come through to pay for our entry into Tsavo east. Eventually only enough money for 1 day’s entry not the 3 days came through. Each day the driver left the Park (thankfully the park left us in the lodge) and waited for money so that he could pay park fees.
After 3 nights in Tsavo East we went to leave the lodge at 9.15am for the drive back to Nairobi and were told we could not leave as 4 nights (tsavo east and west) had not been paid, on pointing out to the lodge manager that both lodges had assured me on enquiry that it had been paid I was told that parties involved had convinced them not to further upset the clients and that payment was forthcoming, also a further $120 US in Park fees was due at 11am. This was very clever in that it robbed us of 3 days in which to bring more pressure to bear on the operator and dumped us in a very stressful last morning situation where I believe we were expected to cave in and pay for our accommodation a second time just to get the hell out of the mess.
The lodge manager at this time whilst conferring with head office learned that KABS had done this previously and had still not paid that bill hence they had no choice but to hold the driver and us.
Thankfully during this entire process a very dear Kenyan friend in Nairobi had been battling for us on the phone for hours every day, cajoling and in the finish threatening police action to get money for park fees, (she was being lied to also about the accommodation). At 10.55am payment came through and we were allowed to leave. The final note was on the journey back I put petrol in the car as the driver claimed no money and that he had already been making up shortfalls all trip.
3 days prior to the finish of our safari Doc requested a meeting on return to Nairobi to explain the problems we were experiencing, I saw this as a delaying tactic to prevent us taking action and refused the meeting requesting only the remainder of the trip be trouble free, I was assured this would be the case, again another lie.
Erick also jumped up and down and said he would be reporting KABS to the tourist police but has not responded to our enquiry on how that complaint stands or to give us a reference that we can use in our own complaint, I believe confirming that these guys have worked this together before. Searches on the web since have revealed several very poor reports on their business practices.
Both Kenyan Adventures and Beyond safaris (based in Mombasa) and Tracks Berg Travel (based in Nairobi) should not be in business but will no doubt continue their dodgy ways, best I can do is tell people to avoid them like the plague or any business they may start or associate themselves with in the future.
Worst experience in Africa so far
We booked with Erick for a safari in the Masai Mara as Ugandan residents. First of all, the "guide" Isaac basically just functions as a driver without any explanations or insights about anything happening at the Mara.
Thinking that would be the worst of our problems, we arrive to Lake Nakuru for the last day with the surprise that for that specific park the fees for Ugandan residents don't apply and that we have to pay extra 60 USD if we want to visit the park. Of course Erick was not to be reached at this time (as probably he is working along the scam) and we were denied admission as we refused to pay the extra 120 USD, wasting our time and hard-earned money.
Erick and Tracks Berg Travel just excused themselves saying there was nothing to be done. This the worst experience I have had in Africa so far so I would recommend everyone to avoid Erick and Tracks Berg Travel if you want to avoid hidden charges and extra fees on the spot
my deposit has gone missing and no reply from Tracks Berg office
I booked a safari for Feb. 2016 through Erick and paid my deposit of $USD2000 on August 8 2015.Since then all communication has ceased and my deposit has gone missing.I can only suspect that Erick has stolen my money.I would caution everyone to not travel with this company.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very Friendly, accommodating and knowledgable guide.
Should fill petrol and those type of things before fetching the client.
CA
Email Tabitha | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Exceptional service from start to end!
We contacted Tracks Berg travel a couple of months before our trip. Erick was very prompt in communicating and keeping in contact throughout the whole lead up to our trip.
We had Samuel as our driver guide who has excellent knowledge of wildlife, birdlife, flora and fauna on top of this he was very good in reading the body language of animals and with this we were able to witness lions take down a zebra. He was flexible with us and very accommodative of our ever changing timings. All in all our trip went smoothly thanks to Erick and the staff at Tracks Berg travel.
Thank you so much for a wonderful safari!
Email Peter | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Perfect and well coordinated car hire service.
Renting a Rav4 from Tracks Berg Travel was by far the best decision we could have ever made for our 20 days trip to Kenya and Tanzania. After a year of research, research and more research through different travel forums we engaged Tracks Berg Travel and a couple of other car rental companies, Erick responded very fast to our questions and offered solutions to the best routes, accommodations or where we needed to amend our itinerary.
When it came to the payment Erick requested we pay an initial 20% deposit of the total cost and the balance on arrival so that he could facilitate the Comesa insurance for the border crossing. We transferred this via PayPal which was confirmed within 10 minutes and we got a confirmation receipt.
On our arrival day, our flight was delayed for 2 hours in South Africa but we managed to message Erick who was already at the airport. Upon arrival we found Erick with our names on a board and proceeded to the car. The Rav4 was in excellent condition! After the final payment and signing of the rental agreement we left the airport and off on our trip. Throughout our trip Erick kept in contact with us to check if everything was okay. (We were very impressed by this). The border crossing to Tanzania was flawless as we had all the relevant documents including the Comesa insurance that was arranged beforehand.
On the last day we returned to Nairobi with afew hours to our flight. The Rav4 was just outstanding to the end. We felt we were well taken care of by Tracks Berg Travel and we especially thank Erick for the excellent service! (We have already recommended them to our friends who are visiting Kenya later in the year)
Email Lauren Wilkes | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent 6 days in Masai Mara, Lake Naivasha and Amboseli.
We had a fantastic safari with our driver guide Martin. He was very well informed, cheerful and fun. 2 parents and our 3 children, 6, 9 and 11yrs quite the age range to test the mettle of any guide. Our lodge was very nice and, most important, we saw plenty of animals. I had set my heart on a hunt as I had read that Masai Mara was one of the few places that one could witness this, but I wasn’t holding my breath, To my luck we saw a pride of 6 lionesses get close to a group of zebras and with a bust of blurred speed one of the poor Zebs was down, totally making my trip. Martin really helped improve our odds, very knowledgeable with animal behavior.
During the booking process we paid a little extra to have a Land cruiser instead of a minivan. We're glad we did! A big Thank you to Martin, Erick and Ashley!
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
One day in Nakuru
Very flexible tour provider, cost efficient and able to shape a tour towards customer requirements. Very happy with the safari driver, really giving his best to spot the animals and very knowledgeable about wildlife. Clearly exceed expectation for a one day low budget safari trip.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
It was the best tour i have had in a long time. I really reccomend this company to anyone out there
Topic: Terrific safari
June 7 – 17 (Meru, Samburu, Sweetwater, Aberdare, Nakuru and Masai Mara)
We were picked up at the fairview hotel in Nairobi by our Guide George. Our 4x4 Toyota Land cruiser was very comfortable and spacious for just the five of us. George not only being a terrific guide he was also very friendly and punctual. George somehow knew where every animal lived in the parks we visited, we had the opportunity to see all the Big five ! We had an 11 days safari, starting from Meru, Samburu, Sweetwater, Aberdare, Nakuru and Masai Mara. George always wanted to make sure we were having a great time on safari.
Elsa Kopje, felt so natural and the view from our unique accommodations overlooking the park presented a chance to see variety of animal, We saw baboons, giraffes, elephants, antelopes, hippos, zebras, lions and an ostrich. In the evening game watching we saw rhinos in the sanctuary. The sounds at night were incredible.
The Sarova mara camp was the best, a little more luxurious than Nakuru lodge, the staff here we incredibly accommodating, our camp had outdoor seating that gave for a very incredible view, Next day after we were treated to a very unique Bush lunch. The location was perfect with very scenic views and we saw very many giraffes just a short distance from the camp.
We were well taken care of by Tracks Berg Travel and we thank them for that wonderful safari and for the enjoyment that came by it. I think we saw most of the highlights,
Book your safaris through this company and you will not be disappointed