Lilac Adventures
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 1999)
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $176 to $650 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
DE
Email Michael | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Beware ! Achtung!
We booked a safari for three people at a total cost of about $ 6000 in Lilac. We have transferred the sum in advance and simply got nothing in return!
Lilac didn't book any hotels and didn't order any Gorilla Permits. Lilac then repeatedly promised us a refund of $ 6,000, but nothing happened until today. Here is the latest news of Lilac from 12/04/2016:
"Good morning,
Thank you for your below email and sorry for late reply.
Yes. I know of your refund and due to constrains financially caused since our bank went into receivership, we have been experiencing some difficulties which led us even stop taking new bookings until we are able to dispose some of our assets including some vehicles to have enough operating capital. This is also indicated on our website www.lilacadventures.com. We expect to be fully operational in few weeks and also pay you the entire refund inclusive of bank charges you may have been charged.
Again, I am sorry for the delay.Kind regards, Irene
A lot of time has passed without any action from Lilac, except some trivial correspondence (no reservations , no permits , simply nothing). The company only collects money and, in my opinion, doesn't come through on the tours (see other reviews on the relevant portals)! You can assume that every dollar/euro, that you transfer there, is lost!
Lilac Adventures represented by Mr. Daniel Njamewa is untrustworthy and NO ONE should use them.
UPDATE 9 MAR 2016:
Lilac states that they did what they could to help us thru our safari. The fact is they did nothing but take our money.
Lilac states that their financial problems are behind them and they will refund our money. The fact is that they have not refunded our money and it has been five months since they promised they would. We are still waiting. By anyone's definition, this is theft and they should be prosecuted. We are working with the US Embassy to see that this happens.
I strongly recommend that persons interested in a safari stay as far away from Lilac Adventures as possible. They do not honor any commitments, and are untrustworthy.
There are much better tour operators available that value their reputation and will not leave you stranded.
ORIGNAL REVIEW:
Worse than terrible. This safari tour arrangement did not meet even minimal expectations; in fact, left us to our own devices two days into the vacation, a tough spot to be in when you are in a foreign country. Lilac Adventures appears to have disappeared from normal forms of communication since about August 2015. I strongly advise against anyone contemplating using Lilac Adventures, or any operation fronted by Mr. Daniel Njamwea.
Reply from Lilac Adventures
Posted on Nov 19, 2015Hello,
Thank you for reading all our reviews which 90% are very positive from happy clients.
We wish to clarify on what happened to this family that has posted the 3 last reviews. I agree something went wrong with this safari which was beyond our expectations and control as no one saw it coming. This happened when our main local bank was put on receivership by central bank just few days before their arrival. It was not possible for any account holder in the said bank to access money nor withdraw/deposit. You can read more http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Dubai-Bank-Kenya-placed-in-receivership-for-a-year/-/539550/2832750/-/rp6vfdz/-/index.html . We have changed bank and now dealing with only two strong banks, Equity bank and ABC Bank that all our payments are coming through including Paypal for those who want to pay online.
On the said clients, we did what was possible for them to have a great holiday but something went wrong due to delays as they were doing long safari Kenya and Tanzania among other groups which had a successful safari under prevailing circumstances.
We have already talked to them and agreed to refund their entire payment just to compensate them even if part of their safari went on very good. All in all our posts are positive like you may have noted from happy clients. We are committed to personalized services to all our clients and what happened is highly regrettable even if it was not a mistake of our own making.
Everything is now settled and company back to normal operations with groups departing every week from all our destinations. We have also sold some company shares with now a list of 6 directors and added our savings and insurance to make sure this will never happen again.
Again, we really regret what happened to the family that was the only one affected among many others.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Kind regards,
Lilac Adventures Limited Team
For more details feel free to contact us on info@lilacadventures.com
RO
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Never again with Lilac Adventures Limited from Kenya, known also as East Africa Holidays!
We contracted them for a safari in Kenya and Tanzania in July 2014. In Tanzania our fundamental rights have been put at risk by being forced to drive in the dark, to remain without fuel in the savanna, very far from the lodge, just before the sunset, to be forced to use a broken and technically precarious and unsafe car and so on. To any of our or driver phone calls it was no answer from the company! We can easily say: we have been abandoned!
During the 4 days for which we paid luxury conditions, we experienced hours of waiting at the border for the car that was supposed to transfer us to the first location, one day without food, no visits at the Maasai village in Serengeti, no visit to the Old Uvai, although both included in the safari cost, and all in all, the game drives rendered to us could be counted as lasting only for one day instead of the four we paid. We have been spent the rest of the days waiting for payments never done in time or for repairing the car or even worse waiting for someone to tow the car without fuel in the middle of nowhere, but plenty of wild animals ready for hunting!
Reply from Lilac Adventures
Posted on Nov 14, 2014Thank you for your your post. I wish to clarify what happened and though i agree that there was delay in Tanzania, these are my comments:
- I have your email confirming that you had great safari with us on the Kenyan part. thank you for acknowledging that.
- Like we did explain, Kenya vehicles are not allowed in Tanzania national parks, hence any company in Kenya has to book accommodation direct and sub-contract a Tanzania company to offer transport or both.
- For our case we have been contracting a company called LILLAC Safaris and Adventures (http://www.lillacadventures.com) to do our safaris. ( we cancelled our contract after this safari and now dealing with one of the biggest company in Tanzania)
- This is the company (see their above website) that was responsible to offer transport and since we had good relationship before and had been offering good services we had been paying them full package including accommodation and transport for our clients for them to feel the ownership of the many safaris so as to offer the best services (note as explained above on Kenya vehicles not allowed in to Tanzania national parks).
- Once they learnt of our travel agents through some clients they started contacting them direct to source business from them
- This is when the company in BAD faith messed this safari by all the delays and had not done not paid the accommodation.
- once i learnt of these clients delays at Kenya/Tanzania bonder, i went to Tanzania the following morning to sort it out to make sure all is well. The Lillac safaris and adventures director refused to meet me and closed their office. I was left with minimal options but fisrt i went to serena to find out if booking was paid. To my suprise their accommodation was not paid and i organized for my office to pay immediatelly(double payment as we had already paid the above said company). I contacted these clients a couple of times and every time i left messages at the lodges to call me when back from the game drives, which they never did. Serengeti serena reception can bear me witness.
- On accommodation, since the company really wanted to have us in bad books with our travel agent so as to get the business direct, they had not paid even accommodation at serena. I went ahead and paid again what we had already paid to make sure they had the best. They stayed in the best serena lodges; Serengeti serena lodge, ngorongoro serena lodge and lake manyara serena lodges
- After their safari, we have been in contact with the clients where they demanded compensation of lost time at the bonder as well as delay at the serengeti national park gate, but they were demanding usd$5000 which was more than 75% of what they had paid for the entire Kenya and Tanzania safari. My account offered them usd$2500 which they agreed.
-On the Tanzania company that messed their safari in Tanzania so as to get business direct from the travel agents, we are already in court with them in Arusha and if anyone wish to confirm can check with CID or tourist police department file reference number is : RB NUMBER 7927/2014
- Since July, they have never refunded the money we had paid them for this safari as well as other safaris which we cancelled with them after this mess. We have been requesting them only to refund the cash we had paid them and we never claimed for the damages.
- As at today we are only demanding the refund Tanzania shillings FOURTEEN MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSANDS ONLY (USD$9,250) which LILLAC SAFARIS AND ADVENTURES IS YET TO REFUND, the court hearing is on 24th November 2014
- Directors were arrested in Arusha and given police bond but they have evended arrest since then and even closed down their offices thus becoming difficult for the police to arrest them even after the warrant of arrest was issued in August after failling to honour summons from court.
I wish to note that i explained all this to the clients and i did what was possible to make their safari in Tanzania best i could and sure if they are honest, they can testify to that as paying again for the services we had already paid was the best we could do to make sure they are comfortable during their entire safari as they had booked.
Trust my explanation clear the air and though nothing can compensate a lost time during safari, we offered them usd$2500 in solidarity with fraustration they may have experienced in the hands of the said above company.
US
Email Maggie and Joe Kernan | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Perfect
I have used Lilac Adventures 2 times and will use them again when I return to Eastern Africa. I am from the United States and found they are easy to communicate with, they provide timely communications and can put together complicated itineraries for big groups.
I especially like their on ground tour guides and drivers. We were always met with smiles and given great information to enrich out trip. You can't go wrong with Lilac!
Email Theo, Australia | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Amazing.
From the moment we made a booking the service was at an amazing high level.
Daniel and his team a professionals in the African safari industry but at the same time they make it feel as if your traveling with some good old friends.
We saw the big 5 ......twice in four days! Amazing how the guys feel what the best spot would be. I highly recommend lilac for your safari trips.
You get more than you pay for !
HR
Email Goran | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
unknown egg
Fair organised safari. Excelent experience. Will come back.
US
Email Laura | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
10 days/11 nights -- great private tour package!
As this was my first safari, I wasn’t sure what to plan and Lilac Adventures was a big help. I worked with Daniel (over a hundred emails) for more than 3 months to work out details of our 10 nights in Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa! Daniel and his team responded to every email and answered all of my questions.
This was a girl’s trip and we both very much enjoyed it. The 10 nights/11 days was the perfect amount of time (although I would have loved longer) to experience the 3 countries. All lodges, game drives and transfer companies were great!
Our tour package for the most part was good with only a few minor issues. We were missing some information that should have been provided ahead of time (transfer times and tour/transfer company names) so we needed to contact Lilac Adventures almost daily to confirm. Also there seemed to be confusion of our arrangements at each lodge. We paid for ‘private tours’ and some lodges had us with groups. Even though the issues were resolved by each lodge, my expectation of hiring Lilac Adventures was to avoid this confusion and that everything was prearranged correctly.
I would recommend Lilac Adventures, but encourage all details be provided prior to the start of your journey to avoid any worry or confusion while on your trip.
Email JT | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Be very careful with this operator
I was very disappointed with this operator. They demanded payment upfront but then changed the dates of my trip. They lied about there being a 'group' I would climb with (there was no group) and provided unprofessional guides who didn't provide a briefing nor walk with me. I ended up climbing Mt Kilimanjaro on my own. It was an overall traumatic experience. I emailed and phoned the operator MANY times and they denied a problem. This company is not to be trusted. When I got back to Arusha, I was notified by the Tourist Authority that this company is not endorsed due to their poor record.
Great Experience
I was particularly impressed by how organised they were. I took the Amboseli trails which lasted 4 days as they had promised. I toured the most part of Kenya. The staff were hospitable and very friendly. I look forward for another adventure on my next vacation.
DE
Email Esther | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Attention! Lilac Adventures is untrustworthy and unreliable!
For an amount of nearly 6.000 USD, payed in advance for a safari in
Uganda supposed to start in March 2016, Lilac Adventures did not provide ANY of the services promised. Due to
negative reviews by former clients, we asked Lilac some time before the safari was
scheduled for details of the accommodation bookings and for copies of
the Gorilla Permits. The only thing they came up with were ever more
phantastic excuses why they allegedly could not provide us with any of
the documents requested. Therefore we contacted all the lodges ourselves and asked for bookings done by Lilac in our name - there were none. Being confronted with this, Lilac began to run out of
reasons and finally had to admit that 4 months after receiving
our money they had not prepared or booked anything. They also admitted that they would not be able to conduct the safari but did not give any valid reasons for that. At this point they
promised us a complete refund of our money - half a year on, we have not received anything.
So please do not make the same mistake we did, and especially do not
believe a word when they try to coax you into booking: they will go to
great lengths in trying to explain why they could not deliver the
services they were paid for by us and will give different reasons for this (delays in
the financial / banking system, political instability and / or unrest, etc. etc.), or perhaps they offer that you pay only a deposit (f.e. 20%) in advance. But please be aware that they are
completely untrustworthy and very likely they will just take your money without rendering anything for it.