SE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Poor planning and communication
I spent three days doing a joint safari with this company and I'm very disappointed in their poor planning and bad communication. On my first day I ended up alone, pleasant surprise. I was however told that I would stay with the same car and driver all the three days. On my second day I was told we would meet some other people at a junction at 9-9.30. Then I was told they were a bit delayed. Then I was told that we would also swap cars and guide. When we arrived at the junction we found another group in a safari car and we swapped. I asked the other group what happened. They told me there was a problem with the car shaking. I asked the driver and he said "no, not a big problem". I was told the people who would join me were a bit late but they would join me in 30 min. I waited 1,5 hours at the junction. And when they told me 30 min the people still hadn't landed at Arusha airport which was more than an hour away. I was told they were delayed. The company lied.
I eventually reached the park in my shaking car at 12 o'clock. The park was less than an hour away from my accomodation. The shaking was not a small problem, it was a big problem. At the end of the day I had pain in my back.
On my third day new people arrived..this time they arrived on time. When we finished the safari I asked to be dropped off at my previous hostel since I had arranged a transfer to the airport a few hours later. In the same a car from the safari were a couple who were on a tight deadline to reach their flight on time. The safari company communicates with my hostel and asked them to send the taxi to meet us, so that we could go straight to the airport. I was never consulted. Due to the time pressure of the other people I felt obliged to jump into the car. I arrived at the airport four hours before my departure time and my plans to shower, charge my phone and relax at the hostel vanished. And the safari company 3wonders who charged the couple for the airport transfer conveniantely used my taxi to ship them of to the airport.
I was promised a nice accommodation but I got a very basic one. No hot water unless you told the staff to turn on a switch. No internet.
The guides/drivers did their best to compensate for their managers lack of planning and communication, but unfortunately it wasn't good enough.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This company is a SCAM!
I booked a trip with Splendor Holidays (Lucy) for June 2023. When I went to apply for my visa, I realized I had been scammed. Their website and email were no longer working. I contacted the hotels in my itinerary and they did not have any reservations under my name. I lost all my money from this trip, to include fees from airfare, vaccines, items for the safari. Do not trust Lucy N.!... That's if you can even get a hold of her. ;(
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Beware Primate Vacations investigated for online fraud
BE WARNED!
Interpol have now been informed about Primate Vacation's alleged online fraud activities in Uganda. In the meantime, I received another email from them promising faithfully that they will reimburse me in full, soonest, which of course is just another delay tactic as I have still received nothing from these fraudsters!! They have promised to refund me in full since 2021, and this is even documented in prior Trip Advisor reviews from me where they have responded to my reviews promising to do so.
DO NOT DEAL WITH PRIMATE VACATIONS. YOU WILL BE SCAMMED! GET THIS MESSAGE OUT THERE SO OTHERS ARE NOT CAUGHT LIKE THOSE OF US WHO WERE BEFORE.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Thief
It is incredible how a thief like Kevin can be still working as nothing happened. Look for Petrichor Safaris, he took the money from a lot of people and never gave it back. Be a bit decent Kevin and pay back the money you stole from so many people.
50-65 years of age
DO NOT book with this company.
DO NOT book with this company. We paid a deposit for safari and had to cancel due to covid lockdown. 3 years on we have still not received our deposit refund and having to now take action to get our money back
CH
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unfortunately cheating their customers
BEWARE
My wife and I travel a lot. Whenever possible we try to use local travel agencies to spend the money locally. This is what we did for our 2-week trip to Ruanda in January 2023. Mandrill African Safaris put together a great trip ticking all our boxes. Sam, our guide, was a very pleasant and helpful young man. He looked after us very well. It was all the more annoying and frustrating that we were told while doing our Gorilla trekking that the company could not draw money from its accounts due to some administrative hiccup and we should pay for petrol, park fees etc. as our guide could not draw the money to do so. We would be refunded at the end of the trip. Knowing Africa, we refused to do this but it quickly seemed as if our only chance to get back to Kigali and our flight home, was to pay an extra $500.- on top of our original fee of $11000.-. Needless to say that we never saw the money again and got nothing but a load of excuses. The whole thing is really sad as we would have liked to recommend Mandrill African Safaris to our friends due to the great tour we had otherwise. This way we can only say: BEWARE or be cheated!
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
do not use them
I paid this company for medical volunteer experience in Mozambique and while they found me a host that is all they managed to do. They where suppose to pay the host family for my accomidations and meals from the funds I paid to Go Volunteer Africa. After several months and several emails with an excuse as to why they are not able to pay the host in a reasonable amount of time, I ended up paying the host family myself. Several emails went unanswered and unprofessional. I would never use this terrible company again and suggest no one use them again.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Don't use go touch down
Wow, what a waste. Go touch down leaves you in the dark and wastes your travel time. We had a tour the day we arrived in S. Africa and were never given a time or location. Come to find out they never scheduled it. We had to call at 11pm US time to get information. The guide never knew he was taking us, so luckily he checked his messages. None of the guides had information about any flights til the night before departure, and the tourists did not have their flight information either. The tour guides were great, but Go Touch Down is worthless when it comes to collecting information or getting problems fixed. Another huge issue was the flights to and from Victoria Falls. We were unable to schedule our own flights and we spent 2 of our last 4 days in an airport. They claimed there were no flights available any other time, that they were afraid a later flight would be cancelled, and that we were given options, all of which were false. They don't realize we were in a group we stayed in contact with and they had the flights we tried to change to. We had to stand around for several hours before we could even check our bags, then we were stuck in the airport for 4 hours. It was 9 hours total between when landing and catching our next flight, information they knew and requested. They attempted to fix it with a tour, but that's not what we got. Someone picked us up at the airport, drove us 45 min. and dropped us off at a mall in Johannesburg telling us to go find a place to eat. That is something we could have done at the airport. We were also misinformed about Victoria Falls and not informed about tours that were available. I have never had such a disorganized vacation with such unlimited information.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
terrible
I am a seasoned traveller - I have never written a poor review - but this company has a lot to learn - poor communication - out sorsing trips - different group members every day - and being forgotten to be picked up on departure day to incur considerable cost to get a new flight with not even asorry - vague promise for reimbursement - nothing
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Bad Experience
We compleleted Kilimanajro and Tanzania /Kenya Safari in Aug 2022 Paid Calvin Gibson of Safari Lift Africa the full amount . He failed to pay for some of the park fees, and the last 3 days of our hotel stay. He made a lot of excuses about failing to pay and asked us to pay ,with the promise he will return it later. We made mutilpe attempts to get back our money ..but have not receive it so far ..