35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unfortunate Experience
Galloping Safaris took our money for a trip they did not deliver. Our hotels were not booked or paid for in advance, as promised. We chose activities that they did not take us on and did not respond to our questions and requests to have our trip as planned. Walter was avoidant of our texts and phone calls, but offered to meet us in person to make it right and explain himself on our last day in Tanzania. We drove for hours to meet up with him and he never showed. Walter has offered to provide my group a refund of some funds, which we accepted, but he has not followed through with that promise. I strongly urge you to pick a different company for your safari.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Broken Promises
I booked a safari though Kenya and Tanzania with Galloping Safaris in 2019. Walter provided a nice itinerary for myself, my husband, and my two best friends. Other providers were less expensive, but Galloping Safaris had great reviews, so I went with it. Walter demanded prompt payment, that the money be wired to him immediately, which we did. The safari took place in February 2020. There were several issues throughout, including Walter and his staff not listening to requests to change small parts of our trip, lying about why we couldn't go to a place we planned to go, and skipping events we had paid for all together. We had paid for two nights at The Four Seasons Serengeti, and Walter instead had our guide take us to a less expensive hotel three hours away, one that was riddled with tsetse flies, without letting us know that we wouldn't be staying at The Four Seasons as planned/paid for. We demanded that they take us to the Four Seasons as planned the next day, but when we arrived the staff at Four Seasons let us know that Walter had not paid for our stay, and we were left sitting in the lobby. They told us that Walter often does this, and they do not extend credit to Galloping Safaris anymore, so we would have to wait until he paid to be taken to our rooms. We asked the Four Seasons staff to confirm the rest of our trip with the hotels in our packet that were booked, and not one of them had been booked or paid for. My guess is that Walter is unable to pay for the current clients' reservations until the future clients give him cash, which is why we were stuck waiting without paid reservations even though we had submitted payment in full to him many months earlier.
When we had issues with the trip Walter ran from us, ignored our calls, had our guide disappear. We drove hours out of the way on our last day of travel to meet up with Walter and settle up our issues, and he never showed up.
Through phone calls and emails Walter acknowledged that he was at fault and owed us a refund, which he never sent. We have contacted him multiple times and its always one excuse after the next.
I have traveled all over the world and have never felt as scammed as I have with Galloping Safaris. I strongly recommend that you book your trip with a more reputable provider.
DK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
No safari - no refund
We paid to go on a safari but when we arrived the guide didnt show up and James could not book another safari for us. Now 9 months later we still havent recieved our money we paid! James keeps telling me that he will pay soon. We went to Africa to go on a safari.. Dont book with this company!
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Namibia closed international flights & Skeleton Coast Safaris will not return our money.
Would like to see it. By small airplane is a good idea. Maybe in 2 years we can make it.
TH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very Poor!!
Do not trust Sardius Tours and it’s owner, Felix Ndunda. He is very good in engaging customers but take extra caution. He will demand a downpayment and when you have changes in plan he will refuse to give back your money even if you cancel the tour way in advance. He will suck out money from you. I recommend you go to Safaribookings.com and you will find hundreds of reliable African tour operators which are highly recommended from different African destinations/countries. We found "Lion King Adventures" and "Getaway Africa". We booked with them and both deserve 5 star ratings. We researched further and we found lots of negative reviews/comments about Sardius Tours. Please review links below:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294207-i9695-k11871897-Sardius_Tours_Felix_Ndunda_BEWARE-Nairobi.html#94339015
https://www.safaribookings.com/reviews/p446#34038
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294207-i9695-k5744405-Sardius_Tours_rip_off-Nairobi.html
https://www.safaribookings.com/p446
http://www.african-safari-journals.com/sardius-tours-review.html
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294207-i9695-k964770-Anyone_know_about_Sardius_Tours_and_Safaris-Nairobi.html
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/africa/tanzania/sardius-tours
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294207-i9695-k4269296-Sardius_tours_or_Skyview_of_Africa-Nairobi.html
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294207-i9695-k1510372-Sardius_Tours_and_Travels_Con_Tour_Operator-Nairobi.html
IN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beware of this fraudulent agency
They don't organize any tours themselves and are just a broker who work with tour operators.
Beware of such fraudulent agencies, as they will not be available on phone (only way to reach them) after you have made the payment. NONE of the terms and conditions agreed upon will be honoured, and you will be at the mercy of the actual tour operator, who might just decide to extort more money at the time of starting safari.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Stolen our money and cut all contact
We had booked our honeymoon with them for June 2020 before the Covid-19 outbreak. We contacted them when outbreak first occurred and where promised a 90% refund as per their terms and conditions. When we them asked them to process this they went quiet, only replying when contacted on whatsapp and saying the hotels had our money. We have had confirmation from both hotels today that they are refunding 100% of bookings, so no money being held there. When I told Bee Eater safaris this they quickly deleted our correspondence and blocked us on whatsapp and cut all contact so they could steal our money. We are reporting to the police in the hope of justice.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Worst customer service ever with too many lies.
Four years ago we did make a gamedrive on our own in Moremi N.P. Unfortunately we got stuck and so we decided in 2018 to go again, but now we did book a “professional” gamedrive. Not cheap, but we really wanted to see the park this time.
Unfortunately we did get disappointed again. In a very uncomfortable car and an incompetent guide we did not see what we wanted to see. The guide did not know his way around and lucky enough we had still the map of 2 years ago, otherwise we had to spend the night in the park for he could not find the exit. He was alo unable to find the Black Pool. So sad, because other guides did see some lions there. During the day we saw that nothing did work on the dashboard of the car and that the tires he no profile at all. Because the guide could not find the exit we left the park too late and therfore he drove too fast and if we had not seen a big whole in the road we would have ended up in hosptal. But the emergency stop he had to make because of this, was the end of the car as well. Gladly another car picked us up after a while and did bring us back to Maun.
Of course we did complain and the result was that we should get a refund and than the misery started. Because I am working in travelbusiness I did not go on the internet with this story, to give Bush Baby Call the opportunity to solve this issue in the proper way. He promised to refund us and that was ok with us inspite of our disappointment missing Moremi again. But now after 1,5 years we run out of patience and are really finished with all the lies he told us. A few examples of his OWN MAILS he did send to us:
04-01-2019 You have to check your account in about 7working days i have sent the money this morning
01-06-2019 As for us we will pay your whole amount within this month
16-12-2019 you dont have to make a bad review over $300,00. It will be unfair and you know it.I will send the funds to you.
30-12-2019 I will forward the money when i get back from holidays
02-01-2020 I am going to transfer the money on or before the 30 January 2020
31-01-2020 Can you kindly refresh me with the account details,i seem to have misplaced them,just came back from east africa,i want to forward the refund
04-02-2020 I will definitely send you the proof, i am doing a cheaper transfer method so i will send the proof once it is initiated, please let us finish this transfer,
13-02-2020 Hope this email finds you well, i will make a follow up when i get back to Maun from the safari, i had hoped u have already received it i will also forward the proof.
15-02-2020 I will be back on thursday, i will straight away go to the bank to find out and send proof.
20-02-2020 as far as i am concerned i am not refusing to send you your refund
And many more of these lies. We gave the owner enough time (1,5 years), but now we think the world should now what a lier this person is. Our advice: don’t book here. I think something can go wrong everywhere, but it is so important to solve the issue properly and he failed dramatically.
And many more of these lies. We gave the owner enough time (1,5 year), but now we think the world should know what a lier this person is.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
FRAUDSTERS - DO NOT BOOK
James was very charming and, even up to a few weeks before we departed he accepted extra money from me for an additional safari day. While we were on the runway in Cairo, on the way to Nairobi, I got an email saying the safari was off. We had to book a new safari, with a day's notice (Amazing Memories - highly recommend them and Tony, our guide) at the cost of another USD7500. James from Alliance Destinations owes us USD7000 and, despite promises to refund the money, we haven't heard a thing and not a penny has been refunded. Disgusting behaviour and we could not be more disappointed with James and this company. Of course, they'll reappear under another name so be cautious when dealing with any James at a safari company in Africa. Make sure it's not the same one.
DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The description does not match the tour; There is no help whatsoever on site ...
Stay away if you want what you've booked!
We had booked the "private tour", "luxury tour". The tour description was written by a four-wheel drive vehicle or minibus, a land cruiser was confirmed to us. Unfortunately, we ended up in a monstrous 22-passenger bus with the side open. We have tried several times to change this on site, but the way this provider deals with the situation is beyond description. After it was explained to us again and again (and always researcher) that it was not the task of the provider to set the correct information, the owner finally came to the conclusion that the size of the vehicle was not relevant anyway.
We found this really disappointing after 2 days of telephone discussion!
Next time we will book directly through the lodge: it really cares, has contact persons on site and provides accommodation and safaris anyway ...