CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Dishonest company
I booked with Dosasha as they seem a very passionate and reliable team with good reviews in Safaribookings.
However, they deceived me. I got a Safari booked for September 25th. After paying the $1000 deposit the problems started, with them first not being able to fulfill the hotel orders as promised (Likely no hotel was booked by then)
The worst is that they sent a message 1 month before my trip telling me they are cancelling the tour and that they will refund, however no money is sent or coordinated at all, and they keep saying they will process the refund without any actual refund made.
Simply this company seems to have stolen from me. Be careful.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible, unprofessional and unsafe
Colour Africa Tours is a not a genuine company from our experience. Not only do they rip you off, but they also treat international travelers poorly and inhumanely. Where do I begin?
Firstly, the safari van was wet and moldy, with a drink cabinet that had large black mold, and the drinks offered were not cold. We were charged an exorbitant amount for the safari, and despite providing our food preferences, we were never offered any food.
To make matters worse, our tour attempted to extort more money from us by holding two solo female travelers captive, causing us to miss our flights to our next destination. Even though we paid for beach tours in Zanzibar and a visit to Stonetown, we were informed once in the country that the beach tours would cost additional money.
At that point, we decided to avoid any further contact with them. Not only are they unprofessional, but this situation is also unsafe. I have reported this locally here in the UK.
LK
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
I Strongly advice you Avoid Fabrics of Adventure Safaris if you are looking for a honest agency
After spending a significant amount on a luxury safari tour, our experience was marred by:
- Misleading information and unachievable misleading itineraries. We wasted 2 days of itnerey 5 nights 6 day luxury tour.
- Meals served at roadside instead of promised hotels. Timings spelled in the itinerary are completely misleading.
- Though the agency Fabrics Adventure promises to have guests with the same itineraries, they load people who have very different itineraries. Hence you will be deprived of what you have paid for and Driver makes decisions based on the mix of guests. WASTE OF MONEY
- Grueling 12-hour drives with minimal time spent in parks - completely off from itinerary and missing quality safari time you have paid for.
- The tracker cum Driver, PAUL, seemed lost and inexperienced. on top of that he is trying to dictate terms with guests.He is a very poor tracker and failed to spot animals and even disrupted rare hunts.
- The Fabrics Adventure direct contact is great until you confirm your tour. Once you are in Nairobi he will just show a jeep to get in and from there he is unable to help you and Driver runs the show.
- Fabrics Adventure gives you a 3P vehicle owned by a different company and has no control at all on changes the Jeep agency does.
If you want a peaceful and memorable safari experience in Kenya, look elsewhere. Fabrics of Adventure excels only in creating false itineraries, giving 3P to manage guests where the driver takes decisions even if you are completely out of your itinerary given by the agency.
overall strongly recommended to avoid this agency if you want a peaceful and great safari in kenya. which i am sure we all look forward to.
myself and my wife who was planning this trip for some time and looking forward for great time, left Kenya with sour feelings.
*Rating: 1/5*
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
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.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Extremely Disappointing & Unsafe Safari Experience – Do Not Recommend
UPDATE: After posting my review, the owner asked me to take it down because “one bad experience doesn’t reflect his company.” But this was my one and only experience and it was robbed from me. That alone should tell you something about this company handles dissatisfied guests.
Also, notice how tactical the company is in their response: they claim they gave me a “full refund.” In reality, it was USD 1,250, which is less than a quarter of what I paid, and only covered one disrupted day. The failures on Day 1 and the overall safari experience were never properly compensated. Calling that a “full refund” is misleading at best.
Yes, I saw the wildebeest crossing, but let’s be clear, hundreds of guides bring guests there daily during this migration season. There was nothing exclusive about this being provided by Msangai. Our car was one of the last to arrive, we were stuck in the back, and the driver wasn’t even able to get us closer. This company did nothing special to deliver an “unforgettable safari experience”, despite how they market themselves.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I paid over USD 5,000 for a 3-day safari with Msangai Tours, and what I received was nothing close to what was promised. The trip was poorly organized, unsafe, and deeply disappointing.
Key issues:
• Missed game drives: Day 1 had no proper drive, just a transfer to the lodge. Day 2 was largely wasted due to delays and breakdowns.
• Abandonment: Left for 2.5 hours at Kogatende airstrip with no guide, no communication, and no safe transport.
• Unsafe, unfit vehicle: Given an old open vehicle (never disclosed beforehand) that broke down repeatedly, including a muffler failure that left us blocking traffic.
• Garage stop during safari: Instead of a game drive, we were taken to a garage while the car was being fixed – unacceptable for paying clients.
• Broken promises: Binoculars, a basic safari necessity, were promised but never provided.
• Unprofessional guiding: The guide admitted his car was failing, tried to borrow a relative’s, and showed little concern for safety or experience.
Yes, the lodges were fine and the hot air balloon was enjoyable (booked through another operator), but the safari itself was essentially undelivered.
I did eventually receive a small partial refund of $1250, but it does not make up for the wasted time, stress, and lost experience.
Bottom line: If you are considering booking with Msangai Tours, I strongly advise against it. There are many other operators in Tanzania who deliver safe, professional, and reliable safaris.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
£16,000 Honeymoon LOST
I am writing this review to warn future customers, especially those booking significant life events like a honeymoon, about our experience with Tanzania Specialist. We didn't even get to go on our honeymoon and lost everything.
We booked a £15937.46 honeymoon package through this company. When unforeseen circumstances forced us to request a postponement well in advance of our travel dates, we contacted them immediately.
The initial agent told us they would "look into it" and mentioned there "may be some costs," which we accepted. However, after weeks of back-and-forth, the company ultimately refused to move the dates after we had already made plans not to go and charged us the entire cost of the honeymoon with not even a 'sorry'. They just said its in the terms and conditions.
Our primary issue is this: at the time of our initial request, the agent did not inform us that moving the honeymoon was impossible under these ts&cs. Had we been clearly told this crucial information at the time, we would have made every effort to go on our honeymoon as planned. Instead, we were given false hope, which led to us losing the entire £15937.46.
We believe this is a severe failure in customer communication and a deeply unfair practice. We are now pursuing action through the courts to try and get money back but it is looking unlikely, Tanzania Specialist basically said, 'Our lawyers are better than yours'....complete bullies.
As I said before, we never got to go on our once in a lifetime trip after saving for years. We put our trust in this company and we got nothing for it so please be warned. Book somewhere else, your money/experience will be safer.
If anyone needs proof of emails or clarification, get in touch with me.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Worst experience Zambezi cruise
I booked a zembezi cruise 2 days ago
Very bad experience they made wait at the office
Then they took us to pick up other client
We finally arrive at the cruise site we found a very old boat very dirty the service was peanut and water we didn’t see anything thank God for the sunset.
Worst experience ever ever not recommend to anyone.
HK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Worst nightmare
If you are looking for a tour company for your dream tour in Africa, NOT THIS ONE. Run away!
Only if there was the option of negative stars, this company would deserve 10 of them. Travelling with this company was the most horrifying experience, but trusting his owner John was the worst decision we had in life. He was lying to us till the very end of our tour. Never had I want to go home that badly for any vacation.
My husband and I came for our 12 days honeymoon, paid huge amount of money (50% deposit upon booking with them and 50% upon arrival, totally of $5500 USD per person) for everything inclusive and got the worst nightmare in our lives.
We know for sure we are not underpaying them, but they have not been keeping their promises, not even making sure everything on the itinerary were carried out accordingly.
It was a trip including safari at Kenya, safari at Tanzania and beach holiday in Zanzibar, Kenya.
The trip in Kenya was the first nightmare. The owner John, who was helpful and responsive ONLY ONLINE, turned to this disappearing person that never replied to us when we got here. He outsourced the job in Kenya to a local guide called Rufus, whom had never showed up at all. There was no designated person for our 4 days there, different people were responsible for driving us and bringing us around. They changed our itinerary without prior notice. One day, we left early morning towards the safari from Nairobe Kenya. We were promised lunch on route and afternoon safari game drive once we arrived. But that day, we arrived at 2:30pm to the hotel and didn’t have lunch till then. Itinerary also got changed from an afternoon safari game drive to a village visit which was a complete tourist trap and scam to us. They just found some Masai people on motorcycle and picked us up from the lodge, and told us this is the activity we have for the day.
The next day, we had our game drive at Masai Mara, we had to start late because the driver forgot to order lunch boxes from the Lodge the day before (all the drivers just came and took their lunchboxes and went for the game drive right away). We ended up waiting for 60 mins for lunchboxes to be ready.
At the National Park Gate, there were also some ticketing issues which made us wait for another 30 mins for entrance, which was not seen in the other jeeps. The worst was yet to come, Rufus hired a shabby car to drive us 5 hours to the Tanzania border, very terrible condition of the car and very poor road condition. We got stopped by the rangers at the park gate, and even got pulled over by the police because it was an illegal car for driving passengers.
Luckily, the experience in Serengeti National Parks in Tanzania was good, because John happened to have outsourced the work to a responsible and helpful guide called Michael.
Just as we thought the nightmare in Kenya was going to be over. John threw us a surprise again. Right at the time we boarded the plane to Zanzibar from Arusha, John sent us a hand written letter saying he could not pay for our trip at Zanzibar because his staff made a calculation mistake, and requested a top up of $1000 USD per person in order for him to complete our tour in Zanzibar. That was already the 8th day since we have settled out final payment, this whole calculation thing should not have heppened if he had booked everything for us as soon the payment was received. Therefore, we did not believe him. We didn't pay him, and the nighmare extended till the end of our trip.
These are what happened in Zanzibar:
1. He did not arrange transport for us from the airport to the hotel, so we were left stranded and helpless at the airport at 8:30pm at night.
2. He did not even book the hotel for us that night until our guide in Tanzania Michael helped us to call him. But when we arrived at the hotel, the hotel staff actually asked us to pay the hotel by ourselves. We refused and after negotiation with John, he finally agreed to pay the next day
3. We had to keep asking him for confirmation on the activities written on the itinerary. Eventually, there were 2 days of activities and 1 night of hotel not booked and not paid by him, which include 2 scuba dives ($120 per person), 1 snorkelling tour with dolphins (~$40 USD per person, and 1 night of hotel stay ($230 USD),
4. We had to pay by ourselves the diving we had, which was $250 for 2 persons, and paid $230 for 1 night at the hotel because he stopped replying to our messages. He made a lot of promises, but never came to fulfil them.
We have proof and receipts of everything we had to pay on our own. And we have pictures of his hand written letter.
From our experience this is the worst company you could get, terrible management, untrustworthy and dishonest owner, and all together made our nightmare.
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Kilipath is a tour operator with terrible organization and logistics
I had a "4-Day Majestic Tarangire - Ngorongoro Crater - Serengeti" trip. I really enjoyed the safari, but it was the driver's doing.
From Kilipath my manager was Prisca and organization was awful.
I would say a lot of things went wrong after sending the prepayment:
1. They didn't send me information about the trip details until the night before the trip. The manager wanted to meet me, but I wasn't in Arusha that time. Then I needed to push her to say me the time of departure. And I received it only at 21:30. And it supposed to be 7:00. It's first when I got stressed.
2. Also that time they said that my tour company was changed to another company as they don't have place in the car (or something like this). That time I started to fell it's a scam.
In reality it was the third company, different one from they mentioned.
3. Next morning I was ready at 7:00, but there wasn't a car. I asked Prisca and she didn't give me anything specific. Only "let me call the driver". And 20 mins later "He is nearly". But in reality driver came at 8:00 and I was the first in the car (so the delay wasn't on other guys in the trip). It was really stressful.
4. The first night when we came to the camp it turned out there is no room for me. First they asked to wait until they finish cleaning the room. But then some other tourist came (from different car) and I was told there is no room in the hotel. They changed my hotel and I had to drive back and forth for dinner and breakfast. And it's all after the day-trip when you are exhausted. A lot of frustration.
5. They mixed our group. In different ways. First - they put in one car tourists with different accommodations. So the second night we were driving through 3 different camps and the same on the third morning (I was the last and the first in dropping and picking up). I saw others' cars - a lot of them were staying just in one camp.
6. Another way they mixed groups - one guy had 3-days tour. And he didn't have that experience that we had on the first day. So he was slowing our group as he needed more time for watching zebras, etc.
Also with us was a guy with a 5-days tour, but he didn't affect my experience.
So only the third night was good - all in one camp, no delays and other disappointments.
It was my real experience with the Kilipath and how things can be. Of course I complained, they sent a lot of sorryS, but it couldn't change my experience at all. And of course they have explanation to every my complain.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
They cancelled and kept my deposit!!
They cancelled my 5-day safari a week before it was about planned to start. They still haven't refunded my 30% deposit ($500 USD) and no longer reply to my emails. They told me they have "financial and operational challenges" and have to cancel the safari. That email said they would refund me my deposit, so I gave my details, but they have ignored me since then. If they offer tours in the future, I would NOT recommend them as they could do the same to others in future!!
