DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Attention! Unprofessional safari company, The boss begged my daughter to delete her negative review!
I know it's a very long review. I hope you will read until the end. The purpose is I just want to tell people the truth about this company. My personal opinion is completely different than all positive reviews here.
Since there’re many positive reviews here, we decided to go for Focus. At the beginning, the communication between me and Nelson (the owner I guess) was smooth. He wanted us to pay 25% deposit to confirm the booking. We insisted to pay only 10%. He agreed. The entire fee was $1700 for two persons 5D4N budget safari with jeep.
On arrival, their driver picked us up at the airport and dropped us to their assigned hostel “Arusha Safari Hostel”. Since we booked budget tour, so we didn’t expect that much. Although google reviews show that the hostel has 4.1 stars, from our point of view, I would only rate 1. The staff who opened the gate at midnight (we had night flight) was kind of piss off that we somehow woke him up. Our private room with bathroom is very small. The toilet light is ridiculously dim. The worst is we needed 2 sim cards and we didn’t have time to go downtown to get. So we asked the hostel staff what time do the telecom shops open? He said he could send a staff from vodacom to the hostel. This person was wearing vodacome T-Shirt, he had also machine for registration. So we believed that he works for vodacome. At the end, we paid $60 for two cards which is a lot but we had no choice. After that, I checked on internet, two SIM cards should cost less. We paid too much and I texted that vodacom guy, he ignored my messages. So we are pretty sure that we were ripped off.
On our first safari day, we met Nelson personally. I was going to pay him the balance of the tour fee which is $1600. I kept $1700 aside including $100 for the tip. So I counted only $1500 after taking the $100 out in front of Nelson, I asked him to count to make sure, he counted and confirmed it was just $1500. But I was pretty sure I kept $1700 aside. There must have $1600 in total. I counted again, thank god it was $1600.
We were supposed to go with Brideson. He picked us up and he seemed to be very kind. He told us that he would be our jeep driver. At last minute, another driver Dickson has been swapped.
We proceeded to Tarangire National Park, one the way, there was smoke coming from the cockpit area. Of course we had to stop. We drove to a garage and luckily we could still proceed.
Dickson didn't give us briefing at all before we started the safari. So we all didn't really know elephants are very aggressive and we should never try to touch or make any noise in front of them. (We knew it because we just learned from our other safari tour. One of our group members who is from Ethiopia hit one elephant and made noise, I said it loud "don't touch!" We are in danger if the elephant get mad. Dickson has heard this but didn't say anything. We were speechless. We arrived our first camp, Dickson told us (we are 7 people in the tour, but 1 guy stayed at the lodge)
At dinner, Dickson was supposed to give us briefing but he has never shown up. One of our group members tried to find him by the help of the camp staff as we have no idea what time should we wake up, breakfast and start time.
On the first day in Serengeti, we all hope to see big five. My daughter and me had safari experience in Kenya, so we know that the drivers use walkie talkie to communicate each other. Once an animal has been seen, all drivers drive there. Dickson didn't use the walkie talkie although there is one in his seat. I asked him why didn't you use? He answered „he doesn't need because he has experience".
We were skeptical about it and we still have hope. We saw many animals but no leopard. At night in the camp, people talked to each other and we figured it out many groups have seen leopard but we didn't. We were very angry because Dickson refused to use walkie talkie and of course disappointed.
The rest of our safari was just nightmare. As I mentioned there is one guy from Ethiopia. He is the only one on our group to stay in the lodge. So we have pretty much different wake up and pick up times. On the 2nd day game drive in Serengeti we all wanted to wake up earlier in order to catch the sunrise and hope to see leopard. Dickson told him already his pick up time, since we know other groups have seen the leopard on the first day so we all agree to leave to the game drive half to one hour earlier. So we suggested Dickson to phone the Ethiopian guy at the lodge. Next day when he got into the jeep, he asked Dickson, "who came the idea to wake up so early? My daughter said “all of us” After that he said to Dickson, “next time I will beat you up “. Dickson didn’t respond. At the end we left Serengeti with disappointment without seeing leopard.
Next day our whole group wanted to wake up earlier but the Ethiopian guy insisted to wake up after 7am. We the whole group including Dickson (I empathize he is the representative of Focus of Africa" and the Ethiopian guy were standing in the camp among many other tourists. He started to argue with us because he didn’t agree to wake up before 7am as his lodge is 1.5 hours away from where we stayed. He insulting us like leave “my” country although he isn’t from Tanzania few bad words. He shouted at all of us “you fxxking white people go back to your countries and stuff like that. At the end we all told Dickson we don't want to travel with this guy anymore and asked if he could talk to the boss. Next day as planned we left our camp with a compromised meeting time and pick up point (someone will pick up the Ethiopian guy and bring him to an intersection.
At the meeting time he didn't show up, we proceeded to our game drive without him and we were all very happy. Unfortunately some hours later he joined us again. I understand that a travel agency could not choose who is joining the group. What I wanted to say is, Dickson as the representative of the tour, he should have done better with communication with the company and express our concerns. He told us he did but the company cannot do anything. Our group has spilt today as most of them finished their tour and we proceeded to our final game drive.
On our last day me and my daughter knew that one Japanese guy at the same camp is going to join us. One more person is missing, we don't know who is going to join. We asked Dickson, who is going to join us? He surprisingly responded us “don’t worry, she is WHITE”. We were speechless, we never say any bad things about any color, we respect all human and we’re shocked to hear his response.
Finally our tour came to an end. My daughter and me will fly to our next stop, she will hike later in kilimanjaro. She needs altitude pill from pharmacy. Dickson brought us to the meeting point to meet the driver to the airport. Someone from Focus took my daughter to the pharmacy, the pills costed $22 for one single pack. After that we were in Zansibar, we went to two pharmacies, both charge the pill only $1-1.5 for the same amount of pills. Was it another scam?
Go back to the story at the beginning, here is my conclusion::
The cooperated hostel is taking advantage of their guests for instance providing extremely expensive sim card service. Was it a coincidence?
Money counting could be a coincidence but also could be on purpose, we will never know
They don't care how the whole group feel, they just ignore our demands. Instead of separating the whole group and one individual person, they insisted to put us together for the rest of our tour which is unacceptable. At the end nobody could enjoy our last day. Nelson has blamed me about not telling him before. In fact, Dickson should have communicated with the company.
Was it a coincidence that their staff ripped my daughter off due to the 20 times more expensive pills?
My daughter has written a negative review here, I didn't know it and Nelson wrote me one day via WhatsApp and asked why am I doing this? I told him I still haven't gotten the time to write. He beg me to convince my daughter to delete her review and offered me a partial refund. I forwarded the message to my daughter, we both agreed that we could only accept full refund. Money is for us important but unfortunately money cannot buy us the time back. Nelson trying to persuade me for the partial refund by making me uncomfortable, saying that the negative reviews will lead to a bankruptcy of his company, unemployment and family financial difficulties.
Their jeep has broken down for at least 5 to 6 times for our entire trip. On the last day, we got flat tire and Dickson said it’s safe to proceed.
Dickson didn’t really care about the group, we were taking photos, he didn’t ask if we are done and just started driving
Sometimes we saw animals and wanted to take pictures, he didn’t stop and keep driving until we said please stop.
At all briefing times Dickson was always disappeared.
Dickson didn’t deserve to receive so much tips from the whole group, he then gave us hard time about this.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Lack of Integrity
I made a deposit for a trip to Chad for 2023 (cannot remember exact date but late March to early April). The deposit was $2000 a lot of money. However, when the time approached for the final payment, I had severe misgivings as I was worried about the security situation in Chad. I ultimately chose not to go. Even though I canceled after the deadline, the operator assured me that he would work things out in some way, either by replacing me with someone else wherein I would get my deposit back or offering me a discount on a future trip. Neither of these actions occurred and to this day, I have never again heard from the operator. However, I did confirm that he found someone else to take my place while obviously keeping my deposit and never informing me about this. I think this bespeaks of a total lack of integrity and shady business practices, as well. I have told many people about this situation and every single one agreed that this was bad business protocol, renege on a promise to work with me, and all stated they would never use this company, as I will also not use. I will also not book any trip with any tour operator who partners with this company, of which I am well acquainted with one. Beware and be forewarned of shady businesses like Pictus Safaris.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We believe this Pishon and Michael is a Fraud and a Thief
We lost cash and lots of properties when doing the safari most of which we never took out of our bag. And enough evidence and communications show that it is the driver Mr. Michael Kosani who stole them. shame! shame! shame!
I don't recommend choosing this company and Michael.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Dishonest company
On the first day of our trip with this tour operator, they cancelled our flight from Zanzibar to Arusha with only an hour's notice. We were not able to delay the trip, and had to cancel the tour. However the company never refunded us our money, which they still haven't to this day.
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very unpleasant experience - I was charged twice for the trip
I used this company for a gorilla trip for myself and two members of my family.
I put a downpayment of $1966 in September using Pesapal, and then a week before the safari I wired $1890 to the company's bank account.
The company took us on the trip, which was fine, but they claimed that they hadn't received that last payment; on the last day, before agreeing to take us back to Kampala they forced me to pay $1890 by credit card, with the promise that the money would be refunded once the wire occurred.
Once back home I obtained all the necessary document from my bank proving that the money had indeed been transferred, but never heard back from Primate Safaris and never got the refund...
This is clearly extortion - I would not have written such a review if I had seen an attempt on their part to fix the situation with their bank
NL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Had to report to police. Buyer beware.
To cut a long story short, the driver, who was subcontracted by Mousebird Safaris Mr. Lema, one night of 4 took us to the wrong hotel upon instructions of Mousebird Safaris. He was then not able to take us to the correct hotel (Ascertained after he called his boss) due to the park closing and him not wanting to as it was 1.5 hours away and he "would not have taken this job on had he known this before" (quote from driver.) Upshot was that we had to pay 350 USD on TOP of what we had already paid because the driver would/could not take us to the hotel Mousebird had booked. We called the owner at Mousebird several times and he did not pick up. All my messages were, funnily enough, ignored.
After this, I had wanted Mousebird to settle this directly with the driver who had paid the new (and horrible) hotel, but the driver strongarmed us to his office and forced us to pay his boss for this 350 Dollar hotel he had taken us to in error. Mousebird Safaris Mr. Lema is refusing to pay us back. We have reported it to the police and a case against Mousebird Safari is ongoing.
Mousebird basically contracts their services to a driver who is working for several agencies so you constantly have to wait until others have been picked up from other agencies. Our driver from a firm called Avocet Safaris Tanzania, was picking up several people and messed up this trip entirely. The whole thing was an organisational mess.
I would never ever recommend Mousebird Safaris as I believe that they are not honest. We will see Mr. Lema from Mousebird Safaris in court.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Horrible experience, I wouldn't advice to book
Only book with this company if you want a nightmare in your holiday. We booked a day trip to Kilimanjaro using Machame route and this was our horror story: The driver and guide were totally unprepared and picked us up in arusha, shortly after we ran out of fuel as they had forgotten to tank and had to send someone to get fuel by foot.. followed by a tire adjustment , a lunch pickup that they had not arranged prior to be ready, and 2 speeding tickets due to the reckless driving trying to recover time, the original 2h drive to Kilimanjaro took actually 4h, arriving late to start the hike. To our surprise we got to marangu gate rather than machame, getting a totally different tour that the one advertised, without prior alignment. Once there, thinking the nightmare was over, we went up the first base with a guide who did not speak a single word nor guided us on the way, you are better off alone! Yet the worst part is once we started to head back down and it started to rain.. it was pouring, making the roads in the mountain totally muddy and slippery, so we wanted to wait a bit till it was less rainy and safe, yet the guide (Chris) insisted we could not wait as we needed to get to the gate before 6pm as otherwise they would had been charged an extra fee (when for starters we arrived late due to their lack of preparation).. this made us risk our safety and go down the slope totally pouring, which ended in us falling several times and all our belongings/electronics getting damaged. Only book with them if you want a terrible operator that does not care about your safety, please do yourself a favour and look for another operator as there are many available with the same rates , dont put at risk your safety.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Worst Safari ever
Ive done over 15 safaris in my life, been to Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania.This one here, in Kenya, is by far the worst Ive ever experienced!!! Its all about, squeezing out every single dollar of you and delivering the worst customer service ever. Here's my main points why i cannot recommend anyone to book with this company:
- Safety is not guaranteed
* No functional radio during the whole six day trip (see picture below), meaning not able to contact anyone in case of emergency.
* Safari vehicle in a very bad condition (we got stuck once and had to push the car out and that, is in middle of the national park, surrounded by wild animals).
* One screw of the wheel suspension broke during our game drive, so we lost two hours of game drive while waiting until the car is fixed (see picture), not even a glass of water was offered by the company while waiting.
- Not sticking to itinerary
* Left earlier than promised certain parks, to the extent that we missed to spot the leopard. Considering that we had to rush all the time and having problems with the car, i would have at least expected, to give us half an hour longer while seeing something great.
-brought us to different accommodation than planned (cheaper places)
* Changed the itinerary without giving any options
* Skipped certain destinations like Baboon hill and the Rhino sanctuary without giving any reason, was told is nothing special abt it.
* Food and beverages
We got basically every day the same, the lunch packages were just horrible. One juice, a chicken leg, a rotten banana and a sandwich with one slice of cucumber and tomato (see picture below)
- only 1 liter of water per day per person, even during a 8hours game drive and over 30 degrees
Communication:
According to my itinerary, I was supposed to stay one night in Naivasha. After leaving Lake Nakuru, I was told i had to go to Amboseli first and come back afterwards. Obviously, i did not agree on that, because it would mean, having 5hours more driving instead of leisure time. I simply asked to refund me the money but instead of giving me back a 130 $, I only got back 50$. On top of that I was told, I refused to do it. I don't know... but having the audacity to blame me for refusing to finish the trip is just crazy. The company was not able to stick to the plan. First, the manager Steve refused to talk to me and then it took them 3 days to tell me how much the refund is. And not once I've been told a sorry from Steve. Even worse he tried to twist the story and that everything is my fault. Honestly that's just bottom of the barrel excuse.
Conclusion:
On this trip, almost nothing went according to the plan and still the company insists, that they didn't do anything wrong. I dont see any point why anyone should book with this company. The only highlight was Joseph the driver, he did what he could do but he had a lot of pressure from his Manager Steve. We were rushed the whole trip and had to leave several times earlier than according to the itinerary. I just hope this review helps people, not to do the same mistake as me, to book a nightmare trip with them.
CH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Worst experience ever and very rude manager
Ive done over 15 safaris in my life, been to Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania.This one here, in Kenya, is by far the worst Ive ever experienced!!! Its all about, squeezing out every single dollar of you and delivering the worst customer service ever. Here's my main points why i cannot recommend anyone to book with this company:
- Safety is not guaranteed
* No functional radio during the whole six day trip (see picture below), meaning not able to contact anyone in case of emergency.
* Safari vehicle in a very bad condition (we got stuck once and had to push the car out and that, is in middle of the national park, surrounded by wild animals).
* One screw of the wheel suspension broke during our game drive, so we lost two hours of game drive while waiting until the car is fixed (see picture), not even a glass of water was offered by the company while waiting.
- Not sticking to itinerary
* Left earlier than promised certain parks, to the extent that we missed to spot the leopard. Considering that we had to rush all the time and having problems with the car, i would have at least expected, to give us half an hour longer while seeing something great.
-brought us to different accomodation than planned (cheaper places)
* Changed the itinerary without giving any options
* Skipped certain destinations like Baboon hill and the Rhino sanctuary without giving any reason, was told is nothing special abt it.
* Food and beverages
We got basically every day the same, the lunch packages were just horrible. One juice, a chicken leg, a rotten banana and a sandwich with one slice of cucumber and tomato (see picture below)
- only 1 liter of water per day per person, even during a 8hours game drive and over 30 degrees
Communication:
According to my inetary, I was supposed to stay one night in Naiwasha. After leaving leaving Lake Nakuru, I was told i have to go to Amboseli first and come back afterwards. Obviously i did not agree on that, because it would mean, to have 5hours more driving instead of leisure time. I simply asked to refund me the money but instead of giving me back a 130 $, i only got back 50$. On top of that i was told, i refused to do it. I dont know... but having the audacity to blame me for refusing to finish the trip is just crazy. The company was not able to stick to the plan. First the manager Steve refused to talk to me and then it took them 3 days to tell me how much the refund is. And not once ive been told a sorry from Steve. Even worse he tried to twist the story and that everything is my fault. Honestly thats just bottom of the barrel excuse.
Conclusion:
On this trip, almost nothing went according to the plan and still the company insists, that they didnt do anything wrong. I really dont see any point why anyone should book with this company. The only highlight was Joseph the driver, he did what he could do but he had a lot of pressure from his Manager Steve. We were rushed the whole trip and had to leave several times earlier than according to the itinerary. I just hope this review helps people, not to do the same mistake as me, to book a nightmare trip with them.
ES
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Disrespectful persecution of the chimpanzee to get a picture
I was in the Park a few days ago and surprisingly, it was one of the worst experiences I have ever had. More than 50 people (usually there are about 80), chasing and harassing an animal to get a photo with it. The security policy, the respect and the privacy on the part of the Rangers was zero: no distances kept, no masks on, no speaking in a low tone, no control over the crowds and running of people after the animal. Very disappointing, nothing respectful of the animals and absolutely nothing professional at all. They talk about training more families to split over humans and thus expand the number of visitors and, consequently, their economic income. I don't understand why a wild animal has to be trained to the presence of humans @s, with the simple purpose of photographing it and increasing the visits and income of the Park. They should manage it in a more controlled way and reduce the number of visitors per day. I do not recommend it at all. I give it a star because the website does not allow me to put zero.
I hardly believe that the only goal from the Park is to get as much income as possible no matter the treatment of animals in it.