20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
No, we paid for a shared van or a shared safari car only for a small Uber to show up for the safari.
The driver called the boss to pass the information only for the boss to say we are complaining customer yet what we paid for was not giving. Worst experience I would not recommend them to anyone.
The driver was okay atleast he listened but the owner ohhhh no. Worst customer service experience
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The worst nature tour
It was the worst nature tour I have ever experienced in the world.
Departure was an hour late due to the tardiness of the guide.
The guide was grumpy the whole time and didn't explain anything about the animals or the park. He refused to even have a conversation with us. The car was broken down from the start, running at 20 km/h with black smoke and stopping frequently for repairs.
We were forced to cut off our game drive in the middle of the tour to get that car repaired.
My friend was trampled by the car driven by the guide, yet there were no words of apology or concern about his injuries, just a series of lame excuses.
When I reported this to the company, I received no apology or compensation.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Go there, but with another tour operator!
So there are many things, I don't know where to start:
- pick up at the place in Arusha was 1 hour to late, well that's Africa
- on the first day I haven't been with my safari group, there were two other woman, but they didn't make the same safari I did
- on the second day I met "my" safari group
- we saw a lion like 150m away on a tree, after that the driver couldn't start the motor and he said he wants us to push the car - with the lion not far away. No one felt safe out there and it didn't help anyway, so we got stucked for 2,5h over there
- after that it was quite late (7:30pm) and it's only allowed to drive there until 6pm. So the driver was speeding sooo fast, everyone was really afraid to die. One guy told him so slow down (pole, pole) but he reacted really unprofessional and said he has to hurry because of the rangers. He drove way to fast and brought us into several dangerous situations (water splashed all over the window, he couldn't see where he is driving, while speeding 80km/h in a park where max speed 50km/h
- driver didn't talk a lot to us
- sleeping bags and matresses stinked badly
- bad equipped campsites (no light in the bathroom, no toilet paper, no guardian in the night)
- and the worst thing: I paid way to much for this safari. Dennis charged me more than twice the price the other people from the safari spent for this trip. We had so bad accomodations, dangerous situations and he charged me for a medium price section and not for the low budget one.... I still try to get some money back for this experience
Please find another company! Nature over there is pretty, but this company just makes you feel bad and brings you in dangerous situations.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Dream Bandas Uganda is corrupt and took all our money but cancelled tour
Hi team, we would not recommend you book a tour with Dream Bandas Uganda. They made us pay for our tour in full and cancelled one week before the trip even though they knew the tour would not go ahead as they had been sued for illegal gorilla trekking. So they took our money a month in advance even though they knew the tour would not go ahead.
We had flights and hotels booked already so we had to find another tour company. We managed to do a tour with Lulu Safaris Uganda who were absolutely amazing and only made us pay 30% when booking the tour and the full amount when we were actually on the tour. The company was amazing.
Dream Bandas are now avoiding all our calls and haven't refunded us but we can see they still operating.
We hope no-one goes through the same experience we went through.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
TERRIBLE TOUR
I would first like to say that this was the worst tour company I could have ever taken. The tour guide Audence picked me up and off the bat had an attitude. He didn’t introduce himself, or seem
Enthusiastic at all, as I expect a tour guide to be. The tour
Company
Lies on the itinerary, I was supposed to do a few things that I didn’t get to do on the first day because Audence who was the tour guide thought that it wouldn’t work for him. In turn I didn’t get to do one activity towards the end, and other activities felt rushed because they weren’t done on the first day. I mentioned this issue to Elvis, who is the owner of the
Company but nothing seemed to have changed for the rest of the trip. The tour guide was not informative on any
Of the important sites we visited. He didn’t provide any information, only just pointed out the “names” of them. As we went to these historic sites, I had to google most information.
In addition to this, the company and the owner failed to mention that none of the accommodations provided had air conditioning or a fan. I mentioned this to Elvis and he acted as if he didn’t know, but when I asked the hotel they informed me that this has always been the case for that specific hotel. As we were driving throughout Uganda and Rwanda, I asked Audence many times about stopping to get something to eat, but we drove non stop from place to place.
This tour was a dreadful experience. Having to deal with a guide who had an attitude, and is uninformative shouldn’t be a guide at all. The company lies and should not even be taking any customers.
From the lies, to the unprofessionalism this was by far one of my worst experiences traveling 7 countries in Africa. Uganda and Rwanda are both beautiful countries, but I urge you to choose another tour operator with more reviews than this company has.
DK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible company, do with another company please
Worst trip I’ve ever done, this man Dennis, deceived us. I didn't enjoy anything …
Try with a better company to enjoy better your Safari ,and not with Kibena. I could have enjoyed it better somewhere else. We paid well ,but the Safari was soo shitty..
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do Not Use This Company!
In order to write this review, I had to put in a date of Travel, so I used May 2024, but July 2024 was the anticipated time of travel. But I have no tours booked with Honest Travel Experience for July 2024 at this time. That is because of the negative experiences I have had with them in the booking process. In short, I advance the money to book a day trip to Durban during my upcoming trip to South Africa. The trip was never booked, and I have yet to get my money back. This is despite several months of WhatsApp conversations with one of the owners of the company who is named Tye. He constantly makes promises to pay, and has yet to pay. We even had a date certain of April 19 when he was supposed to pay me and he let that day go by without payment. There was always an excuse for why the payment could not be made. Now he just ignores my WhatsApp messages, and I have yet to be paid. I have involved the South African, tourism government entity, and they have reached out to him as well, and he promised them that he would make the payment, but again has yet to pay me back. I have read many many mixed reviews on this company, and while some are good, this has been my experience with this company. So buyer beware. If you do book with this company, I would suggest doing it through a Travel site, with guaranteed free cancellation and refunds. Do not advance the money. They will just take it, and not book the trip that you planned, and leave you hanging. They will act like your friends, but they are not your friends. It is my belief that they are just out to take the money of unsuspecting tourists like myself. While my trip is still planned, this negative experience has definitely put a damper on it, and leads me to believe that no one in the South African tourism industry can be trusted. Also, beware of a former employee of theirs, whose name is Sean. He left the company under spurious circumstances, and now represents himself to be a tour guide under the name of Sky Travel and Tours. He also took my money upfront for tours and merchandise, and as basically disappeared on me. So if you see any advertisements for Tours by him or this so-called company, I would be extremely wary of that also. Good luck, fellow travelers…
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not honest
Marcus started off being honest until the USD came in to play. Beware.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very Dissapointing!
This is a very small preserve with few animals. You see the whole property in a day. After that it is very repetitive. They also have a few of the big five on premises. Nothing like a real natural park. The food is very mediocre, buffet style with little daily change to the menu. They group you together in groups of 10 people. Of the 10, 6 left Zulu Nya early because of the above reasons even though they had paid for a set number of days. They have signs all over saying that if anything is stolen on the property they are not responsible. We had quite a bit of cash taken and the management did nothing about it. There are so many other wonderful reserves and parks to go to, there is no reason to go to Zulu Nyala!
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was not nice trip at all
The guides guy wasted time as much he could. He didn't pay attention to our question and
we didn't get a chance to find the male lion at the same day another car got this chance. We saw some animals from far destination coz of the bad coordinating with the others. He didn't make any effort to give us a nice tour . Finally he requested to get tip for the good job!!!