TR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fake Company
Tour Agency is not a real company. Owner Joshua stole our money. We traveled with 20 pax and paid our accommodations, transportations (land cruiser) and entrance fee twice. Cause he had pocked our money.
Don’t work with Joshua and Polmans Holiday and Travel Agency!
TR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Cheater Joshua
The owner name is Joshua. He is a cheater.. Really it’s a fake agency.. we sent to our tour budget advance. he didn’t pay our hotel, jeeps,entrence fee etc. we had to pay again. And the last day he stole my 700 usd.. joshua is a thief..
TR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Bubble Agency
Never work this company and owner JOSHUA K KASAU . We agreed with 3 land cruiser but he brought us 3 old minivans. Minivans broke down on the way. Paid him thousand dollars via bank but he did not pay our hotels and also Masai Mara entrance fee.
Don’t trust him!!!!
We couldn’t get the money back. Kenya has a many professional tour agency. You can work any agency except Polmans Holiday and Travel
CH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
DON'T TRUST THEM
In January I enquired Orongai AS for a 5 days safari for late July. Since the beginning, I required to book ONLY lodges from the Serena Hotel Chain with an HB meal plan and to buy the flight from Arusha to Zanzibar for which I already had a reservation. The proposed program for the safari was meeting all my expectations and therefore I paid 50% of the total bill to confirm the trip (with 6 months advance).
FIRST SURPRISE: in June, after my request of details about the baloon trip that was listed into the proposed plan, we discovered that this was actually not included in the price I agreed (and already paid) but was an extra, costing "only" 510 US$ per person!!! After many e-mails back and forth with Martha, where I also proposed to pay 50/50 their mistake, I finally end up talking with the owner of the company (Mr Asseri) and I accepted, to pay the extra 510 US$. After we arrived in Tanzania, we were transfered to the first hotel where the Orongai rapresentatives showed up with more than 2 hours delay to the agreed breefing.
SECOND SURPRISE: checking out from this hotel, I discoverd that the meal plan was not HB as per the plan accepted by me and I had to pay 25 US$ per person for the dinner.
THIRD SURPRISE: the off-road car for the safari was a 30 years old Toyota Land Cruiser (much older than any other car we meet during the safari) with (probably) a few MILLIONS miles story: fortunately we had no mechanical problems (and this is a real miracle, considering the treatment this veicles receive) but the level of confort of that car was really poor.
FOURTH SURPRISE: we started the tour and we discovered that the plan was shuffled and instead of the agreed Tarangire-Ngorongoro-Serengeti sequence we would follow a Ngorongoro-Serengeti-Tarangire schedule.
FIFTH SURPRISE: despite my cash paiment for the ballon trip, they didn't succeed in boking that experience.
SIXT SURPRISE: when we were in Serengeti, we discovered that our hotel for the next 2 nights would have been a tented camp (and not a lodge as agreed).
SEVENTH SURPRISE: on the last day we discovered that the flight we were booked on was not the 5:10 pm one I originally requested but a earlier one (3:15 pm).
Based on this, would anyone trust them??
PS1: looking at other feedbacks in this site, looks like I'm not the only one having had this kind of disturbing experience with Orongai AS: probably the blame is not to be put on me
PS2: the only good thing of this safari were the guide (Gabriel) and the driver (Francis). They exceeded all our expectations under every aspect: nice and polite, skilled and commited
CV
Dont waste yr Time and MONEY
I still recovering from the disappointment. QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK has almost no wildlife at the moment. One pays a lot to see nothing around even if one drives for hours. Even antelopes, which are normally abundant, are rarely seen therefore spotting the lions is almost impossible. The guides and the company rep, only after your first hours of game drive, start telling that it s been years not much animals are seen in the park n the government needs to open new tracks. My guide even lied to us about the number is lions in the parks. There are many villages within the area of Queen Elizabeth hence wild animals are destroying people crops and livestock n sometimes kill people and in revenge lions have been killed decreasing the numbers in the park. I would say don't fall into the trap unless you want to waste your money and time driving around an almost wildlife less park.
The park is huge and the number of animals are insignificant comparing to the massive area of the park. Won't recommend it to anyone.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unprofessional
Johnston was absolutely terrible in communicating while trying to set up this safari. He tripled The listed price of our safari and was very obtuse and vague about why. Extremely unprofessional and rude. Communication in English with this man is exceedingly difficult, he became rude on the phone and hung up on me. Very unprofessional, look elsewhere to book your safari.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Rip off! Don't waste your hard earned money!
Poor communication, old vans for safari. Our van broke down and the safari was limited due to the status of the van. Didn't get to see all the animals at the maasai Mara. We had initially booked to stay at another hotel and they switched arrangements last minute to a mediocre camp that had bad food. Never again! Not worth it.
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible
Great that you replied on my email acknlowedging below mistake '' I still didn't receive a reply to my messages on whatsapp. Further to the lies, I had to pay 70,000 TSH for a different driver who agreed to take me to the airport because the safari driver was not told to take me to airport. Where your quote mentioned drop off at the airport is included. I need a compensation for this plus a compensation for your bad planning which ruined my vacation'' with(swahili paradise) Unfortinately the driver made a mistake, because it was included bust still we can refund you $40 to your account as i have informed the accountant. And no refund has been done ever since or even a reply which confirm what a fraud you and your company are!!!!!!!!!!
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Avoid at all costs - this is a schlock outfit!!
Utter shambles. Of 5 nights of mobile camping - reserved, confirmed, fully pre-paid - we were cheated out of 2 nights. On arrival we found out that the first night nothing whatsoever had been arranged, other than a back-handed suggestion to stay in some shabby motel in the middle of Maun - and even though our itinerary clearly stated that we would be bush camping in Khwai. We were also told that, on the last night, we would be unceremoniously dumped in Kasane and left to our own devices - and even though our itinerary clearly stated that we would be bush camping in Ihaha. The so-called "organisation" was an unmitigated disaster. The vehicles (yes, plural, there was a series of replacement ones as they were in such bad condition!) bordered on dangerous. All the equipment was old, worn, broken (tents), dirty (sheets), badly stained (mattresses), or incomplete (towels never materialised). When I confronted the owner, he did not seem surprised and indicted that other travellers had also had abysmal experiences with Bush Baby Calls. But this did not seem to bother him! At best, ineptitude. At worst, fraudulent. Only saving grace was the actual guides who were superb. For both, it was the first time working freelance for Bush Baby Calls and they were clearly horrified, though too professional (and embarrassed) to discuss the situation. Even the officer at Khwai Gate - when we finally got there! - rolled her eyes and said, "Not them again , they are always messing up!" Be warned: book with Bush Baby Calls only if you want to have your dream mobile tented experience completely ruined.
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Very bad experience
Over priced with one lodge very old and dirty.
No kitchen because burned so the meal are prepared outside without minimal hygienic condition .
Wi-Fi and other service very por .
To avoid !
Safari game drive very poor too.
We paid for panorama route but unfortunately we don’t realized without any back payment.