US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very disappointing safari company
This was a very disappointing safari due to Noah and our guide. Noah added fees once we arrived in Kenya and charged us multiple times for pick up from the airport. He also did not give the guide information about the length of the safari drives we had paid for or the entire last day of our safari. While the guide was friendly, he did not point out many animals and was not able to show us where we were on maps of the Mara or point out any landmarks that are easily found on a google search. He said he had been a guide for 5 years and worked at a lodge in the Mara for over 10 years prior to becoming a guide. He would not take us to the Mara triangle or southen part of the Mara due to mud and the length of the drive but guides for other guests at our lodge were safely driving throughout the Mara. This safari did not live up to expectations Noah had promised. The guide put in very little effort. We paid admission to Enter Thompson Falls at the bottom and walk up a path to the falls. The guide took us to another location which appeared to be free. We have had wonderful safaris with other companies.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Zanzibar trip
Please do not book with bonfire adventures.
We did not get our confirmation till the night before, having paid 3 days in advance.
The packages offered on-line did not correspond with the actual package I.e. sunset cruise dinner was a watermelon, cocktail never materialised.
They sent us a text message the night before departure, advising us that we were booked on a .m. flight with no flight details.
There are other your company operators who are more reliable out there.
Do not waste your time with bonfire adventures.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Too much driving
My wife and I did the 8 day safari with Wildebeest safaris and it was the worst vacation experience we have ever had. The itinerary is not very detailed and we had no clue we would spend sooo much time driving from park to park. 6hr drive, 9hr drive, day off, 11 hr drive, day off, 5 hr drive, 8 hr drive, and 7 he drive is what our 8 day safari consisted of. The guides were good and the accommodations were good, however this much driving completely ruined our experience and I would never do it again. There was two days we were supposed to do 2 game drives but we didn't do any since it took all day to get to destination.
TH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Lot of Lies & bunch of frauds even the new management
I have booked the safari with another of my friends to go to Uganda through this tour agent & Damien asked us to pay fully to book the hotels & Gorilla permits as it is high season. We paid since December 2016. And when we ask for the Gorilla Permit he send only the booking. Without paying for the permit it is not valid. And the hotel reservations also didn't send. When we ask around April, the new management Patel Shah replied us after many follow ups that they are having difficulty in booking & if we can help him by paying $1950 he can confirm the booking. As we refused him he came back that he was able to get discount from the vehicle & now the amount is 1550. Evangelina the girl whom I have been WhatsApp from the beginning confirms that Patel is genuine & we decided to pay $1550. At the end they couldn't arrange our tour as the hotels now providing any credit facilities. So at the end our trip is cancelled & i couldn't get my air ticket refunded as well because till last minute Patel was saying that they will arrange it. And then we ask to refund our money he send e-mail that it will be refunded. But till now no refund or even no reply to our follow up e-mails or WhatsApp chats. They put the blame to Damien, but not only Damien, this new management Patel & also Evangelina are running a fraud business, misleading their customers & to steal money from the customers. Do not trust this company or the new management as well.
Victor Godwin. Thief. Liar. Conman. Avoid at all cost.
I can sadly see that we are not the only ones who have been conned by Victor Godwin. Here is the trick. Consider yourself warned if you book with him.
You will agree safari itinerary and you will pay in advance, all inclusive. When you go on the safari, Victor will call you and ask if you could please pay for park entry fees or for upgrade of accommodation. He will promise to reimburse you once you get back to Arusha. Now the problem is that the drivers do not have funds for the park entry fees so you have no other option that to pay or not enter the park. Clever right. And yes, of course he does not refund your additional expenses.
On our trip, we were six people whilst another car had thre people. On the first night, we stayed in a different hotel than agreed. We went along with that. On the second night, Victor called the other party and ask them to cover additional expenditure for upgrade of accommodation, not upgrade for them though but for my family. So he played the parties against each other. He did the very same thing the next day where he called me asking me to cover an upgrade for the other party. He asked for $600. The following day, he called me again asking us to cover the entry fees to Ngorongoro, again $600. I refused. He called the other party of course with the same request. We briefly discused between our two parties and agreed that one from the other party would cover the entry fees. This was to ensure that none of us would end up having thousands of dollars to be refunded, again it was $600.
It is now five months since our safari. As I live in Tanzania, Victor has not been able to simply disregard my calls, SMS, Whatsapps. He has again and again promised to pay. Each week, he will make that promise and then find an excuse. He is nothing but a frail little liar who should never ever be trusted.
Also note that Victor is not a member of Tanzania Tour Operators Association. This essentially means that they are not able to help any customers who might have problems with Victor. Another reason for staying completely clear of this guy.
Thieves. Conmen. And other words not suitable for a public review
I can sadly see that we are not the only ones who have been conned by Victor Godwin. Here is the trick. Consider yourself warned if you book with him.
You will agree safari itinerary and you will pay in advance, all inclusive. When you go on the safari, Victor will call you and ask if you could please pay for park entry fees or for upgrade of accommodation. He will promise to reimburse you once you get back to Arusha. Now the problem is that the drivers do not have funds for the park entry fees so you have no other option that to pay or not enter the park. Clever right. And yes, of course he does not refund your additional expenses.
On our trip, we were six people whilst another car had thre people. On the first night, we stayed in a different hotel than agreed. We went along with that. On the second night, Victor called the other party and ask them to cover additional expenditure for upgrade of accommodation, not upgrade for them though but for my family. So he played the parties against each other. He did the very same thing the next day where he called me asking me to cover an upgrade for the other party. He asked for $600. The following day, he called me again asking us to cover the entry fees to Ngorongoro, again $600. I refused. He called the other party of course with the same request. We briefly discused between our two parties and agreed that one from the other party would cover the entry fees. This was to ensure that none of us would end up having thousands of dollars to be refunded, again it was $600.
It is now five months since our safari. As I live in Tanzania, Victor has not been able to simply disregard my calls, SMS, Whatsapps. He has again and again promised to pay. Each week, he will make that promise and then find an excuse. He is nothing but a frail little liar who should never ever be trusted.
Also note that Victor is not a member of Tanzania Tour Operators Association. This essentially means that they are not able to help any customers who might have problems with Victor. Another reason for staying completely clear of this guy.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Do Not Book with mnmkenyasafaris you will lose your money.
I Booked a safari with mnmkenyasafaris for my family and paid them £13,000 ($17,000) for a two week safari for my wifes 50th birthday. Two days before we were suppose to fly to Kenya for our holiday Edward the owner of the company phoned me to tell me it had to be cancelled. I then over the next 12 months had several conversations with Edward trying to get my money back. He made lots of promises to return my money but it never happened and now he has cut off all contact so in effect he stole our money. This man is a fraud do not book with him or you will lose your money.
MQ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
did not take us on safari and did not refund our money!
Through www.safaribookings.com , my daughter and I have booked a 5 days Safari (from December, 31st, 2016) that should include Serengeti, Tarangire and Ngorongoro (Tanzania) with Africa Remote Safaris: http://africaremotesafaris.com/ . For this we paid an advance of 1200$. We received mails from a so called Naphtally from Africa Remote Safaris confirming our booking.
On December 30th, 2016, we had arrived in Arusha and had still not received any instructions concerning the safari. With the help of the Manager of the hotel where we were staying, we managed to call the Arusha number mentioned on the website and got in touch with a driver who informed us that he had only worked for Africa Remote once. On December 30th, my daughter and I went to bed not knowing whether we would go on safari or not the following day.
In the morning (Dec 31st), we at last received a WhatsApp message from the so called Naphtally indicating that we would be picked up by a driver from another safari operator.
Since ARS had not wired any money to them. We had to pay the full cost of a budget Safari 1800$.
While we were on Safari, ARS wired 440$ to the other Safari operator. This amount was given back to us upon our return by this operator with whom we went on Safari.
Thus, Africa Remote Safari still owed us 760 $. We wrote to them numerous times and once a certain Steve Biko even apologized for the delay and promised that he would soon refund us the money. Almost 2 months later, we still have not heard from him despite our reminders.
It appears that though Africa Remote Safaris claims to have offices in Arusha and Zanzibar, they do not have offices in those places and are only represented in Kenya. The phone numbers mentioned on their sites are only the numbers of drivers who have worked for them occasionally. They also do not have a license to operate in Tanzania and are only represented in Kenya. So if you book with them for a safari in Tanzania all or part of your money may be lost!
We wanted to tell about our experiences with Africa Remote Safaris so that you should avoid a bad and stressful experience on your holiday. They are found directly on (http://africaremotesafaris.com) or through www.safaribookings.com
EG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bad experience with Bencia Africa Adventure and Safaris.
My wife and I booked a 5 day safari and paid $1700 before tips. They lied about the cost of the park entrance fees which we discovered later. The accomodation was substandard and not what we were promised. The car broke down on our last day and we were delayed for several hours. As a result we had to stay an extra night in an awful hotel provided by the travel agent. On our return to Nairobi Bencia demanded an extra $150 per person. They didn't apologise for the delay or the disruption to our schedule. They refused to bring us to the airport on our return. Despite our insistence they forced us to return to outside their office building. We had requested to be dropped at the airport or at other points along the way even though we were late for our flight. We refused to enter the building as they were demanding extra money from us. Within two minutes eight of their staff blocked the entrance to a nearby restaurant as we had sought refuge there. They aggressively harrassed and intimidated us and were trying to extort money from us. One of their employees picked up a rock and an altercation ensued between him and a customer of the restaurant. We are very grateful to the customers and staff of Sizzler restaurant on the same street. They protected us and helped us to get into our taxi unharmed. We needed to be protected on the way to the car as they were continuing to follow us, as indeed did the employee holding a rock. I would strongly advise anybody not to use this company.
We would greatly appreciate your help in resolving this matter.
Regards,
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
we don't recommend this company
we just done Safari with this company, and it was very bad experience:
we booked a Land cruiser, it was very very slow, and it has almost no power, when overtaking its very dangerous, and the driver need very long clearance distance to overtake (sometimes it takes 20 min waiting behind a big truck who is driving 30km/h).
Driver was not exceeding 50-55 Km/h on the highway, for 6-7 long driving hours everyday ( this is according to my accurate Garmin GPS)
the worst part of the trip is the driver himself, we don't feel comfortable at all with him, he speaks English well, but he doesn't want to talk or explain anything about the country or the trip,and the way he answers any question it will make you think 100 times before asking him again.
he complains every time we ask him to stop for toilet, and he claimed that there is no toilets all over the way, until we forced him to stop.
he never ever give any straight answer when asking for the distance or timing to arrive to the camp,
we drive daily 6-7 hours from park to park, whenever we ask him where are we, or how long we still need to arrive?he answer ( we are not far). this is so annoying, so we start asking the locals when we stop in the petrol stations, and he also complains, and he said ( stop asking them they will not know).
we been in many many countries with privet drivers, but nothing was like this.
the driver is very important in such a trip, because you are all the day with him inside the car, and its serious problem if they make you feel uncomfortable.