US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Possibly poor computer security
We contacted Jocky Tours for a quote. They responded and we started communicating with them through the email address on their website [email protected]. All communication was to / from this email. We sent payment as requested. When we got to Nairobi, they had no record of the emails or the payment. We suspect their email was hacked and our communications were being directed to a fraudulent third party. We have opened a fraud investigation on our side but caution anyone to be careful doing business with them.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not as informed and lack of communication
Before I paid a deposit I specifically checked through email communication if the safari would be in the order I saw on the safari booking website, i.e., day 1 Lake Naivasha, day 2 Lake Nakuru and days 3-4 at Masai Mara. This was so we would get as close to 2 full days at Masai Mara as possible as I was aware the trip would involve a lot of travelling. I was assured by the agent I communicated with by email it would be in this order.
On day 1 of the tour, when I was picked up, it wasn't until we were almost there and I asked before I was told we were headed to Masai Mara. In the end most of day 1 was spent travelling to Masai Mara and we only spent 2.5 hours on the safari. The very thing I was trying to avoid with my questions! Day 2 was a full day at Masai Mara. To add, the Lodger we stayed at, Jambo Mara, I really liked.
Day 3 was Lake Nakuru (which in the itinerary I was given we were supposed to go to on day 2). The accommodation, the Waterbuck Hotel is not great. Good breakfast but very rundown rooms with too much noise from outside so it's hard to sleep. Plus no fan or air conditioning.
Day 4 was Lake Naivasha and Hell's Gate, which was supposed to be on day 1. The accommodation, Masada hotel, was better than Waterbuck, bit still not very good and bathroom was quite smelly and mine toilet didn't have a toilet seat.
What I liked about the safari:
1. I enjoyed the actual safari itself and seeing all the animals.
2. I liked Jambo Mara Safari Lodge.
What I didnt like:
1. Not correctly informed about the itinerary of the trip, even though I asked.
2. I did a shared safari and everyone was given a different itinerary (i.e., each person was given a different order and some were told we would do a pre-breakfast drive at Masai Mara, which we didnt do). We were all on the safari for a different amount of days so I think the issue was they were trying to accommodate everyone's different schedules. This should have been explained when I asked.
3. The tour guide didn't explain from day to day where we were going and what we would be doing and seemed annoyed when we would ask for information. We were all quite confused from day to day and were never sure what we would be doing.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Elize
We hardly saw anything that entire trip.
CL
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Dissapointing
The experience in Kruger Park was ok but not how we expected, we didnt saw too many animals. We think that our guide wasnt good, he drive for the same part of the park most of the time, we spend our without seeing animals.
We didnt saw any cheetas, leopards and Rhinos. The thing is that most of the time you can see them there, so we think that our guide wasnt good. We’ve been in Tanzania but there is another thing, we really enjoy there, the parks, the tour guide and we saw a lot of animals.
We noticed that many people that pay a lot in the private reserve they has more chances to see animals and different species, I dont know if that a point to consider because they own a lot of animals , and the know exactlu where they are, but is very expensive too. Or maybe the option to drive by yourself could bebetter because you can go everywhere..
Also the communication during the tour with the agency wasnt good (Shinzelle Safaris).
We regret to add Kruger Park in our trip to Africa, that money could worth it, in another place, because we visited Tanzania and Uganda and everything there was amazing.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Was great with communication until we were in country & checked in; after that, it was crickets
Don’t book with Kennafrica - a possible SCAMMER!
When we booked, everything was supposed to be included (transport, accommodations, taxes and all activities. Once we were picked up, our driver said we had to pay park fees which aren’t cheap then upon checkout the hotel made us pay the remaining bill. Then had to go file a police report and still have yet to hear from him, Joseph Too. Luckily we still went but with all the added fees was not a fun surprise.
Don’t use him - go somewhere else to save you time and money!
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Poor communicators, frustrating with many changes
We felt that communication was a huge issue in dealing with Sunsets during the tour. There did not seem to be a single point of contact for the group (e.g. various contact points via Gladys, Haron, Lucy, using the Messages function in the booking app). There were times when calls were not taken, and promised return calls not received.
Changes to the itinerary prior to the tour were not specifically pointed out, and still there were more changes during the tour that were not communicated - these changes impacted some of the key highlights that we had all expected from the original itinerary we had paid for.
It was emotionally and physically exhausting having to deal with all the recurrent problems during the tour, even till late at night.
Initial itineraries indicated that a meeting would be held on Day 1 at 18:00 with the guide and that all members of the group should attend that meeting so as not to miss out on any critical information. This did not occur - we met our guide at the start of day 2. He was surprised to have 7 people on the tour in one vehicle and also at the amount of luggage - which was a problem for him to accomodate safely and securely. No ”PRE-TOUR” information was provided about luggage or clothing requirements, although this had been requested by many of the group members. This resulted in the tour truck being overcrowded with luggage.
There was confusion about where the tour ended - Arusha or Nairobi. 4 of the 7 people on the tour had confirmed that the tour was to end in Arusha and it was up to them to arrange return either to Nairobi or elsewhere. This was not consistent with the name being called a “Circuit” and as it transpired, it became clear (once on the tour) that we could have all been transported back to Nairobi by road to end the tour - but this was not known to those of us who paid additional money to fly from Arusha to Nairobi.
The drivers/tour guides in both Kenya and Tanzania were friendly and helpful, but they were not employed by Sunsets and had limited ability to fix operational issues - other than be the go -between with the company. However the safari drives were good and we saw lots of wonderful animals thankfully.
I would recommend being very careful about arranging a tour with Sunsets of Africa based on our experience.
We had booked through Tourradar who did help us with some monetary compensation on our return - as all 7 of us agreed we had not received what we had paid for.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Marginal
I have been on safaris before. This one was reconstituted,since poachers had pretty much destroyed this entire area of animals. It is nice for the government to repopulate the area but honestly it is a big waste of time Very few animals that you will see compared to other safaris. Very disappointing the country however is pretty. Accommodations terrible. The food a disaster honestly go to Disney in Orlando snd take the safari tour. A bus. In 20 minutes you see all the animals plus stay at their hotel the giraffes are right outside your window. This is a poor man’s safari with mainly bugs as the wildlife
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Poorly organised & we still haven't been refunded for cancelled activity
- Before the trip even started, communication (regarding payment & our pickup arrangement) with our booking agent was so terrible to a point where we suspected the legitimacy of this company.
- We had to chase our booking agent numerous times (payment has been made at this point) before he finally sent us a pickup driver's contact details
- Before we departed, we sent the pickup driver a message to confirm. He was surprised to hear from us as he wasn't aware of this pickup arrangement and said no-one had contacted him, nevertheless he still agreed to pick us up when we arrive (thank god).
- We we arrived, the pickup driver had no idea where to drop us off as he did not know anything about our itinerary. After many phone calls, he finally found out where we were staying and managed to drop us off at out accommodation. However he did not work for this company and it was still unclear why our booking agent had given us his details.
- the next day we found out one of our activities in Arusha wasn't booked and we had no idea until we arrived (after driving aimlessly for 2 hours).
- We requested for a refund for this cancelled activity as well as our accommodation for the night (as we wouldn't have booked accommodation for that night if it wasn't for the activity mentioned above).
- Staff agreed to refund the activity and suggested they would confirm with their management team and try to refund the accommodation, and promised to sort this out for us before our trip ends. We believe their words.
- After coming back from safari, we returned to Arusha for 1 extra day, We contacted the staff regarding our refund, they said they were still working on it.
- It's been a month since we are back from the trip, we have been contacting the company regarding this matter, and we have been ignored.
- It's been a really dodgy experience overall. Do yourself a favour and avoid this company.
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Hugely disappointing
We were constantly down-graded with accommodation, itinerary changed.
Sunsets refused our calls or just didn't respond.
It was a physically & emotionally exhausting safari, projected hours of travel on corrugated tracks vastly underestimated.
Sub-contracted by TourRadar, they cut & pasted our paid for itinerary, under-delivered and caused huge stress to all 7 on our tour.
Don't travel with this company.
ES
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Mufasa did not reach our expectations of an enjoable and rewarding safari.
In general we felt that Mufasa ones we did the booking, and paid, forgot about us. We had to ask the person in charge of our trip ( Caroline) to send us the name and details of our guide-driver because she hadn't done it and it was friday afternoon and our flight was departing Europe on Sunday. At that moment she told us the rules for Masai Mara had changed and even if we had paid extra to sleep inside the park the last night so as to do an early game drive, that wasn't possible unless we paid one extra entrance ticket. It was too late to cancel the lodge for another outside the park and cheaper. It was very anoying.
On the other hand the guide-driver: Nafthali, was speaking on his mobile very often, even when he was driving uphill and the road was wet!. And when we were watching animals he rarely explained anything, unless we asked heim for information, because he was chatting on the phone or with the whatsapp.
Of course, ones the trip ended, Mufasa did not request a feedback. They were aware of their poor service!!
As a conclussion, Mufasa did not reach our expectations and was not a good value for money.