35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Dropped me in wrong country
This tour company is the worst. They allow operators that are not employed by the company "take" jobs from the original assigned guide.
This person tried to drop me off in the wrong country. He was refusing to drive me back over the border to my scheduled pick up person.
They are extremely unprofessional. They would not refund anything. How do you allow someone to steal your vehicle, kidnap a family of 4, and 2 single travelers?
That is exactly what happened. This guide took the job from his friend.
He was not authorized to drive around people including a 6 year old child.
The worst company.
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Flight was cancelled due to political unrest
Couldn't fly to Tanzania because of political unrest causing our flight to be cancelled. Agent in Tanzania could not refund our deposit, but said we can transfer is to the following year. Fingers crossed that political situation stabilises.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not Applicable
I did not get to go on the trip. I cancelled well in advance and was told I would be refunded 100% of deposits made. It has been close to a year of promises from Marvel to refund me but no payment has been sent back to me. First, it was an excuse of difficulties sending money back to US from Zimbabwe, etc. There is always a way to send money almost anywhere in this world. I have traveled all-over the world and getting money from one place to another can almost always be worked out. You had no problem receiving my money. I am out of over $2000 USD and now have to go through legal hoops in a different country to attempt to be refunded. My whole reason for postponing and canceling my trip was due to medical reasons for my mother who was planning to go on this trip and physically could not. It is really shameful of your business to be so deceptive amd dishonest.
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
The Owner of Sun Safaris has left us devastated.
In October 2025, our group of four travelled to Southern Africa on a tour organised by the Owner of Sun Safaris. The trip was required to be fully paid in advance before leaving Australia.
On arrival at our first safari camp, The Old Drift Lodge, we were informed that our accommodation had not been paid for by Sun Safaris. Despite apologies and assurances from the Owner of Sun Safaris, we were forced to pay ourselves using credit cards for accommodation we had already paid for.
Unfortunately, this situation was repeated at the remaining three safari camps, with continued promises from Sun Safaris that were not fulfilled. This caused significant stress throughout what should have been a once-in-a-lifetime holiday.
After returning to Australia, we continued to seek reimbursement and, despite many promises, we remain out of pocket by approximately USD $18,500. Based on our experience, we cannot recommend Sun Safaris and advise future travellers to proceed with extreme caution.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
DIABOLICAL
DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY
We paid a deposit to AfricanKenyaSafaris for a safari but cancelled on 6 August 2025 after reading numerous extremely poor reviews. We were told clearly that our deposit would be refunded within 60 days.
I dealt with Mary from their customer service team, who originally made the booking. On 21 September, I contacted her to check on the progress of the refund and was told she would follow up with the accounts department and get back to me the next day.
That never happened.
After that, Mary completely stopped responding. I sent follow-up messages on 22 September, 24 September, 26 September, and 5 October with no reply at all.
On 5 October, I contacted another AfricanKenyaSafaris account listed on their website and provided screenshots showing the lack of response from Mary and the poor customer service. I was told someone would come back to me by the end of the day. They didn’t. I have chased this twice since, again with no response.
This has been an extremely frustrating and stressful experience. Once they have your money, communication stops. At this point it feels dishonest and untrustworthy.
Awful customer service, no accountability, and no refund despite promises. Avoid this company.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Terrible experience
Keep away from booking with safari.com. Absolutely no flexibility in terms of making changes. Lost$3500 with them and communication is so delayed. I had to make schedule changes due to a medical situation (3 months ahead of scheduled dates) and was even ok to get credit for a future trip - they were absolutely not flexible. I would absolutely not recommend them - you are better off with other agencies!!
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
UPDATE : Don't trust Big Apes, neither Peter.
I wrote a previous review months ago reporting that Peter didn't refund my money and Peter replied saying that my refund was scheduled to be processed on that week (refund that was already late) and also left an "explanation" here. The refund wasn't done on that week and I had to contact him again.
I will try to summarize what has happened since my first review on 11/10, almost 3 months ago : He said that he was looking for a better way to handle my refund. He sent me a manually filled in form from his bank as proof of payment and then I was not allowed to send him emails anymore (yes, my emails were rejected and I had to use SafariBookings as an intermediary to communicate with him to ask for updates). Peter filled in the form incorrectly. I received the information from SafariBookings that the funds returned back to his account (SafariBookings had to contact his bank). I was allowed to send him emails again. I sent him another account as another option. He wanted me to fill in the form from his bank and refused to do it again correctly and said my information was distorted in different threads (??????? I confirmed with my bank and the information I sent was correct; the second option I sent was a screenshot from my bank's app, so no risk of being distorted; so ?????). I sent him a third option, a link requesting the payment. He hasn't sent the money using the link. Few weeks later, not a sign of him. Then, Peter wanted to transfer the money using Western Union. One week later, no contact from Peter at all. Then he said the money was at Western Union, that he sent the document previously, but he didn't and that I would have to withdraw my money. After all, I still had to find a Western Union to withdraw my money. This was the better way he handled my refund.
So, after my trip being ruined ... and after waiting longer than the offered cancellation policy time (I asked for the cancellation on 10/04, the offered cancellation policy time was waiting 4 months and receive the full amount; I received the document with the information needed to withdraw my money on 20/12, more than 8 months after the cancellation date) .... and a lot of headaches asking, asking, asking .... and asking SafariBookings for help (I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't have SafariBookings intermediating. I strongly believe that I wouldn't have received my money back) ... my money was refunded. LATE.
Facts and figures :
1) The full amount to be refunded was USD 1,079.24
2) The amount in the manually filled in form from the first attempt sent to me by Peter as proof of payment was USD 1,003.00
3) When questioned, Peter said that the difference (USD 76.24) was bank charges. No proof of payment for this bank charge.
4) The amount I've received from the second attempt was equivalent to USD 920.00.
I didn't understand his intention with that, but Peter forwarded me the exchange of messages between him and the SafariBookings representative, including the name of another client who was also waiting for a solution to her "case study". I wasn't the only one. He also says on the email that some guests are hard to please. After being rude, he failed to keep his word and refund my money within the promised timeframe. Are the guests hard to please ???
This is the customer service provided by Peter, think about if you have an issue during your trip.
As Peter himself said in one of his emails, let's move on to a better future without more hurt feelings. I think he meant my feelings and my bank account feelings. I lost money and time. DON'T TRUST PETER !!!!!! The End !
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I felt scammed !!!! Avoid at all costs!!!
Dishonest!!! I recommend you avoid at all costs!!!!!
We booked a three-day, two-night safari with him, paid a 30% deposit (€800), and haven't heard from him since. He didn't show up this morning for our meeting at the airport either, so we had to buy plane tickets at the last minute and find a new safari in Arusha! We are taking legal action today against this company and Mr. Gadiel Nassary, our contact person!!
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Disappoint with Tour Company Update
This is an update to a previous review. My family and I took an eleven day tour through Kenya and Tanzania in 2024. The tour would have been amazing had the owner of Features Africa Journeys, Karanja, been more honest and communicated with us better. Basically once we paid our deposit all communication stopped. While on tour 3 out of 6 lodges on our itinerary were changed without our knowledge. After the second change, which was a HUGE downgrade from what we paid for and extremely disappointing to be there for three nights, I was clear he needed to let us know if he was going to change our last lodge. He agreed. Sure enough he did it again and clearly had no idea where he was bringing us. This is the owner of the company! He drove us around the last park in the dark until he figured it out. The day before we ended our tour Karanja came to me and asked for more money due to increased park fees and lodges. Wow! There is a long story to this situation.
End result is, on the day we ended the tour we (the owner of Features, myself and his financial institution Pesapal) made an agreement to a partial refund. Within 3 weeks of leaving the country it was clear I was not going to receive the refund and Karanja stopped communicating the day we left Kenya.
One year three months later and a very long process I finally received the refund. It took filing a complaint against Features Africa Journeys with the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK), the Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA), the Kenyan Tourist Police Unit, and my credit card company to resolve the matter. Please, if you are due a refund from a tour company in Kenya and did not receive it do not give up. It can be done. It is not okay to take advantage of a tourist.
Our experience is a shame as we would have had an amazing tour if communications were better, the lodging was what we expected and not downgraded and we were not cheated out of our money. There are plenty of other tour companies to use that are more honest.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We booked a 5-day midrange safari tour.
We booked a 5-day midrange safari tour. We had a horrible experience with Benson. The night before the start of the tour we received a message of Benson if we could pay 55 dollars extra for the hotel because it had become more expensive. Of course, we would not pay extra as this was not stated in the quote, but Benson was persistent and kept messaging us for an hour straight. Then the next thing came up; the visit to the Masai village. The quote stated that this was included, but Benson called our driver that this was not the case. We sent a screenshot of the quote to Benson, but he did not agree with this. Benson kept calling us and the driver and even screamed a couple of times. This is insane! He told us that he already fixed the problem with the extra charge of the hotel, so now we had to fix this. This was very unreasonable because he caused these problems, not us! Of course, we did not pay for this as it was included. Now the third problem occurred. Before the safari, we agreed to pay extra to get another hotel; instead of the Citymax hotel we wanted to stay at the Waterbuck hotel. This was confirmed multiple times by e-mail and WhatsApp. The extra charge was paid on the first day of the safari. Our driver told us he would take us to the Citymax hotel, but we explained and showed him we paid extra to go to the Waterbuck hotel. The driver understood it, and called Benson. Benson said it was not true; we did not pay extra and we did not agree to go to the Waterbuck hotel. We discussed it for 3 hours!! We showed him multiple times the emails and WhatsApp, but he did not want to help. Finally, he wanted to pay back the dollars we paid extra, but he wanted to reimburse us in shillings which which didn't equal the amount we paid. Another hour of discussing went by and he finally paid us back. It was a very stressful experience for us. Something you do not want during your holiday. Benson did everything he could to screw us over. Fortunately, we had proof of everything, but this was the worst experience ever. Do not book with this agency!!