US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
terrible vehicle
We had worked for months with Soul of Madagascar for this holiday. We had quick and efficient responses from the office employees of Soul of Madagascar. We especially were impressed with Theresia. She was quick and efficient with her responses. We were expecting a wonderful holiday because of Theresia’s thoroughness. She sent us a picture of the Soul of Madagascar rep that was meeting us at the airport and a picture of the vehicle we would be using.
The lodges we requested were reserved by Soul of Madagascar. All were what we expected and met our needs. A few of the lodges exceeded our expectations. Bakuba Lodge was absolutely wonderful. It is a very unique lodge and would recommend this lodge. Bakuba Lodge and Le Soleil de Tsingy were the best lodges we stayed. We would not recommend Radisson Waterfront rooms 19, 20 or 21. They are in the basement. We would not recommend Gaspard Hotel in Ranomafana, the food was not good at all.
Our guide, Joushia, and the original driver, Rivo, were not very punctual. In fact, they were late over 95% of the time. We had to contact Theresia midway through our holiday because of Joushia’s attitude and the vehicle issues we had.
Oh, the vehicle issues we had!! Not one, not two, not even three, but five issues with the original vehicle. Then the second vehicle was a bit better but we still had no working air conditioning and ROACHES in the vehicle. We booked higher end hotels as we expected great service and a quality experience. Because of the service we received from Theresia, we thought we would receive excellent service from everyone at Soul of Madagascar. We also thought we would have had a higher end vehicle because of the higher end hotel choices we had made. Well, that was not the case. We had never experienced such bad service between the guide, driver and the vehicle like this. The best vehicle was the one that transported us to/from the hotel/airport and the one from Bekopaka to Morandava, which was not from Soul of Madagascar. Out of 14 days we have been with a vehicle, we had air condition for 4 days. Two of these days were transfer to/from the International Airport. Taking the total time we spent in a vehicle without air conditioning, it would be over 95% that we had NO air conditioning. We understand things happen. Maybe even twice, but five different things happened with the same vehicle. The first time, on the way to Kirindy Forest, the fan belt broke. It took about 2.5 hours to get back to where the fan belt broke. The next day, driving to Bekopa the air conditioner broke. We had to drive 5 hours on the dirt road with the windows down. It was SO hot and SO dusty. Our luggage, ourselves and everything was DIRTY. I mean DIRTY. Joushia and Rivo did not even seem to care that we were filthy. The next time the vehicle had an issue was on the way to Antsirabe. We stopped once for 15 minutes, then another time for 20 minutes and then an extra hour at lunch because the power steering pipe had a hole. And the air conditioning was not working. We had told Joushia we needed a different vehicle in Antsirabe. But he did NOT listen to us.
We were heading to Ranomafana the day after Antsirabe. We had told Joushia we absolutely wanted to do a night walk in Ranomafana as this was planned on our itinerary. Joushia said we had to insure we were on the road very early to arrive in Ranomafana for the night walk. We opted to not do Antsirabe city tour and the zebu factory to insure we had enough time to get to Ranomafana. We ended up paying the price for not getting a different vehicle in Antsirable as the vehicle broke down on the side of the road. We also noticed the power steering wasn't working, even though we were told everything was fine with the vehicle and of course the air conditioning was not work. That day the fan belt broke again, the same fan belt. We sat at least two hours at the side of the road while the vehicle was repaired. We repeated that we wanted to do one tonight but because of the vehicle breaking down for the fourth time, we could not. Rivo's reply was "This is life in Madagascar." WOW, what customer service is this?!?! We have not seen any other tourist's vehicles broken down on the side of the road. Obviously, it isn't life in Madagascar. We also have not seen any other tourist vehicles with their windows down! So many lies! Joushia lied to us! Finally, we got a different vehicle, but again, it had no air conditioning, and it had roaches crawling on the floor and on us!! This whole situation was unacceptable.
We travel the world as we have visited 95 different countries. Most of these travels has been on induvial tours such as this one. Never have had anything like this. We talked to other tourists while on our holiday in Madagascar; French, Hungarian, Dutch, English, Australian, Canadian, South African and Americans. None have experienced even one issue like we had. All we ever heard from Theresia was “Thank you for understanding”. Well, that is one thing, but it does not make the facts change. If we experienced any small issue on a previous holiday, we would have been compensated for any issues. It would have been a nice gesture, indicating these issues were understood, if a small refund or possibly including meals at several of the hotels. But no compensation was ever made. We paid a lot of money for this holiday and expected great service. Other than Theresia, we did not receive good service from Soul of Madagascar. We felt as if we were a nuisance and not a client.
We had communicated with Theresia during the trip for her to try to understand our situation. Her response was “my apologies” and she was grateful for our understanding. She also stated she did not know about all the issues with the vehicle until we had told her. Joushia did not tell her about the vehicle?? Upon our arrived home, we sent a lengthy email detailing all our issues we experienced on our trip to Theresia. This is her response, “I would like to apologize for the inconvenience you experienced during your trip. As a representative of our agency, I will take all your feedback seriously. I will take the time to carefully observe the people I will work with in the future. Once again, I offer you my most sincere apologies.” Apologies are one thing, but it is as if no one from Soul of Madagascar understood that we paid good money for a tour that was far below satisfactory conditions. We honestly cannot recommend Soul of Madagascar.
AE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Christian has been fraudulent with us
I paid by mistake twice and now he is not refunding me and not even replying to messages. Christian has been dishonest with us.
IT
Very bad experience
In general, terrible organization. Only after we paid the deposit they told us that the chosen structure was not available and they proposed a tented camp far from the luxury we had paid for. The guide was terrible
FR
Liars and thieves
Like other reviewers we booked for safari in 2022, eventually paid in full as requested but got nothing in return except lies from Dirk and his bunch of thieves.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Almost Killed by Blue Crane Safaris
I almost got KILLED by using Blue Crane Safaris Namibia for my tour in August 2024.
On a perfectly sunny day with no wind and no other vehicles near us at all, the driver from Blue Crane Safaris crashed our vehicle while making a right turn going downhill. The vehicle rolled over about 300 feet to the bottom of the rocky cliff. There were no shoulder seat belts in the backseats, so the passengers in the back were thrown out of the car window onto the rocky ground. Among the 5 passengers in the car, 3 got seriously injured and hospitalized (one with a broken Femur, two with broken ribs) and 2 suffered minor injuries. After the accident, Blue Crane Safaris refused to pay any expenses including medical expenses, or lost & damaged items since according to their contract, under no circumstances they are responsible for any death, injuries or losses whatsoever.
Unbelievably reckless and irresponsible –I would recommend you avoid at all cost.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Owner Amani ran away with the money
Amani (the owner) or nobody else from Kipok showed up to pick us up and did not answer any of our several calls. They left us alone in Tanzania and kept the deposit we paid.
We later found out that other tourists had the same experience. The police department in Arusha is taking care of this case. You can check other people’s reviews on Google and TripAdvisor too.
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Really disappointed...
I had a safari with Absolute Holidays Safari in Tanzania. For 2 nights, the lodge booked was not the expected one (a little bit not so good of course). Another day, instead of lodge, I had a camp, with no compensation. Also company in Kenya doesn't want to give name and info about the corresponding company in Tanzania. Transportation was low quality (old vehicle, driver always lost, really not a guide). Last day, I quite missed my plane (several changes in cars; arriving at airport 2 minutes before door closing !). For other people in the car (2 from Miami, 2 from Melbourne) with the same problem in lodges bookings. Avoid this company to organize your tour.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Breach of trust and stole our money
We had excellent service from the guide and the supervisor on site but sadly we add a really bad experience with Mack. We add to pay 1400$ US more on site because if we did not our safari could not happen and we already paid a deposit and the plane ticket. It was suppose to be refund by the end of the trip. We did trust Mack because we already did a safari in 2019 and we as a great Experience but this time we happen to be stoled 1400$ us so we really dont recommend this company
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We were scammed by this company - do not book with them!
Amani, the manager, stole our money and gave us alone in Kenya. We already paid everything to him before coming to Kenya, it’s our honeymoon so we wanted to relax. He did not book everything and We had to pay for the hotels, park fees and driver again to be able to finish our trip and arrive to our last destination. We went to the police to report this. Do not trust him, he lied to us and stole our money !
US
irresponsible, terrible at planning.
John Bow Tours ruined our wildlife safari. They assured us they knew where to find the animals, but when we arrived, they clearly had no idea where to go. We waited for hours to witness the wildebeest migration, but it never happened. Other tour groups saw it just miles away, but we were stuck in a dead zone because our guide hadn’t done the necessary research. It was incredibly frustrating, especially after hearing that other people had amazing experiences. The lack of preparation was glaringly obvious, and when we complained, they simply brushed us off.