CA
65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The tour operator inaccurately advertises type of open vehicle used from Bakubung lodge.
All was acceptable except for the most important aspect of a safari experience and that is the safari vehicke used for open vehicle drives from Bakubung Lodge. This lodge only uses 22 seater monster trucks, and babies are also allowed on the vehicle. It is impossible to communicate with the guide due to space and diesel engine unless you are one of two people sitting directly behind guide. The guide stopped to speak only when he or she was planning to speak so there is no ongoing conversation to learn and ask questions. This was a very disappointing experience. Just be aware that this particular lodge uses these types of trucks, and I have confirmed this with the lodge administration itself as the tour operator said otherwise.
CH
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Disappointing
Short story, animals were good everything else was not, I would NOT recommend Azas Safari.
Long story.
I had high (honestly too high) expectations, and this trip left me lacking in all areas.
I did a lot of research and narrowed it down to a few options. Prisca was very friendly and quick to respond via WhatsApp, she sent us a very professional quote and was willing to customize (better hotels, different activates, charge more money) our 10-day Ugandan safari. However, communication decrease as we got closer to our trip and we only stayed in 1 of 6 of the original agreed upon hotels, the other 5 hotels changed 2 or 3 times each from our agreement till on our trip. The hotel pictures in the agreement looked very nice and I googled every hotel we were supposed to stay at and was excited, but most of what we got was disappointing. The hotels are important because in general the nicer the hotel more options and better food. Almost all of your meals will be at your hotels.
Our guide Christopher had a good eye for spotting wildlife and had substantial animal knowledge, he lacked customer service skills and communication skills. He set the bar for the trip by arriving 1.5 hours late to pick us up on day one, with no fuel or drinking water in the vehicle. The vehicle was an older Toyota land cruiser. Nicer than a lot of the other vehicles we saw but not great and not the one in picture from Prisca. We got to experience 3 minor break downs and 2 very minor fender benders. We had problem with one of the front hubs, going up a hill overheated? and problems with the ignition, so we got to push start the vehicle twice. My shoulder seatbelt on the back passenger side did not work correctly, none of the gauges worked and the vehicle had no air-conditioning.
Half the time it felt like Christopher was on a trip and we were just riding in the back seat. Should have been him taking us on our dream trip. He never asked us what we wanted to do. We had to pry the daily plan out of him. He would stop and get a snack for himself but not offer us or information is that lunch is still 2 plus hours away and we might want to buy our own snack. Our agreement said meal plan “Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner drinking water, non-alcoholic drinks”. We ended up buying one of our lunches and only water in the safari vehicle was included, we had to always pay for water and soda at meals. (Honestly drinks were cheap but not what was agreed to).
My wife and I agree we would NOT go on another trip is Azas. I don’t know if the other companies are better or if this is the standard of service in Uganda???
CH
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Overpriced dishonesty, don't go with them!
Unfortunately, can't recommend this company. Their offer and price doesn't reflect the actual services and the moment you have a complaint they stop responding. We booked a group mid-range safari but everyone else in the group booked a budget one, so we paid double (or triple?) and got the same service but accommodation. The jeep was far from luxury and they promised a goup of 6 ppl but ended up cramming 8 people in the small jeep most of the time. We also paid for 2 entries to Masai Mara but were taken once, while everyone else in our group went on the extra game drive and we were not told about this (!!!). The only positives were the accommodation and the driver - he was great and we managed to see plenty of animals.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Over promised, and under delivered.
The guide Joseph was fine. He was accommodating and knowledgeable.
The accommodation at Lenchada Tourist Camp was super sub-standard.
1. I was in a single tent that looked nothing like what was presented on the website. The bathroom looked like a prison bathroom; it was unclean with plenty of cracked tiles and mold.
2. There was no Wi-Fi, even though the website promised Wi-Fi. When I inquired about the service, I was told, "It's broken".
3. The food service was chicken; chicken and more Fing chicken cooked the same exact way every dinner. And it was not high-quality food. It was a buffet designed to spend the least among of money. They frequently run out of food.
4. The security was below standard. My tent zipper kept malfunctioning and would not close properly. A baboon was able to entire my tent and steal my backpack while I was on safari. Although the backpack was recovered, my clothes were spread on wet ground, plus my laptop and camera were damaged.
5. Luke warm water that you had to request be turned on.
6. Limited electricity (6:30 pm - 10:00pm and 5:30 am-7:00 am). Again, this was not disclosed in the advertisement.
7. Dirty carpet and plenty of insects.
8. A mosquito net with holes.
Not worth the $340 cash (they insisted on cash for a good reason, I would contest the charge on my card if they accepted credit or debit) I paid for three days. In short, the trip was over advertised and under provided.
US
Long days waiting for overstretched drivers
Dismayed to discover everyone in our jam-packed car was staying in different hotels rather far apart. That meant >1h every morning, afternoon, and evening to pick up and drop off one by one. Extremely long days (before 6h to beyond 20h) for the driver and the unlucky folks who were the first to be picked and the last to be dropped, often in traffic, day after day. Dismayed again to see the car was lacking safety belts, a door didn't work, the shocks were bad... dismayed yet again to discover we and many others were being shuffled from one driver to the next, waiting long hours on the side of the road for the driver and all the passengers to arrive from all different directions. One car was so overloaded the driver even had to leave luggage and come back for it after passengers were dropped off. The poor fellows do their best, calling each other, planning ahead, playing Tetris between all the various tour agencies dumping passengers on them, and they do a surprisingly good job given the circumstances, but it's no thanks to the agency. It seems to matter little which agent you book with. I imagine in high season there's enough cars turning around the country that you'll mostly be with people in the same hotel, and if part or all of your trip is to less frequented parks you might have less than a jam-packed car (as we did for the last leg of our week). If you want to be sure of a relaxed experience and some breathing room, book a private safari.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amboseli group tour not recommended
I booked a 3-day group joining tour to Amboseli in January 2023 with Grayton Expeditions and it was below expectations.
I was disappointed because :
1) although you pay for a 3 Days tour (340$) you end up with only 1 entrance to the Park (24h). The game drive for the last day ends at 8.45am as the 24h entrance expires;
2) Grayton Expeditions do not operate the tour themselves but subcontract to another company which leads to differences with the program you paid for. In my case, the tour ended up at 12:00 (not 15:00 as indicated in the program) and I was not dropped off to my hotel, but rather put in a Uber from the city center (not very safe).
I could share this feedback with Grayton which apologized for the inconvenience and was very reactive. However I cannot recommend this group tour to Amboseli with Grayton (better book a 2 days with another agency), but I think they are reliable if they operate the tour themselves as my communication was smooth with them.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible roads and service
While the ranch is supposed to have a good variety of wildlife including rhinos, we went on New Year’s Eve and we’re thoroughly disappointed.
There were no guides as they were on vacation despite it being purportedly a high season. We bought a map for KES 1500 since we could not a guide, but it is extremely difficult to follow given unmarked roads.
The roads are impassable and the stafff are not helpful. We spent two hours looking for a way to cross past the swampy area and despite seeking direction from four staff members, we ended up in the same spot from different directions and had to eventually give up the effort!
One would have expected better guidance including warnings on tricky roads etc.
We did see some rhinos but were very underwhelmed by the seeming lack of knowledge of the lay of the land and even customer service orientation.
We got some perfunctory apologies and were on our way to nurse disappointment especially for the birthday girl who had to wake up early in vain.
The ranch needs to step up its game. Otherwise please consider Ol Pejeta instead.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Poor service
I booked an 8 day Kenya/Tanzania safari for my 2 children and I. Purity was amazing to work with prior to leaving my home country. She was very responsive and even went to the embassy on my behalf when I was having problems with my visa. However, once on the safari things started to go wrong. We were picked up from Nairobi and took the long drive to Masai Mara, we did an evening game drive that first day and was brought to our tent camp for the night. Camp was very basic, only had working electricity in the main cafeteria area, so had only a few hours to charge devices. The 2nd day was a full day game drive and visit to Masai village which was wonderful. Day 3 (which was my birthday) is where the itinerary changed. We were supposed to visit Lake Nakuru for a safari boat tour, but that was canceled, there were no other plans for the day besides to drive back to Nairobi and go to a hotel, the next day the plans were to drive from Nairobi to Tanzania and check into hotel upon arrival. That was 2 days back to back filled with just driving. That was not fair to my kids or myself as that was not in the itenerary and I did not pay for 2 days of driving. I emailed purity as I was unsure of what to do and she apologized for the inconvenience. I decided to cancel and book with a different company as I really did not want to spend the entire next day driving. I asked to be dropped off at the airport and took a flight to Tanzania and was picked up from another tour company and had an exceptional experience. Essentially I paid more for the 3 days I was with this company than the 5 days with the second one. The food provided was very subpar, for lunch having boxed sandwiches with cucumber and tomato. Our tour guide was nice however not very helpful with telling us about the things we were seeing. It was a very frustrating experience to say the least, but I am glad it ended on a more positive note with a different company. Please do your research prior to booking. Research the lodges, the amount of driving that will be done and if possible request a specific tour guide. I was hoping for a very positive learning experience for my kids and that was not the case. I also requested a hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara and was told that would be available at an extra cost and was not available to us while there.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Sad safari
Karibu Safaris it's a one-time agency.
Unfortunately we were very disappointed with the safari especially from the guide who was more a driver.
No communication with him except answering yes or no questions.
We were not immersed in the safari with the guide.
We were able to see lions by chance but staying juste 2 minutes juste toi take some pictures.
We couldn't enjoy this moment.
We were embarrassée to Ask each Time toi get Closer to thé animals because he didn't do it naturally.
We chose a private safari 2 days 1 night.
We arrived on the first day at 12:30 at the lodge for lunch and we left only around 3 pm to start the safari.
We would have liked to leave eaelier to enjoy more instead of waiting 2h in the lodge.
The next day we saw very very few animals because we went through the same places as the day before moving away.
We spoke with other travellers who had the opportunité to see from the 1st day to see a lot animals including lepopard crocodiles a lot of lions etc.. They were surprises that WE didn't see all this on the first day.
In conclusion, we have not discovered the Masaï Mara as it's legend says and the people who describe it this is a huge disappointment because we leave with a taste of unfinished.