FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
mixed feeling
We booked a 11 days Safari with Chabo including Selous, Mikumi, Ruaha and Udzungwa. We had very good time with our guide (who was not the supposed this one at first) and lodging and food were great. However the relationship with Chabo has not been really friendship. After 3 days our guide was still not there (fortunately the woman at our lodge in Selous was a wonderful person and guide) and they lied to us several time on the reason why. We finally understand that they had problems with the car. Chabo then rented a cheap open car (without seat belts) to take us from Selous to Mikumi that was not really adapted for the long drive to Mikumi. We finally met our guide at Mikumi rather than at Selous as first programmed. Later, without explanation either, they replaced a correct car, which we only kept for two days, with another car in quite poor condition. We realized also that our planing was not quite logical since it would have been less waste of time to go first to Udzungwa after Mikumu and not after Ruaha. Nevertheless we had a really great time because the parks in the South are all fantastic with not too many people, all the guides we had were great, professional, kind and helpful and because tanzanian people are really welcoming in general. Most of Chabo's good reviews are certainly deserved, but it would be a pity if the reputation they have built up over the years were to begin to fall apart through a certain lack of respect and consideration for customers.
GR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Far below expectations
I did the 1-night stay tour and it was quite a disappointment. Game drives are too short in duration (overall 5 hours) while 11+ hours are needed to go to Masai Mara and back. Period is supposed to be ideal to see the great migration, but we didn't get the chance to see it, as "there was not enough time to go to the river", which is practically a matter of tour guide decision! Staying at the outskirts of the reserve, close to the gate, automatically meant less chances of seeing all the animals. In fact we got to see just 3 out of the big 5 (lion, buffalo, elephant), and not even other animals that are supposed to be present in large numbers (cheetahs, crocodiles, hyenas etc), which doesn't make any real difference compared to going to Nairobi National Park which is right next to the capital. No comment on the accomodation or food, as these are definetely secondary issues for all visitors. If i knew before, I wouldn't do it.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
So much work to get our safari!
We would not recommend Tree Africa Safaris at all. Throughout the booking process, we thought the company was wonderfully responsive—we dealt with Victor Nagol, who told us we would get a wonderful three-day safari, just as we dreamed of. But as soon as we made our 50% deposit, Victor stopped communicating with us. A few weeks before we were scheduled to arrive in Tanzania, we emailed him to confirm our plans—but our emails bounced back, time and time again. Then we discovered that his company’s website was no longer live, and he was no longer advertising on Safari Bookings. Fearing that we might have been scammed, we asked our son (who is living in Tanzania) to visit Arusha (where Victor’s office was) to figure out what the problem was. He wasn’t able to find Victor, but after spending several days in Arusha, dealing with the police and the other tour company that processed our payment, our son was able to get Victor to follow through with our safari. Victor finally outsourced us to another tour operator (who was wonderful, and who gave us a delightful safari), but every part of it that Victor was involved with was a struggle. Our first two nights in Arusha were supposed to be included in the cost of our safari—but Victor did not pay for them; we had to pay for the hotel and wait to be reimbursed by Victor. He didn’t pre-arrange our accommodations during the safari itself—each night, we had to wait hours until he finally communicated with our tour guide before we knew where we would be sleeping each night. And finally on the last night, Victor did not pay for the hotel we were staying in (in Arusha), which was supposed to be included in the amount we had paid—we had to pay for the hotel when we checked out, and Victor said he would reimburse us for the cost. He did so—but it was weeks after we had left Tanzania and had already returned home.
We ultimately did get a wonderful safari—thanks to the skill and knowledge of the tour guide that we were outsourced to. But every part of the safari that involved Victor Nagol was hard work for us. We have to wonder if the only reason we got any safari at all was because we had our son there, in Arusha, talking to the police on our behalf and putting pressure on Victor to give us the safari we had paid for.
We cannot in good faith recommend the services of Tree Africa Safaris or Victor Nagol.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
First time on a safari (10 day) and had a mixed experience
I did the 10 day kenya/tanzania safari tour and went to all the main, big parks...(Maasai mara, Amboseli, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater)
The 10 day safari tour went to a lot of great locations although you spend a lot of time traveling between destinations....The airport pickup didn't go that smoothly and we got stuck in Nairobi rush hour traffic for a long time....I ended up having 3 or 4 guides during the 6 day Kenyan portion of the tour..(felt like a hot potato).....They were good guides/drivers but it would have been nice to remain with one of them for the duration..(I think the original plan was to have one driver/guide)....Obama was the best driver and pretty knowlegable....
By contrast, the guide/driver for the 3 to 4 days in Tanzania, Sayed, was very hard to understand half of the time and a very poor listener.....(poor english skills overall)....He couldn't find animals on the game drives, had lots of engine problems in the Serengeti and generally complained way too much about a variety of things......To try to compensate for his many inadequacies, he resorted to offering to buy us beer and ganja/marijuana for us in the van ..(which I think is illegal in Tanzania).....I was told that African Habitat safaris wasn't going to use him anymore as a guide....Excellent choice..
Overall, it was a good time... August is a good time to visit Kenya/Tanzania with a large concentrations of animals... But the tour seemed disorganized at times, the accomodations a mixed bag and the quality of guides dropped a lot in Tanzania...
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Outsourced to another operator that provided poor service; bad client service after paying money.
The review is a bit lengthy but please read in full. I booked a 3-day shared tour in Masai Mara from 10-12Aug with 7 other travellers. Tour is operated by Bencia Africa Adventure & Safaris (I wasn't informed of this whatsoever until boarding the van).
Pre-tour: agreed on 2-person tent on SMS with Roselyne who had a friendly tone.
Day 1: Was picked up at 8:30am as scheduled and arrived at office at 9am to get into an uncleaned safari van. Other travellers were told to arrive at the office at 8am, meaning they had to wait for 1 hour pointlessly due to tour operator's poor arrangement.
Arrived at Miti Mingi Eco Camp, waited for 10 minutes, no reception at all and of course no room plans. Had the evening drive and returned to the camp at 630pm. Had a 30-minute wait for dinner, during which the tour guide did not give information on room and meal arrangements until we searched for him around the Camp. After dinner, waited for 1 hour to ask for information ourselves by searching for Camp manager / tour guide / etc. At 9pm, Camp manager said the camp is overbooked and asked me and another male traveller to stay in a 4-person tent (with 2 other people), and said "will talk about other things the next days". The other 6 travellers (1 man 5 women) were driven for >15min to another lower-quality campsite.
Day 2: Tour guide gave minimal explanation of animals (total talking time <15min). Definitely not the best guide as Roselyne described, despite his ability to follow other vans to spot the big 5. Visit to Keekorok Lodge was great.
At the Camp, we found the Camp manager for refund arrangements given the inconvenience and no 2-person tent as agreed due to overbooking. He argued he delivered his services because we spent a night at his tent. He refused to provide refunds because he claimed only the tour operator (Bencia), not the travellers, are their customers. His attitude was poor despite we the customers kept calm.
That night, my roommate and I stayed in the same 4-person tent (with no other people). Note that 4-person tents has worse facility and sanity levels compared to 2-person tents that other travellers stayed in.
Day 3: Had an early morning drive. We weren't informed by the driver of when and where the van will stop for lunch during the drive back to Nairobi.
Went to Bencia's office to complain the above issues and asked for some refunds. Bencia said they need to discuss internally for 2 days and will inform me of the decision. No follow-up since then.
Messaged Roselyne to complain politely. She said "There is no refund! You never slept outside. You ate and used water in the camp." "We don't refund clients after they have done a safari and feel like they need their money back. This is fraud!". No reply on messages sent over various days afterwards.
Fraud or not, my fellow travellers, it's your decision.
ttdr: didn't understand the overwhelmingly good reviews of Hyrax Safari and Roselyne.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The park is well maintained and protected by authorities, but wildlife was difficult to spot.
Visiting Akagera National Park was my third game drive in Africa, followed by game drives in Kenya and Tanzania.
Akagera National Park is highly monitored and protected by local authorities against poachers. I was also told a percentage of the park fees are administered to neighboring communities so as to provide some economic income and deter poaching.
I know every game drive is different, and a lot depends on what and how many animals you see. However, my game drive in Akagera was really disappointing. I hardly saw any wildlife- zero in the first half of the drive. I think this was largely due to the fact that most of the park had recently been burned to 'control wildfires'. If I had known most of the park was recently burned, I would not have elected to go on the game drive as
I am sure this scared off most of the wildlife.
I recommend not visiting Akagera from June-August as this is when the park is burned. In addition, there is no off-roading allowed in the park. So, if wildlife are not close to the main road, it will be vey difficult to see them.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Beautiful scenery but specific tour was a disaster
Scenery of dunes was amazing
Weather was not that cold for desert and for wintertime , warm during the day
We didn't receive lunch on first day, other days the food was very little, others bought food .The vegetarians and vegans had much more limited options too for barbeque
Guide was not informative and we hardly received any info about sights we visited.
Transportation was a broken down game drive vehicle , some bumping there heads on the roof when we visited Deadvlei .Our specific vehicle broke down in middle of the desert without a spare tyre .
Camping facilities basic and okay
BE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Disappointing experience
The Safai itself was quite well organized and very nice. I would also say that the price was fair, at least the initially planned price. That's where my disappointing experience kicks in:
The payment methods offered by the Red Chilli feel a bit like a rip-off. When I booked the tour, they insisted I would have to pay a 50%-deposit to confirm. They gave me some payment options, but without any information on which option has the lowest fees. As they all locked similar to me, I picked one randomly. This led to bank fees of 60 USD (more than 33% of the amount)! The management later said sorry for this, but refused to give me any form of compensation, even not a sign of good will (like a free night worth 12 USD for example, as proposed by me).
Furthermore, all cash payments in local currency at the hostel use an exchange rate that is 3,5% lower than the real one (there is also a 3,5% fee on card payments in the local currency) . Thus, you pay extra if you use the local currency! I obviously only found that out at the end of my stay.
Alltogether, it just didn't feel right. I would not recommand the Red Chilli, as there must be better options out there.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Extremely poor coordination
i booked a safari from Bonfire on 8th September, guide and safari van was ok. the coordination and communication from my agent innocent was pathetic. She was not reachable two days before the safari. Driver and vehicle details were not shared until i made 20 calls to various numbers. finally number was shared on saturday 19.00 hrs for sunday morning safari and to my surprise, the mentioned driver never came instead send some other driver.
this is pathetic and frustrating for the monies paid. i will recommend not to choose bonfire because of very poor customer service.
Regards,
Nachiket
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Terrible Vehicle - Great guide
We were extremely disappointed with our experience with Swala due to the dilapidated condition of the vehicle we were put in. The car was clearly greater than 20 yrs old, super high mileage and in terrible condition. It was very underpowered and clearly badly misaligned. To go straight, the steering wheel was at 4 o'clock. We were always the slowest on the road; our guide did not seem comfortable driving the vehicle at regular speed. 3 of 6 seat belts were nonfunctional, passenger doors couldn't be opened from inside and none of the seats had headrests. The "cooler" did not cool so drinks were always warm. We had several harrowing moments. Leaving the Serengeti, the car made a sparking noise and smoke came out the dash vents. Fortunately, after waiting a bit, it restarted and smoke stopped. Another time, while climbing out of Ngorongoro crater, transmission popped out of gear and the car made a bad smell and initially, would not go back in gear. We held our breaths the rest of the trip out of the crater. Also, the brakes started squeaking horribly and we needed to take the time to take it to a local mechanic because we had no faith that the car could be safely driven. Thank god for our outstanding guide, Sunday, who not only was extremely talented at picking out wildlife and providing a fountain of knowledge regarding animals and habitats but also possessed much needed mechanical skills. Throughout our 7 day safari, I did not see a single other vehicle in nearly as poor condition. Honestly, we felt very unsafe and several times seriously considered abandoning the rest of our trip out of safety concerns..
So if you are looking for a safari with an extra dose of discomfort and fear, Swala is for you. Otherwise, I'd stay away. Sunday our guide, however, was outstanding and I would go again with him (with a different company) anytime.
FYI: Our car did not resemble any of those in their pictures. My guess is they are too embarrassed to show it..