CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Very poor organzation with outright cheating as we didn't get th promised game drives and hotels
We went on a tour with Vincent Seth from Trip Advisor African Safaris(from the 7-24th of Sept 2018) and I would like to make the following comments.
We paid the money in 3 installments - First about 4 months ago, 2nd about a month ago and the last installment when we arrived in Nairobi (this is the way he asked).
Tour - Group = 12 to be accommodated in 2 vehicles as a private tour with an English speaking Driver/Guide. Tour 11days in Kenya/Tanzania with 5 of us doing an optional 4 day tour at the beginning in Zanzibar.
Day 1 - Zanzibar : Driver who picked us up spoke practically no English(acceptable for this part bout not later when touring). We were to have 3 singles and 1 double but when we got there the hotel stated we were booked as a triple and 1 double. Had to contact Vincent (while sharing a room for the initial hours by 2 of us - 3rd arrived later) who corrected the problem. Excellent Hotel (Blue Bay Resort). The day we arrived we were to on a Spice Tour in the afternoon - Driver who dropped as well as his Zanzibar contact(Willie) didn't inform us that somebody would be arriving to at 2PM to pick us up (when we have gone on tours the driver before leaving gives clear cut instructions a to the next pick up time-but this didn't happen). We were in the restaurant but whoever arrived at 2PM didn't bother to look for us but left after a while(if he told the front desk they would have had no difficulty locating us as we were only 30 metres away).
Day 2 : We went on the missed Spice Tour followed by the Old Town Tour - Guides very knowledgeable and overall very good tour; Suggestion - We were taken for lunch to a restaurant stating it is local food although the food was essentially Indian Food (which I know has a big influence on the local cuisine). There were other tourists there with the lunch acceptable. After the lunch during the tour we were taken to a colonial hotel with a nice restaurant overlooking the bay - It would have been better to give an option to the tourists to go to the usual place vs this restaurant (for an additional charge) as we anyway stopped there for tea, thus spending time.
Day 3: All problems commenced. On our schedule we were to be taken for a boat tour to see Dolphins followed by lunch and a tour to local sanctuary for a visit including a Colobus Monkey viewing. We had a 2hr drive to go to the Dolphin site (+ 2hrs back). The driver spoke no English at all. When we reached the beach there wasn't a single other tourist there (thus I am not sure whom they sub-contracted to do the tour). The motor boat was fine but the life jackets provided were old and frayed with the zips not functional. There was only one additional straps on the jacket (usually has 2-3) with the no clips to latch. Thus we tied the 2 frayed ends with an hand done knot. This in my opinion is gross negligence and dangerous. As you are aware a large number of people died in a Ferry accident in Tanzania a few days ago. The boat driver again spoke very little English. After the boat ride the car driver stated that he was asked to take us back to the hotel and that he wasn't told about lunch/Colobus monkey tour. After our insistence he had a back and forth discussion with Willlie with the phone handed to us to argue with him with regards to provision of the remaining portion of the trip. After wasting nearly 1hr the driver was told to take us back to the boat area to a restaurant - When we taken to this beach side restaurant there was not a single customer in the restaurant and there was not a single staff person to be seen either. We certainly weren't prepared to have lunch there and asked the driver to take us back to the hotel. We were not expecting a fancy restaurant(I have eaten at many beachside cafes in the Caribbean) but this place wasn't suitable to have a meal. The only people in the restaurant were 4 young kids seated and playing cards.
Day 4: Arrived in Nairobi. Taken to Sarova Stanley hotel- An excellent hotel. Vincent Seth was there. It took nearly 2hrs to get the rooms as Vincent had not made the bookings according to what we paid for ( 5 double/twin rooms and 2 singles). However we took this in good stride but informed Vincent that he needs to make a list citing the names and the room allocations and fax it to all the other hotels in advance to expedite the check in. Vincent spent a lot of time asking us to write all the names in detail citing the room requirements (all this info was already sent to him beforehand). However the next day he brought a sheet written by him many names misspelt and handing over to us. I explained to him that he needs to fax this the hotels and there was no need to give each of us copies. The list was ultimately not faxed to any of the hotels except possibly one.
Day 5 (Tour Of Nairobi): Vincent arrived late and stated that another person from England was going to joining us in our tour. This was a total surprise as we were to have a private tour. Although the person was quite nice having the 7th person in the van resulted in limitations for space to carry luggage as well as inconvenience when trying to jockey for position during game viewing(especially in Tanzaniawhere the truck had only 7 Tour of Nairobi -although identified we were not taken to the Nairobi Natl park, Blixen Museum etc - Vincent had too many things on the schedule and the drivers didn't have copies of the schedules with them (This was an issue throughout the tour where not a single driver/guide had the schedule given to us. Evening - Dinner at Carnivoro Restaurant - Nice
Day 6 : Told by Vincent that we would reach Lake Nakuru in 2-3hrs (and we would have a full game drive there) with his drivers insisting that it would take 4-5hrs (the latter turned out to be correct). Nice Hotel
Day 7/8 : Masai Mara - No issues although game drive on last day not done as road issues forcing a detour.
Day 9/10 : Serengeti Serena Lodge - Excellent hotel and good game drives. When we went to check out of the hotel after staying 2 nights the Manager told us that we cannot leave as the hotel has not been paid for the 2 nights with only a deposit made. He wanted us to pay US$ 5100.00. We obviously refused but were held hostage at this hotel until 1145AM. We had to make dozens of phone calls to get hold of Vincent and his Tanzania agent (Ibrahim) to arrange for the payment. Ibrahim stated that Vincent hadn't paid him and Vincent stated that Ibrahim had played him out. In addition to the mental anguish we missed the morning game drive. If anybody disbelieves this please feel free to phone the Mgr at the Serengeti Serena - his name was Vincent as well
Day 10 -we were to be taken to the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge for the night(as per our schedule) but the drivers stated that we should go to Lake Manyara Serena to allow for proper game drives at Ngorongoro as well as Tarangerie. Ultimately we had totally inadequate game drive at Ngorongoro and never got any worthwhile game drive at Tarangerie either(see reasons below). We were unfortunately naïve to believe this with Vince stating later that the Ngorongoro Serena and the Lake Manyara Serena are similarly priced - however when I checked on the Serena website a few days ago the Ngorongora Serena was listed at US$480 and the Lake Manyara Serena at US$ 280.00 (thus we were cheated again).
Day 11- We were driven to Tarangarie Natl Park(90 minutec drive) to be accommodated at the Sopa Lodge in Tarangerie for the night (as per original schedule). Throughout the day we had no confirmation from Vincent or Ibrahim as to where we are going (we repeatedly asked the drivers who stated that they were also not told). After doing a very short game drive(less than 2hrs) we were told that we are to be housed in Arusha (and not in the Tarngarie Park). We drove another 2 1/2 hrs and were taken to the Impala Hotel in Arusha - A very run down hotel with bare electrical wires hanging from the wall.
Day 12 - Amboseli - Good hotel but again as per schedule we were to be taken to the Amboseli Serena within the park for lunch - Instead box lunch given cutting their costs.
All in all the organization was terrible and I wouldn't recommend anybody to book with this company. I have been to numerous countries in the world in many continents but have never seen a person as disorganized as this. I simply do not believe some of the comments on the website stating Vincent was well organized unless we are referring to a different person. A prime example of his lack of understanding is illustrated by the following. My friend texted Vincent from Zanzibar asking him whether he could arrange a late check out as his flight was in the late afternoon (we left in the morning). The reply from Vincent was Jambo - "I would be more than happy to arrange an early checkout for you with the hotel"! As everybody is aware the cost for the tour at this site is substantially less than if you booked through an agent in North America. However this discount is essentially based on avoiding the commission charged by the agent in America - As ultimately they book though agents in the developing countries sometimes even go though other agents in UK etc (with everybody keeping a cut). We have booked though local agents and visited Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and recently Myanmar. We have never had this type of experience. In fact this was my 2nd visit to Kenya/Tanzania. When we went 15yrs ago we used an agent in Nairobi where the price charged was about $2000.00 less than the price asked by North American travel agents. We had absolutely no issues at that time with all hotels provided as per schedule with each driver having a copy of the schedule given to us. Having said all this the only redeeming feature was that we saw loads of wildlife during this tour with the experience exceeding our expectations. This as you know is partly luck and partly the efforts of the drivers. If by chance we didn't see much the trip would have been considered as one of the most terrible tours that I have had. The drivers/guides were quite good with a lot of knowledge on the animals including birds. However I felt that the drivers in Tanzania played us out working in conjunction with the agent - Missing 3-4 game drives, switching to cheaper hotels etc
Mano
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
ACZ tried to change agreed conditions several times
After agreeing on conditions and contracting tour for Amboseli 3 days in lodges, and paying in advance 50%, they contacted to say that it wasn't a lodge but a luxury tent and that a suplement was needed for a lodge. We refused and referred to agreed terms, finally they admitted it would be lodge without suplement.
One or two days before the tour, they called us to let us know that they had problems with the vans, and that they were changing our open-roofed van for a jeep... we refused, and finally got the van as agreed (which is more spacious and permits a full experience).
During the tour, they disturbed us during dinner and argued that they had problems again with vans and proposed to change the safari drive of next day for a visit to a Masaai village. Again we had to refuse, really upset of being bothered by their logistic problems that we are not responsible of.
Last day in the return trip which had lunch included, the driver stopped and told us that the company had given him some money for us to buy food. The amount was ridiculous, so we had to refuse again and as in other tours asked to go to a proper place where the meals are arranged for tourists and we don't need to care about prices.
None of these things happened with other safari tours that we contracted.
Not directly related to ACZ, but to the AA Lodge, we found several cockroaches in the lodge, not only in the bathroom but also inside the sheets. We had to move to a tent that night.
Apart from all of that, we enjoyed Amboseli a lot, and the driver was really nice (in these tours, drivers generally do the hard work in an excellent way and get the less of the money; managers just arrange conditions and pickup the money).
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Alex was very accommodating, however the tour guide was incredibly disappointing.
We got very close to a pride of lions, were present at a lion ‘marriage ceremony’ and watched a leopard/cheetah for many hours. Are your guide had a good eye but lacked communication skills, we were not sure where we were going half the time, he would make decisions without informing us or explaining to us. I believe this was because we were 2 young female travellers. Given the amount of money we paid I was highly disappointed at this and it ruined our trip.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
African Safari
We were party of 14 adults and had two SUV from this company. The drivers were excellent in terms of their services and demeanors But we were given one relatively new vehicle and other one was very old. One of our vehicle broke down twice once in Masai Mara and second time in Serengati national park. The ride was very rough with broken seats handles and malfunctioning windows.
PLEASE BE CAREFUL IF YOU PLAN TO CHOOSE THIS COMPANY AND ASK FOR A NEW VEHICLE WITH COMFORTABLE SEATS AND WEFI ONBOARD IF POSSIBLE.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome National Parks and Wildlife
I spent one day in Nairobi, and that was enough. The city was crowed and overrun with litter. You couldn’t step out of your hotel without being set upon by several pushy men wanting to be your “ guide”. Traveling through the villages to the various parks and lake areas you saw the trash and liter everywhere. I realize it’s a poor country but picking up your trash doesn’t cost anything.
The parks and wildlife were completely different. Clean and it seemed, well guarded, the wildlife and scenery were amazing. We have always wanted to see the animals in their natural habitat and we weren’t disappointed. They were abundant and it was amazing to see them wander freely in their natural environment. The safari experience was everything we hoped it would be.
NZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Difficult driver changed the plan
The pre-tour booking was very efficient. The tour was simple to book, we were provided great options for accommodation and we were given clear level of detail. However, unfortunately our experience with the driver was far from positive. We had booked a full game drive, plus two game drives, but in reality, we were given a full day + 2 hours. The driver was then disagreeing with us on the second half day, and said that we had to get back to Nairobi. We are not usually confrontational people, but we felt that it was really unfair to not finish the agreed itinerary. This made us feel really uncomfortable as we didn't want to be disagreeing on the plan, however, we had flown such a long way for these three days and we really wanted to spend our agreed time in the park. The driver begrudgingly agreed to take us back into the park, but we only spent 2 hours there, rather than the half day. What really polished it off was on our way home, we stopped to fill up the tyres and one of our passengers got out to use the rest room. Before the passenger even got back into the car, the driver started driving out of the petrol station! He was very rude, didn't make an effort to learn our names and made it apparent that he didn't want to be hosting the trip. He was also making multiple personal phone calls throughout the trip. It was really very disappointing.
SG
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Lake Mburo National Park by Jasmine Oh
There is nothing much at Lake Mburo National Park.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Poor guides, poor itinerary, mechanical problems
My husband and I did a 2 week/3 country East Africa tour, and Essenia was responsible for 5 days in Tanzania. This portion of our trip really did not meet our expectations in any category: itinerary, lodges, customer service and especially driver/guides. We had a lot of trouble communicating with our first guide. English comprehension problems meant we could not easily ask questions about the schedule, animals, or general cultural questions. During game drives we had a lot of trouble requesting him to stop in time to see animals, he did not know the birds or trees, and even misidentified a monkey as a species which doesn't live in Tanzania! After an upsetting first day of game drives, we asked to change guides. Essenia did not seem to take the problems very seriously, and we had to really push them to find someone else.
The next day, our safari truck was leaking gas and we stopped at a garage to have it looked at. 40 minutes down the road the dashboard suddenly started smoking heavily. Just as we bailed out of the car, a call came that they had found a new driver and he was waiting for us with a different car an hour down the road - lucky timing, I am not sure what would have happened if we hadn't already requested a new guide! After a comedy of errors where we waited an hour for the new driver to pick us up while he waited for us to come to him, we flagged down a passing car from another company and hitchhiked to the new driver. Between morning delays to call customer service, mechanical issues and bad coordination we basically lost this entire day of our trip - quite frustrating.
The new guide was better than the first one. I can say he was competent, but no where near the quality of driver/guides we had on other legs of the trip. For example: he kept telling us stories about customers who tried to make requests which he thought were a bad idea ("tried to do his job of guiding") and to show them that they were wrong, he would let them have a really bad experience (ie drive slowly and hit all the bumps on a road) until they apologized and begged him to do it his way after all. We tried to be careful not to upset him so that we didn't have an experience like that.
We also had problems with the overall itinerary/planning, especially scheduling transit time in the morning when animals are more active and game drives in the mid afternoon heat when animals are there but not doing much. It turns out all 4 lodges were actually owned by the same hotel chain. Though they were nice properties, we would have preferred to experience more variety and local flavor - and not the same buffet for every breakfast/lunch box/dinner! These two issues I should have paid closer attention to before booking, when I could have asked for changes. Essenia never followed up with us directly during or after the trip. We did see lots of animals, there are plenty in Tanzania so we didn't feel this was due to any special skills of our guide. In summary: Essenia really let us down and I would strictly avoid doing business with them.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Parks and wildlife were great, tour operator was not
I booked a 6D/5N with Meru Slopes, reading great reviews on SafariBookings.com.
I was dismayed to find out that they had shuffled me into a different company's safari, for unknown reason. This group was called Arunga Expeditions.
The guide spoke maybe 100 words the entire safari, we had battery issues with the LandCruiser, the lunch boxes were awful (dry muffin + banana + FOUR pieces of plain bread + juice box), and we were always rushed. When we would stop at say a large pride of lions and want to spend 5-10 minutes, the guide would try and start driving away after 1 minute to find something else. We'd have to ask him to stop so we can stay and watch the lion and actually take photos. He was never happy with this and often very rude. Often we'd leave something like this after 2 minutes and not see anything as spectacular the rest of the day. He'd mutter something like "many more lions later". The itinerary was to have FULL safari days at certain spots (Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti) but this only meant 4 - 5 hours to the guide. He would sleep in, start slow, and end early, so he could take off from the campsite and go drink a couple beers and watch football somewhere. We were always the last vehicle out in the morning and first ones back. The itinerary had a full day booked at Ngorongoro but we were finished BEFORE lunch time. How does this work?
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very disappointed
In view of the increasing popularity of online reviews I decided to go with magical retreat safaris. I cannot convey how disgusting experience we had on those 10 days. Hotels were not good and the driver (Anthony) one of the laziest I have ever seen in my life. Didn’t go by the itinerary And he picked us at around 9AM for a early morning game drive