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
Poor communication
I was dealing with one lady by the name Faith Kaluai,first she sends me a quotation valid for a month,I was to get back to her on my travel dates then two days later she sends me a mail and tell me it was subject to availability and sends me another quotation..i call her wanting to make my bookings on the new quotations sent to me but she doesn't pick up my call..she later sends me a whatsapp message asking me what i have decided nearly a week after.surely bonfire how are you supposed to win people's trust if you can't handle your customers properly?
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unsatisfactory
I paid $250 for this service with tour guide but our driver James was a driver only. He didn’t provide any info about the Masai or animals. Further, he yelled at us in the beginning of the tour for taking a photo when we didn’t know the rules. This ruined the mood of the safari entirely. He also made us feel bad for expecting water free when it was in the itinerary. Lastly, English literacy and customer service in general was poor. For $250 I expected more :(
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We don’t recommend orongai at all!
The safari itselfs was fine, because Frankly, the guide is amazing! But we had many problems with Orongai. When we arrived to arusha they changed the payment method, ALL the hotels and the itinerary without asking or inform us. The last day we spoke with the manager and he said that was unusual, but reading the reviews we think that they usually work in that way. We don’t recommend work with orongai because you can’t trust them if they are changing everything without inform you in advance and you can’t do anything. We had the feeling that they were cheating us all the time!
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It could have been better
We didn't have the best experience with Kiliholidays Tours & Safari.
We booked a three-day-safari at Mikumi Park. The first day we couldn't access to the park. They told us "drive to Mikumi National Park which is approximately 5 hours from Dar es Salaam". It's totally false. It was 8 hours and a half. The driver drove at 45 km/hour and the arrival to the park was almost sunset. They saved the access to the park of the first day (which is included in the safari price). So we paid for something that we didn't enjoy.
Additionally, the car broke down several times. The first time it had refrigerator problems. It was solved and we continued. The second day, the car stop and it ran out the battery , we push the car in the middle of the safari :) . The third day we spent 8 hours and a half to Dar Es Salaam. There was a huge jam and the car spent all the battery.
So, we had to take OTHER CAR with a non-known driver, and 3 minutes later ALSO the new car ran out of gas. Really? The driver (who didn't speak english) left the car in the middle of the darkness and 30 minutes later he appeared again with a bottle with gas. We stay alone waiting for him without knowing what to do.
The only positive point was the safari driver, he was nice.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Poor selection of subcontracted safari guide, disorganized and inacurate information.
We selected Travel Partners Ltd. though not the most economical because of our initial correspondence with them. Belen was good to work with and did her job well. However, she was in a difficult position as her company was not as professional as she. Most safari companies do not require 50% upfront as do Travel Partners. Before leaving the U.S. we asked if a Bank (cashiers) check for the second half would be OK, and were told in writing that yes a check would be fine. Once in Africa ready to begin our safari they informed that a check was not OK after all and asked for funds to be wired instead. It is very difficult to wire internationally from the U.S. if not there to sign. Travel Partners pushed Belen to push us for the wire everyday during our safari. Most U.S. banks would not have been able to comply, fortunately we had an account at an institution that once all international requirements were met were able to wire. This issue was unnecessary, and caused needless stress. -- We tailor planned a safari to visit several parks in Tanzania spending most of the time in Serengeti including the north Mara area to see the Wilde-beast crossing. Our driver although pleasant was unprofessional and a very poor driver. We had two vehicle accidents during our 5 day safari, one could have been very serious, both were driver related. The vehicle and the driver had been subcontracted by Travel Partners. The vehicle was only in fair condition, (it caused permanent damage to luggage). One accident was a near head on collision at high speed with another safari vehicle (thick dust impaired sight), loss of exterior mirror and severe body damage to the entire length of the vehicle resulted from the accident. It was that close to being very serious. Due to the accidents, we had to ride with other safari drivers until our driver could repair our vehicle enough to continue. We had two experiences in other safari vehicles with other drivers, both were far superior drivers to ours, and the vehicles were in better condition (they even had cold water in the cooler, we did not - sometimes we did not have water at all.) A flight from central Serengeti to Zanzibar was part of our itinerary. Our flight was to leave Serengeti at 11:00 a.m. and arrive Zanzibar at 2:00 p.m. via Arusha. Although not the fault of Travel Partners, the flight was delayed both at Serengeti and in Arusha, so we arrived at 6:00 pm causing a loss of 4 hours in Zanzibar - Belen said she would try to get some compensation from the airline if possible.
--In spite of the above mentioned incidents, we enjoyed the experience. The accommodations were charming, and we were able to see so many animals. Serengeti is very beautiful!
--Overall, I would suggest looking at another safari company to plan your safari. The wonderful experience of being in Tanzania and the parks was not the result of Travel Partners, it was Tanzania itself. A different company could enhance the experience rather than inhibit it.
TR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The hotel was changed to a very bad one with no info ,no resv made for the night we arrived,norefun
We planned, communicated through mail, skyp for months.
We told our expectations and hotels we wanted very clearly,many times.
The day before our arrival, upon our call to the agency learned that the hotel at Zanzibar wasnt available, it was changed to a place which is like a hostel.After a 7 hr flight,2 hr drive, we arrived that place at 4 midnight and found out that no resv made for that night.We paid the sama amount that was told, eventhough it was a ver bad cheap hotel, no refunds was offered.
We were not given any proper info about the road conditions and distance in terms of hours, between parks
So the trip was very tiring and far below our expectations
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
not recommendable
Arrangements before starting the trip were managed well. The trip started with a delay of 2,5 hours. No explanations were provided, neither an information about the timing of the later departure. The accommodation in the tent lodge was not good at all: the mosquito net was not arranged, the bathroom was really dirty, food was acceptable, service personal rather rude. The bus we were transported in was not comfortable and noisy. The driver drove safely, was friendly and adapted to our wishes along the game drive. The game drive was nice as the wildlife we could observe was stunning.
PH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari