US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Shell Company
I signed up with Usambara for a 5 day safari with an agreed upon itinerary and commitments for transfer from Moshi to Arusha.
After completing a Kilimanjaro trek, I was to be transferred from my hotel in Moshi to Arusha. The person picking me up was to arrive at 10am. At 10:15 I receive a call saying they cannot pick me up and I need to take the bus. I told them I would not (especially with advice from the hotel that it was not safe for my bags); I had to argue for 20 minutes to get them to agree to pay for a taxi to take me 2 hours to Arusha.
On arrival in Arusha, I met with another person who I was to pay the remaining amount owed on my safari. They tell me my itinerary is changing and that my group already left the day I arrived. I was told that it would start the following day and they had a group for me to join set up. Again I argued that I paid my deposit based upon the agreed itinerary that they had sold to me. Ultimately, they agreed to meet our agreed upon terms.
When I paid, I then realized I wasn't paying Usambara but another company. Then they said instead of staying at the hotel as expected, I would be joining the group at the campsite a night early. When I arrived, I realized I was joining yet another company.
On my last day I had to leave my group and be taxi'd to another group so I could visit another park.
It was an incredibly poor experience. I would not recommend signing up with Usambara.
AT
Jeep got stuck several times - no compensation
We did a 3 day Safari in Masai Mara with Ancient Safaris at the beginning of September.
Our jeep already got stuck on the first day because of some mechanical problems, so we couldn't get into the park this day. Furthermore they didn't replace the jeep. Our driver promised that they repaired the jeep and that everything is ready for the next day, unfortunately we got stuck again for several times on the next day .
We spent a lot of time waiting till the car cooled down again. It was really annoying, also because nobody told us what was going on.
And we didn't get any refund or compensation.
All in all we are really disappointed. Our Safari with Ancient Safaris was definitely not worth the price and we can't recommend it!
Experience level: first safari
Bad experience
In short, we got white-collar pickpocketed. We booked a 7-day safari with Jipe Trekking and Safari. On the morning of departure, we were kept waiting at the hotel for hours such that the first day's activities had to be postponed. On day 3, it emerged that there were problems with the dedicated credit card the driver was provided with to pay the entry fee for Serengeti National Park (it seems the company doesn't trust their staff enough to provide them with a general credit card). We were driven around from bank to bank for hours until the driver was forced to give up and try again tomorrow. As a result, we were now a full day behind schedule. The consequence was that we had to subsequently reduce our time in some of the nicest areas on the trip in order to return on time. When we complained about the fact that we were effectively charged one seventh of the total trip fees to wait around during these delays - none of which were our fault - the owner refused to reimburse us, and was even quite emotionally abusive over email. I suspected his responses could have been cut and pasted from previous dissatisfied clients. We've now lodged a complaint to the Tanzanian consumer affairs department. Fingers crossed.
On the plus side, the rest of our time in Tanzania was great, from the very first moment we no longer had to deal with Jipe!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Not great
No hot water in the Chalet and nobody answers the " after hours" numbers to fix the problem. Not a lot of game sighted at all. Actually nothing sighted but the impala at the Chalet.
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
My experience with Naga Safaris was not good.
The vehicles were in not good conditions and they stopped two or three times (we had to push in the park were itsn't allowed to get off!!!!!), the driver was not able to drive in such difficult road and the car sanded up three or four times. Only one or two games drive during nine days were good and the team was not very profesionall. Definitively I hope to have the possibility in the future to visit Botswana with a better agency.
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Company not reliable
We booked the Safari with this company because they confirmed to get the lodges we wanted. As soon as we paid they said they were no availibities. So we have been to other lodges (one was an hotel) and very far away from the places we have to go. Peter (Manager of the company said he will do his best to get the lodges we wanted but he never called them (we checked directly with the lodge). The lodges and hotels we went were cheaper than the lodges promised. Concerning the Safari, it was a 4 days Safari Serengenti/Ngoro Ngoro: 2 days were only driving fast on awful roads and not a Safari at all. We paid for a 4 days Safari but had only one day and a half. They were not breaks for lunch (only 20mn the first day, and it was in the car the second day! My back is completely destroyed!!! We asked the driver to have more breaks but he didn't listened to us. The animals we saw were amazing but in awful conditions!!!
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Not recommended
Cominciamo col dire che il rispetto dell'orario non è il punto forte di questo tour operator. Il nostro piano prevedeva che appena arrivati all'aeroporto di Dar Es Salaam alle 6.45 dovessimo partire subito per il Selus Reserve. Invece abbiamo dovuto aspettare un'altra turista alle 7.30. Poi fino alle 9.00 in dar Es Salaam perche il driver doveva ritirare il cibo che serviva al cuoco all'interno del camp. Poi finalmente partenza e a metà starada abbiamo aspettato per circa 1 ora e mezza un altro driver che dava il cambio al nostro. In tutto questo, siamo arrivati all'Hippo camp alle 4.30 p.m. e come pranzo ci è stato servito una coscia di pollo fredda e nera, un piatto di patatine fritte fredde e un pò di insalata. A cena, un piatto di spaghetti alla bolognese immangiabili. il giorno dopo il safari è andato bene anche se il pranzo prevedeva un'altra coscia di pollo fredda e nera, un sandwich, uno yogurt e una banana. L'ultimo giorno, dopo colazione, una breve passeggiata di mezz'ora nei paraggi nel camp, altro viaggio di 5 ore per l'aeroporto. Non consiglio assolutamente questo tour operator.
Let's start by saying that respect for time is not the strong point of this tour operator. Our plan provided that we just arrived at Dar Es Salaam at 6:45 pm and we should leave for Selus Reserve. Instead we had to wait for another tourist at 7.30am. Then until 9:00 am in Es Salaam, because the driver had to pick up the food he needed for the cook inside the camp. Then we finally got off and half starada waited for about 1 and a half hour another driver who changed the way to ours. In all of this, we arrived at Hoppo Camp at 4.30pm. And as a lunch we were served a cold and black chicken thigh, a plate of cold fries and a bit of salad. At dinner, a dish of spaghetti with Bolognese inedible. The next day the safari went well even though the lunch provided another cold and black chicken thigh, a sandwich, a yogurt and a banana. On the last day, after breakfast, a short half-hour walk around the camp, another 5-hour trip to the airport. I absolutely do not recommend this tour operator.
FI
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Not what I expected
In this safari business as in many others in Tanzania, it seems that you are buying from some company in particular but then they just put you with the same budget pack that many others offer. We booked everything through Back of Africa but once we arrived to the office, Allan, whom I have been all the time in contact, was not there, there was no signs or credentials or anything that would refer to Back of Africa. We trusted the guy at the reception, his name sounded like "Biarman". So we paid the big amount of money for the safari to him and we didn't even get a receipt. The same guy at the reception was our guide and driver the whole trip. The first day of safari was terrible, the guy was very lazy, not even going out of the car to show us the birds when we stopped at a viewpoint. He could not recognize birds more specificly than the basic information if it was e.g. "a hawk". We didn't have the promised binoculars for each neither the guides, not even one for the whole group of 5 people. Then I contacted Allan try to get some clear info about who is the guide we have and for whom does he work. Allan didn't even know the guy, afterwards he said he was new in the company. But the funny thing is that when we asked to Biarman he said that he works for Sandland Tours, the same company as the logo there was in the safari car. There was 1 person in our group that had booked the safari through a completely different company. We never got this thing clear. And it seems a common practice to put people that has booked through different companies together in the same safari. I think that only in Arusha there was something like 280 different companies, but at the end, many of them belong to the same owner, or they just change the name when the company lose its reputation or whatever, but you can never trust that the company you are booking with, will be the same you are actually going with.
(By the way, Sandland Tours has the worst reviews ever on the Internet...)
Anyways, we tried to make the best out of what we had, we put some pressure to the guide to make a bit bigger effort to find the animals, and it improved, at the end of the day we saw pretty much. I don't think he was a bad guide, but he was not a very good one either. He was just doing his job to get paid, he did not enjoy his job, he was not a nature lover.
The first day we did not have any binoculars, after the second day, we had 1 for 5 people and it was broken and not very good quality. I think it is essential to have good binocular for a safari, and they promised 1 for each, which never happened. We never got any wildlife guide or book.
The camping sites were what they were, don't expect too much, but it was good enough. Our tent was the oldest in the camp and it didn't smell nice. Thank god we brought our own sleeping bags cause theirs were pretty smelly too. We had the poorest chairs to sit during meals, and no chairs at all to be able to relax in the camp site, but the guide had his own nice chair to relax. In some camps there are no lights so they could have adviced to bring own headlamps (we had ours, but other people did not). In one of the camps there was no electricity, so for people without power banks it was a serious problem if you couldn't charge the camera.
There was 2 days that we had to take the cook with us, which make the car not big enough. The cook sat on the front with the driver so we had to share the 4 windows seats on the back with 5 people, while in the national park, seeing the animals. Specially in Serengueti it becomes extremely dusty, it would not have been a big job to cover the bags on the trunk so they wouldn't be completely brown from the dust by the time we reached the camp.
The safari of 5 days in the 4 main national parks in the North of Tanzania was still worth it for the own awesomeness of the places, but certainly not because of the company we booked with, whatever that company was...
LU
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
What can you expect, not the extra mile.....
I made my decision for Uhuru because they offered the tour I wanted to do and their price was good. We had several exchange of mails and all went quite well. We realised after that the plan they proposed was unrealistic and the driver, who was excellent, told us it was always like that. Mostly by companies based in Zanzibar....
For the payment, keep some of the total with you. There are always, always, always changes...T.I.A
Still enjoy, beautifull part of the world.
BE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unfriendly and unprofessional people : very bad communication and they are just a reseller.
While the content of the safari (4 days/3 nights) was good, as for the driver and for the accommodations and food, I want to make following remarks :
-Lobo Safaris (part of Vimic group) does not organize itself the safari. The safari itself was done by Sandland Tours
-The start was disastrous : (day before start of the safari) :
- There were 2 different taxidrivers waiting for us at the airport of Arusha !!!
- We were dropped in an hotel outside Arusha (Mercury hotel) in the middle of local habitations and no decent road, and in front of a local discotheque (noise at night) !
- While the driver told us that Lobo safaris would contact us the same afternoon, we didn’t hear anything from them until the morning after. Meaning we spent an whole afternoon, waiting in a desolate hotel (there was only another African couple as client of the hotel).
- Also the payment was not what we expected : we had to pay cash, while Lobo and Vimic group advertise that they accept credit cards.
-The safari itself was good. Good driver/guide : Simon and good accomodation. The program was not followed but this was not a problem (Tarangire in place of Lake Manyara). Only the vehicle was in bad condition (old vehicle from 1996 : front lights not working, no hand brake, starter not always working and a lot of dust entering the cabin)
-The end of the safari was also not really good : the door of the luggage compartiment could no more open (after one of the two spare tires break off the car ….)
-The transfer to Moshi was OK but the hotel in Moshi was not up of the quality of the accommodations during the safari (hotel Kinodroko)