US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Lack of Integrity
I made a deposit for a trip to Chad for 2023 (cannot remember exact date but late March to early April). The deposit was $2000 a lot of money. However, when the time approached for the final payment, I had severe misgivings as I was worried about the security situation in Chad. I ultimately chose not to go. Even though I canceled after the deadline, the operator assured me that he would work things out in some way, either by replacing me with someone else wherein I would get my deposit back or offering me a discount on a future trip. Neither of these actions occurred and to this day, I have never again heard from the operator. However, I did confirm that he found someone else to take my place while obviously keeping my deposit and never informing me about this. I think this bespeaks of a total lack of integrity and shady business practices, as well. I have told many people about this situation and every single one agreed that this was bad business protocol, renege on a promise to work with me, and all stated they would never use this company, as I will also not use. I will also not book any trip with any tour operator who partners with this company, of which I am well acquainted with one. Beware and be forewarned of shady businesses like Pictus Safaris.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Attention! Unprofessional safari company, The boss begged my daughter to delete her negative review!
I know it's a very long review. I hope you will read until the end. The purpose is I just want to tell people the truth about this company. My personal opinion is completely different than all positive reviews here.
Since there’re many positive reviews here, we decided to go for Focus. At the beginning, the communication between me and Nelson (the owner I guess) was smooth. He wanted us to pay 25% deposit to confirm the booking. We insisted to pay only 10%. He agreed. The entire fee was $1700 for two persons 5D4N budget safari with jeep.
On arrival, their driver picked us up at the airport and dropped us to their assigned hostel “Arusha Safari Hostel”. Since we booked budget tour, so we didn’t expect that much. Although google reviews show that the hostel has 4.1 stars, from our point of view, I would only rate 1. The staff who opened the gate at midnight (we had night flight) was kind of piss off that we somehow woke him up. Our private room with bathroom is very small. The toilet light is ridiculously dim. The worst is we needed 2 sim cards and we didn’t have time to go downtown to get. So we asked the hostel staff what time do the telecom shops open? He said he could send a staff from vodacom to the hostel. This person was wearing vodacome T-Shirt, he had also machine for registration. So we believed that he works for vodacome. At the end, we paid $60 for two cards which is a lot but we had no choice. After that, I checked on internet, two SIM cards should cost less. We paid too much and I texted that vodacom guy, he ignored my messages. So we are pretty sure that we were ripped off.
On our first safari day, we met Nelson personally. I was going to pay him the balance of the tour fee which is $1600. I kept $1700 aside including $100 for the tip. So I counted only $1500 after taking the $100 out in front of Nelson, I asked him to count to make sure, he counted and confirmed it was just $1500. But I was pretty sure I kept $1700 aside. There must have $1600 in total. I counted again, thank god it was $1600.
We were supposed to go with Brideson. He picked us up and he seemed to be very kind. He told us that he would be our jeep driver. At last minute, another driver Dickson has been swapped.
We proceeded to Tarangire National Park, one the way, there was smoke coming from the cockpit area. Of course we had to stop. We drove to a garage and luckily we could still proceed.
Dickson didn't give us briefing at all before we started the safari. So we all didn't really know elephants are very aggressive and we should never try to touch or make any noise in front of them. (We knew it because we just learned from our other safari tour. One of our group members who is from Ethiopia hit one elephant and made noise, I said it loud "don't touch!" We are in danger if the elephant get mad. Dickson has heard this but didn't say anything. We were speechless. We arrived our first camp, Dickson told us (we are 7 people in the tour, but 1 guy stayed at the lodge)
At dinner, Dickson was supposed to give us briefing but he has never shown up. One of our group members tried to find him by the help of the camp staff as we have no idea what time should we wake up, breakfast and start time.
On the first day in Serengeti, we all hope to see big five. My daughter and me had safari experience in Kenya, so we know that the drivers use walkie talkie to communicate each other. Once an animal has been seen, all drivers drive there. Dickson didn't use the walkie talkie although there is one in his seat. I asked him why didn't you use? He answered „he doesn't need because he has experience".
We were skeptical about it and we still have hope. We saw many animals but no leopard. At night in the camp, people talked to each other and we figured it out many groups have seen leopard but we didn't. We were very angry because Dickson refused to use walkie talkie and of course disappointed.
The rest of our safari was just nightmare. As I mentioned there is one guy from Ethiopia. He is the only one on our group to stay in the lodge. So we have pretty much different wake up and pick up times. On the 2nd day game drive in Serengeti we all wanted to wake up earlier in order to catch the sunrise and hope to see leopard. Dickson told him already his pick up time, since we know other groups have seen the leopard on the first day so we all agree to leave to the game drive half to one hour earlier. So we suggested Dickson to phone the Ethiopian guy at the lodge. Next day when he got into the jeep, he asked Dickson, "who came the idea to wake up so early? My daughter said “all of us” After that he said to Dickson, “next time I will beat you up “. Dickson didn’t respond. At the end we left Serengeti with disappointment without seeing leopard.
Next day our whole group wanted to wake up earlier but the Ethiopian guy insisted to wake up after 7am. We the whole group including Dickson (I empathize he is the representative of Focus of Africa" and the Ethiopian guy were standing in the camp among many other tourists. He started to argue with us because he didn’t agree to wake up before 7am as his lodge is 1.5 hours away from where we stayed. He insulting us like leave “my” country although he isn’t from Tanzania few bad words. He shouted at all of us “you fxxking white people go back to your countries and stuff like that. At the end we all told Dickson we don't want to travel with this guy anymore and asked if he could talk to the boss. Next day as planned we left our camp with a compromised meeting time and pick up point (someone will pick up the Ethiopian guy and bring him to an intersection.
At the meeting time he didn't show up, we proceeded to our game drive without him and we were all very happy. Unfortunately some hours later he joined us again. I understand that a travel agency could not choose who is joining the group. What I wanted to say is, Dickson as the representative of the tour, he should have done better with communication with the company and express our concerns. He told us he did but the company cannot do anything. Our group has spilt today as most of them finished their tour and we proceeded to our final game drive.
On our last day me and my daughter knew that one Japanese guy at the same camp is going to join us. One more person is missing, we don't know who is going to join. We asked Dickson, who is going to join us? He surprisingly responded us “don’t worry, she is WHITE”. We were speechless, we never say any bad things about any color, we respect all human and we’re shocked to hear his response.
Finally our tour came to an end. My daughter and me will fly to our next stop, she will hike later in kilimanjaro. She needs altitude pill from pharmacy. Dickson brought us to the meeting point to meet the driver to the airport. Someone from Focus took my daughter to the pharmacy, the pills costed $22 for one single pack. After that we were in Zansibar, we went to two pharmacies, both charge the pill only $1-1.5 for the same amount of pills. Was it another scam?
Go back to the story at the beginning, here is my conclusion::
The cooperated hostel is taking advantage of their guests for instance providing extremely expensive sim card service. Was it a coincidence?
Money counting could be a coincidence but also could be on purpose, we will never know
They don't care how the whole group feel, they just ignore our demands. Instead of separating the whole group and one individual person, they insisted to put us together for the rest of our tour which is unacceptable. At the end nobody could enjoy our last day. Nelson has blamed me about not telling him before. In fact, Dickson should have communicated with the company.
Was it a coincidence that their staff ripped my daughter off due to the 20 times more expensive pills?
My daughter has written a negative review here, I didn't know it and Nelson wrote me one day via WhatsApp and asked why am I doing this? I told him I still haven't gotten the time to write. He beg me to convince my daughter to delete her review and offered me a partial refund. I forwarded the message to my daughter, we both agreed that we could only accept full refund. Money is for us important but unfortunately money cannot buy us the time back. Nelson trying to persuade me for the partial refund by making me uncomfortable, saying that the negative reviews will lead to a bankruptcy of his company, unemployment and family financial difficulties.
Their jeep has broken down for at least 5 to 6 times for our entire trip. On the last day, we got flat tire and Dickson said it’s safe to proceed.
Dickson didn’t really care about the group, we were taking photos, he didn’t ask if we are done and just started driving
Sometimes we saw animals and wanted to take pictures, he didn’t stop and keep driving until we said please stop.
At all briefing times Dickson was always disappeared.
Dickson didn’t deserve to receive so much tips from the whole group, he then gave us hard time about this.
CL
Inept and dishonest company. Never received even one explanation or excuses.
Soul of Tanzania is a scam. Poor service, bad information, rather none, very manipulative situations, change prices, while traveling we never got a local emergency phone where we can claim , for this we were always given a Sales Office phone in London!!! ,distant many hours of flight. We asked for the address of the office in Tanzania, which we were denied it repeatedly Soul Of tanzania post a POBOX, and the phone they post on the internet never answered. We wanted to talk to this Jose, who never wanted to give us his last name, a man who calls himself ridiculously "Travel Designer" who for our misfortune took from the beginning our booking and who has no idea what it is to attend a passenger who goes for the first time to Africa. Jose sends the customer where he wants, ignores the passenger’s wish, he charges a crook for air tickets inside Kenya and lies when it comes to fixing problems. He sent us to bad hotels , another under construction, denied us that there was an airport near Ngorongoro in order to take us, against our wishes ,by land from the volcano to Kilimanjaro airport, finishing us by buying directly our air tickets Lake Manyara/ Kilimanjaro to the air company. We ended up booking directly the hotel in Nairobi because the one that José quoted us was a plague and very expensive . In Nairobi we asked him to reimburse us a significant amount of money that he overcharged us before we left the hotel, so we could pay the bill, but Jose did NOT fulfill his commitment, He refused to talk to us and reimbursed us at the hotel in Masai Mara because it was convenient for him. On arrival in Masai Mara charged us for moving to the hotel, in circumstances that transfers from the air field to the hotel were provided by the hotel and "are free" .. In short, DO NOT look to be scammed into services by these companies. . They operate Kenya through another company, which is called Spirit of Kenya, which is also a disaster; this company denied us the phone of the so-called travel designer responsible for "organizing our trip" in Soul of Tanzania. We needed to talk to him quickly, not once but several times and Joseph never showed his face but always hid. A scoundrel. We raised a complaint to the INDABA association of African vajes agents that never answered us because, after we knew, these two agencies do NOT belong to those official organizations therefore any claim falls into the void. We wanted to write to a newspaper in Nairobi but it wasn’t very effective either.
Brizzi Family , five people, Kenya and Tanzania, June 2013
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
We feel scammed, I would advise you choose another company if possible
We got sold 4 days safari with 4 days FULL day game drive
Day 1 „full day game drive“ entering the Tarangire Park: 12:45 p.m, driving out at 5 p.m
At the entrance gate to the national park were the guides rather chatting with each other then buying the entrance tickets and go finally on a safari
We were told we would sleep the first night in a comfortable king-size bed. We ended up sleeping in a single bed which was 1,80 m long (I´m 1,92m). The mattress was so thin that one could feel the wood under the mattress
Day 2 „full day game drive“
Entering Ngorongoro: 12:30 a.m, driving out at 5:15 p.m
Breakfast started at 9 a.m. After breakfast, we had to wait because the cars weren´t packed correctly and the guides had to change. Before entering the Ngorongoro the guides did again a lot of small talk and wasted time. Then our car with all the guests inside had to push another car from the company because it had broken down
From 5:15 p.m until 8 p.m we drove at high speed through the Serengeti to our camping space. Couldn´t see any animals at this high speed and arrived at the camping ground when it was dark.
Day 3 „full day game drive“ 8 a.m – 4:15 p.m (this was the only day that came close to an actual full day game drive)
We started driving in the Serengeti at 8 a.m, we were by far not the first car who left the camp. After 4:15 p.m we were driving again at high speed to the camp in Ngorongoro Crater for the night.
Day 4 „full day game drive“ 7:15 a.m – 1:40 p.m
Unfortunately, we have been always one of the last cars that start driving in the mornings.
Because the same car we had to push on day 2 broke down again, we had to take all the people from this car in our car. This means that all the seats 2 people had to sit. Safety!?
Apart from that, because this costs us a lot of time, the driver had to drive really really fast to make it to later appointments. Some people feared for their lives
In total very unprofessional company and a disappointing experience. Especially because this tip cost us 650 USD per person. Please stay away from this company.
HK
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Super Egagle Company in Kenya falls short of providing a satisfactory and reliable tour experience,
👎🏼 I strongly advise against booking with Super Eagle company in Kenya. My recent five-day tour experience with them left me incredibly disappointed with their service and overall performance.
Not only were their prices exorbitantly high compared to other tour operators, but I found out that fellow passengers paid just $50 more for a longer midrange tour, while I was stuck on a budget tour for almost the same cost!
The accommodation provided for the first two nights at the camp was absolutely atrocious - it was a terrible experience.
To make matters worse, on the fourth day, I was left stranded at the hotel with minimal information provided. Activities that I had paid for didn't align with the promised itinerary, leaving me feeling misled and frustrated. And on the 5th day, they didn't follow the itinerary either, and I had to wait at transfer center for over 4 hrs!
The tour driver, Maxwell, added to my discomfort by being unhelpful and pressuring me for excessive tips throughout the trip. It created a very unpleasant atmosphere.
In summary, I wholeheartedly discourage anyone from considering this tour company. Save yourself the trouble and explore other options for a more enjoyable and seamless experience elsewhere.
ES
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Did not comply with the reservation
We had hired a guide in Spanish, they guaranteed it and the guide who accompanied us had only done a 6 month course so we had to communicate with him through the phone application, which made it impossible to give us explanations about the safari, sites, animations, etc.. The guide who spoke English did not give any indication or explanation to other travelers who came with us. Horrible treatment of the guides.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Balu Travels was disrespectful
I was trying to weigh my options for a 3-4 day safari and Balu Travels was one of the tour operators I requested a quotation from through Safari Bookings. After they shared the quotation, I had a call with them the next day and requested for some changes. They texted me the new quotation. I told them I would review and get back to them the next week.
In the meantime, I received a more affordable quotation from another operator and decided to go with them. I politely informed Balu Travels that I would have to pass on their offer, but in response I got an offensive remark. I am quoting it here verbatim: "You people are very interesting, why should you make request with unrealistic demands then skip it. It's unprofessional to just want to waste time."
I am not sure what they exactly meant by "you people", but it is hard not to tie it to ethnicity. I think they miserably failed in their customer communication.
(images removed for privacy reasons)
CN
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Tarangire National Park by Yao Cheng
my mum got bitten by a monkey ,no one responsible for that,nobody cared
FI
20-35 years of age
I do not trust this company! They cancelled an already confirmed trip a few hours before as they resell peoples paid tickets
I would never trust this company!! We had booked a safari trip directly through them well in advance, paid the deposit as advised and received a confirmation of booking together with flight tickets. The night before our trip the company emails us at 10:02pm (pickup was agreed for 6:30am) to inform that they cancel our trip. They gave us no reason for cancellation and when our hotel staff called them, they told that they had re-sold our tickets to someone else. Later on they told us that airline had canceled the flight, which we found out to be a lie and no flights were actually canceled…
So besides causing us a huge disappointment, they also decided to blindly lie to us and not take any responsibility of their actions whatsoever. Our customer service representative Charity also decided to stop responding our emails leaving us unanswered.
All in all, incredibly bad customer service and non-reliable company. I highly recommend to book through someone else!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Never Again!!!!!!! I woudn't go they don't care about your well being
I did the 5 day 4 nights tour with this company and it was terrible! highly recommend to save a little more money to book with another company. I have never experienced an Agency/Company like this. We were a group of 7 People one of them was a solo traveller. We all got in a fight with him because he didn't want to wake up as early as planned. He started to offend us and saying racist stuff. Really bad stuff I was shocked at this point. Everyone just watched but didn't say anything. They didn't stop him they just let him finish screaming all those things infront of every other client in the middle of the camp. Everyone in this group said we don't wanna drive with him anymore. it's not acceptable. it's unprofessional! They brought him to his lodge and on the next day they just put him back in our Jeep. 6 People said we don't feel comfortable with that but they just don't care. On the 4th day everyone was leaving besides my mother and me. Someone told us for the next there were 2 people joining. We met the first person and ask where is the second one because we never got a briefing we arrived every evening and ask questions like when is dinner?, what time do we have to wake up tomorrow, What time is breakfast tomorrow? we always got the answer we will speak in the evening at dinner the guide never besides one night appears. once he just went to bed without informing us about the day after. back to the 2 people that joining he answered with "we pick here up from a lodge don't worry she is white" i was speechless. We told him AGAIN that we never mention any skin colour, religion or origin. We just wanted to start at 6 not 7 because he declined to wake up earlier than 7 just because we started the day before 30 mins earlier than planned because 6 out of 7 don't want to miss anything and see the sunrise. Also one guy stayed in lodges that were more than a hour away so one day we have to drive 30 mins for dropping him off and 30 back to our camp. the other day it was more that 1 hour one way. On the day we picked him 30 mins earlier he ask us who's idea that was we told him ours. he replied with next time i will beat you up. Everyone heard that also the guide. no reaction from him. The planning in the company is disaster. They should put him in a group who booked a packages where everyone is going in a lodge or book private not in a low budget joining group. Also we have to wait always for him because he never was on time.
On the first day we drove to a Park, this guy started making really loud noise infront of the elephant just to get his attention we told him to stop because they are sensible to loud noise also we are guests. We have to respect the animals. But after this there were a group of elephants( also baby's) the crossed by our car and he just touched the elephant out of the window. he just bring us all in danger this animals are so strong. Everyone saying "DONT TOUCH" at this point a thought the guide should give him a reminder to stop with his behaviour but he didn't care. Lucky for this guy the elephant got scared and walked away and not knock over the car.
The first evening we ask if we can start at 6 our driver got mad and also show us that he got mad because he didn't know how to contact the guy in the lodge i also probably think it's because he don't want to organise because that's to much effort we told him he should call the lodge so they can ask the guy if it's okay for him. But not a reason to get offended and be mad at a whole group. We paid a lot and ask really kindly.
There was more impressions but it's already a lot and i hope you have a better impression and view of that.
I know it's normal that the jeep sometimes get a flat wheel or something is not working but our car stand still 4 times in only 2 days almost 5. The first time the Car was smoking from inside. the other times because something in the front. (he never told us we always has to ask what was happening the answer we got was everything is fine) yes sure it's fine that's because the car stopped and stand still and also smoked from inside? we never got any informations. terrible. After all of these was happening we arrived back in Arusha. My Plan is to climb Kilimanjaro also GLAD i didn't book with this company because i don't want to spend one single cent for them for all of this treatment and not caring about us. We arrived and i told them if they know a pharmacy so i can buy Altitude Tablets for my journey. They brought be and it was only cash for 10 tablets 22 USD. Someone of this Company i don't know his name lucky you! He brought me there so I bought it stupid me. Just to get told that they were only 1-2 USD for 10 Tablets. It's all about the money for this company. I bet my right hand that if you joining a good Agency with Guides and a Team that really cares they would not bring you and stand next to you infront of there eyes so you got ripped off!!!! That's so sad i really feel bad for that Driver also regretting giving after all of this Tipp.
I never saw our Guide eating. He always lied replying when we got lunch where is your food "don't worry about me they just forgot to make a Lunchbox" ah sure can't believe that.
None of them deserved the tip. But Karma is going to catch all of you. i'm sure. So if you're reading this Nelson you have to fix a lot of stuff and if your agency doesn't change something after this I really hope this review gets a lot of attention so tourists can be aware of people like your company. There are a lot of people saving all their money and holiday days for an unforgettable trip like a safari does. But you completely ruinned my days in Tanzania. We are Humans. Not running Dollar signs. And I'm sure after reading this you know who's writing this.
Also if you’re booking with them make sure you count all of that cash right. My mother had to pay for me and here 1.700 USD (100 USD Deposit) so 1.600 USD Cash. She gave him 1.600 USD but was not sure she thought 1.500 USD she asked him can you count again he did he said no. so she said count again because she put that 1.600 on the side in the morning just to make sure and didn't have to count in front by paying. So he counted again and said a yes it's 1.600. So it could be possible that's just a mistake but after all of that i remember that again and thought probably it was not a mistake. So we talked in the Group and no one was happy with the Safari. One Girl lost her shoes but the shoes were in the car?? strange right? thanks for your attention
