FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Mistakes and delays, very bad experience
As an intro, I’d like to mention this is a copy paste of my comment on trip advisor.
I am not surprised after coming back from our trip there, to see the previous comment « Unprofessional experience », as it is exactly what we just lived too.
We chose the 2 days « memorable safari », between Tarangire and Ngorongoro.
On our first day, 30min delays at our hotel, and guide not reachable, you start to wonder if you haven’t just been scammed.
Then apparently out of nowhere, Widman was expecting us to have to full amount in cash to pay on the day for the parks entrance fees, even after our 10% deposit on his bank account, so we went withdrawing to our limit around 850$ in Tanzanian Shillings (TZS, their currency)
Then you’re supposed to wait for the lunch boxes somewhere but the guy did not show up so you go somewhere else and again you wait. While waiting, the guide is paying for Tarangire entrance, in US dollars ! So actually they had the money.. anyway we are nice people and decide to focus on the trip ahead.
That being said, we enter the park at 11:50 ! After leaving at 8 our hotel in Arusha. Maps says 3h drive, so we were (departure supposed to be 7:30), more than a good hour late.
Rest of the day goes quite normal in the park, even though another group saw a family of lions that we did not.
We reach our lodge at 7pm, not the one advised on the website, price half cheaper according to booking but we paid everything now so.. diner is at 7:30, so not much to relax, but people and food were nice though so ok we’ll see afterwards our overall satisfaction before complaining.
The next day, we are asked to be ready at 7 am, even though Ngorongoro is not far away from Karatu (our lodge city), to go pay for the Ngorongoro entrance, as it did not work the day before !
Then the mess begins :
We skip the breakfast, but have to wait the bank opening at 8, so we take breakfast, I am asked to help and try paying online about 450$ to enter there and there refund me, but it does not work (see our good faith again), so we go to the bank, it finally opens at 8:30, we wait, our guide goes to pay, we wait about 40min in the car, getting harassed by locals wanting to sell their objects, we finally are able to go there but the guide is feeling « dizzy » so we get one of his friends to pass the local police check (small doubts about legal but well..), we get to the gate late but surprise, paiement is not accepted yet because of a network issue, so we wait until 10:45 to go through, and after a bit less than 1h drive get into the crater around 11:30 ! And we were ready at 7 ! (1h drive for maps)
It’s not done, we enter the crater, and after 1h inside the car stops, technical issue, we cannot continue, it’s 12:30.
I did not mention above that on the first day we already realised that no gauge in the car was working, so not speed indicator, no fuel indicator since the beginning, all cars were overtaking us whenever a 50km/h limit panel was there as our guide did not know his own speed and went slower.
From there we wait 1h expecting our guide to find a solution and thank god a car with french people inside was nice enough to take us back for almost finishing the tour (1 small hour as they were on the way back). So we get out of the crater, after spending total 2h inside, only 1 with Widmans car.
Then our guide had paid for a bus to take us back to our hotel on the second day before our going back, even there, the price doubled when the bus arrived and we’ve been asked to help, to which we said no and the other company « Simba » actually paid for our return (they had to arrange themselves). It’s the least they had to do.
Now for two days we’ve been asking for a partial refund, explaining all this to Widman, and he only accepts to give 100$ back and begging for us not to post our experience, but that is clearly not enough for us.
So overall, delays, mistakes, very unprofessional people, and bad experience.
Not saying that the previous comments are false, but I imagine Widman is getting bigger with new guides and experiences, but he clearly does not know how run his business correctly. From other feedbacks on Tanzania, other companies were much more prepared and experiences were fantastic, so we strongly encourage anyone to look at other companies.
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Thieves
Wecam is a bad company that scams its customers. We trusted Wecam for a 15-day safari, but Mercy, the director of Wecam, stole from us. She gave us a bad SUV that broke down. We paid for a French guide we never had and unacceptable accommodations worthy of squatters!!! Mercy was supposed to pay us back for an abusive night in Nairobi and finally, she kept all of the money back for the hotel.
Mercy is a thief and the company is an unreliable and thieving company. FLEE Wecam Safari. Thieves.
NG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Underdelivery
Vehicle not up to expectation
Timelines of Itinerary violated
Important landmarks of the itinerary skipped
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Clueless
Do not use. Didn’t seem to know what was going on and felt unsafe.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We regret trusting the owner with our money
We feel that we have been scammed and we regret that we trusted the owner with our money.
We booked a safari back in mid-June and had paid for the whole safari (totaling GBP 2,110) in advance. In the days leading up to the safari we heard nothing from them and were getting concerned. Then, two days before the safari was due to start, we were told it was cancelled as the company was going into insolvency.
We were told at the time that the owner of Capture Tanzania Adventure had had an accident 3 weeks ago - we believe this is a lie as a review from 4 weeks before that mentions the same story.
Nothing had been booked for us so we would like to understand where our money went, but he has refused to provide an explanation which added further to our suspicions.
Due to the poor communications, lack of a reasonable explanation, and amount of people this has happened to we feel that we have been scammed by the owner and we suspect that he has zero intention of returning our money.
We’re going to have to pursue legal recourse. The Tanzanian police and tourist office have been useless at responding to our emails but thankfully there are other options.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Less than 3h of Game Drive for a 2 day tour in Masai Mara - Avoid it!
Terrible experience. I absolutely recommend against the 2 days 1 night tour to Masai Mara as the total game drive was 2.45h for both days. It's simply unacceptable. I have been to daily safaris of 5-6h of game drive.
Some good things though: My guide was great, the accommodation and food were good for being a budget safari.
Tour happened as follows:
Day 1: pick-up at 7am in Nairobi. Departure at 8am. Arrival at camp at 3pm. Game drive started at 5pm. It finished at 6.30pm.
Day 2: pick-up at 6.15am. Game drive starts at 6.45am. Game drive ended at 8.30am. I arrived at Nairobi at 3pm.
The drive from Nairobi to Camp will never be less than 6h and it can be up to 8h,
Take at least the 3 day tour or don't do it!
For respect for your time and well-being it is a brutal waste of time, money and energy don't do a 2 days 1 night tour. It was so frustrating to have ended a 2 day tour at 8.30am! I was shocked.
They never offer to refund partially or offered a discount for another safari.
I cannot recommend Jocky Agency. Avoid them!
CZ
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fraud!!!
We booked a 6-day climb to Kilimanjaro via Rongai with Mr. Michael Kosani, through our friend from Zanzibar.
We have agreed to pay a deposit of 700 USD (100/per person). However, a few weeks later, Michael requested for another deposit (half of the total amount).
We didn't agree with that, as Michael was requesting more and more everytime we spoke.
After a while Michael had a problem with our friend from Zanzibar, (as they knew each other from before and could not agree on the money split), because of which he decided to cancel the trip. We agreed and requested the return of the deposit as WE WERE NOT THE ONES WHO CANCELLED.
Michael promised to send the of the deposit back, which has not happened up to date. For three months now, he's been making excuses that he's in the middle of a Safari and doesn't have access to a bank. I definitely do not recommend this company because of him.
In case any problems arise, you will find that MR. MICHAEL IS A FRAUD!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
SETH VINCENT IS A CON MAN, AVOID THIS COMPANY
We have had the most miserable Safari experience organised by Seth Vincent.
We booked on a tour of Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru with this tour operator ‘Trip Advisor Africa Safaris’, operated by Seth Vincent.
We have spent our trip being harassed through calls and texts from the tour organiser, Seth Vincent. He is persistently asking us for extra money for previously agreed services and ended up cutting our trip short and not providing half the pre-agreed services. Our hotel was downgraded and filthy.
From further research into Seth's practices, we have found significant volumes of similar reviews of his practices on review websites and it appears he runs unsafe tours and regularly demands money or changes services offered.
This man has sent us 50+ messages, constant calls and leveraged the rangers as well to take us to unagreed places at unagreed times.
Avoid this man and company at all costs
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Would not recommend to book with this company
Would not recommend booking through this tour company, days out from the commencement of our tour after we had spent $$$$ on flights and travelled over 20 hours in flights asked us for $$$$ more, which we had to neg it down.
DE
Experience level: first safari
Unprofessional
We also had a very bad experience with this tour operator, and are now fighting with the Tanzanian Police to get our money back.
We booked a 3 day safari for our honeymoon for beginning of October, and already had to pay the full amount in June. In September when it came to arranging the pick up, Capture Tanzania started not to answer and not picking up the phone any more, and if someone answered then we just received vague answers from one of the owners and that they will "check". We sent a lot of long e-mails and called them many many times, with no response. We also had to find out ourselves, that no bookings were done for us (neither accommodation nor flights). The two alarming reviews on SafariBookings.com from September unfortunately came too late for us as warning.
The Tourism Police Unit in Arusha has said they are working to track down Capture Tanzania. In our opinion we have been scammed by Capture Tanzania.
Our clear advice, don't pay them any money. Good luck.