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
EC
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tanzania
This was a trip I looked forward to for months. Swimming with dolphins, swimming with turtles, visiting a park to see special monkeys and lunch at The Rock. Sadly, it took us over 2 hours to leave and head to the dolphins. After over an hour ride we had 10 minutes at the beach and no trip to see dolphins. We got to the Rock late but had a super lobster 🦞 lunch. We spent 2 hours there and now we were getting closer to needing to get back to the ship. I wanted to swim with the turtles so changed busses to join a bus going there. I loved the turtles and will always remember it. No time to see the monkeys as we needed to head to ship. Ruben is an excellent communicator but I think this trip was way too much for 1 day and we had no option to see what we paid for. If I had not changed busses I would have only seen the beach and had lunch. I think if there had been more organization and explaining the distance needed to travel there we could have chosen the meal and what options we had. I cannot recommend this company as I missed 2 of the 4 highlighted pieces of the tour.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unprofessional attitude & rude behavior
Unprofessional attitude & rude behavior while enquiring for safari booking
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Felt behavior was rude & unprofessional while booking a safari
Felt behavior was rude while communicating & unprofessional while booking a safari. Was disinterested then and unresponsive.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I would recommend you avoid at all costs
We had a terrible experience with them. The driver/guide showed little interest in providing us with a satisfactory experience. He barely spoke to us during the 8-day safari and made no effort to establish any sort of rapport. We had to initiate conversations and invite him to join us for dinners. Despite having chairs and tables in the car, he didn't attempt to find pleasant spots for us to enjoy lunch with a view. Instead, he suggested having lunch in the car on several occasions, even after spending the entire morning there.
We opted for a mid-tier safari, but the packed food was atrocious, especially lunches. (Dinners, especially at Nyerere Camp and Ruaha were excellent)
We understand that box lunches are typically simple, but in this case, they were inedible. The chicken was so dry it might as well have been a rock, and despite my partner being vegetarian, they got the order wrong three times. After informing our driver of the mistake the first time, he neglected to double-check the following day, forcing us to inspect the lunch box ourselves.
The car got also stuck once, which of course can happen as its part of the experience but the guide/driver did not even say sorry, he just silenced himself and we did not know what was happening or how long that might have taken.
Additionally, at one of the camps, the food was excessively chewy to the point where I experienced gum inflammation. After reporting this to Ibrahim, the safari organizer at LuiTours, he changed our accommodations. However, he then proceeded to ignore us, failing to respond to any further communication. This level of unprofessionalism is unacceptable. Avoid LuiTours at all costs.
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We felt the company had corrupt guides, harassed animals. We wouldn't recommend them
My family thought we were going to have a nice safari with this guy Lenny, saw reviews that he must have written himself. We arrived from our home in Paris, no one was there to pick us from airport and it went downhill from there. We feel we were charged too much money, asked for partial refund which we never have received. This guy drives so fast, my daughter got slammed onto the floor one day as he only drove like crazy from one sighting to the next, never asking us what we wanted to do, my poor daughter was covered in bruises and not even an apology. The animals seemed scared of dis guy, never again, we will not do dis company and don't recommend. Has to be more honest people out there for family vacation.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
They did not show up
Booked a Chobe Safari with them and exchanged lots of emails beforehand but then they simply did not show up at the agreed time. The entire day was lost as obviously it was not possible to find anyone else.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The unprofessional service of Ambula was characterized by rude behavior and lack of accountability.
I am not one to publicly complain about service, but I had a horrible experience with Ambula Tours that I feel someone who is considering using their service should know about. I booked a transfer for my brother and on the way to the airport, they were in an accident. He ended up missing his domestic flight and international flight - leaving my family with over R40,000 in unexpected costs. Accidents happen and luckily everyone was okay. The communication from Ambula was shocking (they said another car was on the way and would be there in 40-45 minutes, and it didn't arrive for another +2.5 hours!) and they did not help to cover any costs or, at the least, refund the cost of the trip. I would not suggest this service to anyone who values a company with integrity and safety.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The worst organisation of any company I've ever worked with
First of all, we booked a shared safari with Mousebird safaris, and we ended up joining a convoy of around 6 safari vehicles, each with 6-7 people in them, with unmarked or or unmarketed cars (I.e. they didn't have the mousebird logos on them). After speaking to several people in our tour, we realised that every couple or individual had booked with a separate and different safari agent. And we were brought together to join this trip.
This meant that almost everyone on the trip were staying in different places. This lead to us being picked up very early every day and taken to a meeting destination, often to wait for several hours before starting the actual safari, and spending much less time enjoying the nice lodges we had booked to stay at. (The meeting places were often very basic and not that nice to hang out in). The same was true for the evening, we would drive around after the safari ended, often for several hours, to drop people at their respective lodges.
The major consequence of this (not even considering all the time we wasted just waiting) was that almost every day, after collecting people and waiting for those camping to pack up, we only ever started our safaris at around 9 or sometimes even later. A far cry from the stated "dawn/sunrise safari" we expected.
We also never did any night or evening safaris, or any safari walks, which I have done on other safaris around Africa. Overall it was very poorly planned.
The drivers didn't even know where we were supposed to be staying half of the time, and we had to tell them, or keep an eye on Google maps to make sure they didn't go the wrong way. We were taken to the wrong lodge 3 times on our trip. Which was very tiring in the end. And during the drives to and from the lodges, it was not so easy to look for animals, as almost all the drivers had clearly learned to drive by playing GTA (they drove INSANELY fast and recklessly).
Speaking of driving, since we were driving in a convoy, there were over 10 occasions where one of our party (including our car at least 3 times), got severely stuck in the mud and/or potholes, and in some cases it took over an hour to get the car free. All the time we were all just waiting, with no wildlife nearby. We didn't see any other safari jeeps get stuck the whole time, only our group, which led us to believe that our drivers were not so experienced or trained in driving the terrain.
The days were very long, and we had no snacks or suitable lunches provided either. We are both vegan and booked this trip because the description said caters for vegan. We were told on booking it would be "easy". Most days we were picked up at 6-7am, waited around til about 9.30am to start, but only stopped for lunch around 2-3pm. And on every day we were there, we were given something non-vegan. Or there were minimal options for us. For instance the group would get meat, rice and some steamed veg. So for us, it was just the veg (usually just green beans and carrot) and some mildly warm rice, which just felt like they didnt even think about us at all. And we never stopped anywhere to get any snacks.
One day they almost didn't provide us with any water, but after a long argument, the driver finally took us to a shop and suggested we buy it ourselves... despite "free unlimited water" being written in all the contracts. We didn't agree and eventually, the driver got us water.
To top it all off, the contact we were speaking to before leaving specifically asked us to bring cash to do a final payment to "pay for some in tour activities", such as national park entrance fees etc. So we paid half on card in advance and brought the rest in cash as agreed. But the night before the safari, the organiser came to out hotel to take the cash and we never saw him again. So it mustn't have been for the entrance fees, in fact we never saw our driver exchange cash with anyone once, we believe it was just so we would pay them in cash instead.
I would not go with this safari company again, even if you paid me, as the hours wasted waiting have aged me by a decade.