FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Ruined Honeymoon
We chose Bencia for a first safari experience during our honeymoon with a 6 days safari (2 full days in Masaï Mara + Nakuru + Hell's Gate, Nairobi to Nairobi).
Our initial plan had to be changed because of COVID test that we had to do at least the day before leaving. Bencia told me that last night we won't do in Naivasha/Hell's Gate but in Nairobi. What I didn't know was that we would have to sacrifice 1 full day and 1 night at Masaï Mara (which was of course the heart of our Safari) because of that. Of course they didn't tell me as day/night in Nairobi is not the same price as day/night in Masaï Mara. The safari cost didn't change at any moment.
The problem is that I never received any new plan, I think there was a real communication problem there from Bencia.
We only did one evening and full day next in Masaï Mara, not even the next morning as planned also because we had to be quickly to Nakuru for I do not know which reason because we arrived there at noon and left for safari at 6pm, all those lost hours we could have spent in Mara...
After this evening safari, I started contacting Bencia about our planning, they just said that we should do safari on the morning and head to Naivasha where we could do an activity that we would have to pay ourselves. I started to be angry and asked them (my contact was Alfred) why skipping one full day in Masaï Mara to be in Naivasha with nothing provided ? I asked them to provide us an activity as I was the one being stole and of course they first refuse. They even said that they would offer me activities in Nairobi and Hell's Gate, they are very funny in this so called ''company''. I paid for a 6 days safari, got stolen a day in Masaï Mara in exchange of one day in Nairobi but they continued talking about offering me things that I paid for... After a long discussion, I finally had a word from Bencia saying they would pay activity in Naivasha !
The next day, after only a few hours of safari in Nakuru (driver always had good excuses to quickly end the day or push us to do extra activity), we arrived in Naivasha. Other surprise there, we were not in the good hotel and when I compared rates of 2 hotels, 1 night in the one that was supposed to be booked was at USD 430 and the one we were in at USD 165. I gently asked for an explanation and a change or an upgrade during a long moment but Bencia never wanted to upgrade us, saying that it was the ''same level''. What a kind gift from them for our honeymoon !
We arrived in this hotel at 11:35 am and I had to struggle once again with Bencia (still Alfred who didn't want to get me his manager)@ to get our promised activity. Finally, at 17:00 after that our driver disapeared (even Bencia couldnt reach him) we were taken to our 1 hour boat ride, finally !
Last but not least, when we arrived at 3pm for check in in Nairobi without having any lunch, we discovered that Bencia booked only bed and breakfast. Reminder : I paid and signed and they signed to a contract for 6 days saying that all meals were included. There, once again, I had to fight during 2 hours to get our lunch (at 5pm bon appétit !) and also dinner.
This is where we met Cyprian from Bencia who listened to this story and tried to get us our meals and organized excursion the day after (of course Alfred from Bencia lied to me saying that he had booked excursions in Nairobi so we missed elephant orphanage).
Thanks to Cyprian, last day we were able to go to Nairobi NP for a last safari. That does not compensate at all the rest but I guess we will never received anything from them.
If you want an unbelievable experience, especially for honeymoon, I would not recommend Bencia, they are not tousism professionals. I would have done much more organizing it myself from Paris than them from Nairobi.
PS : Next to this comment, Bencia contacted me to remove my comment in exchange of some money, that tells the level of such company...
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Please beware of this sweet speaking cheater
I booked my 3nights and 4 days Salous safari through this travel agency and that's the biggest mistake I have done in 2021 before the year end.
I have spent $645 per head for 2 of us for a private tour instead of direct booking through the hotels website which would cost me $404/person for the same tour. I want a peaceful safari during the year end and change of career as per my choice Beavis of photography and what I got
1. The open Car - the car they provided as per my request, doesn't have the permit to enter in national park and stopped by the official today morning.
2. The 2nd car, which take us from Dar es salaam to Salous and back had different problem, once that car stopped you need some help to push the car to start, it's almost a 40 years old car, I feel pity for the driver Mike who is a nice person and good driver and always try to help with a smile.
3. I would like to take a name knowingly it's the great Joshua(owner of the Gombe tours company) the great story teller and full of commitments which never be fulfilled and he will definitely will never talk to you once you started complaining about anything during your tour instead one of his so called agent(Yusuf) will speak to you and always try to prove that everything is your luck and fault and they are the best.
For your information I back to Dar es Salaam after 2 nights without spending the 3rd night there because I can't tolerate such nonsense service anymore. What a bad start of new year.
I don't recommend this guys as I feel I got cheated and not be treated well after paying full amount on the first day.
It's better to book hotel directly and book car from hotel for your safari, so that you can pay at hotel and there will be someone in person present to listen your complain if any. This middleman short terms traders are the problem in Tanzania. Most of them doesn't have their own car, doesn't have their own guide they just have ample time to response on your first query to make you fool and then they take good amount and pay for worst service to serve you, they will ensure 3rd graded rooms in a hotel, old hired car without any maintenance or paper sometime and you never saw them in person.
However I have visited, Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro, Ndutu, North Serengeti, Zanzibar, Mikumi during last one year with few other renowned travel agencies who are really good and professional., Shadow of Africa, Amo Zanzibar tour and safari, African quinsang adventure safari are few of them where I got full value for money. Good luck.
PT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This is a total scam!!! The fotos are not from the hotels you stay, there are extra costs everyday!!
This company puts fotos of magnific hotels and then leaves you on a terrible hotel. There are extra costs everyday, the meals are terrible, the facilities totally not clean, the guide is very rude. Please don'´t book never ever with this company!!!
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Deceptive. A con and possibly a scammer.
We booked a 3-day tour for 2 to the Maasai Mara for 1120 USD through Lucy Njeri's Splendor Holidays. This included Park entrance fees, private driver and accommodation. Everything was paid as agreed on time.
All was well until we got at the Park gate on Dec 13 when we were asked for receipt for the entrance fee which Lucy was supposed to have given to our driver. She had not issued one. Assuming it was an oversight on her part, we paid again 320USD for two of us for the 2 visits to the park.
I tried reaching out to Lucy with no response. It must be noted that up until that moment, she was was quick to respond especially when part of a payment was due. She could not take our calls, nor the driver's. Our multiple text messages went unanswered. We had other people reach out because it was clear she was ignoring our calls/messages. We hoped that she'd respond to theirs since she does not have their numbers. We were right. She responded to one of them with some shady story that she'd been mugged while depositing cash in her Mpesa account. I call it shady because we did not have to learn about that from other people. Not even her driver knew about it!!! She was ignoring his calls too.
Anyways she told that friend of ours that efforts were underway to issue a refund to us. She did not tell that to us. Days went by with no word from her despite numerous attempted phone calls.
Finally on Dec 15, after multiple calls and tests, she sent a copy-and-paste response she had sent to that friend of ours earlier with the same excuse. We kept asking her when the refund would be issued we never heard back.
We are now back in Canada unsure how we will get our money back. This has left us feeling scammed and deceived. We were referred to this lady by our close friends and up until that moment we were happy with everything. I don't know what else to call this other than what it is: scam, deception, theft and grossly unprofessional.
I will complain to any authority that can resolve this because it is not OK for our vacation to have this awful ending. Other vacationers please be warned!!
IE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Lying Cowboys
Kenya bush expeditions lied to me and my local guide about available tickets for the Sheldrick Trust tour for the 20th of December.
On enquiry they said they had 7 tickets available and we only needed 4. They asked for an email to send the payment link and we were slightly skeptical so we offered cash on the day which they agreed.
They charge $50pp US for the tour and the price is actually $15pp from Sheldrick. All they offer extra is pick up and drop off.
On arrival to the Trust, we pulled over and the driver said we had to wait. After questioning he said that we didn’t have tickets and we are waiting to see if there are any no shows. There were 6 other operators engaging in the same activity. Imagine if we had paid online prior!
Absolute cowboys! Sheldrick trust informed us that they are fully booked until the 6th of January and all bookings should be done through them. This company still offers available tickets every single day for the tour, complete liars.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Bonfire Adventures support scammers
Visit Masai Mara, but NOT with Bonfire Adventures.
DRIVER/GUIDE TOOK THE TICKET MONEY FOR HIMSELF.
I ordered 3 days safari in the private car during my few days stay in Kenya with pickup from Nairobi. On the 1st day driver/guide stopped the car at a certain distance before the park entry gate and informed me that the entry fee can only be paid in cash. He mentioned that card terminal is broken and Bonfire should inform me about it. When I proposed we can go together and buy tickets he said someone should stay with the car. When he was back, I asked for the ticket and… surprise another failure, ticked machine is broken and that I will get the ticked on the exit two days later. When I messaged bonfire office asking if this is normal, I only get the info that they will check this and that was the end of communication. Two days later at exit I asked to stop at the gate to ‘take some photos’. I asked at the counter about card payment and the clerk told me ‘it’s working all the time, every day’. When I confronted back the driver he said that clerk is lying and he promised me the ticked when we will arrive back to my hotel. At the end he was trying to give me a ticked with someone else’s name on it and with the date from previous month. Clear scam were driver keeps entry fee for himself and no ticked is issued.
3 DAY RIDE IS ACTUALLY ONE DAY RIDE. POOR CAR CONDITION
Itinerary is more or less like this. First and last day is ¬6h drive from and to Nairobi. Rest of the time should be the game ride.
What I get in reality was 2h ride on day 1 and full day ride on day 2. Day 3 was just rush ride to the gate without even opening the roof. I can say only day 2 was game drive however the driver didn’t even know how to use 4x4 (other guides were trying to explain this to him) and therefore we lost some time rolling in the mud and taking d-tours. Car also had several issues, engine was going out frequently, wipers were not working, driver had to stop and use bottled water to clean window, overall problem with electric, no radio and antena. On top of that Day 3 was real failure, driver proposed we will first take breakfast in the lodge and then do the game ride. What really happen after breakfast we rushed to the exit without even opening the roof, it took 25 min maximum. There was no game ride on that day. On the way to Nairobi, driver almost killed a pedestrian because he was overtaking other cars using roadside!
BONFIRE OFFICE COVERING THE SCAM
After my return I escalated all above concerns to the bonfire office, only after several emails I got response that they will reimburse half of the entry ticket price, less than 5% of total price. Till today after 4 months I didn’t get any refund, all I was getting for the first month were excuses that I have to have local bank account or that driver can bring cash to the hotel (they know I’m a tourist and not leaving in KE). When I told bonfire they can reimburse the same way as I paid, this is credit card, I got well known response, reimbursement to cred card is broken :D:D:D
Apparently scam with no issuing entry ticket is common, however bonfire supporting this and trying to cover this up is way below any standard. I have all pictures of fake tickets or email exchange with excuses.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Richard is a thief, do not trust this company.
This is NOT a safari company, it is a huckster with a website. Richard insists on money wires in advance but then doesn’t deliver on any of his contracts. He offers nothing but lies, abuse, and third-rate accommodations. After scamming my group for thousands of dollars, I am infuriated to see that people are continuing to try to book tours through him! DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER CALLING THIS COMPANY unless you want to lose money and have your trip ruined. We had to pay for almost our entire trip twice since he took our money but didn’t pay any of the parks or hotels we were supposed to visit. He belongs in jail, I’d love to know how he got out, but hopefully he will end up back there soon enough.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Thieves
5 Day Kilimanjaro Climb: Nov 2021
Pro-cheapest price, plentiful food, terrific guide
Con-employee who arranged booking insisted I give him the tip money for guide and porters up front rather than allowing me to distribute the money directly to them myself during or after the climb. Upon return from the climb, the employee gave my tip money to the guide. However, the money was not the same as that which I had given to the employee. The denominations of bills were smaller and it appeared some money had been removed. Would not recommend this company as it seems the office-based employee who handles bookings is stealing some of the tip money from the guides and porters who do all the actual hard work on the mountain
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
2 hours late and ripping me off
Booked a day trip to Arusha NP with Seka from Taste of Africa. The guide was supposed to pick me up at 7.30, but at the agreed time there was no one to be seen. No one from the company was available until I got a call from Seka at 8:55 AM. He told me that there was a problem, but that it was solved and that he would come in half an hour. At 9:25 AM I was finally picked up by Seka and the guide, after which we still had to leave for Arusha NP.
Seka left and I continued with the guide and we were only at the park well after 11 o'clock, where we then also had to wait at the entrance because the entrance fee had not yet been paid...
We had a nice day and the guide did his best, but was not very experienced and often busy taking selfies. He didn't know the answer on many questions and didn't know the animals very well. He also said that unfortunately this was not the first time that Taste of Afrika was late, because the owner was a drunk and often overslept.
We nearly ran out of time to see the entire park, but luckily we managed to do so in the end because the guide drove very fast.
I didn't get a discount on this day trip, but could get a discount on another day trip. However, I got the same price as quote as I've had before, so Seka wanted to rip me off again.
I would definitely not recommend Taste of Africa.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Money makers only profit oriented
These guys are just money makers. Did the one night safari trip and it was ridiculous. Arrived way too late at the park so we had only 2h game drive. Slept in a tent which doesn’t even has a light switch. You had to screw the bulb to switch on/off the light. Then morning game drive was also just 2h saying the driver needs to be on the road back to Nairobi by 9am. Maybe for unexperienced Tourists fun but I have lived in EA for more than 4 years and did many safari before. This was mos def the worst of all. They just make a lot of profit saving every shilling they can regarding service. Food was cheap local food (rice, beans, posho, goats meat) and all other services also ridiculous. The game drive was also only very semi professional. Anyway if you want local African experience, go for it but the price is definitely way to high for what you get.