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.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Felt that driver interfered with wild life in a dangerous manner and was rude to other vehicles
Driver repeatedly used his vehicle to cut off male lion's intended direction. He probably was trying to give his customers a good photo opportunity; however, it was a bit dangerous and also selfish.
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Disorganized and Poor Customer Service
We went with this company on back to back days…1 in Zanzibar and 1 in Kenya. On day 1, we were supposed to swim with dolphins and sea turtles. We were also supposed to have time to explore Jozani Forest. Instead, we spent most of the day in the bus (2+ hours of it were with it not moving). We had a short stop at a beach, but were told we had to make it quick to make it to our lunch reservation at The Rock Restaurant. We were assured that we would get a chance to swim with dolphins and sea turtles afterwards. While the meal was nice, it was very disorganized. After the meal was over, it took Marl approximately an hour to settle up the bill with each person in the group. Rather than spending an hour at the restaurant, it ended up being 2 hours which further pushed things behind. We were then told we wouldn’t be able to stop for dolphins because it was too hot for them. I found out later friends of ours with a different company did swim with dolphins. We were then given a choice of aquarium to see the sea turtles, Jovani Forest or go straight to the cruise ship we came in on. If we chose the turtles, we wouldn’t have time to swim with them. We chose Jovani Forest. We only had 20 minutes there due to the disorganization. We had to stay close by due to the short amount of time. Luckily, we did see a few monkeys. So…our group of 4 spent over $400 for a glorified meal, 20 minutes at a forest that we didn’t get to explore much of, and hours on a hot bus.
Since the company is from Kenya, we gave them the benefit of the doubt. We expected the next day to go smoother. We got off the ship and made our way to the Jeeps. We were told before the day started it would go smoother. We were told we would load up the jeeps in order of arrival and each jeep would leave immediately once filled. Did that happen? Nope. We waited an hour before getting started with the long drive to Tsavo East. Once there, we had to wait another hour and a half to get in because of “system error”. Even though there was a “system error” there were still other people going into the park who were with other tour groups. The safari itself was nice. We saw lots of animals. When it came time to leave though, I’m pretty sure our driver got lost. We didn’t leave the park until nearly an hour after the rest of our group had left the park. A lunch at Voi Lodge was supposed to be included. We were supposed to go to Masai Village. All of that was cut out.
Everything that went wrong on both days always had an excuse that was blamed on someone or something else rather than taking responsibility for their mistakes or their miscommunication. There was no attempt to reconcile what was promised to be included but wasn’t. There was no offer of a partial refund for the things we were supposed to do but didn’t get to do. We felt like we were taken advantage of. We felt like we were lied to. We felt like we were scammed. This is a company that I highly recommend others to AVOID!
BE
We felt that there was no organization, no professionalism!
We were a group and we all have been very disappointed the 2 days
First one in Zanzibar and the second d one in Mombasa !
Really bad organization !
Most of the people in the group want to be reimburse !
Very bad company sorry
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Bad Experience
Bad Experience, I will not come here again in my whole life.
SE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We are so unhappy with our trip!
We are so unhappy with the trip! The car had problems at least 5 times, the suspension broke, the car could not be started, problems with the oil, overheated tires.
The WORST thing was that we feel that the owner Calvin scammed us out of money too!!
SE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
We feel scammed by this operator
The experience was terrible. From the actual Safari where the poor planning and condition of our SUV made us miss big part of the safari. Furthermore, the company hadn't paid for the gate fees (1000 USD) and made us pay to get out of the park. We also had to pay for our hotel stay that should have been included. All of these money we have not seen yet. I would not book again!
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unreliable and unprofessional operator who doesn't stick to the marketed quote
Beforehand we did enjoy exploring Kenya and its wildlife. The parks (Ambosseli, Lake Nukuru and Masai Mara) were clean, astonishing and we had a great time discovering and learing about all the animals.
Nevertheless we would never recommend a safari with Kennafrica Adventures again because of our experience.
First of all the provided guide wasn't well-suited for the job. He couldn't provide any information about the nature or wildlife - he just kept on repeating every information the driver had already given us. Even worse he was basically having a wonderful vacation on our expense - having us take pictures of him, joining in on every adventure and even sleeping during safari (his working hours). We even told him that it was bothering us but there seemed to be no self-reflection.
The booked tour (quote) and the actual tour were two different things, we added some comments in the quote, as you can see in the photos. The worst part was that the fifth day of safari fell completly out. Without further notice Kennafrica Adventures decided to cancel the planned game drive. Because of this we missed out on a whole lot of possibilities to get to know Kenya's wildlife and nature.
As we addressed this issue we felt that Kennafrica Adventures used petty excuses and basically didn't handle the situation at all to our satisfaction. There was no support from our guide - he just handed over the phone instead of dealing with the situation or coming up with a solution. After discussing the issue with the company's manager for about 2-3 hours in the evening we negotiated a refund ($125), nothing compared to the lifetime experience we were missing out on - up to today we are still waiting to get this money back.
On top of that we agreed to at least go to a Masai village on day five, which was according to the quote already included. Arriving there we had to pay an entrance fee ($40) - again no support from our guide. He just assured us that we will get this money back with our refund - as said before we are still waiting.
The manager now even blocked us on WhatsApp and won't answer our mails. We are highly consindering to take legal actions against Kennafrica Adventures.
The only reason we regret giving a one star rate is our driver, Mungai. He was an exceptional tour guide, who taught us a lot about the nature and its wildlife. We even learned some Swahili. He made this whole safari worthwhile. We would always come back to do a safari with him but never if it's operated by Kennafrica Adventures.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bait and switch
Promised helicopter over Botswana….never happened
Promised 2 different luxury camps in Botswana..never happen.
One day before going to the first camp they switched and sent us for 6 days at a cheaper camp. Even the manager at the camp said it was strange and unheard of for use to be there for 6 days. Bait and switch to make more money. Beware