20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Worst ever experience
As expats in Kenya, we have taken many safari trips, and the recent one to Masai Mara with Lenchada was unfortunately our worst ever experience. We chose this company out of their overwhelmingly good reviews on safaribookings.com. That probably means that most of their drivers are excellent. But our driver, named Tony, was an exception by a large margin.
Tony clearly hates his job and was cold and rude to us throughout the trip. Every time we met at the beginning of a game drive, he never greeted us and only responded to our greeting with a node. He never helped with our luggage either. During game drives, he never asked us or even notified us before starting the vehicle after a stop, never caring if we wanted to stay for longer. In several cases this interrupted our ongoing photography of animals, and sometimes even worse—the abrupt move of the vehicle on the bumpy road of Masai Mara caused us to fall on the seat. All three of us hit our knees on the armrest of the seats for a few times, and we all got bruises. Having paid a little more to take a private tour rather than a shared one, we expected that we could customize the game drives to a reasonable extent. When we tried to communicate with him about our preferences in animal viewing, however, Tony responded impatiently with cold words such as “You have to be patient,” “I have to follow instructions from the radio.”
And his words about following the radio turned out to be a lie, because his vehicle was not equipped with a radio! A radio is important for any safari trip, and especially for Masai Mara, since the natural reserve is simply too large. Even during the migration season, most part of Masai Mara at any given time would still be empty, and without a radio, on which dozens of drivers share their findings real-time, you will very likely end up not finding anything interesting for a whole hour. Two of the three of us fell asleep for around twenty to thirty minutes during the game drive. In the past we have taken safari trips in less renowned destinations and during low seasons, but the experiences have never been so boring for us that we fell asleep. It may be unbelievable that this happened in Masai Mara during the migration season, but when you don’t see any noteworthy animal for dozens of minutes it would be hard to stay awake. We did get to see some big cats, but that was only possible when we luckily encountered another vehicle that had radio, whose driver kindly shared the information, and our vehicle then made a U-turn to go back in the opposite direction for some fifteen minutes to get to the spot. With a radio we would probably have spent thirty minutes less to get there.
When we realized this problem, we contacted Alex, the managing person of Lenchada. Alex was responsive and attentive. He apologized for our experience, clarified that the driver’s practice of not carrying radio to a game drive is intolerable and against the company’s rules, and told us that he will soon make a thorough check on all the vehicles of his company to make sure that they must have radios. For us, however, the only thing he could offer as a remedy was to extend our final game drive by departing the lodge one hour earlier than planned. We appreciated his supportive attitude and accepted the offer, understanding that it was probably already all he could do within his capability. Tony was late, cutting the extended game-drive time from one hour to less than forty minutes. But the length of the trip turned out not a big issue, because during that extended final game drive, we again fell asleep, for the simple reason that the vehicle still didn’t have radio and we still had not much to see most of the time.
Although Tony had no radio, he attempted to cheat us by saying that he had one. It was only during the second day of the trip, when we heard him responding to another driver asking about information on animal spotting, saying in Swahili “Sina redio” (I don’t have a radio) that we realized he had been lying. When we contacted Alex about this concern, Alex hosted a three-way phone call with us and Tony. To our surprise, in the phone call Tony lied to his boss and insisted that he had a radio which he simply turned off because it was noisy. On our way back to Nairobi, Tony even blamed us for telling his boss about the radio issue, and still insisted that he has radio. When we pointed to the antenna holder in the front of his vehicle, where there was no antenna at all, he said that for some vehicles the antenna is in the back. But one only needs to get off the vehicle and look at its back to know that there’s no antenna there either. For so many times, Tony lied through his teeth.
Tony also told us that because of our complaint, he was going to lose his job. Due to his repetitive blatant lies, we would not believe in what he said. But if what he said is indeed true, that would be an indication that Lenchada really cared about their customers and promptly fired this unprofessional, dishonest, and rude employee. Such a person should simply not be allowed to work in this industry.
In other aspects of our trip that are unrelated to the driver, our experience was mostly positive. For example, the lodge was a good balance of quality and price. It is way cheaper than any accommodation inside Masai Mara, yet it’s only a ten-minute drive to the gate. Since their boss Alex is a responsible and honest person, and since there are many good reviews out there, choosing Lenchada for your safari may still be a good idea. But you have to make sure that your driver is not Tony, otherwise all those good reviews will be totally irrelevant to your actual experience.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Highly recommended!!!
Our trip to Africa was an amazing experience, and Shadows of Africa made it happen. We spent 7 days in central and Northern Tanzania, touring through the Tarangire, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti. We saw hundreds animals daily, with many animals right next to our jeep. We slept in a different lodge or tent camp each night, and we were well taken care of. Gerald Killian was our tour guide for this week, and he was friendly, knowledgeable , accommodating, and was invested in our good experience. After our safari, Shadows of Africa arranged a flight to Zanzibar and we enjoyed Stone Town and an all inclusive resort for a little R and R.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Simply Perfect!!!
Fantastic Safari! We visited Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorogoro crater with our amazing driver and guide ben. we then visited Zanzibar islands with him. His knowledge was superb and he looked after us very well. We saw hundreds of animals and the geographical features were awe inspiring. The lodges we stayed at were beautiful and all the staff everywhere were so welcoming. I would thoroughly recommend Kilimanjaro Economy Safari and our wonderful driver Ben.
SG
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
4 Day 3 Nights Safari – Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater
Our wish was to discover the endless plain Serengeti also to visit the so called Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.
Serengeti is fabulous can’t have enough words to explain about it. We saw cheetah, lion, leopard, elephant, giraffe as well as our target the great wildebeest migration. In the creter we saw the black rhino, zebra also so many types of birds. Thanks to Issa and Tom for making our dream come true.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A very memorable trip
It is a very memorable trip for us and I think Joseph has us hooked to safaris. In fact we want to plan another safari trip with Kubwa Five Safaris. Our guide Joseph is very knowledgeable and experienced so we managed to learn the names of the variety of animals we spotted on our journey. Joseph also kept us safe and took good care of us during the trip.
We will definitely be back in Africa and book with this company.
IE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good, all in all
The tour arranger was very cooperative from the first day and tried her best to accommodate us with the best budgets for a private safari tour. The drivers were friendly, informative; the lodgings were good as expected. We had an ease of things going at our own pace since we booked a private tour but good experience overall. Would definitely recommend them to friends and acquaintances for their future travels!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exceeded expectations
Our South African adventure was way better than we expected it to be. Johannesburg is amazing and our tour guide James helped us navigate what we wanted to see and showed us how the locals enjoy their city as well. Our guide Bill took us everywhere and shared stories about each amazing destination. There were stops on the tour that were simply incredible and really showed us how diverse South Africa is. The Humala and Tshukudu game lodges were beautiful and very clean. The food is very good and they offer food for everyone's tastes. The game drives were more than we expected and we saw everything. Winter is a great time to visit because the animals are easier to see. Our guides and hotel team were like family and were equally excited for us for seeing so many species. Special thanks to Blessing at Humala Lodge and Shaddy at Tshukudu Lodge. Wonderful. We finished our trip in Cape Town where Jonathan, our guide, was simply amazing. He was knowledgeable, fun and made our tour of Cape Town so memorable. We cannot wait to return. Go Touch Down Tours did a great job helping us have the adventure of a lifetime worry free. We saw everything including the Big Five, we visited Kruger National Park and so, so much more. Excellent vacation for sure.
DE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
We enjoyed a perfectly planned, wonderful tour with perfect guide, leader and driver!
We have little time to spend on holiday, so our expectations were high. Alltogether we are extremily content with what we got from that tour. Our guides were polite, reliable and flexible. We enjoyed their company during the hole time. On our Safaritour in Uganda and RUanda we saw all the wild animals we hoped to see, even lions, jaguars, crocodiles, rhinos, girafes, elefants... The communication was in english and we got plenty of explanations about animals, people, religion, countryside and whatever we wanted to know. The lodges are picked well, great service, good food and inidvidual extras always possible. Our dirver had a neverending power and an enormous flexibility if needed. The value for money was fair, you would never ever get anything like this for the same money in germany. So, we are happy, content and recoment travelling with All In Anfrica Safaris very much!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our tour operator was very knowledgeable, answered all questions and left nothing unturned.
This was a trip of a lifetime! We had such a remarkable time each day, each adventure, each meal, each safari, each sight seeing tour we took.
We were busy from the rising of day, until dusk most days. Oh, the shopping was an adventure all of its own:) It was breath taking.. We are planning to return.
BR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable trip
The company's service was excellent from the first contact by email. Philomena always clarified all doubts. We did a 4 day 3 night Safari and the service was impeccable. When we arrived at Kilimanjaro airport the day before the start of the Safari Philomena was already waiting for us and took us to the hotel in Arusha. During the Safari we visited Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Serengeti and Lake Manyara parks and managed to see the main animals. Our guide Horace was an excellent professional, very kind and made every effort so that we could see as many animals as possible. The accommodations during the Safari were excellent, all first class. I highlight the experience of having spent a night inside the Serengeti in an extremely luxurious cabin. I recommend the African Savannah Trekkers company for sure. And once again I would like to express my gratitude to Philomena and the guide Horace for providing a unique experience that will remain forever in our memories.
(automatic translation from Portuguese)
