US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
This company is fraudulent! I lost $2900! SCAM. Do not book!
I, like so many others on these reviews, paid thousands of dollars to It Started In Africa. We have lost all of the money. The owners claim the company who they subcontract for advertising took the money. It is absolutely untrue. We wired the money directly to ownership. Clients were stranded, and in our case, we lost $2,900.
Per our contract, I attempted to get out of our safari, as the contract clearly states that I may do so and take a 20% loss. I chose this option over taking a chance on this horrific company after clients began posting that they were being left stranded on their trips. I have now submitted two requests and the owner is no longer responding.
I am now seeking legal counsel in Tanzania and working with government agencies that oversee tour companies in the hopes of legally prosecuting this fraudulent company. Please read the reviews so many of us have posted. We have lost so much money.
KW
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Look For Somewhere Else !!!!!!!!!
When my flight arrived at 10:30am driver wasn't there I waited 2 hours for him to arrive. And the driver wasn't my actual tour guide he is a tour guide for another group. His excuse for arriving late that his car was damaged, but in the end I found out he was lying and my actual tour guide made a deal with this other tour guide (Who will pick another group that I don't know) to go to the airport to pick me up because I was solo. And because of that he arrived late cause the other group's flight arrival is at 1:00pm. My trip plan is private tour which means driver must to pick me up alone without other group!!!!!!!!!!! And to top all that the car was in super bad condition. To sum up this company is a so unorganized, very old vehicles, don't care about customer satisfaction, and do whatever they want to do without even asking beforehand if I agree or not. Please avoid so that you will not end up with similar experience or even worse.
IT
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Terribile situation
We had a safari planned by ISIA from 22nd to 27th August. Four days before our leaving from Italy, the sales office emailed us to cancel our last bank transfer as the company was going bankruptcy.
Thereafter we emailed many times to them, to the Chairman of the company, to the Italian Embassy in Tanzania and to the Tanzania Tourism Board.
Till the day before our leaving the Chairman wrote that our safari was on and not to worry about that. We ourselves contacted the accomodations and many of them answered that no booking had been made for us by ISIA. Moreover we read recent reviews (now cancelled) on TripAdvisor of people whose safari was on in August telling that they had to pay for their accomodations and for park fees. At that point we decided not to leave to avoid to loose some more money.
The total amount we paid to ISIA for the safari was 4,600USD so we contacted a lawyer whose name was given us by the Italian Embassy to ask him to assist us to recover our money.
CN
under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible experience!
1. I said we are a group of six. I found out that this company booked us 2 triple rooms intead of 3 double rooms. Simon, the boss of this company, first said that he had told me in email, which was not true. Then he said this is reasonable because I hadn't made it clear that I need 3 double rooms. Finally he said he need 136$ per person, which is 816 $ in total, to change it to double rooms for the rest 2 nights.
2. The first guide is not fluent in English and poor in experience. He took us to Masai Mara at 4.30 p.m. (it should be 3 p.m.) He first decided to take us to the lodge, then changed the direction and took us directly to the NR, so we again wasted a lot of time. He borrowed Shilings from us to buy tickets because he only had US dollar. He took us back to the hotel at 8.10 p.m. when we were super hungry.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Warning - Do not send money!
Company is bankrupt! Two weeks after we transferred the desposit the sales people told us that the company is not responding to any calls or emails.
We lost 2.000 USD, we are really angry. It seems like there is no way of getting the money back. What a horrible start of our vacation. I hope not too many customers are affected.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible tour company
I booked a 10 day overland safari with Africa Travel Co and I've just had a terrible experience which caused me to leave the tour early.
I came down with food poisoning (probably from the unsanitary cooking conditions) and the tour leader Francis dropped me off in the dark at a gas station in Uganda. I had to call the local hotel to send someone to take me to the hospital. I had severe dehydration and was immediately put on an IV. Francis had wanted me to wait until Nakuru (13 hour+ drive) to see a doctor. Not only was I left alone as a single female in the dark but I was very sick.
The tour itself is budget and gross. Most days are spent driving. A colleague used a much nicer company, Nomad, and had a great time with more stops and activities. Keep yourself safe and use a different company.
US
Bware do not send money or deposits
Just had 2500$ deposit stolen and wont offer any refund because the company is going bankrupt! Complete SCAM stay away
FR
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Danger: big problem with "Drive Tanzania" car rental
We had a terrible and quite incredible experience with Yoeni Japheth of "Drive Tanzania Ltd". We booked in january 2017, a 4WD for 20 days, 200 USD/day for our trip in Northern Tanzania in july. We paid in advance 4.000 USD for that to an account in Norway (first strange thing for a supposed tanzanian company).
I accepted this fare more expensive that others companies offered because Yoeni Japheth promised us a car "not older than 3 years", sending a picture of a very new safari 4WD. I had insisted (that is important for the rest of the story) on the possibility for the driver of passing easily in the back of the car to be able to photograph animals from the pop-up roof.
On july 15, a car arrived at our lodge one your late with to representatives of "Drive Tanzania". But they brought a big landcruiser for 8 people (we were only two) with a barrier preventing the driver from going in the back without going out of the vehicle (what is prohibited in national parks). As I am the driver and the photograph of this trip, this this characteristic would make my safari impossible. Yoeni Japheth did know that perfectly as our mails exchanges attested.
So I said to these representatives that I can't accept this car and wanted the 4WD type we rent. "Ok, no problem, I will come back soon this the good car, take a coffee, I will pay it", was the answer in front of several witnesses of our lodge.
But they never came back ! I tried to phone to "Drive Tanzania" but their tanzanian number was a fake number. One hour and half later, we received a mail from Yoeni Japheth saying that we "choose to cancel our trip" and "no any other cars are available so we cant help" ! He didn't even offer any refund.
I immediatly asked Yoeni Japheth to call me to discuss the problem but he refused to do it, repeating in email his false allegations.
He refused later any refund so we loosed 4.000 USD and had to try to find an another 4WD in peak season. Our journey has been deeply disturbed by what I call swindle because Yoeni Japheth, who seems to live in Norway, knew that we need and rent a precise type of car.
Of course, I lodged a complaint against "Drive Tanzania" at the Arusha police on July 19. They take this affair seriously.
Eric
PL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible standard for much too high price
My review is based on comparison - we experienced services of 2 agencies in Kenya, for 2 different Safaris.
We (the couple from Poland) went to Maasai Mara national park, in tour organised by Jocky Tours (Bison safari in internet). We had already experience with safari, since we went few days before to Tsavo East and Amboseli, so we have had some expectations, which have not been met in ANY aspect.
Lodging and food - terrible, much closer to the army camp than tourist lodging. We have been accomodated in Rhino Camp (claiming to be the best camp in Maasai Mara, really!!!), but it is very far from what you expect. I have to mention that at booking time we were offered Lenchada Camp, what has been changed without any prior information to us. Just dropped in other camp, no explanation.
Food on the road and in the camp - dirty(!) dishes, no choice of food, dirty place: disgusting in every aspect. In the camp - do not take a look into the kitchen (what is difficult, kitchen is open all the time)), otherwise you will stay hungry...
The driver/guide - not interactive with passengers at all. All the time on CB, listening and responding to other CB users, not providing any information to people on board and not reacting on your requests to stop, see something, etc. Last day he was 45 min late to pick us up from the camp, without even a word of apology!
To sum up - price (310 $/pp) does not meet the offered standard. For mentioned above another tour (which was private one - only 2 of us on board), we paid 275 $/pp, receiving great accomodation (hotel Voi Wildlife Lodge and high standard camp: Senirim Amboseli), great food (on the road and in the hotel) of good choice and service, fantastic guide - informing about what we see, responding to our needs, good tracer of game, always on our request.
I did try to claim to agency received service, but they don't care at all...
FR
Awful Customer Experience
While the tour to the Masai Mara and the lodge where we stayed was very nice, my experience with Bonfire Adventures as a customer has been quite a disaster from the beginning till the end.
Here is why:
- First the company forced us to pay the entire amount of the safari upfront while no other safari company has ever asked for that and leaving us with absolutely no guarantee and no leverage
- Secondly our driver was unresponsive at the time of the meeting and ended up showing more than hour late without even apologising. This led us to be stuck in traffic for hours when our drive could have been much shorter if we had departed on time.
- Thirdly when we showed up for the first time at the gate of the Masai Mara park the network did not work and we could not pay by credit card. Our driver almost blamed us not to have cash for the entrance fees while the company had told us we would have to pay the entrance fees by card and we had to negotiate to be able to get in.
- Fourthly, we were charged for our lunch on our way back to Nairobi on the third day while the safari package indicates a Full Board for the three days (the itinerary even mention that you will only go back at 4pm to Nairobi - way after lunch time) and never mentions any extra cost for this last lunch.
- Lastly and the most annoying, my luggage was lost on the way back to Nairobi and the company did not provide with any type of compensation while the luggage was under their responsibility. The only excuse they could come up with was "this has never happened before" which of course does not help solving the issue at all.
Therefore I would strongly advise against using them for any type of safari of excursion.