35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An absolute disgrace of a tour company
Soul of Tanzania are a disgrace
Our experience with Soul of Tanzania was nothing short of appalling. What was meant to be a once in a lifetime safari, including our honeymoon, turned into one of the most sickening, mismanaged, and financially devastating travel experiences we’ve ever had.
Despite paying the full tour cost upfront, Soul of Tanzania failed to deliver the entire Tanzanian portion of our itinerary due to civil unrest and a government mandated border closure which an event completely outside our control. Yet instead of supporting us, they shifted the entire financial burden onto us, leaving us with over USD $10k in losses for services we never received, as well as charged us for add on services we never received!
Soul of Tanzania took zero accountability: Soul of Tanzania refused to refund the actual value of the undelivered services.
Threatening and condescending communication: Their representative, Sandy B, repeatedly referenced cancellation policies, and further, implied we would be charged additional costs, and pushed us toward travel insurance rather than taking any responsibility themselves.
Misleading and inconsistent information: They contradicted themselves across emails, denied statements they previously made, and communicated with our driver behind our backs while ignoring our urgent messages of distress.
Unprofessional crisis handling: During a period of confirmed fatalities and escalating unrest, we were left stranded with no reliable contact, no emergency support, and no clear plan.
Inferior accommodation forced upon us: We were diverted to a significantly cheaper lodge we did not choose, while still being told we must absorb the financial loss.
Weeks of delays and excuses: It took nearly a month for them to provide even a partial response, all while we continued to incur additional emergency costs.
For a company that markets itself as “premium,” their behaviour was the complete opposite. Evasive, dismissive, and entirely self protective. They chose to protect their margins and leave their customers stranded, inflict further charges and stress on us financially and physically. I wouldn’t recommend this company to anyone.
If you value transparency, professionalism, safety, and basic fairness, avoid Soul of Tanzania at all costs. Their handling of our situation was negligent, unethical, and deeply disappointing. We would never recommend this company to anyone.
JP
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Poor operation and time management
-Travel Arrangement
I received the Itinerary one week before our travel and agreed the schedule and contents.
However, the time was not accurate at all and we delayed the program.
It means the time for game drive was less than expected.
Also, we couldn't get the briefing one day before the tour and the operator informed the departure time at 20:30 on Friday (the day before of the departure).
On departure date, we scheduled to leave Arusha at 7:30am according to the Itinerary, but we left 9:30am and arrived at the Tarangire NP at 11:40am. It means we missed the morning drive and only 4 hours drive on Day 1.
-Guide skill
The guide tried to explain about National parks and each animal which was good.
However, he doesn't have much skills to find animals and most of the time, clients found animals.
His driving skill was also not perfect and need to be improved.
CN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Horrible experience
We paid a total of $1,440 for a four-day trip. On January 5th, when we arrived at the entrance of Serengeti National Park in the afternoon, we were informed at 5 PM that we could not enter because the tour company had not paid the entrance fees. Even by the payment deadline that day, the fees remained unpaid. After extensive negotiations and communication, and upon receiving a guarantee, the national park allowed us to enter first. The fees were later paid.
On the afternoon of January 7th, when we were scheduled to leave the Serengeti and proceed to Ngorongoro National Park, we were stopped again at the Serengeti park entrance at 3 PM because the tour company had not paid the fees for Ngorongoro National Park. We waited at the Serengeti park entrance until 8 PM, but the tour company still did not make the payment. As overnight stays are not permitted at the Serengeti park entrance, we were allowed to enter the Simba Camp in Ngorongoro National Park at around 8:20 PM, finally arriving at approximately 1:30 AM on January 8th.
Throughout this period, the tour company repeatedly assured us they would pay the fees but kept delaying until noon. After that, they became completely unreachable.
After we got to the the tourism police station.We spent the whole days there to try to get our money back.A guys showed up at the end he gave us 100 dollars back each and promised to send us the rest of the money by transfer .But until today I still have not get it .
RO
50-65 years of age
Very poor and careless service
We have booked with this agency a tour of Johannesburg in January. It was on our way back home from Kruger Park that we had a whole day and booked a cultural city tour with this agency for our family of 3. They asked for a down payment of 35% when booking some weeks in advance and for the full payment of the balance before the tour start. We did so - they were supposed to send us a payment link for the balance one week before the tour but they forgot, we noticed them and we paid. In the morning of our tour, the weather at Nelspruit Airport was bad and our flight was cancelled so we could not make it to arrive to Johannesburg at the previewed hour. We even had to rent a car and drive for more than 4 hours so as to be sure we get in time for our flight back home in Europe. I wrote them a message right after the cancellation of the flight was announced, let them know that we could not make it and kindly asked them whether we could be reimbursed all of part of the Euro 250 cost of the tour. They did not answer for a week or so. After few kind follow ups, they replied, they said they will inquire again internally, I waited for another 2 weeks, made follow ups again. Long story short, they not even bothered to answer something. Not to say that they did not announced us that in case of cancellation due to a non-attributable reason they will not reimburse anything. Anyhow, a very poor service, a clear careless agency related to its clients and absolutely no sympathy or courtesy for its clients. I am even more surprised they have such high ratings. My recommendation - be careful if you book with them and never pay the balance before the tour (as they request).
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Appaling, I advice you avoid them!
My advice is that you AVOID!! ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE! My holiday was ruined by continual arguments, over the entire 2 weeks, with Claudious Tours and Safaris about repayment for the money they extracted from me, as cash loans (yes they borrowed $730 from me to pay their Guide Team and National Park admission fees that were already included in my holiday!) and various payments for hotels and meals that were part of my "inclusive" package but which they insisted I pay for again.
I am home now, still owed $130 by them, but what really annoys me is that what should have felt like major personal achievements (climbing Mt Kenya and Kilimanjaro) have been totally overshadowed by Claudious reps appalling attitude and the complete absence of any sort of apology - clearly their customers are always wrong!
35-50 years of age
Didn’t receive services, waiting on substantial refund.
I’ll start with saying I HATE doing this kind of review, but I must caution potential future clients due to the amount of money involved. If they rectify this, I have no problem at all with this review being removed.
I had booked a one day gorilla safari with this company and two weeks before the planned trip, I was told:
“We are requesting if we can postpone the tour foe later dates because our operation license got suspended by the tourism authority and apparently we can run any tour minus having a valid license. So we are if we can push as we are finishing the issues we are having with the authority so that we can get the license and there we can able to run the tour. Hope to hear from you soon.Thanks.”
I couldn’t postpone the trip, so I told them I had to cancel and had to book elsewhere. I’m still waiting on my refund (been over a month, Eddie rarely provides me updates on WhatsApp) , I paid over $1,000 to them. I haven’t been updated since January 5th with them saying this:
“ Hello John. Not yet, the authority is opening up it's offices again on 5th, so that we can resume the issue were we left from.“
This isn’t a critique of their services which could be very exceptional for all I know, but I didn’t get to experience it. I’m not impressed with how this situation is being handled, though. It is a bad look for them.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Incapable of correcting problems in a proffesional way
We went on a 7 day budget camping Safari with Makini. On day 1 we found out that the order of the parks had been changed, no one ever tolled us until we were already in the jeep. We booked a camping safari because we love camping and we were looking forward to camp for 4 days. The first day they brought us to a lodge without checking if that was okay with us. This happend again in day 4. The driver/chef were always late, this caused us to start the game drives very late (costs us valuable park time). The driver/guide lied to us about his experience, he said it was 3 years but really it was 9 months. When we contacted the company about this to ask for a partial refund (50-100 usd pp) they refused. They blamed us and told us that everything had been payed so they could not give us anything. They also said that we agreed to stay in a lodge : “you said you would like that”, that conversation never happened. After ignoring us for days (I called multiple times) they agreed to give us 25 usd pp, only 2,5% of what we payed for the safari!!! We refused to except this!
JP
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I paid and they didn't deliver. I felt scammed
Be Aware
The person from Good One Tour has been arrested by tourist police recently.
I was scammed by this operator and visited Arusha tourist police to make a report in January 2026.
According to Arusha torist police, they have been chasing Mr. Gadiel from Good One Tour for long.
This company never paid hotel and guide company.
A part of tour wasn’t arranged and I couldn’t get service though I already paid.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Very bad experience
I booked with them the half day Nairobi park tour (morning). Avoid this agency. Zero communications before the travel (need to send reminders to get an answer, they even forgot to inform half of the group about the need to buy in advance online the entry ticket for the park,…), then extremely late the day of the tour (late pick up, stopped at gas station on the way, at the park gate driver chatting with bystanders with the group waiting in the jeep, etc) it was supposed to be an early morning but we ended up entering the park essentially as the last ones of the morning, inevitably we didn't see any carnivores (to see them, prime time is in the morning). Other groups who entered earlier, saw quite a few lions. The guide didn't care. With so many agencies around, go with another one, the half day tur is not cheap (80 USD the park entrance fee plus the cost of the tour) and for that price you deserve better than that.
CO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Felt Scammed
Our contact was Samuel , who stole USD 1,000 from us for a service he never provided, claiming that the money had been stolen from him and that he would return it to us within one month. Once we were already there, we had no choice but to accept this. After that, he came up with lies about accidents and other excuses, and now more than seven months have passed. We know for sure that he ultimately kept the money.
We strongly recommend never using any kind of service or doing business with this company or with Samuel.