CO
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A nightmare in Namibia
I paid the MHOF agency 76,051,000 NAD for an 8- day,7 night tour,starting on September 26th and ending on October red,2025 It included lodging,meals,safari, vehicle and Guide.At the agency director's insistence,I paid everything a month in advance.two days before the Safari tour was scheduled to begin,the owner contact me demanding inmediate payment of U$2,600 as a condition for the Safari to take place.At that time ,I was travelling from my Countriy,Colombia to Namibia.I did not agree to their request since
I had already paíd everything that has been agreed upon. The manager did not fullfill the agreement,there was brother a vehicle nor guide.of the seven days of accommodation,the agency had only paid for five.
I believe,I have been scammed by the manager ,Mrs Berlinda of the MHOF agency
DE
An agency with a poor service
We booked a prepaid private 9 days safari starting in Moshi. We were very disappointed about their pure operational services. It started that the promised briefing didn‘t take place. They changed the driver on the day of arrival with no information of our safari or any further hard copy. So we got into the situation , when we were to leave the National Park, the rangers didn‘t allow us to leave. They didn‘t find any payment for the fees from Monkey. After two hours discussion with them we paid about $ 500 out of our cash reserve. The driver promised us, we will get the payment asap what didn‘t happen. As we wanted to address our frustration, the manager refused to talk to us. As recently as we put a lot of pressure on them, we got our money back in several steps in TS. There was no proactive service at all. The only positive point was the experienced and knowledged driver. Many thanks for the nice game drives John. Summary: If you look for an operator with good service, we definetly can not recommend.Monkey.
KR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
He is kind lier
He took me to a different place than I booked. If he had explained things honestly and asked me first, I think I would’ve been fine with the change. But he didnt
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not book with this company!
Two friends and I paid thousands of dollars for a 5-day safari with this company. We arrived in Nairobi only to find out that they cancelled on us the day before we were due to leave. Two other people ended up on another safari with us who had the same problem. It has been 5 weeks, and they have not refunded any of our money, nor do they respond to our communications. We believe we have been scammed! Do not use this company.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awful
My wife and I had a safari booked to celebrate our 39th anniversary.
Unfortunately before we could travel our daughter was sexually assaulted and we were unable to go. I spoke with wies who assured me that the worse case scenario was that I would lose my deposit.
After 6 months of being fobbed off Wies now tells me that there will be no refund only a change of dates.
Talk about making a bad situation worse. £10000 lost to a lack of humanity.
Great service
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terrible
I had the WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!
Booked with them Nairobi national park game drive
Driver arrived 1hr late, drive was to start at 6am it started at 0705
To cover for his lateness he started rushing us and was very entitled
He wanted us to work with his schedule not our schedule as if he's the one who paid for the experience
Insisted on exiting using Eastgate leaving us in the middle of nowhere we couldn't even find uber to take us back and I had clearly told Diana Mumbe who helped with the booking which gate we prefer using
26,499kshs spent with zero satisfaction
Driver main excuse, he was only informed that morning about the drive as someone else was supposed to take us. The number I was given by Diana was not even for the driver who came to take us
What is posted online is very different from what is delivered
I WOULDN’T RECOMMEND them to anyone
Book somewhere else
US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fraudulent Company/ Scammed
The reason they are cheap is because the owner (Gashaw) books your flights as if you are an "Ethiopian National" which is 1/4 of the price it should be... Ask me how I know? Because on my final flight back to Addis Ababa I was stopped by the gate agent who said my flight was not for foreigners and took my ticket/ passport away... I called Gashaw in a panic (who played dumb) and said he "didn't know what the agent was talking about" but said he would handle it... As the departure came closer the gate agent said Gashaw still had not paid, and with less than 5 minutes to departure Gashaw said his "internet was not working" and that I would have to pay, but that he would "reimburse me with a wire transfer after"... I knew it was sketch, but I didn't have a choice as it was the last flight out of Lalibela and I needed to catch my international flight that night. As you can guess, he stopped answering my calls and texts after this, and I have not received the reimbursement for the additional flight I was forced to buy... I have spoken to the driver's from my tour, but they have been unsuccessful in getting Gashaw to reimburse me or even respond to my messages either.
Additionally, for each of the flights, Gashaw would text me the confirmation code the night before or morning of, never the full ticket information or payment itself. This was extremely frustrating as someone who likes to plan ahead, but after experiencing this I now understand why... He doesn't want you (or presumably Ethiopian Airlines) to see that he has listed you as an Ethiopian National... When I dug deeper and looked at my other flight tickets, I can see that they were the same and I was simply lucky the gate agents didn't catch it for those ones as well...
Book with ANYONE else, as even if you're ok with the fraud (for whatever reason), the stress associated with his terrible planning/ last minute tickets and lack of communication is not worth the headache...
My previous (positive) review was the day before this occurred. I am working with Safaribookings to have it taken down.
CA
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
I recommend you do not use this company!
Do not use this company, we feel scammed!
My husband and I, along with 3 friends, booked the 14 day, 9 parks Ultimate Kenya Tanzania Safari on Dec 1, 2024 to start Sept 25, 2025. Our contact was MARY. On day 5 of our tour, our driver, Sisto, told us that he had not been paid and that none of our accommodations going forward had been paid. We had to either pay again for our accommodations and all of our park fees or else we were done our tour. We decided to continue our tour as the only thing worse than being scammed was to go home without the experience we came for. Our driver took us into Nairobi on day 6 to confront HUMPHREY, the owner, and for almost 3 hours he gave us every excuse in the book. We did get confirmation that we had accommodations booked (not paid) and a new driver for the Tanzania portion so that we could finish our much anticipated trip, which we did. For the five of us, we were scammed out of $25,000 cdn.
Based on our experience do not book with Africa Kenya Safaris or any other company headed by Humphrey.
HK
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
There is no shame but the most shameless operator.
Vervet Safari was the 2nd operator that we selected after we found our 1st selected operator, Qualified Tours Tanzania, was not reliable. (Please refer to the comments under the name of my wife, Teresia) Vervet Safari was referred by my friend who had engaged with Vervet Safari for many years. Hence, we had full confidence with Vervet Safari and their managing director, Basili Augustino. We asked him to arrange a 15-day safari trip for us (9 persons) and fully paid the cost to him 1 month before we departed to Tanzania. The cost was all-inclusive, including accommodation, meals, airport transfer, Safari jeep, driver, fuel, national park fee etc. The first few days' arrangements when we were at Arusha were ok. When we left Arusha, the nightmare began. When we had left Arusha and stayed at Manyara, Basili borrowed from me $200 and promised to return the money to me when we returned from Serengti. In the morning, we departed to Serengeti, Basili suddenly informed me one of the drivers had left, and we had to wait for another driver. We scheduled to depart at 8:00am but delayed for over 2 hours. Due to the delay, we couldn't reach the tent before sunset. More unfortunate was that the head lamps of one of the deeps were malfunction. One of the jeep had to travel in the dark. Fortunately, we reached the tent safely at 20:00 but had wasted one day. After the dinner, we were told the tents fee had not been paid. We had to pay it ourselves. We contacted Basili. He promised to pay it back to me when we returned from Serengti. The next day, we continued our trip in the morning and headed to Northern Serengti. When we almost reached the entrance. the driver told us Basili hadn't paid the park fee. He stalled to resolve it and finally we had to stay overnight at the village outside the park as the park gate was to close at 18:00. We had to find the hotel and pay by ourselves. The next morning. we departed early and reached the entry gate at about 12:00 noon. At that moment, Basili still kept stalling paying the fee. In order to keep our schedule moving, we agreed to pay on behalf of Basili. Basili agreed and promised to pay it back when we returned from Serengti. With the help of the gate manager, we were allowed to pay with our personal credit card. Unfortunately, there was some problem with the payment system. We had to wait for another 2 hours before we could enter the park. When we entered the park, it was almost 16:00. When we reached the tents after a short tour of the park, it was 18:00. We had again wasted another day. We finished our morning game drive the next day and left the Northern Serengti back to Central Serengti at noon. When we reached the park gate, no need to say. we had to pay the fee by ourselves. However, the park manager did not let us pay by ourselves. He said the jeeps were under the name of Vervet Safari, and hence, the fee must be paid by Vervet Safari. We had asked the manager to help to see if there would be another ways, but we were unattended. Finally, we had to stay overnight at the village outside the park again. No need to say, we had to pay the accommodation and meals by ourselves. We were very terrified and left Serengti the next morning. When we reached the accommodation at Manyara, Basili met us and said sorry to us. He also promised everything had been settled and told us not to worry. However, he didn't return the money to me immediately. Instead , he promised to write an agreement to me, promised to return the money to me within 2 weeks after we finished the trip. We thought everything was settled as promised by Basili and kept moving on the journey. Out of our expectations, the fee for culture visits was not paid again. We also need to pay the fuel cost on our way back to Arusha. At the end of our trip, Basili didn't even arrange airport transfer for 7 of our team members.
Conclusively, we had paid USD7,8xx on behalf of Vervet Safari, but up to this moment (6 weeks after the trip), I have not received a dollar from Basili.
From my personal experience, I met 2 unreliable Tanzania local travel agents. One of it was referred by my friend, who had worked with Vervet Safari for years. I am wondering if I am really, very bad luck or there is some .........unethical practices in the industry? Furthermore, the inconsistent park management at the Central and Northern Serengti are another concerns.
I wish my comment would help the other travelers.
SE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Dishonest
We had several problems with this company. I don’t recommend it to anyone for Safari in Kenya. They don’t deliver what they promise even if it is written in the contract. We were supposed to have 2 days Safari in Nakuru and they said they cannot do the second one. They didn’t reimburse us for the second day either. The exact same thing happened to other people travelling with us in the first day, but in their case was in Masai Mara.
Besides this big problem, they don’t have own drivers so they hire 3rd parties, so you can get any kind of driver, they have no control of driver quality. The drivers don’t even know about their company either (I asked all of them).
One of our drivers,for example, had problem in the starting system of his car, we needed to get out of the vehicle and help him to push the car. This can be very dangerous since there are many wild animals in the park.
Their plans and starting/finishing Safari turn are changing very often. You may start at 9 and finish at 16, which it is quite short comparing to what other companies offer. I would rather choose a bigger and more reliable company.
There are several scammers there around.