It Started in Africa
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Member Of:
- IATA, TATO & TALA
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $2,602 to $9,540 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Matthew | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Horrific
This company accepted payment for services and did not provide any of what they promised and committed to for our honeymoon. They emailed a ‘story’ of being let down by a partner and took no responsibility for the thousands we paid them.
It now been over a year and we’ve had no refund and I’m astonished to see them trading. They are completely untrustworthy and I recommend you avoid at all costs. They stole thousands off a lot of people and if they hadn’t removed their trip advisor listing you’d see many other similar stories. I’d suggest any good reviews are not genuine. Be warned!
CA
Email Neil Kerr | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tanzanian Nightmare! We're out nearly $12K USD - a year later
We had booked 4 days of Safaris in Tanzania and 5 days at an all-inclusive 5-star resort on Zanzibar back in the spring 2017 for a once in a lifetime trip for my family of 5 to celebrate my wife's 50th birthday. We had prepaid 100% of the cost of this epic adventure up front.
2 days before we were to fly from Kigali, Rwanda to Arusha, Tanzania, we received an email from advising us the It Started In Africa was having serious cash flow issues and lots of unpaid for their unknowing customers. We immediately started making calls to the various hotels, safari camps and airlines only to find out that none had received payments in full with a number not receiving any payments at all.
We were crushed...what was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime turned into a total nightmare.
We had followed up with ISIA when we arrived back home in Canada in late August and was told by Baraja that the Police would send us money starting in September. We were later told that we would be receiving a full refund of $11,995.00 USD. We continued to follow up over the next few months and it was nothing but radio silence. Only when we emailed a senior official at the Tanzanian Ministry of Tourism, cc'ing Baraja, did we get a response in November 2017.
The charade continues with only ourselves to blame for being as patient (and naive) as we've been.
I'm glad to read the positive reviews of late and that no one else has seen their trips destroyed. It's hard to stomach though seeing It Started In Africa profit from this while ourselves and many others are out of pockets in the tens of thousands of $$$.
I'm glad to read the positive reviews of late and that no one else has seen their trips destroyed. It's hard to stomach though seeing It Started In Africa profit from this while ourselves and many others are out of pockets in the tens of thousnads of $$$.
Email Matthew | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awful! Honeymoon ruined when it started in africa took payment but did not provide any services
Like many other people who have reviewed, my wife and I had a terrible experience. We booked our trip and paid our deposit to spent the second half of our honeymoon on Safari with them.
Despite the money paid no services were provided and no refund offered. I'm now astonished to find out they are still trading!!
For anyone thinking of booking with ISIA, I suggest you avoid at all costs. Even after reviews appeared online stating they weren't fulfilling the services paid for, ISIA requested a further payment from us - extremely distrustful.
AT
Email Elvira Weidinger | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
7 great days with our guide Charles in North Tanzania!
Be booked a 6 night/7 days safari (Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorogoro Lake Eyasi visiting Hadza Tribe) with ISIA. We choose them from Arusha based companies because of their quick and detailed communications upfront and their offer was good.
We loved our trip and Charles was a great guide. He knows a lot, sees a lot, clearly loves nature and wildlife and is a cheerful heartily guy and a very good driver. We felt very well and save the whole time with him. The safari travel plan was a very good choice for us and ISIA did a good job in organization, everything worked quite well. We were happy with the camps we chose from a list of options we got from ISIA, especially loved Kati Kati and Maramboi.
We couldn't do our booked walking tour due to weather conditions. So I asked ISIA to refunded the amount and they did after our return home promptly.
So overall we had a great experience and really loved it!
But we have to confirm what several other guests already reported here and on tripadvisor:
Our car was quite run down. In fact all the others we saw on our trip looked newer. Our guide managed problems with the car very well so we barely lost time while he had to fix things (except day one when we had to wait for almost 2 hours for a new car at the supermarket before even leaving Arusha). We are aware that car break downs are quite usual with this road conditions and its somehow even part of the adventure but we would really appreciate if ISIA get new ones to allow the guides to focus 100% on other things and give the guest a bit more comfort. Headrests and working safety belts should be mandatory.
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful experience, no problems
We signed up for a 10 day safari with It started in Africa in July this year. There were just two of us together with the guide Kueka and the cook Fatheli, not sure how it is spelled, Pronounced Fazili. They spoke amazingly good English and looked after us brilliantly. Both were great company, easy to be with, warm, not intrusive, and put up with us beautifully.Great food, lots of it, and modified to suit my gluten free requirements really well. Far too lovely besan flour patties for me to resist though, a wonderful change from bread, not that there is any gluten free bread in Tanzania, as far as I could tell. Kueka is an animal and bird enthusiast and really happy to take us out looking at animal as much as we liked. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge about the animal and birds and was a fantastic spotter.But he was deft in not overwhelming us with too much information. We slept in tents, with basic beds in the tent on four nights, on mattresses other nights. comfortable enough for us.(We did not opt for the luxury camping option) The vehicle was a sturdy commodious four wheel drive, which had a lift up roof for when we were looking at animals. It felt completely safe in the vehicles opened up because there are strict rules forbidding any kind of interaction with any animals in the parks. As a result, the animals go about their own business ignoring us. We are neither prey nor predator.This means they do not usually run away either, so we get close up viewing a lot. The results of feeding animals, inadvertently or otherwise, are obvious in the permit office areas on the edge of the parks where baboons attempt to get into vehicles to get at food and can be dangerous. There were an incredible variety and number of animals and birds in the four parks we visited.It started with a large family herd of elephants, together with ten or so zebra and a similar number of wildebeast fifty metres inside the boundary of our first park and it just carried on like that. We had one long drive or two shorter drives in a park each day. We visited Tangarire, Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti National Parks. We stayed in public camping grounds some kilometres from the first three parks. In the Serengeti, we stayed in the middle of the park, about three hours game drive in, seeing lions, ostriches, baboons, giraffes etc on the way. The Serengeti camp was open to animals (No fences nor a man with a gun to scare the big animals off!) and there was elephant poo by our tents. We got up one night to find several zebra grazing close by. Elephants spent a lot of time by the shower block one afternoon. Lions roared in the distance one night. I was a bit nervous getting up in the night but no-one else worried. The camping grounds have a large kitchen for the cooks and a large dining hall for us to eat in, all covered over, and netted in and with power and point points for chargers, not that they all work all the time. The whole trip was fairly comfortable and fun and just wonderful in terms of seeing animals.
Email Nancy | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
GREAT safari company: It Started in Africa delivers it all!!!!
Four of us (friends/colleagues) took a 10-day journey with It Started in Africa. They organized the perfect trip for us - Tarangire, Ngorogoro, Serengeti, and Lake Natron/El Donyo Lengai climb. We can't recommend them highly enough - from the first contact with Joao by email to our final sad goodbyes at the airport - we had nothing but great service and warm interactions with everyone. ISiA really delivers what they promise, without exception. They were honest, open to our special requests, and very accommodating of our adding and changing the itinerary (before departure). They helped us book other portions of our travel (Zanzibar) and everything went perfectly. Best of all, our guide Isaack is one of the most generous, kind-hearted, funny people we've ever met. He took such good care of all our needs, and most importantly, he is a brilliant and talented guide to the wildlife and parks of Tanzania. His expertise was extraordinary. He knows every bird, every animal, and explains their habits and habitat with great flair. His driving skills were equally astonishing. And, everywhere we went he talked with people (locals, other guides, our hosts in the different camps) and though most of that was in Kiswahili, we felt that he is known and respected, and shares information with all sorts of people. We felt completely safe in his hands, and always cheerful. His humor and affection for people, places, and creatures were tremendous - we miss him and want to go back for another journey with It Started!
All four of us are quite experienced travelers - we travel to many places in the world as part of our research jobs (a great privilege, we know!) and often are tour leaders ourselves, for students and other researchers. We understand how hard it is to ferry people around and keep them happy: It Started has all the skills, and knowledge, and patience to take good care of their customers. We all highly recommend this company. All their guides are good, we are certain, but Isaack was a star. None of us will EVER forget the ten days we spent in his care. THANK YOU, dear Isaack! And Joao, Mathias, Bernard, Dickson, as well.
It Started in Africa - Where is my money?
I've now bee waiting five years for the return of US$4,500 from It Started in Africa, for a safari that never happened. My money was only part of hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from tourists around the world. The company was investigated and taken to court. I personally lodged a claim in Arusha with the Tanzania Tourist Board and a statement with the Arusha police. Still nothing back so far after all these years!
Email Sophia Aussie | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not book!
I many problems with this operator. The guide asked me to pay entry into a park then later again w a hotel booking I already paid for which totalled $500usd. I think they hope we feel bad and then let it go. I luckily didnt carry mich cash on me and refused. There was messing abt and possibly no hotel stay. I stood my ground and demanded reimbursement for the amt owed. I was also taken on a shonky coffee tour not like described but by 2 rogue kids.
I was in tears fighting them 2 hrs before my airport transfer and ended up arriving to the airport w 30mins to go.
From my Tripadvisor review i was contacted by numerous people who were swindled their deposit. The company went down, changed names then restarted again under it started in africa.
After my review they offered me monetary compensation to take my review down. I refused. Then coincidentally my tripadvor account kept sending me emails that i wanted to reset the password. Im not accusing anyone of hacking but it was interesting times.
I was emailed by Bernard to review my trip again so they could use it for other travellers. Hope this finds everyone well as a clear warning! I do not advise putting any deposit into this company. Other tours exist so research well and contact the reviewers
IN
Email Priyanka | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Excellent service. Very warm. Well organised. Helped a lot with crisis managements with airlines too
They made our family vacation really special - our tour guide(Frank) was the best! Our contact person(Bernard) also went out of his way to solve crisis with airlines & helped organised everything smoothly. Definitely will come back again & tour with them & have already started recommending them to my friends.
IT
Email Paolo | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing and safe
A reliable company, good car, kind and prepared guide. We went for a private two people and the mid luxury suggested accomodations; all were well managed, clean and breath taking.
Roads and burocracy in Tanzania don't work well, expect to a not so welcoming experience by governor officiers, but fortunately this Company will take care of everything for you.