Taking you to the exotic African wild!
Morning Star Tours & Travel
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2018)
- Member Of:
- IATA, KATO, AMREF & TOSK
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $2,325 to $13,985 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
BE
Email Dieter | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
My advice - Avoid Morningstar, There are better options
Before diving into our experience with Morning Star, just a note on the side that we were happy with our lodge Zebra Plains. Nice room and proper food, however all items which Morning Star had to foresee (transport & guide) were far below expectations.
Transport
- Car we very old and not clean
- Some windows didn't open and some didn't even have a handle anymore
- Seat belt didn't work so one of us had to move to the back of the car
- The back of the seats could only be reclined if you put all your weight on it and forced it down
- Every rest spot was a tourist trap next to a local souvenir shop, especially on the way to the Mara when you still hadn't even see anything stopping for souvenirs doesn't make sense. Other companies were stopping at the big fuel station where you had nice restaurants for a break.
"Guide"
- this was the most disappointing of all!
- Our "guide' was a disaster, actually he was not a guide, he was just a totally not interested driver.
- In case we saw an animal he said maximum two lines of explanation, or sometimes we even had to ask to give some info of the animals we saw
- He seemed not interested in us nor in the safari, his goal was to start late and return early to limit his time on the road
- We also noticed the lack of flexibility. An early safari was not possible, for some reason the earliest we could leave was 7 am which is again a huge lack of customer intimacy
- The only day he proposed to start early was the day we had to head back to Nairobi so he could finish early and go home
- He also didn't show any interest in taking our pictures at certain spots. He only left the car for our picture if there were other 'guides' around taking pictures of their customers
- All tips we gave him were a real waste of money
- I have wanted to go to the Mara since I was 10 years old, with a heavy heart I can only say that he ruined our experience and will always leave a stain on our memories of our Masai Mara safari. Zero conversation, zero enthousiasme, zero interest... just a disaster experience with him.
When looking at the other agencies parked at Zebra Plains, we noticed the drivers of Mufasa, African Horizons and the Holiday Dealers were much more friendly towards us.
They asked us several times how we were doing and what we had done on the day, while our guide disappeared as soon as we left the car. On top of that their cars were much more recent, clean and of better quality.
Looking at the money we spent for this safari, it totally doesn't correlate with the service we received from Morning Star.
There are many safari companies in Kenya who offer these tours, we took a chance on Morning Star and it is clear that it was the wrong bad.
So please choose carefully for your safari as well and avoid Morning Star. As mentioned above Mufasa, African Horizons and the Holiday Dealers would be my pick now.
Reply from Morning Star Tours & Travel
Posted on Nov 27, 2024Thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback!
First of all, we are truly grateful that you chose to travel with us, and we're delighted to hear that you enjoyed your stay at the Zebra Plains Mara Camp.
We'd like to take a moment to address a few of your concerns as follows:
**Transport**
We sincerely apologize for the issues you experienced with the car seats and windows. The safari vehicles used for game drives in East Africa are not luxury vehicles; they are off-road vehicles equipped with pop-up roofs for game viewing and navigating the rugged terrains of the game parks. Due to the dust in these parks, the windows may get stuck occasionally. To prevent similar occurrences in the future, we will implement regular checks on the windows and car seats after every safari.
We're also pleased to share that we've recently invested in a new fleet of 4 x 4 Toyota Land Cruisers, specifically customized to enhance clients' comfort and safety while on safari.
**Driver Guide**
We completely understand how frustrating it must have been for you, especially considering your long-held dream of visiting Masai Mara since you were 10 years old. We sincerely empathize with the inconvenience caused. Based on feedback from other clients, we take pride in ensuring that all our driver guides undergo rigorous training to deliver exceptional safari experiences and maintain the high standards set in the tourism industry. Unfortunately, Mwololo, the driver guide assigned to your group, did not conduct himself appropriately, and we will take disciplinary actions to ensure this does not happen again.
We greatly value your feedback, and we're committed to taking the necessary steps to ensure that future guests will have a memorable and fulfilling experiences they deserve.
CH
Email Anja | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
WORST COMPANY EVER! STAY SAVE AND DON'T BOOK WITH THEM!
WORST COMPANY EVER! STAY SAVE AND DON'T BOOK WITH THEM!
It already started badly with no binoculars in the car, so everybody else could watch a leopard hunting close and l just saw some points moving far away, which is definitely not what l have paid for… but it came worse and we couldn't enter in parcs which we were supposed to and even if l paid for everything l had to pay again at the entrance fee after 1 hour of waiting in the bursting sun because my driver spent all the money... worst was, that he said he would not bring me to the hotel, till MORNINGSTAR pays him more.. so over all a nightmare which they don't take any responsibility. never ever book with MORNING STARS SAFARI! You won't be safe and it can get very dangerous!
Reply from Morning Star Tours & Travel
Posted on Mar 28, 2023As evidenced by the other ratings, outstanding customer service is a core value of our operations. We thought to shed some more light on this review as follows:
The client had booked a 3-Day (2 night) safari staying one night in Amboseli at Kibo Safari Camp and one night in Tsavo East at Man Eaters Lodge. After the booking confirmation and payment, the client requested we drop her off at Severin Safari Camp in Tsavo West, where she had booked an extra night. To access Severin Safari Camp, a non-resident has to pay the park entry fee of $ 52, the resident driver $ 5, and the van entry fee of $10. The extra park fee was not costed for, but out of goodwill, we asked her to pay and agreed to reimburse Anja $52 (sent via mobile money in KES). We did not charge extra for transport as we should have.
In Amboseli NP, the client requested a pair of binoculars (not a standard safari inclusive), but we arranged to have them if a client requests the safari). We set for binoculars for her via another team that was touring Amboseli simultaneously.
A park entry ticket is valid for a maximum of 24 hours - the client arrived in Amboseli from Tsavo at 9.30 am, so they went on a morning game drive, then went to the hotel for lunch and check-in, followed by an afternoon game drive. The following morning- the park wardens made a special allowance and were allowed one last game drive even after the 24-hour window for the ticket.
That said, Joshua, the driver guide for this assignment, did not conduct himself in the best way since he called back at the office irately, which may have scared off Anja. We have since struck Joshua off our list of service providers.
We appreciate Anja's business but are dissatisfied with her representation of the events surrounding her safari. We delivered as per the package, and it would have been unfair for our business to refund her $800 as she had wanted post-safari.
Our company remains committed to excellent customer service and will continuously undertake to improve our customer experience.
CN
Email winkle | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
healing&soothing
We booked a 9-day, 8-night trip with James as our driver. For the first 7 days, we were very happy and grateful to James for his patient explanations about the animals and his enthusiastic efforts in finding them. We also want to thank Dennis for helping us with flight delays. However, there were some issues that made us unhappy, and these seemed to worsen in the last two days:
James' personal state: James seemed to be a bit late every day initially, which we didn't mind at first, but by the eighth day, he seemed quite distracted. While waiting for the elephants to pass, he was even watching TV shows. Additionally, we felt we could have had a priority spot to view the elephants, but it was taken by others.
Tip issue: We initially communicated with James that we would give him the tips on the last day. However, the day before, we felt he was urging us to give them. After giving the tips, he was very late the next day, claiming he was waiting for us in different places, which was quite frustrating.
Duration of Game Drives: According to our communication with James, each day's Game Drive was only five hours, including the time from the hotel and back. However, we met other people who said their Game Drives lasted more than five hours.
Lunch issue on the ninth day in Nairobi: Dennis informed us that James was aware, but James claimed he had no knowledge that our booking included lunch in Nairobi. He even blamed us for not informing him in advance, which led to the possibility of having to eat packed lunches in the car on our way to the airport. The lunch fee was non-refundable. Eventually, after much effort on our part, we managed to have lunch in Nairobi, and for the first time, we saw how fast James could actually drive!