SA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Extremely disappointing
I requested a quote from the company and received one. I then replied asking to book the offer they sent - 1 week later i am still waiting to hear from them. I have sent 3 emails now and no response.
Really disappointing and think its very unprofessional. I will not book with them again or recommend them.
PE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Kruger National Park by Chris Conti
I know it would be hard to convince new people to skip Kruger and do the smaller parks with highly skilled guides...but I might have been convinced if you had told me this.
IT
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
To be avoided. Poor equipment and agressive manager.
We booked a 4days/3nights safari at Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater. No complaints about the safari itself (we saw a lot of animals and enjoy our time) but about the old/ruined equipment used by Meru Trek Company and about the rude modes used by his manager, Ibrahim.
We had 5 flat tires in less than 2 days!!! I can understand some bad luck…but 5 tires punctured is not a matter of bad luck. It means you have a problem with the tires you are using!! I work for the tire industry and I know what I am talking about. The tires mounted in our jeep had almost no remaining tread and this is, beside a legal issue, a safety problem!!! These 5 flat tires caused not just loosing time from our safari, but also late arrivals to the campsites, to have to mount the tents with almost no light, late dinners and the disadvantage to remain for 3 hours in the middle of Serengeti waiting for someone to come to help us. Not just the tires were not at an adequate level, the driver did not have a proper torch to illuminate while performing the changing operations, the lifter use to lift up the car was getting blocked from time to time and once risked to catch up the driver while changing the tire under the car. Tents used by this company have zips broken, meaning cold and insects getting into your tent and in case of rain, also the rain (by the way, not all the tents were waterproof either).
When we went back to Arusha and we were taken to the main office, we tried to explain to the manager, Ibrahim that the equipment was not the appropriate and beside not even asking for any excuse, he just became very aggressive, not listening and not allowing anyone except by him to speak. He accused us to ask for a refund (we never mention this word or ask for any money back). Our purpose was to give him a constructive feedback to improve few things, but he did not listen to any reason. He started blaming us we were liars, and saying God will judge us in the Final Day….Honestly speaking if someone has to be judged is not me….but the person whose last sentence is: “you should be just happy to be back ALIVE from your safari…”. This is the person you will face if things do not go smooth.
It is up to you the choice, but to me it is not worthy to put your life at risk with bad car equipment, to loose time of your safari, to arrive to campsites late, to suffer cold because of bad equipment and to deal with this kind of person… at the end cheap turns to be more expensive!
JP
No scenery and I saw barely any wildlife. Dissapointing
Not very good, expected more from the reviews. Only saw hippos from a 7 day trip
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Disappointing
Our initial communication with Instinct Safari was good however once in Africa it was definitely downhill. About three days before we were due to fly into Uganda we received the following email.
As the DR Congolese single entry visa is not officially part of our included services, please let us know if you have already applied for it on www.visitvirunga.org and have a confirmation. If, however, you did not yet do so, please let us know (we would further require your job title - in addition to the passport copies we already have - to fill out their online form) and we do it for you. Please understand, that in that case we have to charge the extra US $105 per person they ask for their single entry visa.As your safari lies only a week ahead, please provide us with the requested information as soon as possible.
This was very disturbing as in every correspondence prior to this they had said the following
The DR Congo visas are usually purchased by us as the tour operator simply because details such as border checkpoint and address in DRC etc. have to be submitted during the application process.
.......Highest priority is assigned to the activities in DR Congo, now. With your passport photocopies at hand, it is easy for us to proceed and acquire your travel visas along with the volcano hike.
In this instance I contacted the Director who to his credit rectified this but it did add stress as we had limited internet access at this stage.
The day before we flew in we received another email explaining that we would need a special type of sleeping bag and parkas for sub zero conditions to prevent us suffering Hypothermia while trekking up to the volcano.
The packing list we had received before we left home did not mention this.
Decidedly unimpressed on arrival the guide not for the last time said it wasn't his fault as he had only just received the information himself, although later in the conversation he said he had been to the volcano a number of times before so I'm not sure why the company would not know what you need.
He did explain this situation could also be solved!!!!!
The car they picked us up in was really really old we had just come from a self drive safari in Namibia where we had no dust in the car.
The guide was EXTREMELY difficult to understand his English was poor and his attitude poorer.
He had minimal text book knowledge of the area. Quite honestly I think he and the driver thought it was their holiday. Soon as we arrived at places they would take off and chat with people . There were many instances where either ourselves or someone else would have to search for them.
Communication was almost non existent at the second lodge on arrival he just took off to relax in the lounge . Other guests thought they were also guests there, enthused to tell us some other tourists staying there were travelling to the Congo.
After we trekked with the Golden Monkeys we were supposed to go back to the lodge for a shower and lunch. They were particularly agitated and wanted us to be ready in 30 minutes?!
They then drove dangerously to the Congo border. I kept asking why we didn't cross the Congo border that was quite near. He just kept saying it was unacceptable. We finally arrived at the border he was on the phone and then said it was to late to cross. I then asked to speak to the lodge owner who told me she had expected us at 8.30am and had emailed him this information. He had had wifi access at the lodge. She said you can't drive in the Congo at night. One wonders why a company would create an itinerary that is unachievable as we were always trekking golden monkeys that day, the lodge owner was very helpful and suggested we stay just across the border. He instead checked us in at a hotel on the Rwanda side. I asked him to confirm this with her. He assured me he would. Next day we crossed the border my daughter and I were standing on the side of the road with all our gear, yet again they were nowhere to be found. My daughter eventually located them sitting out the back chatting with friends. The driver was late but they hadn't bothered to tell us. As it turns out they had gone to the hotel they thought we were staying at!!!!! ( the one they recommended)
We had consequently held everyone up to start the trek up the volcano. Again on arrival no explanation that we could put some belongings in bags that had been provided for us. We had been told we would each be provided with a porter but they were carrying our sleeping gear not our belongings. The food for the day was two warm ham sandwiches which would have been in the sun for at least four hours before consumption and a non refrigerated boiled egg. Although they were not responsible for the food they did not care about resolving the situation. During the trek the driver and guide spent most of their time taking selfies at one point when my daughter slipped they laughed and kept walking.
At one stage the cook asked the guide to come over and interpret but he was busy taking photos and initially said "no "until the chef demanded it.
I could add more . I spent six weeks in Africa and have travelled extensively and love travel . This guide / company were the worst I have ever experienced.
Do yourself a favour and pick someone else . Having said that the treks we did were fantastic and with another company I would highly recommend the gorillas golden monkeys and volcano in DR Congo.
MX
incredible experience
incredible experience!!
really fantastic!!!
thanks a lot
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Disaster
Confirmed a 10 day safari holidays with Lilac Adventures for Kenya and Tanzania online, did not meet any representative from Lilac only met the freelancing Tour Guide/Driver. At every game drive Park Entrance me and my three friends from Canada and US had to wait for hours for the Entrance fees to be paid since Daniel MD of Lilac had not paid the fees. Also while crossing the border from Kenya to Tanzania had to wait for 3.5 hours to be transferred to another vehicle for Tanzania safari with another tour company in Tanzania. Most of our time in this trip was trying to communicate with Daniel the MD of Lilac Adventures who never called even once after sending several emails while over there. Finally our last three days in Tanzania was in a Resort in Manyara since the tour company in Tanzania did not receive the cash for the Park Entrance fees from Daniel. Would highly recommend to avoid using this Tour company.
CA
my deposit has gone missing and no reply from Tracks Berg office
I booked a safari for Feb. 2016 through Erick and paid my deposit of $USD2000 on August 8 2015.Since then all communication has ceased and my deposit has gone missing.I can only suspect that Erick has stolen my money.I would caution everyone to not travel with this company.
ES
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Try to find other company, there are dozens of them
We've booked the car rental with driver in June and sadly, after paying nearly $5000 it was the worst experience ever. I'm traveling a lot, almost every month, I've been on every continent and dozens of countries and never been treated this way. It mostly the driver´s fault, an older man who was trying to show all the time that he's a boss and achieve to ruin our vacations. I've returned 2 months later, renting the car with other company and had a great time.
CV
Dont waste yr Time and MONEY
I still recovering from the disappointment. QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK has almost no wildlife at the moment. One pays a lot to see nothing around even if one drives for hours. Even antelopes, which are normally abundant, are rarely seen therefore spotting the lions is almost impossible. The guides and the company rep, only after your first hours of game drive, start telling that it s been years not much animals are seen in the park n the government needs to open new tracks. My guide even lied to us about the number is lions in the parks. There are many villages within the area of Queen Elizabeth hence wild animals are destroying people crops and livestock n sometimes kill people and in revenge lions have been killed decreasing the numbers in the park. I would say don't fall into the trap unless you want to waste your money and time driving around an almost wildlife less park.
The park is huge and the number of animals are insignificant comparing to the massive area of the park. Won't recommend it to anyone.