CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Parks and wildlife were great, tour operator was not
I booked a 6D/5N with Meru Slopes, reading great reviews on SafariBookings.com.
I was dismayed to find out that they had shuffled me into a different company's safari, for unknown reason. This group was called Arunga Expeditions.
The guide spoke maybe 100 words the entire safari, we had battery issues with the LandCruiser, the lunch boxes were awful (dry muffin + banana + FOUR pieces of plain bread + juice box), and we were always rushed. When we would stop at say a large pride of lions and want to spend 5-10 minutes, the guide would try and start driving away after 1 minute to find something else. We'd have to ask him to stop so we can stay and watch the lion and actually take photos. He was never happy with this and often very rude. Often we'd leave something like this after 2 minutes and not see anything as spectacular the rest of the day. He'd mutter something like "many more lions later". The itinerary was to have FULL safari days at certain spots (Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti) but this only meant 4 - 5 hours to the guide. He would sleep in, start slow, and end early, so he could take off from the campsite and go drink a couple beers and watch football somewhere. We were always the last vehicle out in the morning and first ones back. The itinerary had a full day booked at Ngorongoro but we were finished BEFORE lunch time. How does this work?
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not book with Safarihub
I do not recommend this company for many reasons.
1) They are not very good at responding to emails (this should have been my first sign to go with another company).
2) My safari experience (6-Day Kili Safari) guaranteed a 4x4 Land Cruiser. Instead, for my 6 day safari I was in different dilapidated, falling apart 4x4 vans.
3) I was given hardly ANY information on my safari. So little information that when I actually arrived in Kenya, instead of going to Amboseli, then Naivasha, and then Masai Mara, they reversed the itinerary. Not a big deal except I sent my detailed itinerary to my employer (for security) and my family so they knew how to contact me. I did not realize the change until I was literally in the van on Sunday morning driving to Masai Mara. Although I was picked up at my hotel early Sunday morning for the start of my safari, I was never, ever given any information on the safari, the itinerary, the drive times, lunch plans, etc. I can't iterate enough how in the dark was at all times. I would attempt to ask the guide but he always seemed clueless as to what was happening.
4) Although I booked with Safarihub, a Kenya subcontractor actually handled my safari. Although they weren't terrible, they weren't great either. On one day I was shuffled between 3 different vans and 3 different companies to try to get me from Masai Mara to Naivasha. When I booked this safari for a good amount of money, I assumed I would be dealing with one company and one guide the whole time. I was very mistaken. Had I been given a heads up, I would have been better prepared. But on one of the days, I kept being shuttled between different people and different vans and it made me very uncomfortable, especially as a solo traveler. The guide could not even tell me how I was getting to Masai Mara to Naivasha the day before I was supposed to go there because he said his boss hadn't figured it out yet!
5) The morning I was picked up to begin my safari adventure, I was told we would all meet at Somak Lounge. Wrong! Instead I was taken to a street in downtown Nairobi and put in another van. No briefing, no food, no drinks, no lounge, just straight into a random van to start our journey. I was already pretty apprehensive due to the recent terrorist threats. Having me driven to a random street in downtown Nairobi without any check-in or anything was pretty scary. Basically, everything that was promised to me did not happen, except the lodging and parks (which were all amazing!!!).
6) I had been provided a detailed itinerary with the plans each day. That was complete BS. We never once followed the itinerary - in fact, the sub contracting company said they were never provided with my itinerary so had no idea I had been promised certain things. For instance, I was supposed to make it to Amboseli in time for an evening game drive - never happened. I was supposed to have early morning game drives followed by breakfast back at the lodging - never happened, not once. In their defense, two of the 6 days we had 10 hour game days so didn't have time to come back for breakfast or lunch but it would have been nice to know that was the plan beforehand. Communication is key. Why promise me something if you don't intent to honor it?
7) My contract specifically states "We also take pride in our safari vehicle fleet, which is young (less than 3 years old) and well maintained; consequently, breakdowns and other mechanical complications while you are on safari will be rare." This is a complete lie. The vans we were in were extremely old and falling apart. On the drive from Naivasha to Amboseli, our van broke down and we were stuck on the side of the road for over an hour. It would have been longer but a nice driver from another safari company (Jockey - the guests in that van recommended their company) gave me a ride to Amboseli Sopa Lodge (2 hrs away). Also, while on safari in Masai Mara our van broke down but I think they may have had something to do with stopping so much to look at animals so I can't fault them for that.
8) Each morning (except for the last 2 mornings) the guides were at least 25 mins late to pick me up. As mentioned above, I had so many different guides and van drivers that it was hard to keep them straight. However, my last guide/driver (Francis) was AWESOME and the highlight of my whole trip! The rest were not good at all.
9) In conclusion, I do not recommend Safarihub. I spent about $1,500 on this 6 day, 5 night Kili safari for a single traveler but it was such a logistical nightmare and communication was so bad with Safarihub, I do not recommend them. I do realize if I had paid more money, I probably would have gotten a better company, so if you are short cash, then I will say that nothing takes away from the animals and the Sopa Lodges - they both were fantastic. But you might want to think about looking at other companies if you can.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Seen a lot and complained a lot with Meru Mountain Treks
Mating lions in Serengeti, the continuous migration of wildebeest and zebras and the aftermath of a nightly hunting party of thirteen lions in the Ngorongoro crater. Yes, our experiences with Meru Mountain Treks were beyond our expectations. Thanks to our driver/guide Richard. He knows the parks, anticipates the behavior of the animals and turned out te be a nice guy. The cook had had simple tools but presented good meals.
So far so good. Yes, we knew we booked a budget safari (four days, four persons, $600 each) so we couldn't expect to much luxury. The problems started with the jeep. Despite assurances that all our gear would fit in it, the jeep was way too small. Richard arranged al larger one at additional costs ($300). The tents we were supposed to sleep in were moldy, had zippers that couldn't be closed and leaked. The least one may expect on a tent safari in the rainy saison is that the tents are waterproof. The first night there was an alternative: simple concrete huts, the second night half of our company decided to sleep in the jeep and the third night we slept in a guesthouse (again at additional costs of $300).
In stead of a quiet evening after a day of encounters with giraffes, elephants, lions and hippos, we constantly had to argue about the poor accommodation. There were telephone calls with Mr. Ibrahim, the director of Meru Mountain Treks, but he persisted that his tents were fine. After our return in Arusha an employee of Meru Mountain Treks invited us to talk about our experiences and our complaints. He announced that Mr. Ibrahim would show up later to hear our story first hand. But eventually he didn't bother. We never heard from Meru Mountain Treks again. Needless to say that Meru Mountain Treks will neither from us.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Second rate at best, owner has no integrity!
Where do I start, the food in the camps was good but that's about it! A party of 6 doing a 12 night trip all paid for before we arrived. 3rd day we are at Speke Bay Lodge for one night, our safari landrovers turn up at 1300 hours to collect us, they are immediately blocked in by a tractor and trailer, the management of the lodge inform us that East African Safari and Touring company (also known as EastCo) had not paid for our stay and would not let us go until they did, our luggage was locked in reception. The lodge management then phone EastCO and ask me to speak to the owner Mr Simon King, this I agreed to as I was not happy, after a long chat Mr King asked me to pay off his debt with my credit card, I suggested he use his own credit card, as we had paid for everything up front, he hung the phone up!! About an hour later Mr King phoned and asked to speak to a different member of our party and ask them to pay his debt, again told no, again he hung up. After we had been held hostage for 4 hours, I'm afraid to say that with no help from our tour company, I threatened to kick in the reception door and I would move the tractor (I'm a farmers son) At this point the lodge management get us go, this would turn out to be the first of 3 safari drives we would miss out on due to EastCo's lack of integrity. We drove for 5 hours, mostly in the dark, to arrive at our next lodge at 2100 hours. So lets talk about our 2 Landrover defender safari jeeps, both 15 years old, most of the seals round the doors were gone, so we were covered in dust most of the time, One only had 4 gears out of 5, the other sometimes 3 or 4 gears ( this would cost us another game drive later as the gear box would fall out) this jeep also had 6 warning lights on from day it picked us up! On another day one of the pop up roofs would not stay up, so we were only able to look out of the side windows, most of which were stuck shut! On 2 days we drove for 11 hours between camps, only to be told on arriving at EastCo'c tented camp there was only enough water for 4 people to shower, on the second day at the tented camp 5 French guest arrived to be told there was no water for showers! Ok, I think you are getting the idea of how our trip went, missed game drives, charging a lodge without telling us, the 2 drivers did the best they could with the resource they were given, each time we entered a Game park the drivers had to fill in forms and pay cash which took about 30 minutes, while all the other safari companies stopped for 30 seconds, showed there passes and drove on.
Do not use this company.
CA
Review from a 3 week tour of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in Jan 2016
Review from a 3 week tour of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in Jan 2016.
Before I begin the review of atc, I wanted to make note that many of overland tours are similar in terms of itinerary, food, vehicle, etc. What really makes or breaks the trip are the people. If you have a bad group (whether crew or passengers), that's really what's going affect you the most.
I did not have a good group - a lot of negative people, complainers who really should have not booked a budget camping tour in Africa but they were too cheap to do an upgraded so instead chose to complain about everything.The point of this is, you can't really base your decision to go with a company based on reviews.
Anyways, overall everything advertised in the itinerary was delivered but I don't think itinerary was transparent about the amount of time spent on the truck. It would have good to include approximate distance and time travelled each day would be good so passengers are informed beforehand (not during) of how much time they'll actually be spending on the truck. I would estimate 3/4 of the time was the truck.
The food mediocre Less processed ingredients should be provided and definitely more variety. There should have been opportunity to try local food but there was none, that was hugely disappointing. Instead of buying crappy food from the supermarket, why not take us a local restaurant once in a while? The crew did not eat what we ate for lunch. They would get local food. In one instance we stopped right in front of a restaurant (where the crew ate, yet we were given the same old thing) and ridiculously overpriced souvenir shop (e.g. quote given for a small wooden statue - $400), absolutely ridiculous.
The overland truck was sufficient though had there been more passengers, I definitely would not be happy being cramped on that truck for the amount of time were on there. The truck itself looked/felt dirty but because it's dated and old but the driver did clean it.
Campsites were in good condition and most (if not all) had an option to upgrade, hot water and wifi (though often didn't work) and bar/restaurant. Tents and sleeping mats were durable, good quality, though stinky because you often have to pack them up when they're still wet from condensation or rain.
Aside from the driver, I didn't find the crew to be friendly or approachable. They did not interact with the group and were aloof and to be quite honest had a chip on their shoulder. I felt that we were a nuisance to them and they couldn't be bothered with us, and it often felt they were talking about us in Swahili. I certainly didn't feel at ease with them. I also didn't feel any effort was put into the trip, just the bare minimum just to say they did it. It didn't come across that the leader and cook enjoyed their jobs.Having said that, the cook did provide us with a hot breakfast everyday even if that meant waking up at 4am.
The payment method was ridiculously complicated and unnecessary. It should be the crew's responsibility to ensure they have the required local payment, not for passengers to be carrying US$ for local payment.
However, my biggest complaint is about being overcharged (and feeling ripped off). For one, the prices for the optional excursion were much higher than should have been. We paid $500 (plus tips for the guides, cooks, etc) for 2 days for the Serengetti excursion, yet others I met during my travels paid the same amount for a 4 day tour! In Zanzibar, the spice tour was $40 with ATC yet I got it for $15 on my own (lunch and transportation included) only 3 other pax. All the Zanzibar excursions were double if not triple the prices. The whole point of going with a group was cheaper prices but ATC charges the same or more.
I also don't understand what the local payment went towards. I paid equivalent of $80USD/day. Campsites cost $5 (according to tour leader), the food purchased cannot possibly be more than $15/person/day - even that is a high estimate. Fuel, I'm not sure how much that would be but certainly not $60/person/day. Most days were spent on the bus (no entrance fees or other costs). So what was that money used for?
Hope this helps others in deciding.
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Disappointed and let down!
My partner and I saw the itinerary for the 11 day exclusive safari in Tanzania&Zanzibar and thought it to be exactly what we were looking for. After confirmations and having our queries answered by the tour operator Tony, we went ahead and booked.
On the day we arrived, after having met our tour guide and Tony, we are told that the agenda for the week has been changed slightly. Reluctantly, we agree since there's nothing we could do at that point. The trip goes ahead just fine and we were meant to be on safari for 5 days spending 2 nights in one lodge/camp 2 nights in another and the last night in another. We in fact ended up staying in different lodges every night of our 5 nights there and were not told that this would be happening until when we were dropped off and told to pack our things for the next morning since we would not be staying here tonight. Completely unsettled for us to have to jump from lodge to lodge every night. We didn't know where we were going to be staying the following night, it was incredibly hard for us to relax comfortably and just enjoy the trip fully.
The itinerary included a trip to a museum and a visit to a Masai village. The Museum was completely scrapped from the list and for the Masai village, we were told that we had to pay an additional $50 each!! After having confronted our guide about this, he too was not aware that we were even meant to be going to these places! It's as though they were trying their luck to see what they could get away with not paying or doing. After putting our foot down and talking to Tony, he arranged for these two visits to take place but we shouldn't have had to have that conversation in the first place.
Lastly, the next leg of our trip was 5 days in Zanzibar. Before booking, we asked Tony if the package was inclusive of all meals and alcohol, he confidently responded yes that the alcohol was also apart of the package. We get to our resort in Zanzibar only to find that in fact he misled us and alcohol was not included in our reservation and so we had to pay for this out of our own pockets.
We were very disappointed and let down by Tony and this company. All communication had seemed to be thrown about of the window, not only were we not informed about changes etc, our tour guide was also sometimes in the dark about things that was meant to be communicated to him by Tony. Nothing at all about this trip was what we expected it to be, I don't think it was worth the money we paid for it, it wasn't a luxury tour like it stated and would recommend anyone against them to avoid such disappointment.
SG
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Glorified accomodation booking service
The booking process with Spirit of Kenya started positive. However when trying to get more detailed information on the accomodation booked, itinerary specific etc things started to get less impressive. I never managed to get booking details from our Tanzania accomodation from the operator. So we tried to get this info from the accomodation. However without the booking confirmation code ( which Spirit never provided) they could not helps us either. So it became a guessing game in what kind of room, which what inclusions we would stay. Worst part was that Spirit seriously understated all travel times. As I read in a few other recent reviews. This seems to be serial. A quoted 1.5 hrs drive would be 3 hours. And a 6 hour drive became a 11.5 hrs on the road!!!! On top of this they forgot to book Serengeti entry tickets. Causing a 90 minute wait at the gate while our guide was trying to sort this out.
In regards advise on what parts of the parks were good or not to stay in we received absolutely no recommendations leading to very long drives from accomodation to known hot spots for animals.
CO
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Sad ending of a dreamed safari
After lots of research we contacted Simon King at Eastco and were very pleased with the tour that he designed for us - although the level of communication (answering our questions, etc,) dropped dramatically once we had paid. The price for the tour was to include all expenses for transportation, food and lodging within Tanzania and admission to the parks and reserves selected. Our initial flight from Dar to Mwanza went smoothly, but our first problem occurred when nobody met us at Mwanza as arranged: effectively we lost half a day before arrangements were evidently cobbled together to get us to our first stop, where our drivers met us the next morning. The next problem occurred when without previous notice, our lodging was changed from Serengeti to tents at a mountain site closer to Ngorongoro - obviously an improvised solution, as we were unprepared for such a cold site and the camp had been hastily set up the day before, and there were insufficient blankets the first two nights; also, the isolation of the site required a long 2 and 1/2 hour drive over a bumpy dirt road to get to and from Serengeti for the additional two days planned there. This way it was impossible to get there early in the morning and we lost many hours in the Serengeti, one of our priorities. Things got worse when we got to Tarangire National Park and there was no money in the debit cards the guides had to pay entrances, and we stayed for three hours at the entrance trying to communicate with the company via email and phone, only after we called the Tourist Board did they contact us and told us to pay the entrance assuring they would reimburse us the following day (today 15 days later still no refund). That night when we got to beautiful Boundary Hill we where surprised with a New Year's dinner of only rice, there where no provisions or drinks (not even water) in the lodge. After the same experience in Arusha National Park (we were stuck at the entrance with no money in the card to pay and this time only one car for the group of eight since Mr. King decided to change guides and failed to replace wonderful Edward on time.) At this point, we decided to pay a visit to him at his "office" in Arusha and refused to leave until we reached an agreement. We ended up paying the entrance to this park as well. Faced with the risk of being stranded without funds for entering parks, etc. during the remainder of our tour, we came to a compromise agreement with Mr, King: much against our will, we abandoned the remainder of our planned itinerary and instead would go to Zanzibar (which would be cheaper than completing the tour as planned) and that Mr. King would refund the entrance fees we had had to pay, the difference in cost between Zanzibar and our planned itinerary and would compensate us for the more than three days lost. This all adds up to several thousand dollars, of which we have not received a penny so far. Perhaps the most irritating and frustrating aspect of this was the difficulty in communicating with Mr. King, and the fact that he offered different versions of the situation virtually every tome we were in contact with him
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great Trip, But Very Unprofessional
First I'll start by saying that we had an amazing trip, saw many animals, our drivers were good, and Big Time was much cheaper than the other safari trips that I read about online.
However, I'm rating them a 2 because if you sign up with Big Time, you should understand what you may be getting into. They are slightly dishonest, and they consistently try to get more money from you.
It started by us agreeing to a 9 day safari online in advance of our trip. When we got to the Big Time office, we paid, but they made us pay an extra 5% to use credit card... And they do not accept checks. So they immediately violated the contract we agreed on, but after arguing, there was nothing we could do, because our whole trip depended on this safari, and we had no backup plan. So we paid extra.
Then, we learned that our 9 day safari was actually 2 smaller safaris with travel days in between. And despite the contract saying "all meals and hotels/campsites are included in the 9 day safari price," they made us pay extra for our hotel and meals in between the 1st and 2nd safari. They also charged us $20 if we wanted to use their sleeping bags at the campsite, when bedding was supposed to be included.
Now here comes the most ridiculous part. We were encouraged to change our safari plan by a Big Time manager instead of the one we originally decided on. We finally agreed to do the change. After we arrive from completing the safari, he says that we need to pay extra for changing the route! When this was never mentioned to us before! He even threatened to take the money that “we owed” out of the driver’s paycheck if we would not pay. It was completely unprofessional.
To sum up the experience, the actual safari was wonderful. Our drivers were very nice, and the vans were full (8 person van for safari #1 and 4 person van for safari #2), but we still had great views. However, the management uses too many sneaky tactics to get you to pay extra.
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
The Tanzania part of the trip was a disaster
There was no driver at Tanzania border for us. The group before us also had no driver show up. The company would not tell us what was going on, and eventually would not answer any of our our calls. So the communication was horrible. We had to spend the night at a hotel by the border and pay for it ourselves (they say they will reimburse us). The next morning, they said a driver would be ready by 10am, but we sat around outside the hotel until 4pm with no word from the office. They were ignoring every call. We were finally met by a taxi driver who transferred us to another driver in Arusha and we had to drive at night to reach the hotel at Lake Manyara at 9:30 pm. As I write this, we are sitting at gate to Manyara Park where we have been waiting for nearly 2 hours, because Kenya Walking Survivors has not transferred money to the Tanzania company so our driver cannot get us in the park. We have no idea how much longer we will wait. They seem to have forgotten to make the necessary arrangements and preparations for our time in Tanzania. Park will not take my credit card because we are in a tour van. So we have lost 2+ days and morning light for photos. We are very unhappy now, and feel that we are wasting a lot of time with only a few days left in Africa.
Our Kenyan driver was very nice, and the Kenya part of the trip went smoothly. Oddly to me though, on the first day we were picked up, driven to office to pay last half of cost, then to get gas, and then to pick up water. It would have been nice if they had gotten gas and water before picking us up. They had half of the money up front. Our lodgings were nice and the Kenya part went well. I was not expecting the very long long drives on bad roads between the parks. It usually took all day (6-9 h) to go from one place to the next. The law does not allow driving tourists in the dark, so we used up lots of daytime to get from park to park. However, that is the nature of traveling in this area.
Our main problem has been the horrible experience getting into Tanzania, and getting into the park this morning has been just as bad. Horrible communication, and nothing has been prepared beforehand.