26 Aug 2024
If I could give less then one star I would.
We booked this company with via tour after reading his reviews and he was not the cheapest but we wanted a hassle free safari. Big mistake. I would consider myself well traveled and have done many excursion in not so wealthy countries so I know things can go wrong. But this was by far the worst experience I have had. We had to call him numerous times to get a response on when we would be collected for our safari. For days he didn’t reply then the night before we were told we would be picked up at 6am. We had travelled almost 24hour to get to dar es Sallam so we had virtually no sleep to make sure we was ready on time. But at 6 no one showed up. At 6.20 we called and he said he was 10mins away. Another 30mins had passed and I call again and this time I was informed that it was better if we went on train as it would be faster and more comfortable. I asked why I was not told earlier and why this was not arranged the day before. I was told it was because they were unsure of availability but they are now sure and this was best. I said that’s fine. 8am had come and passed still no one turned up. I kept calling no answer. At 8.30 a member of his team finally showed up with no mean to get us to the train station. We were then told they had no money for the safari yet so they tried to make us cancel and pay again but I showed them proof that I had paid and that I couldn’t cancel as it was less then 24hr before the start of the tour and if I cancelled I would not get a refund. He said okay so we made our way to the train station. Once we got there the guide tried to buy a ticket but the 9.30 train was sold out. I was not happy but he said we will catch the 16.00 train. So we sat in the train for 3 hours then we was told that all the train for today were sold out and we were only told after 3 hour of sitting in a train station that it was sold out. They then said we can catch a bus to take us after some back and forth we agreed as we had nowhere to stay and had to get to Mikumi that night. We drove an hour out of dar es Sallam to a local bus station filled with local not a tourist in sight. Again we waited almost an hour and was told the only way to get a bus is if we gave him more money for the tour as he doesn’t have the fund. Bear in mind we had been dragged around for about 6 hours and this point. I refused as I had already paid in full and I was not going to give him another penny of my money as in my mind he was scamming me. After talking on the phone he flat out refused to help in anyway and said he was canceling the tour unless I paid him again direct in full for a tour. I refused and was left strained in dar es Sallam with no accommodation no money with my partner as we thought the next two night we would spend on safari.
Please do not book with this company it is a scam for sure and I wish by my review I can save another heartache as I saved for 2 years and left my little children at home to have a holiday of a lifetime which was ruined