The review below is the personal opinion of Fred and not that of SafariBookings.
Bad safari, indifferent to the clients
The agency didn't provide value added to our trip. On the contrary, they ruined it from the beginning.
1. Misleading statement. I booked this agency because its competitive price given the same package. But unfortunately they didn't provide what they promised. I asked for an open-sided vehicle, which is more expensive than the normal Landcruiser. To make it happen within my budget, I even asked them to downgrade the hotels. They confirmed they can provide the open-sided one as I asked. However, what they provided is just a Landcruiser with the windows replaced with canvas cover. This was not even closer what we wanted. How they explained? They told me the open-sided vehicle that I asked can only be used in the park. Do you think it justified that you claimed you have the open-sided one? If you don't, why not telling me in the first place?? Moreover, at least other 2 agencies provided this option(opene vehicle) with extra fees over than the normal land cruiser.
2. Overpriced package. To have an open-sided vehicle, I proposed to downgrade the hotels. After their recalculation, the total price was almost the same. However, as I said above, they didn't provide the "upgraded" vehicle but they downgraded my hotels range. In terms of the same package with a normal landcruiser, this agency charged USD500 more than the quotes we received from other agencies. I wouldn't booked with them if I could know their open-sided vehicle was a lie.
3. Vehicle with bad conditions. You know what? They can not even provide a normal vehicle. What they provided was one without popped-up roof, which means you either close the top cover or leave it completely open. Among the vehicles we saw, ours was the ONLY ONE that didn't have the popped-up roof . If you want to stand up to see the animal, you have to suffer the strong sunlight for the whole game drive because it's not adjustable on on the road.
3.Unprofessional and undevoted guide. The guide hired by the agency was unprofessional and undevoted because
1) He is always on the phone calls, private ones, joking on the calls. When the vehicle stopped to wait for the animal to move. Other guides usually were explaining the animal to the clients or kept silent, but you know what our guide was doing? Making calls. Sometimes we had to interrupt him to ask him to move forward. Even when we were quite close to a lion, he was still talking with someone in the phone. Using phone always made him distracted, so he drove very slow. When I doubted the slow drive, he responded safety was the priority. How come using phone while driving could be safe?
2) he was not experienced enough to know where to find the animals, we were often wandering somewhere not even had any aninals at all. When we only missed leopard and chitah, what he did was just idling away in the park Instead of trying to find the animals. Of course we were not demanding that he must find every beasts, but we didn't feel he was devoted to meet clients' expectations.
3) He was not customer-driven. Since the 3rd day, never opened the door for us. In Nakuru, we started safari inthe morning, however we didn't go for flamingo first, instead, he chose a way in the woods to wander about. Until we saw flamingo, it's noon, which the sunlight was not good for taking pictures. When I doubted why we didn't go to see flamingos first, he questioned if I know the way and asked me to trust him.
4. Bad problem-solving altitude. The agency never solved problem we raised, only explained and pretended to understand your feelings. They provided a Landcruser without popped up roof, I asked them to solve. Then they told me the driver will sort it out. However the driver was not able to sort it out. And they just ignored our complaints. This is how they treated the clients.
Never ever choose this agency!