Prideofafricaadventures Reviews 5

Services contracted: Fully customized private safaris, 4 DAYS AMBOSELI, TSAVO WEST & EAST and 9 DAYS SAMBURU, BUFFALO SPRINGS, ABERDARE, LAKE NAIVASHA, LAKE NAKURU, HELL'S GATE & MASAI MARA.
First of all, I want to put on record the positive aspects:
- Smooth communication with quick responses from Stephen during pre-hire planning.
- Willingness to adapt the tours and accommodations to our requirements.
- Experienced and qualified drivers.

I am writing this review 5 months after the safari because in those months Stephen from Pride of Africa assured me that he was looking into ways to compensate for the problems I describe below.
- Problems with payments. I paid a deposit by wire transfer to secure the booking. The balance was to be paid upon arrival in Nairobi in USD, but most of the banknotes I had with me were refused. They said they would only accept freshly printed notes, even though the older notes I had were perfectly legal. They also refused to accept payment by credit card or wire transfer. We spent hours at the ATMs until we had reached the maximum on my cards. The driver offered to make up the difference in cash and accept the payment via bank transfer later.

- Non-compliance with the programme. The visit to Samburu Park was cancelled, thus saving the entrance fees, but we have not been refunded. The safari in Aberdare Park was limited to 1 hour in the cafeteria of the Ark Tree Lodge, despite the fact that we had indicated from the beginning that we were not interested in visiting the lodge but wanted to do some of the trekking to the numerous waterfalls in the park. At Lake Naivasha the tickets for the boat trip and visit of the island turned out not to be included despite both activities being included in the programme (the justification was that the programme included the entrance fees to the parks, but that Lake Naivasha was not a ‘park’ (??).

- Non-compliance with the Masai Mara programme. It included 4 game drives in the park: the first in the afternoon on day one after the scheduled lunch at the lodge where we were to arrive at noon, 2 full-day safaris and the last one in the morning before the scheduled departure for Nairobi at noon. However, the driver delayed leaving the previous park (Lake Nakuru) and made several stops along the way, meaning we arrived too late for the first safari. On the last day, the safari was reduced to a drive between the entrance gate near our lodge and the exit gate closest to the road to Nairobi, in a manoeuvre by the driver to save on entrance fees by justifying at the checkpoints that we had only crossed the park on our way from the lodge (we even went through the checkpoints with the roof closed so as not to look like we were coming from a game drive). We reported these irregularities to Stephen before we left Kenya and asked for a refund of the unpaid entrance fees, but since then he has only postponed the resolution (claiming that he had to complain to the driver) and has avoided refunding the money to date.

1 / 10 Not Recommend
I have been on other safaris in other African countries and this has been the worst by far! Look elsewhere for a safari company.

ITINERARY
Our original itinerary looked good on paper, however, we found out, while on safari, that it involved backtracking which meant the safari had to be changed causing us to miss 2 half day game drives in Masai Mara (which was supposed to be the highlight of the trip!)

DAILY “ROUTINE”
We were told by PRIDE OF AFRICA that we would be starting at 7:00 AM each morning so we would be able to get the most of our safari while in Africa. In reality our normal start was 8:30 AM. We also noticed that other guides brought their clients back from game drives to their accommodation around 6:30 PM. Our guide brought us back at 3:30 PM. This timing was the worst possible! Wildlife is active in the mornings and evenings while we were still at our hotel! We were out at the time when most wildlife is sleeping so we saw much, much less! OUR GAME DRIVES WERE 4.5 HOURS SHORTER EVERY DAY.
The only day we did not follow our “daily routine” was the last day. On the last day we started at 6:30 AM. That was the day we were to be “Arriving in Nairobi late in the evening“ (as our itinerary stated). We went on our game drive that morning, but only for 1.5 hours so that the guide could get back home early. We asked him about it and he told us that we could have a longer game drive but we would have to pay him extra for that! A 1 ½ HR GAME DRIVE!!! OUR GUIDE WANTED TO JUST GET HOME EARLY!

GUIDE & DRIVER
We had an excellent driver. As a guide, however, he did very little communication in letting us know about what was happening and only told us about the wildlife when we asked. He was knowledgeable about the wildlife but chose not to communicate that knowledge with us.

VEHICLE UPGRADE
When we arrived we were taken to the office of PRIDE OF AFRICA and were asked if we wanted additional day tours. After not purchasing an additional tour we were told that we could upgrade our vehicle to a LAND CRUISER. We were told that it would be more comfortable and better able to handle the wet trails in the Masai Mara, We went for the vehicle upgrade and paid US$800.00 for it. When we began our safari there was no Land Cruiser but the standard (2020/21 Toyota Hiace 4x4) instead. A vehicle that was uncomfortable with poor suspension and both side doors could not be opened from the inside (the guide had to open our doors every time we wanted to get out of the vehicle). WE WERE SCAMMED out of US$800.00 and were never compensated for it.

SHORTFALLS & EXTRA CHARGES
Our original safari outlined several key points that were eliminated in our actual safari.
The first paragraph of our safari description stated:
- Includes "pre and post accommodation"
WE ONLY RECEIVED PRE ACCOMMODATION
- Tour Price Includes “All park entrance fees”
WE WERE CHARGED US AN EXTRA US$40 TO ENTER MASAI MARA
- Game drives as detailed in the itinerary.
THESE WERE IGNORED BY THE GUIDE
Itinerary changed and we missed out on several highlights because the original itinerary involved backtracking – A poorly designed itinerary that they changed in the middle of our safari

FOOD
The food was fine. That was not the reason we went on safari in Africa.
OVERALL
Overall a badly run safari.
I would never book again with PRIDE OF AFRICA!!!!!

REAL PRIDE OF AFRICA
I am my 4 friends we booked a 10 days Kenya and Tanzania combine with Pride of Africa Adventures, Stephen was as fast in his answering e-mail like a cheater a saw in Masai Mara chasing an antelope. There was no single minute I missed proper answers.
Upon arrival in Nairobi Stephen and Elias meet us at the airport and drive us to Best Western Meridian which they booked for us at a no extra cost, where Elias brief us about the same and he told us he is a having a surprise for us when we will be heading to Amboseli. Upon arrival in Amboseli we found when they upgraded our accommodation from budget to luxury. There are many good things about this people.
Tanzania safari was amazing as Kenya and we do recommend this company to the whole world. And we are planning to have Ethiopia safari with them mid next hear.
I RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY ( PAAS)

i did mountain climbing with this company and we really loved the entire program, it was just awesome especially the tour consultant me Elias did a fantastic job in planning the whole trip.

Pride of Africa are very professional tour company. We were visiting Kenya for 10 days and decided to book a tour with them for 5 days in Masai Mara , Nakuru. They treated us well and we were able to enjoy our safaris right from the time we were picked from the Airport to the time we were to continue with other activities we had for the remaining 5 days. We enjoy viewing various animals and on the last day they treated us at a certain restaurant in Nairobi and enjoy something they call "Nyama Choma". We are proud of you and can't wait to do another safari with you.