SafariBookings has received complaints from clients about Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd.

Reviews

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Jimmy   –  
United States US
Visited: August 2019 Reviewed: Aug 29, 2019

Email Jimmy  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

The review below is the personal opinion of Jimmy and not that of SafariBookings.
Advise needed
3/5

I am leaving soon to go on Mr. OT's pre-paid Safari on 9/3. He has stopped respond to my email/text at the beginning of this week. I am worried about getting stranded at the Nairobi airport. Should I proceed to flight there?

Kurt Laflere   –  
Belgium BE
Visited: July 2019 Reviewed: Aug 17, 2019

Email Kurt Laflere  |  50-65 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

The review below is the personal opinion of Kurt Laflere and not that of SafariBookings.
Bisar
3/5

We have a good holiday with KWSS, but at the last evening when we arrived at the hotel we have to pay our stay self (110 dollars), altough the stay was included in our trip. that was on august 3, and also our ride to the airport for 10 dollars.
So i think we have the luck to finish our trip with a minor problem when i look at all the other comments.
PS, Sorry for my poor english.

Chloe   –  
United States US
Visited: February 2016 Reviewed: Mar 6, 2016

Email Chloe  |  20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

The review below is the personal opinion of Chloe and not that of SafariBookings.
Safari
3/5

The drivers were very nice, and the team very helpful. I wish you could have been less in the car, because we were coming from a 14 hours flight, plus the time difference. I had a child with me, so he was exhausted. Rather than that it was perfect, I wish I could have stayed longer, and I will definitely come back. Thank you for this memorable moment.

Carmen Visited: August 2014 Reviewed: Feb 1, 2015

The review below is the personal opinion of Carmen and not that of SafariBookings.
Great for Kenya, bad for Tanzania
3/5

We did an 8 day private safari this past summer, and KWSS offered the most reasonable price and flexible itinerary, plus they were really responsive on email. Once there, the experience was absolutely bipolar, with an excellent guide and experience in the Kenya part of the trip, vs. a terrible subcontractor and tons of problems on the Tanzania part.
You can read details on my blog:
https://bonatravels.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/country-summary-kenya/
https://bonatravels.wordpress.com/category/tanzania/

Reply from Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
Reply from Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
Posted on Feb 3, 2015

Hello Carmen ,Thank you very much for the feedback you gave on your experience with our company and the staff.
Im very happy you experience excellent services on your life time experience on African wildlife in Kenya ,Tanzania and Zanzibar Beach safari,
I apologize and sorry on behalf of KWSS that you did NOT enjoy your trip in Tanzania as you enjoy in Kenya,I want to confirm for you as per earlier discussion before you fly back home we have finally STOP subcontracting our tours/safaris to any tour operator in any country as from September 2014
This has made our clients happier and Most of our clients who travel with us to Kenya,Uganda and Tanzania are very happy because we have employed our local Driver guides and Cooks.
Thank you very much for the feedback ,we take all the review positively to improve our quality services to our clients.

Wing Chan   –  
Hong Kong HK
Visited: August 2014 Reviewed: Dec 15, 2014

35-50 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

The review below is the personal opinion of Wing Chan and not that of SafariBookings.
Nice safari, can catch all big five, accommodation and meal can be improve.
3/5

The guide are professinal, show us lots of animal as he can, also the big five. In general, the accommodation and meal can be improve, special the lunchbox when we need to take a long transportation, only biscuit, cake, banana.

Reply from Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
Reply from Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
Posted on Dec 26, 2014

Thank you very much for the Review Mr.Wing chan, we take any positive and Negative review to improve the quality of our services to our clients.
Im very happy that our guides made you happy by spotting all the big five ,Otherwise as per the meals you where given in as per the lunchbox we talk with the tented camp which you use and they promise to change the lunch box quality .
we are very grateful on your honest review this will make our next clients get more perfect services.
Thank you very much and hope to see you again in East Africa country.

Sarah   –  
United States US
Visited: August 2014 Reviewed: Oct 6, 2014

20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

The review below is the personal opinion of Sarah and not that of SafariBookings.
Beautiful experience; stressful circumstances
3/5

First, I must thank Kenya Walking for helping my husband and I have the experience of a lifetime. We visited Tanzania and Uganda and were sincerely amazed by the African wildlife, scenery, and people.

We chose Kenya Walking because of Otieno's quick communication, the ability to customize our itinerary, and the price. We are still grateful to have experienced so much for the price, but feel that it's important for other prospective travelers to be aware of some aspects of unprofessionalism we encountered. They are mostly small things that added up to create an atmosphere of distrust for us.

Examples of unprofessionalism:
-Multiple last-minute hotel changes, including skipping Lake Bunyonyi in Uganda to stay at a poorly rated, loud city motel with water problems (original hotel was around $100, changed to $10 room)
-Incorrect itinerary dates. Even after reviewing our itinerary upon arrival in Uganda, both Otieno and our driver forgot that we were staying two days in the gorilla park to do extra hiking. We had to fight pretty hard to convince them to correct this.
-Over-worked, tired driver speeding considerably and close to nodding off during long drives (I would highly recommend flying into Kisoro to do gorilla trek, or at least requesting a Ugandan guide. Our Kenyan guide had to drive overnight from Nairobi before picking us up and continuing the drive. We also suspect he took a wrong turn which we followed for 90minutes before correcting.)
-Borrowing gas money from us. This favor was asked as a loan until our driver found an ATM, though we never found one. We ended up letting him keep the money as part of his tip, but the company never followed up to thank us or ask whether we got our money back.
-Other small inconveniences included late departures (2hours on our first morning in Tanzania with no communication on their end), spotty attitudes from guides (our Kenyan guide did not like Ugandans... and we were in Uganda), considerable time waiting for guides to deal with problems in banks, broken jeep roof in Tanzania (fortunately this didn't happen until our last day there).

I hate to make this list, because until Otieno asked me to write this review, I had managed to forget all the negative aspects of our trip and only think of the magic moments we had with elephants, lions, gorillas, mountains, and new friends. Even with all the drama of our trip, I don't regret choosing Kenya Walking as I'm not sure we could have packed everything into our time and budget with a different tour operator. I also suspect travelling with Kenya Walking Survivors may be an entirely different experience in Kenya, rather than Tanzania and Uganda where we visited. I have only the best wishes for our guides Mike and Jonas and for Otieno.

If you decide Kenya Walking Survivors is the best fit for your trip, please be prepared to respectfully advocate for yourself and your itinerary.

Reply from Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
Reply from Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
Posted on Oct 20, 2014

Hi Sarah, thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear you were disappointed with your Part of the trip while on safari.
ACCOMMODATION
I would like to confirm with you that before you use the facility ,we had to talk and discus with you and you agree, This was because you took a lot of time at the equator stopover and by the time you arrive at the town which is 12kms from lake Bunyoni Resort it was late in the evening and due to the security alert I could NOT let you Drive to your booked Hotel at Bunyoni Resort due to security on the way.So I had to give you the briefing and also alert my Driver and we did this because We value our clients life after discussion with you.Then the following day you where transfer you your early booked Hotel
The loud music was from the Neigbour hotel and the accommodation was well and it was the same rate but in town compare with lake Bunyoni Resort which was at the lake side,I admit thus was the difference. And we apologized for that difference if you did NOT like the facility

ITINERARY
I would like to Re-confirm with you that we discus with you all the program in Uganda and all was fine,And I accepted you to add your Exra activity which you did the following day trek to the Rwanda boarder at no Exra cost to the company.
Secondly our drivers always wake up early and sleep early,They are to have at least minimum sleep of 8hours.I apologized if truly you saw him nodding ,because he is the same guide who has been doing a lot of the trekking for Gorilla tour to our clients
GAS
You remember when you ask the driver to drive you upto the boarder of Rwanda to go and see the Batwa tribe.
I would like to inform all the travelers that due to security we don’t give or make our Drivers carry more than USD$200 .why?Due to security , if they miss/lose the money the clients will be stranded and they always carry the money which is fine for them for the fuel depending on the distance,
Now you made a decision of the change of itinerary after the Gorilla trek that he was to drive you about 80kms one way for the Batwa tribe ,there was no ATM anywhere he could get money for fuel and he inform you ,But he had to do this because you told him you will top him up the gas,because he wanted to drive back to look for the ATM to top up the Gas,
So im again sorry for topping the driver up at no Exra cost for your benefic and he Refund it back ,But at the end of the day when he wanted to refund the cash you told him this was his tip the money which you gave the drive was totaling USHS.150,000 which is equivalent of USD$58.

EXPEREIENCE
As you said you suspected the driver to take wrong side,but what happen is that he was told that the route you took was block a head so he had to turn back for another route which was NOT block.so thus why he return and took another turn,
Most of our drivers are over 15years in this land and very experience on guiding and driving.
If he did not communicate on this We apologized that next time you will have the communication on any small change on road from the driver to any clients.

LANDCRUISER 4X4
I would like to inform all our travelers that we have bad roads in Africa especially in the parks which make vehicle both 4x4 and 2x2 breakdown i.e on the wheels,body parts, engines so you should expect this as part of Africa Road which we don’t have nay control but should we have any breakdown we always make sure we fixed them to control the waste of time for the game Drive.We again apologized for this and im happy you where happy when it was solve very faster.

REVIEW.
I would like to confirm that I ask you to write a review on this trip ,so that both positive feedback to be maintain and improve and Negative feedback should be check on so that the next group don’t get to the same problems again.
Otherwise im very happy again that you are fine with our organization and we apologized for any aspect which did NOT make you enjoy your trip.But you are still welcome to East Africa next time. We promise all our clients will NOT have the same mistake.

Thanks you again for all the positive and negative feedback you have given us,This will make us to be on our watch list on the services we provide our clients.
Thanks a lot Sarah and Partner




Winters   –  
United States US
Visited: February 2014 Reviewed: Mar 4, 2014

20-35 years of age  |  Experience level: first safari

The review below is the personal opinion of Winters and not that of SafariBookings.
My experience with Kenya Walking Survivors is certainly pleasant, but there's room for improvement.
3/5

To start, I just want to provide a little background about the trip so that it's easier to understand the pros and cons. It was a 16 days trip that includes Safari(8-9 days) in both Kenya and Tanzania and Trekking in Mt. Kilimanjaro(6 days).

I thought the pre-trip communications could have been more effective provided that it's a fairly lengthy trip and that a lot of preparation is needed for the climb. The company didn't clearly convey to us regarding what to prepare and what to expect. Nevertheless, the Safari part of the trip went very smoothly with no problems. The lodging was mostly delightful and the guide was very knowledgeable and patient in showing us all the wild lives.

For the Trekking in Mt. Kilimanjaro part of the trip, the services that were provided to us unfortunately didn't live up to our expectation. Kenya Walking Survivors seemed to have contracted with a Tanzania local travel agency called Africa Royals in handling the Mt. Kilimanjaro part. Therefore, we were handed over to the Africa Royals immediately following the completion of the Safari. Africa Royals is disorganized at best. As you probably know, staying dry is one of the most important factors that play into whether or not one would succeed in reaching the top. However, our clothes got wet the very first day of the climb and, as a result, we were suffering for the remaining of the climb. Another area that invites criticism is camp management. Every single day, we were the last group to start the climb and once we reached the next camp site, we often have to wait for an hour or two for the porter to arrive and set up the tent. My last complaint is the fact that the principal guide doesn't sufficiently communicate the time table of activities of the day to us and even if he does, he's usually the one who doesn't abide by it. For instance, on the night of reaching the peak we were told that we would start climbing at 1am. and that someone would wake us up prior to that time to get prepared. We woke up ourselves at 1:30 am and the guide was still sleeping in his tent. We would have missed the sunrise at the peak.

All in all, I think Kenya Walking Survivors provided decent service for the Safari part, but partnering with Africa Royals for providing services to customers on Mt Kilimanjaro is in desperate need for improvement.

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