Tanzania on Foot

I have just returned from a climb to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I booked my trek with Tanzania On Foot. My point of contact was William Wagana. I was very pleased with this company as William was very prompt at answering all my questions via email. I paid my fees in advance which can leave one with a sense of doubt but William and his company did not let me down. He had arranged for someone to meet me at the airport and take me to Moshi.
The next day we headed for the mountain. I was climbing on my own but I had a crew of 3 porters a cook, waiter and a guide. The food was great and sometimes I could not even eat all that was given to me. My guide did a great job. He always made sure I was OK and was continually looking for signs of altitude sickness. Each day on the mountain I was briefed on what to expect the following day.
After successfully summiting, I was driven back to my accommodation at Arusha. The room was very nice.

I was offered the opportunity to take a mini safari in Arusha National Park before leaving Tanzania. It was an amazing experience as I got to see giraffes, baboons, zebras and many other wild animals in their natural habitat. I would highly recommend using Tanzania on Foot if planning a trip to Tanzania. From the very beginning William and his crew took very good care of me. Something that I took away with me from Africa is that, everything does not always go exactly to the Itinerary. The people of Tanzania are very friendly and genuine. They have an expression which they often say, "Hakuna Matata" which means "No Worries". If you embrace that attitude you will blend right in to their lifestyle and have a great time.

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I am writing this to warn everyone planning a trip to East Africa (Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) not to use a tour company called Tanzania on Foot (TOF) operated by a scam artist called William Wagana and the driver for Ngorongoro, Goodwin.

People we dealt with at TOF should be in jail for extortion, scam, and endangerment of tourists. Goodwin, one of TOF guide in Arusha, ran away with our cash payment when he dropped us off at the Kenyan border. We ended up reporting TOF to both the Tanzanian and Kenyan police. William Wagana (the sales director) over-promised and under-delivered, causing us many logistical and monetary headaches. TOF took pre-payment from us and sub-contracted the tour to local guides, which they never transfer the payment and we had to pay each local guide a second time upon arrival. They were suppose to organize 2-days of Uganda gorilla trek, 6-days Kilimanjaro climb and 5-days Tanzanian/Kenya safari for 4 of us. Below are the unethical practices that cause monetary, logistics and safety issues during our trip:

1. Our safari guide ran away with $1500 of cash payment when he was suppose to deliver us to Kenya for the safaris on day 3
2. William made us wire $600 per person plus wire fee for the Uganda gorilla trek 3 months prior to our trip on the pretense that we need to 'reserve' our permit spots. He claimed not have received the first wire transfer which we wired again the second time. Upon arriving to Uganda gorilla park, the local guide claimed never received payment from William and made us pay $600 per person at the park again.
3. William told us that transportation to/from Uganda gorilla to Rwanda is included but again the local driver claim never to receive the payment from william and we each had to pay the driver $250 per person just to be taken to the next destination
4. They never sent a driver to pick one of us from Arusha airport as promised
5. For Kilimanjaro trek, William informed us that we'll have oxygen tank, portable toilet, Flying Doctor evacuation plan, and gawnam bag which our tour guide had none. One of our hikers fell really sick from altitude sickness, they had no emergency oxygen tank for her and no Flying Doctor emergency evacuation. She had to be carried down on porters back and a man-made stretcher over rocky path for 7 hours. The journey itself made her more sick
6. Throughout the trip, the safari guide (Goodwin) had unexpected fees and shady practices. One of our group members had to leave on day 3 to go back home.

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We had the same concerns about payment and some other concerns (read below ;o)) but they are a very fair company. We decided to write a long review because we couldn’t find one online either and they really deserve a review. We took a 5 day private safari (for two persons) in Serengeti and Ngorongoro with Tanzania on Foot during the last week of June 2012. And we planed and booked the safari from Denmark over the internet. It was our first time traveling with Tanzania on Foot so we were pleased to find out that every agreement we made during our planning process was met to the fullest and sometimes even exceeded our expectations. We have added some examples below of how Tanzania on Foot handled our concerns but for the reader how doesn’t want to read it all ;o) we will end by warmly recommending both planning and traveling with Tanzania on Foot.

The safari vehicle: Reading from other safari company reviews we were concerned that we would be given an old safari vehicle which would breakdown or be uncomfortable during the long game drives. Tanzania on Foot promised that they only had new cars and they were checked before and after each safari. And to our surprise Tanzania on Foot showed up the first day with two brand new cars (one for 8 and one for 6 persons) and told us to pick the one we wanted. The other would then be on standby in case of a breakdown during our safari. However our car was in such a good condition that we didn’t need to test this extra (free of charge) insurance.

The Lodges: Less than a week before our safari a violent robbery occurred at one of our lodges. A friend from Arusha/Tanzania warned us about this robbery and when we contacted Tanzania on Foot the day after the robbery they had already booked a new lodge for us. They were planning to tell us about the incident upon arrival and give us the choice to pick between the two bookings (without any extra cost). We chose the new booking and it was just as good as the previous planned lodge.

Cutting corners during the safari: We read that some safari companies would only drive a certain amount of kilometers and leave the parks early in order to save money on fuel and park fees (thereby increasing their profit). We were promised no driving limit and that we got. Not once did we drive out the gates with more than 30 minutes to spare and even during transport (towards The Great Migration) we did game drives off the main road.

The guide: For a great safari we knew we would need an experienced guide and Tanzania on Foot promised that they only had guides with more than 5 years experience. During our safari we found out that Tanzania on Foot pays their guides a fair salary which means that they can attract some of the more experienced guides. Our Guide (Abi) had 8 years of experience and with a VIP scrapbook like his then we knew we were in good hands (If he has taking you on a safari you know what we mean ). Our guide spotted the big five on day 1 and even though this also requires a great deal of luck then we are sure that some of the less experienced guides drove past the rhino we saw that day without spotting it (our “city eyes” needed binoculars to confirm it ). By the end of our safari we had seen (of the big five) 3 leopards, 5 rhinos, 20+ lions, 100+ elephants, 200+ buffaloes and many others (including a cheetah) Our guide always had the car ready on time and all the preparations were done so that we could spend time on the game drives. He was the kind of person you like to spend 5 days with. He was funny, always in a good mood and willing to share his vast knowledge of the area and animals.

Conclusion: We do not have one thing that we can complain about for our safari. Every promise Tanzania on Foot made to us they kept and we will recommend you to plan your safari with them anytime. Tanzania on Foot gave us a great safari vehicle, found some good lodges, never cut any corners in order to increase their profit and gave us a fantastic guide. Thank you for a perfect safari vacation.

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