Good communication but disappointed at service
My wife and I booked two tours (Kilimanjaro day trek and Ngorongoro crater day trip) in Tanzania via their local partner 'Homeland adventures'. The man in-charge, Muksin, was extremely cordial - answered my innumerous queries and made me feel comfortable about the whole trip. He also came a day before the Kili trek and briefed me about both trips. However, our actual experience during the tours was far from this experience. 1. Kili trek - The guide, Nikolas (I think that's what his name was), was completely detached - seemed more like a person who's carrying our lunch packets. Moreover, he did smell strongly of alcohol - not sure whether he had it that morning or the previous night. He provided no real 'guidance' or information about the park or the flora/fauna. The lunch packet had stale chicken and funny-tasting yoghurt in it. 2. Ngorongoro crater - This experience was much worse that the previous one. I specifically asked whether there were group tours available with them and they said yes. However, it seemed more like they were partnering with some other local tour guys who had their separate bookings and pooling us together into the same vehicle. At the outset itself, the information provided was wrong. We were told that we will be 4 people for the safari. It turned out that there were 6. The vehicles provided were rickety and the guides/drivers seemed to care least about it. At one point there were 7 people (a cook sitting on an ice box) in the vehicle and the whole vehicle was completely cramped. I have rated 3 stars just for the initial communication part and because I would like to believe that the Ngorongoro trip was handled by other tour guys. Else I would've rated you even lower. One piece of advise - If you do not have a group tour available, please be honest about it. Else, if you depend on other local operators to organise/manage your customers' trips and they end up like ours, it would only tarnish your reputation.