Bencia Africa Adventure & Safaris

Pros: I booked 11 days joiner safari in Kenya and Tanzania. You should be always aware that when you book a safari in multiple countries in Africa, you get everything perfect only in the country where your agency is based so in Kenya everything was taken care of and went as planned. I had amazing time with my guide George. He was one of the best guides I had. He was on time for every game drive, and organised the whole group for everybody to be on time. He showed us the big 5 in only 2 days, and was amazing in finding the animals in Masai Mara. He and the cook George felt like family for a couple of days. In Tanzania I was lucky with the best guide there- Shafy. If you are doing Tanzania, definitely ask for him. He will make your safari the best one. Long game drives, he stopped for every animal of interest long enough. Everything was taken care of very professionally. A good or bad guide can make or brake your experience. Make sure to ask for a guide with recommendations. Our cook Rami in Serengeti and Ngoro Ngoro was amazing and more of a guide than the guide himself. He helped with everything, not just the delicious food, and he was the one talking to us, answering our questions, and giving us interesting facts. I wish he had been our guide! He was amazing and exceeded our expectations! In Amboseli the game drives were very good, and I saw a lot of elephants and lions. The campsites and the accommodations were very clean and good. We had giraffes and zebras in our backyard in Ngoro Ngoro. Amazing! Cons: In Amboseli I was transferred to Bonnie, who did his job very good, but failed with the time management, and did not organise the rest of the group to be on time, so I ended up waiting, which was not nice. I asked for water, and I was told that if I want more than 1l, the driver will be fined, but when i showed him my itinerary with 3l per person per day he agreed, but still the last day I asked him for water, he told me that he will give me, but just left. Not very polite.

To continue...In Tanzania I was transferred to 3 Wonders and after crossing the border, I was boarded on a public van, no one knew the name of my accommodation there, my pick-up was late, and I was boarded in a wrong vehicle with another white people, because they assumed we were together. In the last minute my pick-up arrived rushing with my name, and luckily I got to my hotel in Arusha, but for a moment it felt not right. 3 Wonders changed my itinerary without consulting with me, and cut short Serengeti, which was the highlight of my trip, and replacing it with Tarangire. I got refunded the park fee, but that was not the point. I went in Tanzania for Serengeti, and just rushed through it very fast, missing all the animal sightings. My guide for Serengeti and Ngoro Ngoro was always late. Every single day. A pick-up at 08:30am was at noon. Every morning the group waited for him for the game drives. Every afternoon it was the same thing. Not good with timing, and this ruins your experience. He rushed through the parks, because we were always late, and only the morning game drive in Ngoro Ngoro was very good. We completely missed Serengeti in a rush. He was silent the while time, and even seemed pissed of with our questions. He got nicer and told us stories only on our last day. The tipping day. His car was in horrible condition, and had to be pushed to start a couple of times per day. Luckily because of his broken car we had to stop, and saw a cheetah kill. But it was the car. Not that he were willing to wait. With 3 Wonders you have to be aware that your itinerary can change any time in a suitable for them way. Book more days or be more flexible. They first told me that there are no animals in Serengeti (lie), and then when I insisted on my itinerary, they confessed that they joined me a group with a different itinerary, and that’s that. No one cared what I wanted to see or what I have paid for. Go there with a big groups, and you will be just fine, the price is good, and you will get what you paid for, but I wouldn’t recommend the company for solo travellers.

After the trip we were taken to their office like hostage to demand more money than we agreed and already paid cause they decided that they didn't make enough profit! poor customer service. Be expected to pay more than the original agreed fees as they will claim it is not included, e.g. entry fees. At one point we were asked to pay for the fuel cost! Make sure to pay yourself entry fees as we realised we have been scammed and paid more than the actual entry fee. Unfortunately only realised this after the trip when we talked with out friends who visited the same attractions

Wow thank you so much for this experience. Quality-Value Our guide would go the extra mile to have always the best spot and to not miss the action. A whole adventure with him! And we were always so grateful that he cared that we didn’t miss anything. I didn’t ask a lot of my questions because I feel he didn’t really know most of the times. Which is not his fault! He was always nice and polite. Food amazingggg so much food always. Accommodation super comfy!! Even though the one at Maasai Mara had bedbugs they were very sorry even though it wasn’t their fault. I’d suggest to change the accommodation for next time because there was no electricity at night and this is a big problem because we all like to have a phone/camera fully charged to take lots of pictures. The bed was very comfy still. Thank you sooo much. Recommended 100% I can see how people working in this company are super nice and caring.

Had the best experience with your affordable quality and flexible services. Well maintained vehicles, excellent hospitality and wonderful drivers. Wont think twice any moment am touring around Kenya and Tanzania. Bencia Africa keep it up .

Good budget safari organizing company. We booked a 4 day safari and even noone joined it happened as planed. We had a good guide/driver Mourinho and a friendly chef John who cooked us very tasty food. A minibus and places to stay were budget type but good value for money. We saw everthing we wanted even though last day game drive was shorter than expected.

Great tour operator ! They are more active for safari (Masaï Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo, Nakuru, Naivasha) but also for mountain trips. I had a great experience thanks to Daniel (if he approaches you for Bencia in the street, give the man a chance). They organised budget/routard trip for me which is exactly what I needed. You might join other existing groups also to split the cost, I met amazing people on my trip and the guides are so passionate about their jobs ! Thanks again to Daniel, Charles, Alfred & Team.

We had a very negative experience with Bencia Africa Adventures. Before our trip to Masai Mara, another guiding company (i.e. one of Bencia's competitors) offered us a very good price, and they openly admitted that the reason that they were able to offer us such a good price is through bribery of the park rangers at the Masai Mara park gate, where instead of purchasing another 24-hour entry permit for Day #3, they would simply bribe the rangers to look the other way and allow the (expired) Day #2 permit to remain in use. Bencia offered us a more expensive tour, but they promised that they would give us a corruption-free experience, and that they would provide us with all the receipts for the entry permits, as proof of a corruption-free experience. So we trusted them and decided to go with their services. Our tour guide, Timothy, provided receipts for Days #1 and #2, but on Day #3 he failed to provide one. I kept pressuring him to provide the receipt, but he continued to give excuses for why he cannot provide it. I told him that what he is doing is dishonest and corrupt, and then I asked him a very simple question: "the entry permits cost $80 per day, so for 3 days that's $240...how much money did you pay in total for my entry permits?" He continued avoiding my question, telling me that he paid an "appropriate amount, as instructed by Bencia." An honest man would answer my question, since he has nothing to hide. Clearly this was not the case here. Our 4-day tour was supposed to look like this: Day #1 - evening game drive (16:30 to 18:30) Day #2 - full day game drive (7:30 - 18:30) Day #3 - full day game drive (7:30 - 18:30) Day #4 - morning game drive (6:30 - 9:00) Instead, our guide Timothy ended Day #2 early: he insisted on finishing at 16:30 instead of coming back to the park gate to purchase the next 24-hour period, and start the clock at 16:30 on Day #2 and finish the day at 18:30 as per our agreement. Then on Day #3, we went into the park at 7:30, so our permits were valid until 7:30 in the morning on Day #4. On Day #4 we insisted on sticking to the program and going from 6:30 to 9:00, and buying another 24-hour entry permit to cover the 7:30 - 9:00 period, when our second entry permit had expired. Instead, Timothy insisted on proceeding and that he would "sort it out" upon exit from the park. At the park gate he exited the vehicle and went by himself to "sort it out". Until then Timothy had provided us the receipts for the first two 24-hour periods. After returning to the vehicle I insisted on seeing the receipt for which he apparently paid, and he continued to avoid my question. I later read that the Narok County Government is notorious for this type of bribery at the Masai Mara park gate, and that Bencia Africa Adventures is not the only company to engage in such corruption. If you want to go to Masai Mara, I highly recommend getting a quote from a guiding company for all services WITHOUT including the price of entry permits, and simply pay the entry permits by yourself (at the time of writing, it is $80 per person for every 24 hour period). Without entry permits, the operating costs for the tour company will involve: transportation, fuel, and wear & tear of the safari vehicle, accomodation & meals (2500 KSH per night per person for budget accommodation), entry permit for the safari vehicle (1200 KSH per 24 hours), entry permit for the guide (1000 KSH per 24 hours), one time entry fee into Masai Village (1000 KSH per person). If your guide fails to provide a receipt for the park entry, please report the corruption to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. I reported Bencia today. Most importantly, if you do not support corruption, then I DO NOT recommend using the services of Bencia Africa Adventures.

I had a dream of doing I mountain hike, yeah and I thought mount Kenya would be a nice experience. I did my booking through this Company.for the 5 days mount Kenya hike and trust me I had the best experience ever!

Initially I booked a 2 days/1 night safari to the Maasai Mara through WhatsApp (awesome and easy way to do it I must add) I was picked up on time by my fantastic guide, dropped off at BAAS offices to finalize my booking and for payment. Unfortunately (not really in the end) another of my tours got cancelled and I was convinced by the very helpful guys at BAAS to book an extra day, which I did. Best decision I made, because the second day we did a full day safari and we basically saw all the wildlife possible. Absolutely amazing experience with an even more amazing guide (some top notch driving was displayed). Overnight stay at the camp in “tents” was above expectations (hot showers and electricity). Also super flexible at fitting a safari tour to everyone’s needs, which sometimes makes it all a little chaotic (different agencies, companies use the same camp/guides to do the tour, so people might have different itineraries), but the guide was very flexible and wanted to give everyone the best possible safari experience, so we came to a decision as a group. Would definitely book with these guys again, highly recommend.