This is a free speech review on based on my personal opinions and experiences as a result of my Kenya safari experience with Nicky Glover, Pamela Langhoff and travel consultants Eyes on Africa, Chicago, IL (www.eyesonafrica.net) that claims to book safaris to Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa. It is not in any way associated with or sponsored by Eyes on Africa, Nicky Glover or Pamela Langhoff.
This experience is not in any way related to www.eyesonafricasafaris.com or Eyes on Africa Day Tours based in Kenya.
Please see the comment notes highlighting the below on the PDF's, then download the file and open in Acrobat reader or contact me.
Eyes on Africa:
- Provided the wrong itinerary and never alerted me to the further errors in it after the 1st brought to their attention and their promise to do so, plus failed to provide major terms regarding times, cancellation policies and other important travel information;
- Stated they have no one monitoring email or phones 24 hrs unbelievably while they have clients needing help in time zones that makes this totally unacceptable;
- Booked nothing themselves; a foreign, totally incompetant, third party travel agency (Bush-and-Beyond.com) made all bookings which leaves you unable to get your receipts or any recourse on your trip or thereafter and which stated that they never even read the Eyes on Africa itinerary to ensure it was correct and never corrected the many errors after the first one upon request;
- Refused to provide receipts for lodgings and transportation requested for insurance claims post trip and having failed to properly disclose major terms re cancellation and changes made it impossible to purchase the correct leves of insurance prior;
- Lied to the insurance company regarding costs and contrary to express direction not to communicate regarding my claims as I refused to participate in their insurance fraud once I saw their lies;
- Marked lodging and transportation up over 25% discovered upon my research of actual retail price based on my research to obtain receipts since Eyes on Africa never provided them;
- Failed to call my Kenyan cell phone or contact me to confirm my safety when Kizingo Lodge in Lamu reported me missing to Kenyan authorities and Bush and Beyond.
- Refused to refund anything to make up for the above when requested, made excuses and blamed me for their errors (for example, they listed the wrong itinerary as car transportation when in fact a flight was booked and both the flight and the destination were entirely missing from their itinerary, to the lodge and in response to my complaint when I arrived home told me "I opted for car transportation" blaming me for relying on their mistaken itinerary!) re the horrible service they provided.
Don't put your trust and physical safety in untrustworthy and immoral hands. Responsible service providers don't outsource their entire jobs to 3rd parties, fail to respond when you are reported missing, take responsibility for their mistakes and make things right. Eyes on Africa wasted my time, took a ton of money they never earned and ruined what should have been the trip of my life.
Here's to hoping you have a great safari and my saving you the nightmare I went through as I feel a moral duty (unlike Eyes on Africa) to ensure this never happens to another traveller.
Remember, no one cares more about your trip that you do, so save your time (managing your "service provider's" mess) and money (thousands as a mark up) and do it all yourself!
For questions or how to book your own trip or where/when to go, feel free to contact me as I'm happy to help and made great contacts I'm still friends with the people and at the Kenyan lodges who saved the day after Eyes on Africa ruined it: Judith at (((ROR redacted)))