Epic Game Drive in Masai Mara
Lenchada Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2015)
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget & mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $2,602 to $13,009 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
NZ
Email Marcelo Ferreira Baute | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great guide, bad organisation
We did a 7 day safari with Lenchada Safaris and while the wildlife itself was incredible, there are serious transparency and communication issues that future travelers should know about.
The main problem was in Amboseli National Park. The safari package is sold and charged as if you enter Amboseli for 3 days, but in reality you only enter the park for 2. The itinerary clearly mentions a night game drive on day 5, a full day game drive on day 6, and a pre morning game drive on day 7.
The night game drive on day 5 never happened. Our guide clearly told us that they have NEVER done the Amboseli night game drive on day 5, yet it is still advertised in the itinerary they send to customers.
There was no refund and no option to recover the unused park entrance fee. This is not about a missed service. It is a park entrance ticket that was never used. Amboseli park tickets are valid for 24 hours. What they do is enter the park on day 6 around 10am, which allows them to re enter at 6am on day 7 using the same ticket. This means they only pay one park entrance instead of two, while charging the customer as if three days were included.
If you actually want to do the evening game drive on day 5, you would need to leave Hell’s Gate no later than 10am. This was not done and it was never communicated in advance.
I have screenshots of the emails from Lenchada Safaris showing the itinerary exactly as advertised (you can go to google reviews and check the actual conversation there in screenshots). I also have screenshots of WhatsApp conversations with Sam, the Operations Manager, where I raised this issue. In those messages, he first states that they never offered the day 5 game drive, and later says that because there is not enough time on day 5, they instead do the pre morning game drive on day 7. These explanations contradict each other.
I initially dealt with Collins during the booking process. He was responsive until the deposit was paid, but after that it became extremely difficult to get answers or support from him.
It is also worth mentioning that Lenchada Safaris is a subsidiary of Jocky Tours, which operates several other safari companies as well.
Our guide Kikitu was excellent, honest, and very knowledgeable, and the safari itself was enjoyable from a wildlife perspective. However, the itinerary is misleading, park fees are not handled transparently, and communication when issues arise is very poor. I strongly recommend clarifying exactly how many park entrances are truly included before booking.
Email Andrew | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Worst ever experience
As expats in Kenya, we have taken many safari trips, and the recent one to Masai Mara with Lenchada was unfortunately our worst ever experience. We chose this company out of their overwhelmingly good reviews on safaribookings.com. That probably means that most of their drivers are excellent. But our driver, named Tony, was an exception by a large margin.
Tony clearly hates his job and was cold and rude to us throughout the trip. Every time we met at the beginning of a game drive, he never greeted us and only responded to our greeting with a node. He never helped with our luggage either. During game drives, he never asked us or even notified us before starting the vehicle after a stop, never caring if we wanted to stay for longer. In several cases this interrupted our ongoing photography of animals, and sometimes even worse—the abrupt move of the vehicle on the bumpy road of Masai Mara caused us to fall on the seat. All three of us hit our knees on the armrest of the seats for a few times, and we all got bruises. Having paid a little more to take a private tour rather than a shared one, we expected that we could customize the game drives to a reasonable extent. When we tried to communicate with him about our preferences in animal viewing, however, Tony responded impatiently with cold words such as “You have to be patient,” “I have to follow instructions from the radio.”
And his words about following the radio turned out to be a lie, because his vehicle was not equipped with a radio! A radio is important for any safari trip, and especially for Masai Mara, since the natural reserve is simply too large. Even during the migration season, most part of Masai Mara at any given time would still be empty, and without a radio, on which dozens of drivers share their findings real-time, you will very likely end up not finding anything interesting for a whole hour. Two of the three of us fell asleep for around twenty to thirty minutes during the game drive. In the past we have taken safari trips in less renowned destinations and during low seasons, but the experiences have never been so boring for us that we fell asleep. It may be unbelievable that this happened in Masai Mara during the migration season, but when you don’t see any noteworthy animal for dozens of minutes it would be hard to stay awake. We did get to see some big cats, but that was only possible when we luckily encountered another vehicle that had radio, whose driver kindly shared the information, and our vehicle then made a U-turn to go back in the opposite direction for some fifteen minutes to get to the spot. With a radio we would probably have spent thirty minutes less to get there.
When we realized this problem, we contacted Alex, the managing person of Lenchada. Alex was responsive and attentive. He apologized for our experience, clarified that the driver’s practice of not carrying radio to a game drive is intolerable and against the company’s rules, and told us that he will soon make a thorough check on all the vehicles of his company to make sure that they must have radios. For us, however, the only thing he could offer as a remedy was to extend our final game drive by departing the lodge one hour earlier than planned. We appreciated his supportive attitude and accepted the offer, understanding that it was probably already all he could do within his capability. Tony was late, cutting the extended game-drive time from one hour to less than forty minutes. But the length of the trip turned out not a big issue, because during that extended final game drive, we again fell asleep, for the simple reason that the vehicle still didn’t have radio and we still had not much to see most of the time.
Although Tony had no radio, he attempted to cheat us by saying that he had one. It was only during the second day of the trip, when we heard him responding to another driver asking about information on animal spotting, saying in Swahili “Sina redio” (I don’t have a radio) that we realized he had been lying. When we contacted Alex about this concern, Alex hosted a three-way phone call with us and Tony. To our surprise, in the phone call Tony lied to his boss and insisted that he had a radio which he simply turned off because it was noisy. On our way back to Nairobi, Tony even blamed us for telling his boss about the radio issue, and still insisted that he has radio. When we pointed to the antenna holder in the front of his vehicle, where there was no antenna at all, he said that for some vehicles the antenna is in the back. But one only needs to get off the vehicle and look at its back to know that there’s no antenna there either. For so many times, Tony lied through his teeth.
Tony also told us that because of our complaint, he was going to lose his job. Due to his repetitive blatant lies, we would not believe in what he said. But if what he said is indeed true, that would be an indication that Lenchada really cared about their customers and promptly fired this unprofessional, dishonest, and rude employee. Such a person should simply not be allowed to work in this industry.
In other aspects of our trip that are unrelated to the driver, our experience was mostly positive. For example, the lodge was a good balance of quality and price. It is way cheaper than any accommodation inside Masai Mara, yet it’s only a ten-minute drive to the gate. Since their boss Alex is a responsible and honest person, and since there are many good reviews out there, choosing Lenchada for your safari may still be a good idea. But you have to make sure that your driver is not Tony, otherwise all those good reviews will be totally irrelevant to your actual experience.
CH
Email Shadowdancer5 | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Depending on the guide if ypu have a good or bad experience
The first part with Samuel as a guide was very good. I can highly recommend him!
Unfortunately we had to shift car and guide after 4 days. From then on the organisation was bad. We had different programms in the group, so they wanted us to compromise. I had to call the agency to clarify what we booked.
JP
Email Hiroki | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
He had a kind personality and was very good.
It was a very enjoyable trip because he treated us, who were not good at English, politely.
ES
Email Lourdes | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Correct
The program was ok, we watched lots of animals, but it would be fine if you change the jeep, ours was very old and dirty!!
DE
Email Juergen | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unique animal diversity
We did a 6-day trip with Lenchada Safaris in September 24. Massai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli. All parks have their own character, the variety of animals is fascinating and unique. Unfortunately, the operator only informed us of price increases 2 weeks before the start of the safari and only after we asked. Communication was problem-free, however. Lenchada and Jokey Tours are apparently one and the same operator.
Massai Mara: large herds, many wild cats and the impressive Mara River with hippos and crocodiles. Accommodation: Lenchada camps. The tent was clean and spacious. The facility is getting old. There were no chairs on the terrace and the dining area was a disgrace. There was no “campfire feeling” here.
Lake Nakuro: lots of water birds, rhinos, monkeys and buffalo. Accommodation: standard hotel in the Buruha Zenoni Hotel not far from the park entrance.
Amboseli: impressive backdrop with Kilimanjaro in the background. Large herds of elephants. Really great. Accommodation: highly, highly recommended the Manjaro Camp. Super friendly, good tents and good food.
Travel times/driver: The distances between the parks are very long. The main roads are heavily congested. Travel times of 6-8 hours are the norm. Our driver drove extremely carefully, but was not very taciturn.
Conclusion: The parks are truly uniquely beautiful. Lenchada Safaris can only be recommended to a limited extent. They look everywhere for savings. For example, they drove to an inferior lodge without prior agreement (but we were able to successfully refuse). You should have everything confirmed in writing beforehand.
(automatic translation from German)
IE
Email Alan Carr | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari and saw tons of wildlife but operations need some work
3.5 stars - Overall the tour was great. If you are looking for a budget safari this is for you.
Pros
- saw loads of wildlife
- tour guides David and Evans were helpful and informative (Evans especially)
- accommodation was clean and very comfortable
- food was very tasty
Cons
- the tour charged us a 5% FX fee which is outrageous (extra 25 USD)
- long periods of driving with no breaks or snacks (6/7 hours)
- we had to ask for bathroom breaks
- couple of other hidden charges that weren’t clear (bicycles in hells gate were extra and so was Masai Mara village tour)
- hot springs were in our itinerary and we never went
Fine
I had to share my room with a stranger. So I contacted the safari company in may ways. What they did was just ignoring me. I think that is not the way.
By the wat the tour guys were great!
Email Svenja Alexandra Reincke | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great camp, delicious food but guide was just a driver and did not explain anything.
Good communication and very punctual. Excellent food throughout especially at the camp. No water was provided however even though this was supposed to be included. Beautiful camp but guide was utterly useless - very good driver but he did not explain anything at all so really disappointing.
AE
Email Paul | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing safari, small hiccups
We used Lenchada for 4 days on a private tour, visiting the Maasai Mara and Lakes Naivasha and Nakuru.
Richard (Ritchie) was our driver/guide and was incredible. He was very friendly, incredibly knowledge, and passionate about Kenya and the animals there. He also worked incredibly hard to make our safari as great as possible, hurtling over plains to make sure we saw as many incredible things as possible, including the 'Big 5'. Collins in the office was also swift and accommodating with our various requests and questions.
There were a couple of small issues with Lenchada that could be improved. The itinerary changed (both the route and accommodation) without notice. This didn't make the experience worse, but it was unsettling. It cost 5% more to pay by card, which felt unreasonable as nobody will carry that much cash on holiday. The bathroom in the Maasai camp left a lot to be desired, including an unaddressed leak in the bathroom.
Overall some minor quibbles but an incredible experience.