pollman's tours & safaris

Solomon and David were an outstanding team of guide/driver on our 4-day stay in the Masai Mara. They were exceptional in their ability to spot various animals and predict their movements. They also learned the interests of each of our 6 group members and accommodated each of our interests. They were also very generous and forthright in sharing information about their Maasi culture and practices and answering any and all of our questions.

SIAD MSUYA: This man is employed by Overseas Adventure Travel, a US company out of Boston, Pollmans Tours and Safaris LTD. of Nairobi Kenya and their sister company Ranger Safaris, out of Arusha Tanzania, Africa. He was a group leader for two vehicles of retired US citizens and two Canadians, whom he treated as if we were in prison. This was his mantra “You will be with me for 17 days 24 hours a day, you are not to engage local vendors, or speak to anyone whom I have not given you permission to do so, you are not to do anything alone or spoil the children.”Life with Siad included:• Driving for six hours in truck with an alarm buzzer sounding, he sat in the other vehicle, even though we passed several garages where it could have been disabled.• A driver forced a woman who had to relieve herself and was in great discomfort to wait for over an hour even though we went by several places she could have gone.• Refused to allow us to speak to the locals and purchase goods from them, we could only buy where he decided.• Would not allow the members of his group to do anything unescorted then abandoned an older women on the road to town because she could not physically keep up and a couple because they gave candy to a child.• Would not provide sufficient drinking water and made it difficult for us to buy any.• Would not provide access to banks or currency exchanges to obtain local currency.• Allowed shopping only where he wanted and it was always more expensive than anywhere else.• Was very disrespectful to his clients and spoke down to them.• Imposed himself into a female only setting in an inappropriate manner.• Allowed one of his drivers to verbally sexually harass a client and did not remove him from his post at the first available opportunity. He explained to the client “men here talk that way to women, its cultural”. • When told not to spoil the children by giving candy to them, the client explained in our culture children come first in every way. The example was given that if there was not enough food the parent would do without for days to provide for the children. Siad responded “that’s not our culture”.• When we were taken into a small town for a walk about, we were told not to talk to anyone or engage the vendors. This was the only town we were taken to in 17 days, the town in which his father lives, and we could not help the local economy.• “Don’t give candy to children because it will spoil them” but gave locals money every time you wanted to take a picture of them. Who is spoiling who?• Without prior written or verbal notice, Said told two clients to leave the country that afternoon or the next morning at the latest.• After giving less than 24 hours’ notice to a couple to leave the country, he refused to provide the phone number of his superior or to allow them a means to make the phone calls necessary to make arrangements themselves.• Cheated the client of beverage services eligible to them.The following are some of the details regarding the behaviour of the worst guide in Africa; Siad Msuya would insist on riding in the lead truck, the second truck was to follow his lead. This was difficult because the second truck was new and had a buzzer that would sound at 76 kilometres per hour a feature which had been disconnected on the vehicle he rode in. To keep up during a one day, six hour drive, the buzzer sounded for at least five of those six hours. When we complained we were told the buzzer would be disabled for the next trip. Nice so what about us now? We stopped by the office/garage of Pollman’s, the owner of the vehicle, where we could have switched trucks, we did not. There were several trucks parked there or a mechanic could have disabled the buzzer. He did not do that, instead of joining in our misery and discomfort or having the lead driver go slower so we could keep up, Siad did nothing and sat comfortable and quietly in the other truck.One of the women in the second truck needed to relieve herself; she was told that they could not stop at the side of this road because of snakes. Meanwhile we had be use the great outdoors for weeks already; it was the driver’s job to check for animals, why not this time. Because this time Siad was way out front and if he stopped he’d never catch up. She was told by the driver not to worry since we would soon be arriving at our designated lunch spot. Soon became 45 minutes then 1 hour plus before we stopped. We went by several places, road side bars/eateries, where we could have stopped but we didn’t because the second truck with its obnoxious buzzer had to keep up with the lead truck. The second driver was so afraid of Siad he did not radio him to advice that an emergency stop was required; instead he forced her to endure significant discomfort.On another occasion, one of the women from the lead truck abruptly joined our vehicle, she was visibly upset and when asked why she was joining us she said she had to leave the other vehicle. Later it was determined the group bully was not responsible this time for her distress. She had been sitting in the front passenger seat and the driver started speaking to her in an inappropriately sexual manner. Once she calmed down, Siad explained it was ok because men in Africa talk that way to women. As opposed to removing the man and providing another driver, the woman was asked to accept his inappropriate speech as merely a cultural thing. The drivers if working with North Americans should be trained in sexual harassment and it should be a zero tolerance policy.In small town named Karuta where Siad’s father lives, close to Ngorongoro Crater, near the city of Arusha, Tanzania, Said showed his true nature. He is well known by the street vendors for taking his groups for a walk, however, instead of assisting with the local economy he forbids the members of his group to speak to anyone and consequently to buy from no one. If the client wants to take a picture you are mandated to ask Siad and he will request the permission of the person and then pay that person. I am polite enough to ask someone’s permission before I take their picture. If they do not want their picture take then I respect that. I’m not sure how this is considered appropriate when giving a candy to a child is enough to have you kicked out of the group. Siad said giving candy to children would spoil them. Where this argument falls apart is that paying them to take their picture will not, go figure.The town walk: At the beginning of this four hour walk, there was a very long steep hill from our Lodge leading to the village of Karatu. One of the ladies soon figured out she was not going to be able to make it, when she was about half a kilometre up the hill. Instead of putting her in a local tuk tuk to the top of the hill, which would have cost about $0.25 cents, he sent her back to the lodge, alone. Remember we had been told at nauseam, you cannot do anything alone and then he abandons this retired lady from the US because she couldn’t keep up with the pack. WHAT! Well I guess Siad believes instead of accommodating the weak, it’s survival of the fittest, just like we had been witnessing on the savannah with animal packs. Now on the subject of water: Our tour group literature advised we would be provided with unlimited water, Siad insisted we were only allowed 1 litre per day per person. The first day he provided us with only a half-litre each, when we mentioned it the following day we were given the correct amount. In the morning when we asked of our water rations, he would advise, it was too early to start drinking you’ll run out. One lady insisted she wanted hers right away because she was thirsty, when the rest of us later asked for our rations, the driver was quick to point out she could not have another because she had already been given her ration for the day. Even after being shown the literature, he still refused to provide very thirsty people with water. When we asked if we could stop to buy water he advised it was not on the program, maybe tomorrow. He had no problem stopping, at yet another cheap souvenir shop, which was not on the program. No one wanted another cheap souvenir; we wanted to stop at a grocery store to buy a 5 litre bottle of water, not those scrawny little bottles that are spread all over the landscape and more expensive. After 10 days of complaining he finally cleared it with his boss Emily XX from Overseas Adventure Travel and announced that we would be given additional water at meal times.It was at this same time that my husband and I were also made aware that Overseas Adventure Travel had also provided for a free glass of wine or a bottle of beer or pop with both lunch and dinner. Siad did not ever offer this to us. Wonder where the money for that went?Let’s talk about where he allowed us to buy our souvenirs. These were at designated places only because he did not like for us to engage local vendors. In this situation the passengers in the lead truck had been advised that when they arrived at the park entrance, they were to go the bathroom but not to buy from the Masai women. I was not in the lead truck so had not been so instructed. I engaged the women and bought several beaded bracelets at what I considered a fair price. Later when we were allowed to shop at a Masai village we visited, with a school sponsored by Overseas Adventure Travel\Grand Circle, their prices were double that of what I had already paid. We were served up a as captive clientele and overcharged. I can understand the organization wanting us to support them but they should at least be providing competitive prices. It was obvious Siad was not considerate of our expenses at all.During this village visit, the women were separated from the men, for question period with your own sex. We were told we could ask any sensitive female related questions; the problem was that Siad, a man, would be interpreting. This was inappropriate and tasteless and I felt uncomfortable. A woman should have been appointed for this task. Lastly, as mentioned before, children were not to be given candy because it spoils them. This is exactly the reason my husband gives candy to children and had been asked not to do so for this reason, on one other occasions, my husband gave a little girl a candy. She ran to her mom and both had big smiles. Siad on the other hand was livid and kicked us off the walk telling us to go back to the lodge. He redressed my husband in a very rude and disrespectful manner in front of the group. His outburst should have been kept a private conversation, if it was to occur at all. During the same village walk, as mentioned above, he abandoned a single retired woman on the road to town. Now he had abandoned two Canadian citizens as well, after having previously preached that his group was not to do anything alone. He left us alone.Siad would not provide us with opportunities to buy the goods we wanted and he did not provide us with an opportunity to buy local currency either. You see all the places he allowed us to shop took U.S, currency at rip-off rates, usually a 20% commission or local currency only. We are Canadian. We brought a large stock of U.S. but we were beginning to run out. We needed to get currency and it is almost always cheaper for us to buy goods with the local currency. We had suggested at the end of the village walk we would stay in town to go to the bank, he indicated he would consider this request and that yes the rest of the day would be “free time”. Now that he had abandoned us, we were free to go to the bank and do our own village tour. This further infuriated him. His definition of free time was to sit by the pool or stay in your room.Upon his return to the lodge, he ordered us to leave Tanzania. He said that he had spoken to his boss, Emily and she agreed. There would be no compromise or discussion. We were to call our airline at once and go to the airport that afternoon or the next morning at the latest. He stated that Emily fully supported his decision. Since he could not stop my husband from giving candy to children, even though he had in fact given his last one to the little girl, Overseas Adventure Travel would only give us 18 hours to leave. They stated they would no longer provide assistance or bear any responsibility for us. Emily advised me that it is not uncommon for this company to abandon their clients in foreign countries. When asked about a refund he said that was not likely to happen. When asked to talk to his boss Emily, he said he needed to charge his phone to get her number. When asked if once his phone was charged if we could use it to call his boss he refused. When asked if we bought an international phone card could we call the Boston head office from his phone, he said no. When we asked if we could buy a card for the hotel land line to call Boston, they said no, on Said’s instructions, they could not allow us to make outgoing calls.We sat at a table outside the lobby while waiting for Said’s phone to charge so we could get his bosses phone number. I caught him squatting just out of our sight, under the window where we were sitting. He said this was the only place he could charge his phone. After 30 minutes we finally gave up and went into town to buy a phone card and access a phone borrowed from a stranger. We left the Lodge because we needed to start making calls to straighten this mess out. A stranger familiar with Siad, saw we were in trouble and jumped into help. When we finally reached Said’s boss she was in an offsite meeting and could not be reached that afternoon. I asked if she could be disturbed because this was an emergency and was told no. After having spoken to the Overseas Adventure Travel, Tanzanian head office and the Boston office Emily called me back to say she fully supported her staff and we would have to leave the country. She admitted they did this type of thing all the time. If we had bought our travel with OAT they would have rescheduled and shipped us back. Where they had it wrong was that we did not have to leave the country.Not sure if anyone noticed here but the concept of the customer is always right never entered Siad logic nor his boss’s logic. A guide job is a very prestigious and difficult job to obtain, especially in Kenya and Tanzania, Said is a client’s worst nightmare and needs to be stopped before he abandons other foreigners in Africa. We were able to make alternative arrangements with a locally owned company called Macho Halisi. Thanks to the very friendly and extremely helpful local people our trip was saved. Thanks to Richard and Adam for their invaluable assistance we were able to salvage our trip. OAT has provided a refund but the amount is significantly lower than the cost of a last second rebooking. Macho Halisi picked us up the next morning and the rest of our trip went very smoothly. We were always treated as valued clients in a respectful manner. It felt like a great burden was lifted off of our shoulders leaving us free to experience and explore the wonders of Tanzania.

Just got back from 2 weeks safari (Nov 2 to Nov 14) in Kenya and Tanzania booked through African Safari Direct (ASD) of UK (Bexhill-on Sea, East Sussex). The ground operators were Pollmans in Kenya and Rangers in Tanzania. ASD also booked our resort in Zanzibar.After contacting six to seven tour operators including local outfitters, we’ve decided to use ASD. At first we were kind of hesitant about ASD as googled on ASD came up with very little results. However, due to the fact that ASD was able to offer us an itinerary that suited our needs, and accepts credit card when most operators wanted cash or wire-transfer, it was a calculated risk. I corresponded with Mike Toogood of ASD and found their services exceptional and everything delivered exactly as promised including all special requests. His price was better than any including local agents. Been to over 125 countries and I must say he’s one of the very best travel agent in my over 40 years of travelling. Subsequent googling on Mike Toogood indicated that he’d actually lived in Tanzania for 12 years involved in the safari field. From start to finish, the tour was a fantastic experience and gave us memories (pride of lioness in action after a wildebeest, newly borned impala taking it’s first step, pride of lions with four cubs, papa simba with black mane widely awake, pride of lions gorging on freshly killed buffalo, single lioness took down a zebra all by herself, and dragging all 600 lbs of it to hide in the bush, baby elephant making bluff charges at our safari vehicle, two buffalos skirmishing/locking horns, two baby elephants wrestling each other, spotted leopards on three occasions at three separate parks, cheetah gorging on freshly killed gazelle, pod of hippos migrating from one pool to another, reverse migration of wildebeest on the Seronera plain, group of white rhinos in Lake Nakuru and a black rhino in Serengeti plain, etc.) that we will never forget. We saw the big five in the first two days of our safari. We had Wanje in Kenya and Israel in Tanzania as our driver/guides. Both were very knowledgeable, professional and accomodating. We were very fortunate to see leopards on three separate occasions.If there’s one flaw, it would be the visit to the Masai Village in Masai Mara. The Masais there tend to be a bit aggressive and intimidating.All lodges that we stayed in were simply outstanding, architectural wise as well as customer service.As far as ground operators were concerned, Pollmans provided exceptional services. Rangers of Tanzania went above and beyond their call of duty by transporting us with no extra charge to Kili International Airport when Precision Air (which we booked ourself) switched the departing airport from Arusha to Kili on our flight to Zanzibar with no prior notice. In addition, Julius of Ranger assisted by enlisting the help of Arusha Coffee Lounge (many thanks to Benjamin of Arusha Coffee Lounge) to re-arrange our flight home from Zanzibar with Ethiopian Airline due to a flight change schedule, when we had so much trouble contacting our own travel agent back home who arranged our international flight originally. I highly recommend ASD, Pollmans, Rangers and Arusha Coffee Lounge for their superb service.

I found Pollman's to be very professional from start to finish. Our guide, Thomas, was amazing. He was always on time (early in fact) for every excursion. He constantly checked that our needs were being met. Thomas was a fountain of knowledge on the parks, the animals, the plants, the habitat, life in Kenya in general, and things that tourists should know. Thomas worked hard to give us the best experience possible and he was successful. We saw almost every possible animal, including cheetahs, a leopard, black rhinos, and lions. He even located a lion family where the parents were sleeping on top of a rock and the four young lions were playing in the grass. When I experienced a very minor medical problem Thomas ensured that I was looked after by a nearby doctor. I travelled with Thomas to Masai Mara, Nakuru, and Amboseli, and each park had its own unique environment. The hotels were very good, service was wonderful, and everyone I met was friendly and helpful. What a trip! Highly recommended.

Pollmans are such a professional, friendly and reasonable safari tour company; we booked through Trailfinders and didn't really know what to expect. We had Athanas as our guide for a week, and he was the most informative and enthusiastic guide. From picking us up at our hotel in Nairobi, to dropping us back off a week later.We traveled through the Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, an impromptu trip to Elsamere at Navaisha, and then Amboseli. He was constantly looking at things to make our experience even better, and he succeeded every time. Even down to changing the tour times ever so slightly in order to capture the "best shot". He had good contacts when it came to added tours, such as a Lake Navaisha boat tour; and a bicycle tour through Hell's Gate National Park. He is truly incredible and an asset to Pollmans.Pollmans as a company provided an excellent guide; a serviceable and comfortable vehicle; lots of informative brochures and leaflets; and an amazing experience. If we ever get the opportunity to come back then Pollmans will be our first choice.

We traveled with Pollman's in Sept 2014 booked via Monogram's Travel. Our first guide, Alex Sempele picked us up in Nairobi, and stayed with us through Sambura, Lake Nakuru, and Masai Mara. During the game drives, he was always on the radio with the other guide, finding where the animals were and he was excellent at positioning our jeep so we had a great view and got great pictures. He seemed to know where the animals would head next so we would be in place as they came toward us. After we flew out of Masai Mara, we had a different guide for the last 3 days who, while good, was not as good, so I think getting a great guide makes a difference. Throughout the trip, all our games drives and transfers went absolutely smoothly. I would definitely recommend Pollmans to any friend who planned to travel to Africa.

We travelled with Pollmans in September 2014 on the Kenya Safari as part of our honeymoon and cannot recommend it highly enough.From start to finish the tour was a fantastic experience and gave us memories that we will never forget. The tour included visits to the Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli each with their own character. By visiting all three it meant that we got to see all the animals that we wanted in large numbers including week old cheetah cubs! We also added the hot balloon trip to our excursion and would encourage others to do so if they can afford to. We would also like to recommend our driver Ahmed who really made the whole trip for us with his knowledge, experience and sense of humour. He had an obvious desire to make each of the passenger's experiences special and memorable and took time out to really get to know the people he was guiding - finding what you particularly wanted to see and experience and then did all he could to make sure this happened. He also made sure we felt safe and secure throughout the whole trip. The only downside was that he was an Arsenal fan but we won't hold that against him! His hard work ensured our honeymoon experience was one we will never forget.Finally the accommodation was also a really pleasant surprise with very nice rooms and great food at each of the three that we stayed in as well as the added bonus of all three having pools (although a couple were pretty cold!).Would definitely recommend this trip and Pollmans to anyone thinking of visiting Kenya for a Safari.

I Went on Safari with Pollman's in 2012 from Nairobi with driver Hodge. Worked our way down to the Masai Mara a long drove staying at 2 lodges on he way. We stayed at Keekorok Lodge, photo hunting for the big 5. We did not see a leopard but a cheetah instead. We saw 2 kills, the cheetah with a young wilder beast and a lioness with a zebra. We pulled into a large lions den of all the family for a great photo shoot. We also got photos of a snake eagle, giraffes, elephants and many more. The safari in the Masai Mara lived up to my expectations thanks to our driver guide Hodge. Hodge was so very informative and became our friend to us five on this trip. He took us to the Masai cultural village which I enjoyed talking to the Masai warrior whom took me in to his hut and introduced me to his mother and explained their existence over the years, although he did have his own mobile phone which made me laugh. The experience was great and that was down to Hodge our driver. The tip is let your driver become your friend.

We decided to start at 7am which was a very good choice to see some of the animals. We saw 3 of the big 5, our guide was even taking pictures as we got the best views he had ever seen! Good job and there was only 2 of us in the truck which made it even better!

Did a safari tour in july in kenya with Pollmans , must complement your company on its way of running your tour s and a big thank you to Athanas Kilenge Kisumba our driver for 6 days who was very informative and help full ( hope your keeping well , keep up the good work )