Lush Africa SafarisReviews of lushafricasafaris.com

My experience with Lush Africa Safaris My experience with Lush Africa Safaris was unfortunately far below what had been agreed and paid for in advance. I booked and fully paid by early July for a tour in Uganda from 14 to 23 August 2026. Problems started from the very first night in Entebbe. During the trip, I discovered several activities had not been booked and some services were different from those confirmed. The Batwa community experience had not been communicated to the guide, and the boat excursion had not been booked. In Bwindi, the first accommodation was different from the one agreed and was of a lower standard. The second accommodation was also different from the one listed in the itinerary confirmed before departure. Towards the end of the trip, I also discovered that the chimpanzee trekking had not been booked and that the hotel for the night of 22 August had not been booked either. On several occasions, I had to show the guide my own itinerary to explain what was supposed to be included in the trip. I want to make it clear that Steven, our driver and guide, did his best to solve organisational problems that were not his responsibility. Another important issue concerned the Italian-speaking assistance I had paid for. I was supposed to have an Italian-speaking companion/translator, but at the last minute a replacement was sent who had no previous experience in this role and had never been to Uganda. I want to stress that she was kind, helpful and did her very best. She was a lovely person and we are still in contact today. My criticism is therefore not directed at her personally, but at the agency’s organisation: the service provided was not the professional service I had paid for. At the end of the trip, I was also asked to pay an additional USD 360 for the final night in Entebbe, which I disputed. After returning home, I sent the agency a detailed complaint. On 25 August, I was told they were collecting reports before giving me a proper response. I waited and followed up several times, including on 4 and 7 September, and again afterwards. I eventually formally requested a written response and a solution within seven days. Despite the time that has passed and my repeated attempts to obtain clarification, to date I have received neither a substantive response nor any concrete proposal to resolve the matter. I deliberately waited before publishing this review to give Lush Africa Safaris enough time and opportunity to explain what happened and resolve the situation. My review is therefore not based on one isolated problem, which can of course happen during any trip, but on the number of organisational failures, the differences between what was agreed and what was actually provided, and finally the lack of proper handling of my complaint after I returned home. Based on my experience, the repeated organisational problems during the trip and, above all, the lack of response to my complaint afterwards, I cannot recommend Lush Africa Safaris. I chose to travel with an agency precisely so that I could enjoy my trip without having to deal with organisational problems myself, but unfortunately that was not my experience.

I booked a great migration 3 night 4 days Masai Mara safari with Abbey of Lush African Safaris 15 months ago, paid $4700 in full 8 months ago. It is for my 50th birthday and our honeymoon. Today, 7 days prior to travel, I’ve received an email from a lawyer in Uganda stating a 3rd party has disappeared with some of the money we have paid. We have 4 options. 1-proceed with the original safari but pay an additional $3500 2-reschedule at no extra cost. Obviously not an option as we have international flights and a add on in Zanzibar booked 3-use an alternative tour operator at our own cost 4-request a refund but it states they are putting the company into bankruptcy so this process may involve delays All options are unacceptable. Also as they haven’t actually filed for bankruptcy we can’t claim on our travel insurance. So we have lost £3500 and it’s ruined our honeymoon

We chose Lush Africa Safaris because of its overwhelmingly positive reviews. Unfortunately, our experience was the complete opposite, and I cannot recommend this company. Our trip was planned by Abbey Rafsanjan, Director and Safari Consultant. Before we made our final payment, Abbey was responsive, professional, and provided what appeared to be a well-organized itinerary with detailed descriptions of every hotel and activity. Once payment was made, however, the level of service changed dramatically. The most serious issue was that three hotels on our confirmed itinerary were changed without our knowledge or consent. In every case, the replacement hotel was of a lower rating and significantly lower nightly cost than the hotel we had paid for. On the first night, after more than 24 hours of travel, our driver took us to a different hotel than the one listed on our itinerary. We had no reason to suspect we were being taken somewhere else. We only realized the substitution several days later when we returned to Kigali. We immediately contacted Abbey and asked that we be moved to the hotel we had originally booked. He replied that he was in a meeting and would call us back. He never did. After waiting for over an hour, we paid for rooms at the correct hotel ourselves rather than spend another night at the downgraded property. A second hotel substitution could not be corrected because we did not discover it until we arrived. The third substitution we caught in time, and we instructed our guide to take us to the hotel that was actually on our itinerary instead of the replacement. We requested reimbursement for the unauthorized hotel substitutions, but our requests were ignored. Abbey stopped responding to our emails and messages altogether. There were also problems with the activities we had paid for. Our itinerary included a morning safari, but our guide told us Abbey had never informed him about it. Had I not insisted that the safari was included in our itinerary, we would have missed an excursion that had already been paid for. As a result, we spent the entire trip having to verify each day's schedule with our guide to make sure we would actually receive the hotels and activities we had purchased. That is not how anyone should have to spend a vacation. Ironically, before booking, I noticed two reviews mentioning unauthorized hotel substitutions but dismissed them because there were so many positive reviews. That was a mistake. Our experience closely matched those reviews. I've learned that sometimes the negative reviews reveal problems that shouldn't be ignored. A safari in Rwanda is an expensive, once-in-a-lifetime trip. When you pay for specific accommodations and activities, you should receive exactly what you purchased—or at the very least be notified of any unavoidable changes and compensated appropriately. Unfortunately, that was not our experience with Lush Africa Safaris. Based on our experience, I cannot recommend this company.

I do not recommend Lush Africa Safaris. Abbey, the owner, was terrible about communication unless it involved asking for more money. He would outright lie, claiming things were booked when they weren’t, and failed to follow through on commitments and providing pertinent information. I had to repeatedly remind him about details, and his last-minute scrambling caused us significant stress and lost sleep. The vehicle we were given in Uganda was awful—not a “luxury” vehicle at all. The seatbelts, AC, cooler, and even the armrest didn’t work. On our very first day, before we had even started the safari, we got a flat tire on the highway. Then, two days in a row, we had a dead battery, which nearly caused us to miss our chimp trekking. We lost hours dealing with these issues and waiting for a replacement vehicle. When I raised these concerns with Abbey, he dismissed them with a simple “sorry to hear about your situation with the vehicle.” This is HIS company, and according to one of our guides, he owns the vehicles. He knew—or should have known—that what he provided was neither the luxury safari vehicle he promised nor even a safe vehicle for such a trip. He also didn’t book our flight from Kigali to Nairobi until just 36 hours before departure, despite assuring me it had been booked more than two months earlier. This caused us to have to change our itinerary at the last minute as he didn’t put us on the flight he told me we would be on. On top of that, he forgot to book our hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti—even though it had been paid for nearly a year in advance. The one positive: the tour guides themselves were excellent, especially Derrick in Uganda. He was outstanding, and I truly hope he finds another company to work for—he’s far too good to be tied to someone who caused as much stress and disappointment as Abbey did.