Lake Natron

Booked a 7-day safari through Dakik Expeditions — the itinerary looked great, almost none of it happened as described

My husband and I booked this for our anniversary. Seven days, $6,280 for the two of us, Arusha > Lake Natron > Serengeti > Ngorongoro. We were referred to the agent by a mutual friend, got on a call with her, and said very clearly that the number one reason we picked August was the wildebeest migration. What she sent back was a gorgeous proposal. What we actually got was mostly not that. There were signs before we even flew. The itinerary took ages to arrive. Paying was its own saga; she was switching banks, and then the wire kept failing because she didn't have an official address, which dragged it out further. I messaged a few times in the run-up to make sure everything was set, and I never got contact details for a single person. No driver's name, no guide's name, no phone numbers. If you look at the itinerary there aren't even times in it. Just hotels. We landed and a random guy collected us who didn't seem to know which hotel he was taking us to. We asked if he'd be our driver for the week and he said no, only airport transfers. That night we messaged her asking when the first day started and heard nothing — then a text in the middle of the night saying pickup at 7:30am. We scrambled up, rushed breakfast, and spent a while trying to figure out whether the man outside was even the right driver, because nobody had told us anything. Four hours of driving later we pulled up at accommodation that wasn't what was in our itinerary; tented camping, not what we'd booked. We started messaging her about it and that's when it came out: she's based in Lebanon and had outsourced the whole trip to a middleman, who'd swapped in cheaper lodging to save money. It also explained the driver thing. She didn't know any of the details because she hadn't actually booked any of it. The migration was the entire reason we went in August, and she'd booked us in a way that meant we'd miss it — it was in the northern Serengeti and we were nowhere near. Our driver got us there off his own back, but it took a special request, extra fuel and an extra tip from us. He also had a dip of snuff in the whole time and rushed us constantly. The car was falling apart and the radio didn't work, so he couldn't talk to any of the other guides. One morning he told us 7am was the earliest we could go out; later we saw other vehicles already out there. I think he'd been drinking with his mates and didn't fancy an early start. I'd also given her my dietary requirements, and because she hadn't made the bookings herself those never reached anyone. Eating was a problem the whole week. Honestly Ngorongoro was a bit of a letdown too — crowded, and the animals you see from the road are ones you've already seen in the Serengeti. I wasn't angry, just deflated. We'd paid thousands and been so excited about a plan that was sold hard and looked amazing, and the trip we got wasn't the trip we bought. If I'd just booked the lodges myself and done the same route I think it would have been fine. The problem wasn't Tanzania at all. It was the company in the middle. Photos are pages from the actual proposal, with my name and reference number removed.