Tanzania Travel Forum

We are planning a Tanzania safari and are concerned about the large sum of money we need to send to the company (avocet safaris) as a deposit. How do we know that it's not a scam?

Uh! I hate the feeling of wondering if something is a scam. I have not taken a safari, but took a second to look thru the VT pages for people who had. Some just talked about "go on safari" - I found member PeterSweden who looked like he liked all outdoors, mentioned he liked Roy Safaris.
I then looked at their pages and noticed they were member of several travel organizations: http://www.roysafaris.com/roy.html

When I searched the avocet page, I did not see any such affiliations.

If it was my trip, I would probably check out roysafaris with the travel organization they have listed as belonging in their page, and check if avocet is a member of any of those organizations (The Tanzania travel organization avocet claims to beling to yielded a Not Found the two times i tried to pull it up). I would consider switching to another company, if not Roy's, at least a place that belonged to some travel organizations and can be verified via these organizations.

Not fool proof, but a little more encouraging than your current situation.

I find their website very concerning. How is the deposit to be paid? By credit card? You have rights. Otherwise they could walk away. There are ZERO pictures of them! All their pictures look lifted from somewhere else - like postcards... Why would they not have pictures of their happy customers and efficient staff? Also there is no address, no telephone number on their contact page, just an email that you can send and that does not work. Their link to the Tour Operators Association does not work. They say that have been in business since 1999. So why can’t you find them on the internet. No references to them.

You can contact the association by telephone and ask them about this company. Their website is here:

http://tanzaniatouristboard.com/associations

How much as a percentage are they asking for and what method of payment?

They don’t seem to actually do an safaris if you read some of the website. Something about organising them, that’s not the same as doing.

And not a single detail of names of people who work there.

Sorry to sound negative, buy I wouldn’t hand over anything to these guys except a credit card.

All the best,

DAO

Just to give you an idea of a safari company website I would have more faith in look at these:

http://www.predators-safaris.com/
http://www.go2tanzania.co.uk/?gclid=CLu-r7-92JICFQIcuwodVUGx6Q
http://www.bushcampsafaris.com/info.html

I would not book with Avocet, but that's just me.

The problem with the link is that it's wrong. The right one is http://www.tatotz.com/index.html and Avocet is a member. I actually got the name of this agency from this forum. Somebody recomended it.
I also emailed a few people and asked for referencies and everyone said they are good.
Thanks to all of you for your replies.

I hope you have a good time and glad you got the references. Their website is very very poor.

try www.go2tanzania.co.uk - Office is in Ingleton in Yorkshire. It is managed by Christine who was born and brought up in Tanzania. She visits Tanzania several times a year and will be able to advise you.

I'm chekcing out Avocet Safari too. Did you end up joinging their tour? If so, any feedback?

Thanks!