Monika Tours & Safaris

Homepage: http://www.monikasafaris.org

E-Mail: info@monikasafaris.org

International Phone: +254-734-743 568

2024-07-27 18:10:22 - Annette Date: July 2024 Duration: 1 day Guide Name: Winnie

Service: Organisation: Guide Qualification: Guide Friendliness: Vehicle: Food: Ecological Awareness: Expectations met: Value for Money:

Comment: MonikaTours knowingly put our lives in danger!!! We were walk-in clients to their Diani office and they sold us a day trip to Wasini Island. Here are all of the things that went wrong: 1. No one showed up to pick us up in the morning. We finally called Monika and then someone came over 40 minutes late in a tiny economical car. 2. One of the workers at Monika Tours, Winnie, was also in the car going on the tour. When the driver picked up a third client (we were two people) then Winnie crowded in the back seat with us. This was a tiny car not meant for three adults in the back and it was very hot and uncomfortable crowded in the back seat for two hours to get to the “port” of Wasini. 3. The people at the port did not put us on a seaworthy boat with appropriate engine to go into big waves and open water. Instead Winnie said “oh those boats are all used up” even though she had sold us the tour and described in detail that we would be in one of the large wooden sea going boats. Instead we and other people, with Winnie, were put in a little boat they use for ferrying people back and forth across the inlet to the island. If I knew what lay ahead I would have refused to go, but I didn’t. I’ll attach pictures of what we should have been on versus what we were on. 4. The captain took the boat out into open water and immediately we are hitting high waves with our boat. The kind that could tip us over if one sideswiped us. Waves are splashing into the boat getting us wet. And the so-called “captain” has one hand on the engine and spent most of the time texting on his phone with the other hand. Please see another customer’s review of Monika Tours where on this same trip the engine quit on the boat. If that had happened with the boat we were in we all would have capsized with those waves. (Since I was a walk in customer I did not research MonikaTours out online until I came onto social media afterwards feeling compelled to warn people and then I read the warnings from this other person of what happened) 5. We finally reach what the “captain” and worker on the boat tell us is the “reef” for snorkeling. Big waves/swells are everywhere. This did not look like any reef or if it was conditions were not at all safe for snorkeling. However, all of us (except Winnie) got in the water. Immediately the current and waves are taking us away from the boat. I was not in the water five minutes before I knew we were too far from the boat and that it was going to be a power swim to get back. Besides this, the waves were so big that the snorkels kept getting water in them and I was not liking it at all. I told my husband I was going back to the boat that I did not like the conditions. He decided to stay out so I started to swim back by myself. I am a diver and have been a strong swimmer my whole life and I struggled to get back to the boat because of the waves and the current. The “captain” was on his phone and Winnie was lying down asleep on the boat bench. By the time I reached the boat I was exhausted and I could not get to the ladder because of the waves. I was struggling and neither the “captain” nor Winnie were anywhere to be seen. Luckily another customer saw me struggling and grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the ladder. 6. The ladder was not a proper ladder with steps down into the water like it should have been. It was rusty and just had one step high up so you had to heave yourself high up. With the waves and exhaustion I was struggling. Again, Winnie is asleep on the boat bench and the “captain” not watching or helping. Two guests tried to help but I was struggling and then the “captain” finally came and helped. I’ll admit I’ve got extra pounds and am not in tip top shape, but if the boat had had a proper ladder with enough rungs down into the water and the “captain” had been there from the beginning to help, I would not have struggled. 7. Every single person coming back on that boat was exhausted and struggled to get on the boat. 8. That “captain” should have been off his phone paying attention to the swimmers and knowing that they were in current and being taken far from the boat and should have moved and followed the swimmers instead of us all having to swim back against current and waves. 9. Winnie, as a worker for Monika Tours with customers on the tour, should not have been flopped down on the boat asleep. When we got back to land and I confronted her about everything that went wrong, she said “Oh I’m on my period and I have cramps”. 10. Actually, that “captain” should never have taken customers out in open water in that kind of boat nor allowed customers out into the water with those waves and that current 11. There was only ONE life jacket onboard 12. When we were back at land and I was confronting Winnie about all of these things that went wrong and put people’s lives in jeopardy she told the “captain” and he offered to give me another snorkel tour in “calm water”. Can you believe that??? Why were they not doing that to begin with? 13. We ( my husband and I) both paid MonikaTours 75 euro each (150 euro) for the day tour. I found out all the other customers had paid 4000 shillings each (about 28 euro). Listen I know about buyer beware and if you are stupid enough (as we apparently were) to pay a high price, that’s on me/us. However, we were not picked up on time in an appropriate car with enough room as promised, were not put in an appropriate large boat as promised but instead put into a dangerous, non seaworthy boat, we were not taken to a reef with appropriate conditions for snorkeling as promised. Because of all of this and because we were so outrageously overcharged I asked for a refund of 50%. If the car/boat/snorkel spot had been as promised I would not have asked for a 50% refund (even though we way overcharged). Monika did not refund (and I’m taking it up with my credit card company). 14. Please look at other reviews of this same day trip (like when the motor to the boat quit) and Monika’s response. She says, “things like this happen all over the world and it’s not my fault”. No Monika, things like this do not happen all over the world and yes, Monika, it is you and Winnie’s fault because you’d already had customers write about a dangerous situation and yet you were/are stilling selling this tour and knowingly putting people’s lives in danger. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY THEY WILL RUIN YOUR HOLIDAY AND POSSIBLY PUT YOUR LIVES IN DANGER. Also, I’d suggest that you do due diligence in researching Wasini Island trips because there are lots of bad reviews in general about what’s going on. Wish I would have!!! Oh, one last thing… the dolphin spotting actually is all of these boats cornering this one little dolphin in the inlet between the island and mainland. Poor thing. The attached picture shows the kind of big wooden we were promised in front and behind it the kind we went in.