AROYÓ SAFARI 

We contacted Aroyo in April 2023 to provide a quote for a safari in Tanzania. After a lot of emails backwards and forwards we locked in a quote and paid a deposit of just over US$5000 on 1/6/2023. They were very helpful and communicative up until the point we paid the deposit. This was done via an international bank transfer into an account named “Limitless Life Network Limited” at the Equity Bank Tanzania Limited.

We first noticed there might be an issue when we were contacted 2 weeks later to say our money hadn’t arrived. We sent them a receipt from our bank proving it had been paid and they then acknowledged payment and sent us a receipt.

After that we started sending them emails every couple of weeks to make sure all of our accommodation had been booked. We wanted to lock this in before booking our flights to Tanzania. These emails were not answered by Aroyo and we started to do some more internet research. We found that there were a significant number of bad reviews emerging on the net. We also found that they had made misrepresentations about affiliations with other companies on their website.

We sent them another email expressing our concern about their lack of action and the negative reviews. They responded to this email with excuses and asking for more time. We gave them another week and still heard nothing.

On 14/8/2023, we sent them an email asking for our deposit to be returned as we had lost faith that they were going to provide us with any service at all. In accordance with their terms and conditions the deposit should have been repaid in full. We gave them a deadline of 18/8/2023. They asked for a few more days to sort matters out and we extended the deadline to 21 August, 2023.

We have not heard from Aroyo since August 17 and our money has not been returned.
Their website has now been taken down.

Either this was a scam from the start or the company has gone out of business.

Not sure yet what happened, but I'm worried I may have lost my money. After reading the recent bad reviews, I started calling the camps and the resort we are supposed to be staying in and found out they have made no reservations in my name. I was hoping it is an oversight and I have called each of Aroyo's numbers repeatedly for the last two weeks, but can't get through to them. In addition, all my emails have been unanswered for the last two weeks. They were very kind and responsive and helpful back in January when I was booking my trip, but something has happened since. As my trip is getting closer they seem to have disappeared. I have to assume this is a company in financial trouble. Not saying they set out to steal my money, but at the least, it is looking like this is a company in turmoil right now. Either way, if you have a trip booked with Aroyo Safari I suggest you start calling around to find out what's going on with yours. And if you are still considering booking with them, I'd pass until they get their house in order.

We have had exactly the same experience as below reviews from Julia M and Julia Garcia.

Some months before our African safari, they suddenly not responded anymore to our emails. We already started thinking that this was a bit fishy. At a certain moment, Sarah replied to us advising that Tommy (the owner) had been in a serious accident, and they didn't have access to any bookings. She then went on to tell us that all would be fine, just to give them some time to sort out. They didn't seem to have any knowledge about our itinerary and which lodges and activities we had booked, confirmed and partially paid for.

Then 2 weeks before our holiday, upon further pressure from us, we were told that they couldn't guarantee that the itinerary would be the same and suggested that we could cancel and receive a full refund (including cancellation charges for our international flights). Sarah even sent us an email confirming the arrangements and taking our bank details. We have obviously not received a single penny and all Sarah can come with are excuses. And since then...they are not responding to our emails, WhatsApp's or picking-up the phone.

Due to the large amount involved (USD20K), we have sought legal advice and contacted a Tanzanian lawyer who will pursue our claim.

Shame on you Tommy, Sarah, Louise and all the rest...you're scammers! This experience has been distressful and traumatizing.

Update: Avoid this ''company'' at all costs. It appears that Aroyo Safari never existed at all as a registered company. They will promise you a dream holiday, take all your money and then they disappear; you'll never hear from them again.

BEWARE AROYO SAFARI IS A SCAM COMPANY. IT IS OWNED BY ANOTHER COMPANY CALLED LIMITLESS LIFE NETWORK. AVOID EITHER COMPANY AT ALL COSTS.

We paid $18,000 USD for a luxury safari with high end accommodation. The itinerary stated we would be staying at Arusha Coffee Lodge, Nimali Tarangire, Manyara Escarpment Lodge, Neptune luxury Lodge, ole Serai luxury camp and Baraza resort in Zanzibar.

Two weeks before we left for our trip negative Google reviews started popping up on their website so I asked them to confirm again that we were staying at the above lodges. Sarah Gudomu said: "Lodges that were promised to your itinerary are exactly the ones that you will spend your time at.".

Louise Baraka then sent us the confirmed itinerary with abovementioned accommodation.

On arrival to Tanzania we get an email from Sarah stating they have booked us into entirely different accommodation. The new accommodation being far cheaper than what we paid... $9000 USD cheaper to be exact!!!

Roman Bayo and the owner Tommy Aroyo or Tommy Mosses (as known on his Twitter account) promised to provide us with a cash refund several times but failed to show up every time.

They are professional liars. We heard every excuse imaginable. Don't believe anything they tell you.

Also their 5 star reviews are fake. I've already spotted two that are from Amani and Peace Simon who own the parent company Limitless life network.

We have reported them to the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators and the Arusha Tourist & Diplomatic Police. We encourage everyone who has had a similar experience with Aroyo Safari to do the same.

Absolutely worst experience ever! So we had some doubts about this safari operator in Tanzania as the reviews seemed all fake, however we talked to him and had a good feeling so went through with it. We paid 15.000 USD for a luxury safari including Chem Chem, Four Seasons and &Beyond accommodations in Tanzania in November. At some point, the provider started to be unresponsive, not answering our emails, not confirming the booking. So we decided to check the reservation by calling the hotels, which confirmed that the reservations did not exist. We already had the flights, so we need to make new bookings with another provider. We started sending emails to Aroyo, called like a thousand times and tried to move forward to get a refund, to no response. Few days later, after posting some reviews online to ensure nobody went through the same as us, they sent confirmation of booking of hotels different than the ones we agreed upon (cheaper ones, obviously). They told me, if Idelete the online comments, they would refund my payment. I deleted my comments. 8 months later, I still have not received the refund. I do not expect this to be a serious company, I just want to make sure nobody loses 15.000 USD just as I did.

Published this review originally on November 2022. Deleted it after request by the owner as they accepted their fault and promised to refund the money on 31/03/2023 if I removed the review. Refund was never made, so as I come to the acceptance that I will never see again my money, I am just sharing the situation with everyone to ensure nodoby else does the same mistake.

I’m not usually into using travel agents for my holidays but this was kinda special and as a family, I couldn’t risk it. I’m here to give a kudos to Aroyo Safari for a jobs well done! Nothing prepared us for this awesome tour. Lodges were beautiful and very silent, the only sound you could hear me birds chirping! I loved our guide Allan, who occasionally spoke German and made us feel like home.
Serengeti was beautiful and I didn’t want to leave, only tse-tse flies were many. Just carry a repellent if you’re going to spend few days in Serengeti.
Don’t forget to pass by the oldubai gorge, as a historian I very much enjoyed my stay there.
My family was ever happy throughout our visit to Africa.

As a family we traveled with this company to Tanzania and Kenya. It was our daughter’s birthday on the 24th last month. Made a last minute booking from Kigali, Rwanda and they did us a very wonderful surprise. We all enjoyed in the company of our guide Baraka, who was very friendly and kind all the time. Our daughter is living with Autism so its kinda hard to deal with her sometime. But they really went above and beyond. Many thanks for great planning and superb safari.

We went with Tommy for a safari in week's time and we enjoyed so much. The planning from the beginning was very good, response good and everything in between. The accommodations were very luxury and we loved their recommendations. We had different idea on them but experts are always right. My family was happy from the beginning to the end of the tour. I would personally like to recommend Aroyo and the whole team that made it possible for my family. Much appreciation.

This was one of the best ever holiday experience in a long while. I contacted few safari companies before landing in the hands of Tommy, who to say the least was absolutely fantastic to work with. He gave us so many options that simplified our whole planning process.

We arrived in Rwanda, spend some few days then Tansania and Kenya. We had the time of our lives in Africa with this wonderful company. Everything worked out soo well and honestly we could not ask for more. Loved every moment.

This’ll remain one of ours family’s most remarkable moment. Truly amazingly time in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda. We spent a total of 18 days into Africa, and no single day was the same. Highly recommended tour company in Africa.

Visited Tanzania and went with this company and all we can say is we had time of our lives in this wondrous country. So much fun, inside the parks so many animals. And honestly the best moment and highlight of the whole tour was the hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti. What a Magical moment. Migration all over the place.
Amazing planning and swift safari. We reccomend visiting Tanzania with Aroyo Safaris.

My family visited Africa fro the first time last month and AROYÓ SAFARI hosted us in one of the most remarkable fashion ever. We chose a package for 14 days that would take across East Africa with an aim to just see everything there's to see in the continent.

Being our first time, we were a bit sceptical using a local safari company but after seeing many 5 star reviews we decided to go with this amazing people. Tommy was awesome to work with. Fast responses, detailed answers, literarily one of the best customer care experience I've heard in a long time. Very trustworthy and eloquent.

Arrived in Dar and he was to pick up us for our next flight to Arusha. We then went to Ngorongoro to start our trip. Our guide Beatus was so knowledgeable, friendly and versatile in matters safaris and animals. We saw so many animals. We then went to Serengeti, and saw how everyone would see, a sheer vast-land of beauty. It was heaven!

The lodges were magnificent. Some were far and roads weren't so good to behest but they beauty and location made up for everything else.
I think I can write this for days but won't finish. To make it quick and easy, we visited Rwanda and Kenya too. All courtesy of Aroyo Safari. The planning was the best, the guides, the people who assisted us, I mean all was absolutely majestic.

We would like to recommend this tour operator to anyone looking for an experience of a lifetime. Thanks so much Tommy and your team.

We will forever remember our safari holiday in Africa with Aroyo safari. It was one of the best moments we had. My family couldn't be any happier, we owe it all to this marvelous organization. Thank you all the team for your outstanding professionalism, humor and unique touch.
We will be back I think.

My Very Favorite experience
Last year I contacted various tour operators in Africa in hope of making my long lasting wish to visit Africa for a safari possible. One thing that stood out with this agency is their response rate.
I've never seen such a quick to respond company, I would wait almost 6 hours for others to respond while Aroyó safari would respond in 20 or less minutes. That's one of the biggest reason I decided to go with them.
The safari was expensive but absolutely worth it.
Good organization, excellent condition vehicle, excellent tour guide. Fantastic choice of lodges and accommodation. Just loved everything about the tour. I would recommend this company for sure.

Our luxury safari was really something to behold. We booked one of kind experience for our first glance at Africa post covid-19. We postponed it for over a year and we finally got to do it and it was worth the waiting. Tommy helped us plan and recommended all the best lodges in parks and they turned out absolutely amazing and very comfortable. Its really hard to imagine these places are out in the middle of nowhere, with everything they got from private personal butlers to absolutely top notch professional chefs. We stayed at Legendary lodge in Arusha, Serengeti Migration Camp, Nimali Mara, Crater Lodge and Olivers camp in Tarangire. We saw some of the worlds best wildlife. It was all special and w loved every moment of it. Many thanks to Aroyo safris team and their guides for giving us an experience we will live never to forget.

It was wonderful having traveled with this great company with incredibly professional people who care and know everything about safaris and accommodations. We enjoyed every single minute with our guides during the tour. Excellent planning and even superb execution.
Very recommendable tour operator.

My wife has always wanted to visit Africa and early last year we started planning out our next African destination. Then boom, the pandemic stroke and all our plans were halted till further notice. Luckily for us, we already had made initial contacts with Aroyo Safari and well they came through pretty amazingly. First, they told us not to cancel but push forward our travel plans, which we did and it turned that Tanzania did not have much of restrictions on travel compared to just about all other countries. We finally decided to take our trip this January and it lived beyond our expectations.
Very well planned program that covered almost all major parks such as Ngorogoro, Serengeti and Tarangire. We wanted to do a South African trip too but the restrictions couldn't let us. We try loved the accommodations in the parks. These are places that I did not expect to see in such a wild location. Very beautiful and relaxing. Some had pools, private butlers, just about everything you would expect from a 5 star hotel.
We enjoyed every minute of our safari after such a long lockdown spell.

We have been to many African countries for safaris and stuff but none comes close to our last safari in Tanzania with Aroyo Safari company. We had visited Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Botswana and all I can say is they are beautiful and all but pretty much similar. Tanzania offers stunning sceneries and ‘out of this world’ experience. The people are very welcoming, the culture here is unbelievable, we enjoyed learning one too many about the Maasai way of life, their traditions and songs. Our safari experience was better than our imaginations. As a private group, we really love the safari style classic lodges in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro and the food.... oh, the food was all tasty. Our guide Steve is a nice lad, he is very knowledgeable and keen to teach and show us the big 5 animals (we saw all the big 5 animals including the rhinos at Ngorongoro crater.. Magical). I would really recommend Aroyo Safaris and we hope the world heals from the Covid-19 pandemic soon so that we can get back to travelling. Hugs xoxo
-Scarlet

Aroyó Safari created us a wondeful itineray that truly delivered value and awesome memories. Nothing could compare really and we loved all of it. We definitly reccomend it

This was near perfection of a safari
Our safari journey to Tanzania has been nothing but wondrous. Aroyó safari gave us a top notch experience in Tanzania and Rwanda for our second African visit. Our first one, being from Netherlands, we thought we should start with South Africa, it went well last 2 years. Now Tanzania came to our bucket list and being our 5 year anniversary we decided to go full luxury for 10 days. And in all honesty it was worth everything we paid for.
From planning to arrivals, we loved the whole thing. We were a bit afraid to pay all the money upfront but this company assured us we could pay on arrival and that's what we did.
Everything went on well, saw lots of animals in the park including the endangered white rhinos, which are extremely rare sight.
Fantastic lodges with beautiful services including private butlers. We loved our trip to Africa and recommend this awesome group of people. Cheers!
Gracey 😊