Avoid Lush Africa Safaris – Poor Management, Broken Promises, and Unsafe Vehicles
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.
