the vacation was ruined
We had a terrible experience with them.The guide (J.) kept repeating the same things over and over and wouldn’t accept what I said.For example,he insisted that I contact my bank even though I had already sent him proof that the bank had sent the money (unfortunately,there were a few holidays in between and it was the first time I used a money transfer service) and ZB Tours had thanked me for the receipt of the funds.J. had even received a message from my bank stating that the money was on its way while me and my travel mate were present.I had a headache and wanted to enjoy the view from the car instead of hearing the same things over and over again.As soon as I sent the balance,I received an email stating that fewer meals were included in the package I had just paid for (which I obviously contested immediately).At one point,J. even asked me to pay 50% or to postpone the trip to the south by several days (even though I had already booked the flights) because he hadn’t received the money yet.
When we started feeling sick with diarrhea and vo** at the end of the trip to the south, J. didn’t offer to take us to the doctor or at least to a pharmacy (especially since the following days were holidays in Madagascar; in the end,after 2days,a friend of mine—with whom we stayed for a few days before returning home—called her own doctor and then we looked for a pharmacy to buy a medication we could have bought right away on the first day,since even pharmacies know what to do in case of diarrhea). When we asked for help during check-in at the airport—because we can’t communicate in French—we were left on our own (as has happened on other occasions as well, even though we had been assured that staff from the agency would always be with us) because J. wanted to go back to Tana and then to Nosy Be to start a new tour.One of our bags got damaged because the airport staff refused to accept the bags we had,even though there had been no issues with those same bags during check-in at Diego Airport (when another guide was present).
At the Ankarana Special Reserve,J. told the park guide that he could take some fruit and water for us from the car without checking what he was taking.We said clearly to the guides that we would carry our own bags and only realized that my bag had been taken when one of the guides ate some of the fruit—the guide was eating our fruit that we wanted to eat in the evening.I complained,especially since the bag had to stay in the car so as not to damage the fruit (some of which had been given to us by the plantation we’d visited the day before).No one bought us fruit identical to the damaged or eaten fruit.J. offered us bananas (which I shouldn’t even eat that many of anyway due to my health issues).
J. paid a bill from the last hotel for some damaged items on my behalf that I had said repeatedly I didn’t want to pay for because we felt sick shortly after drinking the welcome drink.I offered to contact my insurance company (which included liability coverage) to find out if the insurance would cover it and what to do,but J. didn't believe that an insurance esisted and that it would pay.We weren’t even given the chance to wash the items that had gotten dirty,since we had to leave that morning for our planned trip,and upon our return,the hotel had taken everything and demanded payment for the damages.Then J. also said that the reason for our health problems might have been the lunch he had treated us to since during one of the police controls along the road the police had challenged the driver’s license and the driver had to go to the police station to fill in a report and pay a fine.That day we didn't even stop in Tulear to go to the market to buy some fruit even when we had asked to do so (maybe because J. wanted to go to Ifaty to finish the tour for the day).J. on the other hand,wanted to pay the bill (he had initially even offered to pay it himself if the amount was small) because ZB Tours also runs tours to the south,and perhaps other clients of theirs might want to stay at the same hotel in the future,and he didn’t want to have any problems.We wanted to report the problem to the police instead.We didn’t even visit all the places in Tana that we had agreed to visit before booking the trip and that were included in the program,and they didn’t even reimburse us for the price of the tickets because they said that the entrance fee to the Rova in the upper part of Tana was not included anymore because J. used the money to pay the hotel bill that I didn’t want to pay (I also said several times that ZB Tours couldn’t use the money I had paid for the agreed-upon itinerary to pay the hotel bill).