Chakina, thank you for the beautiful spirit you brought to the trip. It was such a pleasure to have you and I truly appreciate your honest review. Please allow me to be fair to the reader and give additional context to your experience that is missing so they have a chance to form a full opinion of this review. The trip started on Dec 27th. You arrived around midnight on Dec 29th due to your schedule which was fine with me. I offered a cheaper, separate trip package for you even though I had to pay for every day you weren’t there to hold your room. This is not something trip organizers do. But I wanted to be fair to anyone who chooses to travel with me and didn’t mind absorbing the cost on my end. Your trip was $1550 less than what anyone else traveling alone paid. More than fair and of course understandable as to why organizers do not allow this as it creates a lot of chaos trying to cater to everyone’s travel plans. Due to your flight delays on your arrival day, the drivers had turned in for the night so I personally came to the airport at my own expense to pick you up and made sure you had food before going to bed because you’d been traveling for such a long time and I was excited for you to be there. I was exhausted just like everyone else on the trip that had been there since it started but as the host, I wanted to make sure your pickup was seamless. Your trip basically started on the 30th. You missed the first three days to fully feel why everyone was so tired by the 30th. The only event that was a group consensus to cancel was an activity on 12/31 because everyone was rightfully burned out. No one went out, we all slept as this had been a very full and exhausting past three days. Before cancelling the event I asked the group who wants to still go. You were the only person that wanted to go, rightfully because you’d only been there one day so I was willing to go with anyone that still wanted to do the afternoon tea activity. You specifically stated that you wouldn’t go if you were the only one interested and I said you were so you declined to go which I thought was your preference. Had you insisted, you and I would have still gone. And I should have just insisted instead as I could tell you wanted to go, but agreed not to because no one else wanted to. You sided with the group consensus as well voluntarily. This activity was rescheduled with a smaller group who wanted to go and we still went to do it on a separate day. We all missed one other event initially, the ATV ride, because the tour guide took us to the wrong location. We were over an hour away from where we were supposed to be and after a very long activity prior to this, we decided to make the drive back to the hotel as we wouldn’t have made it to the correct location for the excursion before our cut off time. Once again, this event was rescheduled to another day with a smaller group that still wanted to go. The NYE celebration I take full responsibility for us not being seated at the actual countdown. We were walking into the venue and some still in the line. A big contributor to this was something beyond our control. The tardiness of getting food out at most venues in Ghana. A VERY common practice in this country. We were at dinner at least an hour longer than we should have been waiting for the staff to finish serving and cashing us out. We got there at 8pm. Plenty of time to eat and change had we left at the expected time of 10pm. We didn’t leave till almost 11pm due to delays at the restaurant beyond our control. We all had to rush back to the hotel, change and head to the venue with less than 20 minutes to prepare. We did end up waiting about another five minutes for someone to come out of the hotel to board the bus and that five minutes made the difference between us being at our section for the countdown and standing in line to get in still while watching the fireworks above. Had we just left without waiting for the person running behind we would have made it. I own that. But ultimately, the delay at dinner is what had us running behind, not the extra five minutes we waited for someone to get on the bus. We did not arrive at anything outside of this after schedule because I purposely told everyone earlier departure times so if we were running late getting ready, we’d still be on time. Which we were. I do hate that your review gives the reader the idea that “several excursions” were canceled as you stated but I understand how in your short time there it may have felt that way. They were rather, rescheduled. Two excursions were rescheduled due to time constraints. The only excursion we did not do was the boat tour on the last day because as I stated, they had raised the price significantly because of the influx of tourists for the holiday so we rescheduled ATV’s and afternoon tea for this day. Which you participated in. Everything else that was paid for in advance we did. Optional dinner venues that were at the groups expense were only suggestions if anyone wanted to go out without figuring it where to go. They were not paid in advance nor required. As nothing on the itinerary is honestly. People also have the option and the right to not do anything pre-planned if they so choose. Additionally the NYE celebration cost me $4000 more out of my pocket than what was originally quoted months prior when the trip went on sale because the venue decided to make more money off the tourists visiting Ghana at the last minute. No one knew I paid this and I wouldn’t have dare asked you all to pay more on the back-end. I always make sure to state to anyone reading through the trip details of the itinerary that the activities are subject to change for anything beyond our control which these situations were. This is common practice for all tour groups. What I also would like the reader to know is that when you go to developing countries, you can not have American standards. We are used to conveniences they are still learning to adopt so flexibility is very important when you travel abroad. As a host, I will always do my best to make sure people are accommodated when the unexpected happens. If anyone ever feels cheated, I pride myself on making it right!

Hello Lowanda, thank you for your honest review. As I stated to everyone before any reviews came, tell me how you feel so I can make it right and that’s exactly what you did and I appreciate it. I will say I am surprised as sitting with you off and on throughout the trip, and even having conversation where you asked me to put together a Thailand trip for the group, I had a completely different vibe from you the entire time. I feel like I completely misread you after reading this review. I do wish you would have told me in Ghana you were not having a good time. I truly could not tell. To be fair, if you would please allow me to add additional context to what was stated so the reader can form a full opinion. Warning, this is long lol! I will start by saying I’m not sure what disruptions there were on my end or any changes that weren’t shared immediately due to something beyond my control. We all knew how to pivot if a change occured because I let everyone know as soon as I knew. Please reach out to me so I can better understand as we did everything that was paid for with the exception of one activity on the last day that I explained the why of and no one objected to being overcharged for this one tour. What did keep happening was the restaurants consistently ran behind schedule which in return threw off the schedule each day it occurred. This was something completely beyond my control. This is a Ghana thing. It had nothing to do with anyone on the trip. Even with this, we did not miss any activities. Adherence to the itinerary still went as planned. Please let me know what activities besides two I’ll mention that were rescheduled that we did not do? The two activites that were reschduled were one, the afternoon tea which was a group decision. I asked everyone if they wanted to go, only one person wanted to go and even they said they wouldn’t go if they were the only one interested. We didn’t go because everyone was exhausted so we all slept. I gave everyone the option to attend the rescheduled day and asked more than once who wanted to go. A small group went. I thought you weren’t interested in it at all since you didn’t go on the rescheduled day and also agreed not to go on the original day which was on 12/31. That same evening we had dinner before the NYE celebration and arrived at 8pm. Once again, the venue took an extended amount of time to get us in and out. Two hours was plenty of time to eat and head back to the hotel and change. Which is what I had on the itinerary. We didn’t leave until almost 11pm waiting for them to finish serving us and cashing us out. This left us rushing to change and leave to head to the NYE party. We also waited around five more minutes for someone to board the bus than we’d planned when leaving the hotel to the NYE celebration. I own this, we should have left them. This made the final difference between us sitting at our section for the countdown versus standing in the line to get in while the fireworks were going off. I also want to clarify please, I did not leave everyone in the line. What I did was walk in to secure the section and address any further needs from management to get the group in. There was also someone else in the group with you all making sure everyone got a wristband while I went inside to address everything else. This person and I had this conversation before I left the group. So someone was helping me with everyone that was in the line making sure you all got in. I’m not sure if you saw this happening. I also had to spend an additional $4000 dollars out of pocket because the venue decided to raise the price from what everyone was originally charged (again, a Ghana thing) for the celebration. I didn’t tell anyone this nor would I have dared asked people to pay on the backend. When I walked back towards the front, everyone was already coming in. I was not inside long, but they asked me to come in. I didn’t go in and sit down. I confirmed what was needed and I came right back. There was also pure chaos when we walked up to the venue initially, which is not painted in this picture that you’re giving to be fair to me. Once again, this is something that had nothing to do with any of us. People were standing everywhere in no particular order trying to get in. I had to force them to allow us all to get through the crowd and come into the venue. Another Ghana thing. Had there been more organization at the venue we would have gotten in faster as well. Ultimately, we missed sitting in our section for the countdown because of the restaurant delays and getting in the venue itself. I do not feel waiting five additional minutes for someone to get on the bus was the end all be all as to why we missed the countdown. But I do understand that you do and I’m sorry. But I can say I should have left them. The overall unorganization of the venues themselves, the restaurant slowing us down and the club line, had a bigger impact overall in my opinion. Every delay we experienced as a group, would have happened if you were with us all or had gone alone because it is just a Ghana thing. During their busiest time of the year at that. Outside of this one incident, I made sure I padded extra time into every departure from the hotel starting on day one, which no one knew about. This was just in case someone was running behind getting ready (CP time), so we did not arrive anywhere else late other than this one moment beyond our control where we were rushing. The other situation where we missed something that was rescheduled was the ATV ride. The tour guide took us to the wrong location. We were over an hour away from where we were supposed to be. By the time we would have tried to drive to the correct location, we would have arrived after our scheduled ride time. I spoke with the venue before we left the wrong location and they said they would not be able to accommodate us if we arrived after our scheduled time so we went back to the hotel. But it was rescheduled for another day which you participated in. I do hope if the reader chooses to visit Ghana during Detty December they see online that multiple people that have gone during this festive time have complained about the lack of organization of the venues to handle crowds, the extended wait times and lack of respect for people’s time as they wait to get food. There is also an issue with the astronomical prices that tourists are being charged during this time when it does not cost nearly as much as they are charging to visit the country. The country itself just isn’t fully ready to accept these large crowds. Which is why I kept explaining when I planned the trip, if the group chooses this time to visit, it’s going to be hectic! I do also ask anyone deciding to visit Ghana, please be aware that you cannot take American standards to developing countries. They have not fully adopted the same comforts we are used to. It is an absolute MUST that you be flexible when going abroad because anything can go wrong. It is even more important to be patient when going somewhere that clearly does not have their infrastructure up-to-par to accommodate an influx of visitors as they would hope. Africa is a continent that is unique and each country has its own special beauty. But many areas are still poor and they are trying to welcome us and give us the same American standards we are used to. If anyone felt disrespected in Ghana, they are people who accept criticism and will apologize. Lowanda, I apologize that you had such a bad experience with me. I really wish you would have let me know on the trip so I would have been able to address it then. Although I’m not sure how to make adjustments based on your review, due to anything that did go wrong being beyond my control, I do see that I need to make people more aware of what to expect when being in under developed countries before booking so they have a better idea of what can go wrong and how we will adjust. I own that I need to explain the uniqueness of each country better going forward. If you want to reach out and tell me specifically what went terribly wrong, it would greatly help me do better going forward. Your review only has one specific incident that I addressed so I’m not sure what the other general issues were that I controlled. And as I also stated, I could not tell your trip was going so bad based on the convos we did have. My sincerest apologies again! I will be more attentive to check in with everyone individually going forward. I would like to offer you a discount should you choose to take the Thailand trip you asked me to plan as my way of trying to make it right on the back-end of this.