5 Days Tarangire,Serengeti,Ngorongoro&Manyara Camping Safari Tour Tanzania

Communication / organisation: this was pretty good up until about a month or so before the Safari (I booked almost a year in advance) and then went downhill. Mohamed wasn’t always great about replying to messages, even about vital things such as pick-up / drop-off timings which, as a solo female traveller made me quite anxious. For example I was told the Safari briefing would be at 4pm the day before we left Arusha but I was waiting round at the hotel until 7pm before someone turned up to tell me what the plan for the next day was. My transfer back to the airport after the Safari also turned up 40 minutes late and required me to chase it twice. The first two days of our Safari were quite difficult (see guides / vehicles below) and as a group we had trouble contacting Mohamed to find out what was happening. Group / itinerary: although I booked for a 5-day tour, I was surprised to find out (as our Safari vehicle was leaving Arusha) that no one else on the tour was booked on the same length Safari that I was. After day 3 they all went back to Arusha and I was matched up with random others for the final 2 days. This made it feel more like I was doing day trips rather than a long tour and didn’t really allow for the camaraderie that usually develops on tours like this. This isn’t necessarily a major issue, but it would have been helpful to have been told this in the briefing before the Safari started. We visited all the places on the itinerary but in a different order than advertised - we started in the Serengeti (I assume to accommodate those on the shorter tour). This meant we spent most of the first day driving out there - we didn’t arrive until gone 5pm and then it was so much of a rush to get to the camp site before dark that we barely had a game drive that day. Although 2 days worth of game drives in the Serengeti were advertised, we really only had the morning and part of the afternoon of day 2 - before we then had to head to the crater before dark. Accommodation: the budget accommodation on the tour is as you would expect, the tents are good quality and the food is good. No complaints there. Simba Camp has electricity for charging devices. Before and after the Safari I was booked into The Senator Hotel - not Arusha Tourist Inn as I was expecting. Again, this wasn’t something I was told about in advance. The Senator Hotel is somewhat out of the town centre and seemed pretty much devoid of other guests while I was there. The food was poor (I didn’t bother to eat when we got back after the last day) and I didn’t have a clean towel until 6pm the day of arrival. Hot water ran out rapidly as well when showering. The isolation of this hotel, along with quite poor communication from Travel Africa, made me feel forgotten by the company and, again, as a solo female traveller, quite vulnerable. It would be worth checking where you have been booked into if you’re in a similar situation. Vehicles: the starter motor on the first jeep we had failed at the end of day 1. The electrical sockets also didn’t work in this vehicle. After we raised concerns, this vehicle was replaced at the beginning of day 3 and the second vehicle was fine. I understand that these vehicles take a beating and mechanical failures happen sometimes, but the response of the guide was just to carry on with a vehicle that needed to be bump-started constantly (which became an issue when we stalled in the middle of a game drive and needed 2 other jeeps to get us moving again!) I don’t think the vehicle would have been changed if we hadn’t asked for it to be. Guides: I had two guides, the first as mentioned above was not great. He told us he was intentionally taking his time driving out to the Serengeti on Day 1 as we would only have a 24 hour permit and this would maximise the time we would have on Day 2. On Day 2 however he then told us we had to leave before the 24 hours was up to get to the next camp by dark. He was very poor at communicating the plan for each day and didn’t understand that we weren’t all on the same length tour, despite us explaining it several times. Leaving the campsite for a sunrise drive on Day 2 he drove in circles and didn’t seem to know how to find the main road again. A lot of time was wasted on things such as packing the jeep up and animal spotting was left to us, rather than him pro-actively seeking them out for us. When we raised concerns with him on Day 2 both about this and the state of the vehicle, he dismissed them immediately. I’m unsure what communication was had between him and Mohamed, but when we reached the second campsite he announced he was returning to Arusha that night and a new guide and new jeep would arrive the next morning to take us into the crater. So we were without a guide for that night at the camp site, which none of us were overly happy about. However my second guide was EXCELLENT. Omar was full of life and fun and went out of his way to make sure we were having a great experience. He maximised the time we spent of game drives, would do his best to spot us the best animals (we saw two leopards on day 5) and was full of interesting information about the parks and animals. I can’t recommend him highly enough, he checked in to make sure we were happy and he rescued what was turning out to be a disappointing trip. Overall, I did get to see some great animals and I’d be willing to believe that our bad experience with the first guide was a one-off. Many of my frustrations about this trip could have been reduced with improved communication and organisation. Mohamed did phone me on the way to the airport to apologise that the trip hadn’t lived up to expectations.

The 5 day safari in the Northern safari circuit was one of the best wildlife experiences of my life! I have to say- this is thanks to our guide Omary. He is very knowledge with tons of experience , we learnt so much from him about wildlife of the area. He is also very good at finding the best spots to see animals. He made the whole trip very smooth and also very enjoyable thanks to his easy - going and friendly personality. When it comes to accomodation, I went for the cheapest options and I'm glad I did. I will never forget camping in the middle of Serengeti and on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. The campsites are basic but the experience of hearing the animals at night will make up for any inconvenience. I really think it's part of the adventure! The food was so scrummy! We had healthy meals 3 times a day and I really loved the fact that everything was made from scratch, prepared by our chef every day. I recommend Omary and the company so much! This was truly a fantastic safari! Thank you!

Fantastic experience, thanks to both Mohammed and our guide Floridi. Mohammed was always available through whatsapp, to answer all our questions and requests before the trip, plus he personally welcomed us the first night to see the last details of the itinerary, and wish us farewell during the last night. He even arranged a guided tour around the city for the last day, which i highly recommend! Floridi succeeded with good mood and patience to show the best of Tanzania could offer during our safari days. We could not ask more from this trip, thank you!