Page Contents
- Tour company used
- Itinerary
- Weather
- Bathrooms
- Clothing
- Attitude
- Security
- Miscellaneous
tour companies used
We used Tanzania Odyssey (http://www.tanzaniaodyssey.com/) out of London as they seem to specialize in Tanzania. I have checked and they are still in business. In Tanzania, our safari guides were Roy Safari (http://www.roysafaris.com/) who also still seem to be in business. I believe all the arrangements were made through Tanzania Odyssey, but looking at the Roy Safari site now, it seems they might be more “full service”. However, as we finished our trip to Africa by going to a beach resort in Zanzibar, I am not sure Roy Safari could handle this.
Concerning Roy Safari, the guide on the safari is probably the most important part of the trip. But, it is also the part that you have the least control over. We loved our guide but you might not. It is totally a chemistry thing and you have to just hope you get a good one. Roy Safari offered vehicles with a roof that rises up to form a canopy above the passenger areas. I think that these are the best because they offer protection from the sun during the heat of the day. Also, try to get a vehicle for yourself rather than sharing with a group. We saw vehicles with 4 or 6 people in them and imagine that would be problematic when you are on one side and the rare animal is located on the other side.
Itinerary
We traveled to Tanzania in 2005 and visited there from 6/9 to 6/24 with the following timetable:
- JFK to Amsterdam – overnight
- Amsterdam to Arusha – arrived at 8 pm local time on the day after we left JFK
- Arusha – one nite
- Serrengeti – 8 nites
- Zanzibar – 5 nites
- Zanzibar to Arusha – 6 hr layover
- Arusha to Amsterdam – Friday
- Amsterdam to JKF – arrive Sat PM
We planned one day in Arusha, Tanzania to get over jet lag before the safari tour began, and we would recommend this as the total travel time from JFK to Arusha is about 24 hrs. We spoke to some other people who traveled through London to Nairobi, which might be another alternative.
Weather
As picked this time of the year as it seemed to have the least change of rain and was during the migration period. Mornings were cool but during the day, the weather could get quite warm.
Bathrooms
While on safari, there were public bathrooms available at every stop, but obviously not in the middle of the Serengeti. They varied widely in terms of style (western commode to hole in the floor) and cleanliness. At the entrance to each park, there were very clean, western style bathrooms. In Lake Manyara, there was at least one picnic area with a reasonable bathroom. In Ngorongoro, there were several picnic areas with bathroom, but they weren’t as clean or modern. What is key is to BRING TOILET paper as when the paper runs out at any bathroom, there is typically NOT an attendant at hand to replenish the supply. My wife found small travel rolls that repeatedly came in ‘handy’. We also had a supply of baby wipes for general cleaning or bathroom stops.
Clothing
Before leaving, we read somewhere that you should wear earth tones as bright colors frightened wildlife. Apparently, we were one of the few people who got that memo as we saw people with all manner and color of clothing. We wore long sleeve shirts and pants that were made of cotton. These offered some warmth in the cool mornings and yet were not too hot during the afternoon sun (in June). We liked the long sleeves because it limited the exposed skin areas that we needed to cover with DEET insect repellant. We also liked that the clothing protected us from sun burn.
The Serengeti and Ngorongoro are both very dusty especially when driving in an open vehicle, so clothing becomes dirty fairly quickly. We wore outfits for two days at most and then had them washed. Same day laundry service was available at both of the Serena hotels where we had multi-night stays.
Attitude
As we are not hunters, we had to adjust our attitude while on safari. You really have to consider it a hunt in the truest sense of the word. You are hunting to find the animals and you have to be patient. You have to be willing to travel miles and miles in order to see something special. You will see thousands and thousands of some animals but to see the rare ones requires the right mind set. One good thing is that the guides use walkie-talkies to communicate (in Swahili??) to each other, alerting each other of something interesting that they have spotted. This increases your odds of getting the best from your safari.
At the same time, we also felt that we were on vacation and did not care to make the adventure a marathon of long days. We typically left early in the morning and were back at the hotel at 4pm. This was fine with us and we feel that we saw as much as we could. But, we saw other groups that were out until 6 or 7 each night. To each, his own.
Security
Tanzania is a third world country. It is, I believe, more economically prosperous than many countries in Africa, but it is still very poor by western standards. So, one needs to be a little cautious especially in metropolitan areas. On our first day in Africa, we took a taxi from our hotel outside of Arusha into the center of the town. The hotel desk clerk urged us to have our driver stay with us and to NOT walk around alone (even though it was the middle of the day). We were not sure we were going to follow that advice until we got into Arusha and got to look around a little. My wife and I just got an uneasy feeling and so decided to heed the desk clerk’s advice.
This feeling was re-enforced later by some stories from other travels we met while in Africa. One young American couple said that in their first night in Arusha, they wanted to go to dinner at a restaurant about 100 yards down the road from the hotel and the hotel insisted that a guard from the hotel accompany them. When they went to return to the hotel, the restaurant provided someone to escort them back to the hotel. We also spoke to a couple of ladies who traveled through Nairobi who basically said that they were told not to go out in the city alone.
So, basic common sense caution should guide you while in metropolitan areas. The exception to this is Stonetown on Zanzibar. We spent several hours there one day exploring it alone on foot. We did not feel any sense of anxiety but we also only went through the tourist area where there were many other tourists about. We did have one local shadow us for about 30 minutes, ostensibly trying to help us, directing us here and there. Eventually, we went into one of the better shops and got a guard at the shop to shoo him away. We never felt threatened by him, but he was annoyingly persistent.
While on safari, you are either in a vehicle with your guide or you are at the hotel. Security at each hotel was quite good and we never felt any apprehension. We did note a sign at the Ngorongoro Serena as we entered that warned guests NOT to go beyond that point without being accompanied by hotel staff. As this is in the middle of the Serengeti, I am not sure if this was a warning about robbers or wild animals (or both). We also felt that our belongings were safe in our rooms. We would have preferred those hotel safes that are common in the US but we only found those at the Ras Nungui resort on Zanzibar.
Miscellaneous
- We brought 100% DEET which worked very well. However, I put it on my arms and then put on my cheap watch which has a plastic body and the DEET started dissolving the plastic!
- We had no bathtubs, only showers. We are soakers, so this was a bummer.
- The distances are long between places and the speed at which you can travel on the rough gravel roads, especially in the parks is very limited. So, it can take a long time to get places
- My camera had a 300mm lens which is about 6x. I could have used a 500m lens which would be about 10x.
- We had binoculars that were 10×42 and they were excellent for game viewing. There were 10x but the larger second number was a measure of the size of the opening which gives you a better view. Each person should have a pair of binoculars.
- Bring Q-tips to clean the dirt out of your ears after a day of game viewing.
- Most hotels had a box at the front desk where you could put in a tip for all the staff. We used these in all but one place and that was the place that we stayed for 4 nights and so we got to know certain members of the staff more personally.
- Bring at least one small flash light.