BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi

I've never been to Africa. I'm looking for a tent camping trip to the crater and Seregenti and possibly hiking and Zanzibar. I had been looking at Africa Tour Company but already had an experience with their website not being reliable.

Who has experience with a great tour operator and trip for around $1000-1500 for 8-9 days? I would really appreciate your quick tips as we are trying to pull that together.

Inexpensive and Ngorongoro Crater/Serengeti don't really go together. The park entrance fees, for one, are $50 per day/per person, the vehicle fee for Ngorongoro Crater is $200 for a half-day, camp sites are anywhere from $20 - $50 per person, per night... and you need a guide, vehicle, fuel, meals... You need two overnights at the Crater (early mornings in the Crater are the best), and while you can technically do 2 nights in the Serengeti, it is so large, I highly recommend at least 3 nights. The drive from the Serengeti back to Arusha is about 7 hrs. You may want to break it with spending one night at Lake Manyara or Tarangire NP. Tarangire is slightly more out of the way, but if it's not to simply spend the night, the game viewing is much more rewarding. If you really want to add Zanzibar, you may want to bite the bullet and FLY from the Serengeti to Zanzibar (overland and ferry just take way too long). To get the most out of Zanzibar, you need a minimum of two full days (3 nights).

It sounds like you want to go within a short period of time. As the wildebeest migration is heading into the Maasai Mara (the same eco system as the Serengeti, but on the Kenya side), if you are in Africa anywhere from late July - early November, you may want to consider Kenya instead of Tanzania. You'll see so many animals, it will make your head spin. And on the Kenya side, you have the much better chance of seeing a river crossing; the park fees are less, the driving distances shorter, and you could still fly from Nairobi to Zanzibar. To get the most variety of habitat/scenery and animal species, I suggest Samburu (2 nts.), Lake Nakuru (1 nt) and Maasai Mara (min. 2 nts). If you are a US citizen, the Kenya visa ($50) is also only half of that of Tanzania ($100).

I would recommend going with a more expensive tour company if you are tight with time. Tanzania is a tough place for skimping tourists. I travelled through a couple of months ago backpacking overland, and I got caught up in so many scams from tour operators, and heard many other people who were much less fortunate than I. The reason I had problems, is as part of a 5 month trip, I chose tour operators at the lower end of the price scale.

One of my days in the Serengeti, I was left at the park gate all day, so the operator could save on that day's park fees (thus cutting out one of our days in the park). The same thing happened so some friends of mine whilst they were climbing Kili (The guides convinced them to skip a day on the climb due to "weather", which saves the guides a day's park fees).

I think Zara tours are one of the reputable companies, and there are a few others around. The Lonely Planet Forums rave about a guy called Paul Robert Shayo as well.

I was lucky that I had time, so I saw everything I wanted to see. But with scams, I ended up paying the same amount as I would have, if I had just gone with more expensive reputable companies, and I would have saved a lot of time that way.