BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi Everyone,
Just wondering what safari package to book after the Kili climb...

Here are the 2 options I'm considering:
Option 1:
Day 1 - Lake Manyara National Park
Day 2 - Serengeti National Park
Day 3 - Serengeti National Park
Day 4 - Serengeti / Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Day 5 - Ngorongoro Crater Tour
Day 6 - Depart for Arusha and home

Option 2:
Day 1 - Tarangire National Park
Day 2 - Lake Manyara National Park
Day 3 - Ngorongoro Crater Tour
Day 4 - Serengeti National Park
Day 5 - Serengeti National Park
Day 6 - Depart for Arusha and home

The lodges we're using on both options belong to the Serena Lodge group and the Plantation Lodge - anyone have experience (good, bad?) with them?

Thanks again for your insights and advice!
-jen

Hey Jen,

Couple of things...

I'd opt for #2 simply because your will see an additional park.

We saw Tarangire and Ngorongoro on our trip and both were beautiful but very different. River valley vs volcano crater.

We seemed to be by ourselves in Tarangire but at times in Ngorongoro all the trucks converged for the one Black Rhino or at lunch break. Lunch, however, at Ngorongoro is where the Hippos are...very cool.

Take a large bandanna for the occational dust and check with your outfitter, most of the Land Rovers have covers you stand under so you are out of the sun, if not, take a wide brim hat with a chin strap or tie down.

The animals walk right past the vehicles. Way better than a zoo. Jaw dropping in fact!

Enjoy yourself...

If you wanted to make it WAY better, you should do tented lodges vs. a high-end luxury lodge. Tented lodges are more personalized, quaint, full of character, and have the ability to have luxury, while animals wander through the camp, next to your fire (near your wine bottle).

It's very Ernest Hemingway-esque.

Agree with both Cheesehead and Donovan.

I thoroughly recommend Tarangire if you get the chance to see it. That was the first park I visited after my climb and on that one day I saw 4 of the big five (everything but Rhino). We even managed to see a cheetah and her cubs.

Ngorongoro was very different, but it completed the big 5 for me, managed to see a Rhino. But as Cheesehead said, very busy. There was a lineup of about 40 trucks watching that one rhino. The hippo pond is awesome, but in the end we had lunch while watching two lions mating. Haha, lunch with a show.

Lake Manyara was rather uneventful for us, but saw heaps of babboons and vervet monkeys. And had a run in with a cranky elephant that tried charging our truck when he thought we were following too closely.

It's a great experience. Though I wish I'd got to see the Serengeti, in hindsight I would. So I'd choose option 2 in your list for sure.

As for accommodation, we stayed at a tented lodge at Mto-wa-Mbu. It was very nice. Definitely need some repellant though...Mto-wa-Mbu literally translates to River of Mosquitoes ;-)

It's located near Lake Manyara and was our base for Manyara and Ngorongoro.

Thanks everyone for your comments...I do think we'll do option 2

-jen

We used Responsible Travel who were fantastic in arranging a tailored safari. We chose to do a camp in the bush safari and It was absolutely fantastic. There were two of us, our guide, a cook, and 2 Masai warriors who made sure no lions ate us in the middle of the night (I'll go into that in a while!)

We had 2 full days at Lake Nakuru National Park and then 4 days at the Masai Mara. We saw everything there was to see with the exception of a kill.

The reason we chose the Masai Mara over the Serengeti was a) the size of the park and b) the migration. Both parks are ultimately the same - they both have a lot of wild animals. The difference though is the size - the Mara is a lot smaller and so you can cover the entire park during your stay - which is great because you start to get accustomed to where you might see certain animals. If you need any advice then let me know and I'll be happy to help.

With regards to the Lion incident - we were woken in the middle of the night by a huge roar - I didn't think anything of it and went back to sleep but we woke in the morning to find out that there was a Lion prowling around near the camp! Don't let that put you off the camping option - it just adds to the excitement!!!