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I knew I couldn't make the trek all the way to Tanzania and not go on safari. I already had an amazing safari experience in South Africa (which you can read about here) which I absolutely loved, so I couldn't possibly miss out on another chance to see such incredible (and, in some cases, endangered) animals in the wild. Plus, as someone who loves nothing more than capturing a beautiful photo - a safari is a dream with beautiful, unpredictable animals in the backdrop of the most stunning landscapes you will ever see.
I did a lot of research before booking my trip - wanting to ensure I found the best value for my money. My list of must-haves included a good schedule that covered enough ground, decent meals included in the price and clean, comfortable mid-range hotels. No camping, but also no luxury hotels. With such a tight schedule there is little to no reason to spend time in your hotel room beyond sleeping, so mid-range hotels are an ideal solution. We were lucky to find the perfect tour company - Zara Tours - to satisfy our needs and surprisingly, exceed our expectations.
Zara Tours is a well-reviewed, successful Tanzanian tour company run by a woman. You can check out their web-site here. I booked both the safari and Kilimanjaro climb with Zara and saved thousands of dollars by doing so in lieu of using a local Canadian competitor. Not only was the savings great, but there was greater flexibility in choosing our dates, climb routes and safari inclusions. I highly recommend them. Please feel free to contact me via this blog with any questions you might have.
My cousin, Tricia - who I convinced to join me on this journey - and I booked a 5 night safari package and a 6 day Marangu Route Kilimanjaro climb. I'll talk to the climb portion in detail in my next post but both parts of the package certainly delivered in terms of Zara's team, service, the food (which was all included) as well as accommodations.
So how was it? It was absolutely "bobkubwa" - which means something along the lines of "awesome" in Swahili.
We arrived around 8 pm via KLM with a flight to Amsterdam and another directly to Kilimanjaro airport which is just outside Tanzania's second largest city, Arusha. We chose to get the necessary Visa upon arrival and am glad we did. It cost $50 US and took about 5 minutes to in line to get (versus sending our passports by courier to Ottawa and spending $65). We also were not required to show our proof of Yellow Fever vaccination. This is apparently a very gray area. Even though Canadians are not required to be vaccinated for this, should we have passed through another country (say, Kenya by a re-routed flight) we *might require an inoculation. Our travel doctor (Dr. Wise) advised us of our options before we left and we chose to get the vaccination to avoid any potential issues on arrival. (Note that I'll talk more about vaccinations etc. later in a later post covering off practical information about traveling to Tanzania). It was $140 for the vaccine and outside of hurting your wallet, it does give you a bit of a sore arm for a few days.
We were transported by bus to our hotel - the Springlands - which was about an hour away in the town of Moshi, where we celebrated the start of a great trip with a cold beer under the full moon before getting a good night's sleep. In the morning, we enjoyed our included buffet breakfast (fresh mango, omelettes, fresh hibiscus juice etc.) before meeting with our safari guide to get on the road.
It turns out our safari would be private - just me, Tricia and our guide, Issa. While there were other groups doing similar safaris, they weren't traveling on our exact itinerary, so we traveled alone. This turned out to be a fantastic treat as we would not have to share space in our Toyota Land Cruiser with anyone else - which means we had plenty of room and the ultimate in visibility of the animals within each park.
Issa was an unbelievable host - kind, funny and very knowledgeable about the wildlife and culture of the areas we were visiting. It was more like a road trip with a friend rather than a formal safari. He even taught us quite a bit of Swahili that came in handy over the two weeks that followed.
I did a lot of research before booking my trip - wanting to ensure I found the best value for my money. My list of must-haves included a good schedule that covered enough ground, decent meals included in the price and clean, comfortable mid-range hotels. No camping, but also no luxury hotels. With such a tight schedule there is little to no reason to spend time in your hotel room beyond sleeping, so mid-range hotels are an ideal solution. We were lucky to find the perfect tour company - Zara Tours - to satisfy our needs and surprisingly, exceed our expectations.
Zara Tours is a well-reviewed, successful Tanzanian tour company run by a woman. You can check out their web-site here. I booked both the safari and Kilimanjaro climb with Zara and saved thousands of dollars by doing so in lieu of using a local Canadian competitor. Not only was the savings great, but there was greater flexibility in choosing our dates, climb routes and safari inclusions. I highly recommend them. Please feel free to contact me via this blog with any questions you might have.
My cousin, Tricia - who I convinced to join me on this journey - and I booked a 5 night safari package and a 6 day Marangu Route Kilimanjaro climb. I'll talk to the climb portion in detail in my next post but both parts of the package certainly delivered in terms of Zara's team, service, the food (which was all included) as well as accommodations.
So how was it? It was absolutely "bobkubwa" - which means something along the lines of "awesome" in Swahili.
We arrived around 8 pm via KLM with a flight to Amsterdam and another directly to Kilimanjaro airport which is just outside Tanzania's second largest city, Arusha. We chose to get the necessary Visa upon arrival and am glad we did. It cost $50 US and took about 5 minutes to in line to get (versus sending our passports by courier to Ottawa and spending $65). We also were not required to show our proof of Yellow Fever vaccination. This is apparently a very gray area. Even though Canadians are not required to be vaccinated for this, should we have passed through another country (say, Kenya by a re-routed flight) we *might require an inoculation. Our travel doctor (Dr. Wise) advised us of our options before we left and we chose to get the vaccination to avoid any potential issues on arrival. (Note that I'll talk more about vaccinations etc. later in a later post covering off practical information about traveling to Tanzania). It was $140 for the vaccine and outside of hurting your wallet, it does give you a bit of a sore arm for a few days.
We were transported by bus to our hotel - the Springlands - which was about an hour away in the town of Moshi, where we celebrated the start of a great trip with a cold beer under the full moon before getting a good night's sleep. In the morning, we enjoyed our included buffet breakfast (fresh mango, omelettes, fresh hibiscus juice etc.) before meeting with our safari guide to get on the road.
It turns out our safari would be private - just me, Tricia and our guide, Issa. While there were other groups doing similar safaris, they weren't traveling on our exact itinerary, so we traveled alone. This turned out to be a fantastic treat as we would not have to share space in our Toyota Land Cruiser with anyone else - which means we had plenty of room and the ultimate in visibility of the animals within each park.
Issa was an unbelievable host - kind, funny and very knowledgeable about the wildlife and culture of the areas we were visiting. It was more like a road trip with a friend rather than a formal safari. He even taught us quite a bit of Swahili that came in handy over the two weeks that followed.
Our 5 days included trips to Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a traditional Maasai village and Tarangire National Park. You can read about my experience at each location in the posts that follow.
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