"Asili Explorer Safaris: Go Local Explore Africa"
Asili Explorer Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Member Of:
- Tanzania Tourist Board, Custom budget & mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget & mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $220 to $350 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
IN
Email Shayam | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I enjoy a lot with aisliexplorer safari amazing experience given never forgot for life time
Thanks aislisafari love the quality of service and amazing experience
IN
Email Naeem Changiz | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Adventure with Empress Safari's Wild Expedition Team
Thanks Elly, your knowledge of the office and your ability to handle all the logistics with such efficiency were truly impressive.
Aslo thanks Ramadhan, I cannot express enough how truly fantastic the experience was. From start to finish, Ramadhan's expertise, passion, and dedication made this tour an unforgettable journey into the heart of the wilderness.
it was an absolute delight. From the moment I booked the trip to the final farewell, I was treated with professionalism, warmth, and a genuine love for the wild. The team's expertise in tracking and locating animals was truly impressive, ensuring that we had exceptional sightings and photo opportunities.
If you're seeking an adventure that combines luxury, education, and a profound connection with nature, I recommend Empress Safari. They truly epitomize the essence of an unforgettable safari experience.
Reply from Asili Explorer Safaris
Posted on Oct 17, 2023Wow, its great of you to give us such a lovely feedback. your trust is our top priority, we are glad you enjoyed our services. We make sure our guests feel comfortable ,safe, exceptional and at home during the tour. We thank you for recommending us and look forward to having you here again.
US
Email Karthik Kannan | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
9 Day trip to Tanzania
Tanzania was on our bucket list ever since we visited Kenya in 2018. Our cousin in Toronto had used Asili Explorer Safaris for their trip to Tanzania in 2019 and spoke very highly of them. While we reached out to at least 4 other travel companies in Tanzania, we received the most prompt and detailed response from Asili. Their quote was easily the best we received and they were very flexible with our schedule, budget.
We had sketched out a rough plan of where we wanted to go and worked with Joe’s team to make that plan a reality. They reviewed our plan, suggested alternatives, gave us 3 options (high, medium, low cost) for lodges/camps for every place we stayed overnight and helped build an itinerary with every activity we wanted to include on our trip. Planning a trip to an unknown country never this easy, Asili Explorer Safaris made the experience a breeze and a pleasure.
On Day 1, we landed at the Kilimanjaro Int. Airport at noon. Immigration and Baggage claim was very pleasant. The immigration officials were extremely friendly. Asili’s driver/guide/naturalist Ramadanu was waiting for us at the entrance and greeted us and immediately took our bags from us. He took us to our custom built Land Cruiser (the one where the top opens) and gave us a brief overview of our 8 day trip. His kindness and thoroughness showed that he really cared and this showed throughout our trip. Rama drove us to Arusha, where we met Joe (the owner of Asili). Joe had arranged for a delicious African BBQ lunch. He also arranged a portable WIFI hostspot though most lodges had wifi. After lunch Rama drove us to the Burunge Tented Lodge near Tarangire National Park. The Burunge tented lodge was glamping at its best with common (dining/ kitchen/ shop) areas overlooked the Burunge lake and the view was great. We had a 3 course dinner. The tented camp itself was very luxurious with 3 single beds for the three of us and a restroom attached. The tent is built on stilts and had a wood floor, everything else was canvas tents with all the amenities and service of a luxury hotel. Our first night in Tanzania was memorable though it rained throughout the night. Rain outside but bone dry clean tents was a very comforting experience. Needless to say we were worried about the safari the next morning.
Day 2 of our trip we started with an early breakfast where we were greeted by elephants right off the lookout from the dining area. Though it rained all night, it let up in the morning and was beautiful. We were off to Tarangire National park, named for the river that runs through its stunning landscape, the Tarangire National Park is said to have the country’s largest population of elephants. At Tarangire we saw many elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeests, a leopard (which is an extremely rare sight, given that these animals are extremely shy), dik diks(small deer said to travel in pairs and mate for life), tons of birds (black headed heron, battler eagles, grey crowned cranes), warthogs, various kids of mongoose, cape buffalo, monkeys etc. We stopped midday and had the box lunch in our truck while watching a herd of elephants have a mud bath. We saw a male cheetah that had just killed a red buck and finished its meal only for 20+ vultures to descend on the leftovers. The sighting that completely surprised us was seeing a pride of a lioness with 5 adolescent cubs on top of a tree fast asleep. We had seen leopards climb before, but never lions. This pride was a clumsy lot, however we found them pretty high up in the trees, some of them very comfortable, others completely uneasy perched at precarious angles on the tree. On a very eventful first all-day safari, Rama, our driver/ safari guide was phenomenal, pointing out animals, stopping for pictures, throwing in snippets of valuable information about every little thing we saw or asked about. Rama just mentioned that Baboons also eat meat. This was news to our 12 year old who prides herself on knowing anything wildlife. Just as Rama said this, we saw a male Baboon dart past the road with what looked like an impala faun. We stopped and watched as he tore it apart and refused to share it with his clan. We reached Burunge for dinner and watched 12 huge male tuskers drink at the waterhole around 20 yards away from the dining area while we had dinner. It was an amazing sight to watch them in the dark, their majestic large frames barely visible because of the dim lodge lights. We could hear their trumpeting and purrs really close. It was an experience we speak about fondly very often.
Day 3 Rama drove us to Lake Manyara National Park, home of the tree climbing lions, funnily we did not see any tree climbing lions in Lake Manyara. We had decided that we would go on all day safaris throughout this trip, which meant early breakfast, boxed lunches to take on the game drives and home to the camp before dusk, which was typically by 6.30-7pm. Lake Manyara was elephant central. We came across herds and herds of elephants, some of them came so close we could almost touch them. Rama was extremely careful. When he first turned the truck off when the first herd was by us, we asked him why he did so. He explained that they will be calm if the truck is turned off and get jittery only when the truck engine is on. We noticed this behavior multiple times. These herds were all walking on the road that day from the direction of the main gate to the Iyambi gate which was opposite to how we were headed. Over 100 elephants walked past our truck. We really understood why these animals are called the gentle giants, you could see the family dynamics in these herds playing, pushing, goading, little ones mock charging. Watching these herds of elephants was like watching the Hathi march in "Jungle Book" all of them single file following each other around. The elephant calves were a joy to watch, they would run, stop, play, drop, roll and were generally super playful and full of energy. At Lake Manyara Rama stopped at the hot geyser where water that was hot enough to boil an egg flowed from the cracks on the cliffs and flowed into the lake. We saw many buffaloes and hippos. We even a tiny newly born hippo calf maybe few days old. From Lake Manyara we headed to the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge for the night. Before getting to the lodge we stopped at Ngorongoro nature conservation welcome center. Here they have a model of the crater and the area around the conservation. They also had a naturalist there, who basically explains everything you needed to know about the crater and its ecosystem. Highly recommend a quick stop at the welcome center, this place is a wealth of information and gives you a basic understanding on where you were headed.
The Ngorongoro Serena lodge was by far the most luxurious place we stayed in. The lodge was located on the rim of the Ngorongoro crater, which gave us breathtaking views of the crater from our room balcony. We reached the lodge early in the evening, which gave us some time to wind down with a beer on the balcony of our room. We eventually made our way to the common dining and bar area, where everyone was entertained by Masai dancers before we made our way to our 5 course dinner.
The Serena lodge at Ngorongoro and the conservation area is probably the most beautiful place we have ever seen in our travels. The view from the balcony of our lodge is breathtaking. The lodge sits on the edge of the crater and each room has a balcony overlooking the crater. We saw a giant male tusker elephant walk past our balcony and disappear down the crater's steep wall at sunset. The crater at night is something to witness, we heard lions roar and hyenas at night. It was like witnessing a full-on national geographic lion pride hunting video through sounds and no visuals. Since we were along the rim of the crater, perhaps the crater walls amplified all the sounds on the floor of the crater. If Burunge dinner was great, Ngorongoro Serena was just at a totally different level. Whatever you can imagine in a dinner buffet, you would find. The desert bar was stacked.
Day 4 had an early breakfast and made our way down to the floor of the Ngorongoro crater. The crater is like an ecosystem of its own. You literally have every animal here except for giraffes. There is one way into the crater and one way out and we are not being dramatic here.
The Highlight of the safari was that we saw a pride of about 5 cubs and lionesses. We thought that was the highlight until we saw a lioness walk away alone. We waited to see what she was doing. She started stalking a herd of wildebeest. We waited patiently as she inched her way close to them in the high grass. She stalked them for around 10 mins before making the charge. Since the grass near the wildebeest herd was not too high we could clearly see her moves. However, that meant the wilder beast spotted her before she could get really close. Though she did make the charge she could not make the catch. However, this was our first time actually watching a hunt though unsuccessful. We came across many hyenas lying in puddles of water cooling off right on the roads taken by the jeeps, we saw tons of hippos in the hippo pools, warthogs, ostrich, zebra, gnu, and so much more. We saw a couple juvenile male lions here as well. Since the crater was like a cauldron, it was not uncommon seeing jeeps driving across the crater to where many jeeps were, as that meant that an animal/ animals was spotted. We had boxed lunch at a beautiful picnic spot located at a hippo pool. It was a very unique experience to get off the jeep and have hippos swim so close by while we had our picnic lunch. They say hippos are territorial, it didn't seem like they had learnt to coexist with the picnickers. We had already seen the big 4 already: Lion, Leopard, Elephant and Buffalo. We finally saw the rare member of the big 5, the Rhino. We actually saw 3. This was thanks to Rama. To be truthful we were not so concerned to see the Rhino as we had seen many really up close in Lake Nakuru in Kenya. But Rama insisted that we cannot leave without seeing the big 5. Rama went out of the way to stop where we wanted, tell us about all the animals we were seeing, he peppered the day trip with many nuggets of information as well. After an entire day in the crater we made our way back up, you notice giraffes on the way up the crater and we figured it had to be difficult for giraffes, with their long legs, to traverse the steep slope down to the crater floor. Back at the Serena lodge, this night we stayed longer in the room to enjoy the views from our balcony.
On Day 5 morning we made our way to the Ndutu plains, along the way we stopped off at the Olduvai Gorge, also famously known as the "Cradle of Humankind". This site yielded the very first known fossil remains of two contemporary humans, both dating back to approximately 1.84 million years. It was a great historic site to visit which brought into perspective that humans have evolved over time a great deal. We made our way to the Lake Masek tented lodge, which was very much like the Lake Burunge tented camp we stayed in the first two days. Ndutu plains is the birthing place of millions of wildebeests. The Ndutu park is made of rolling grasslands peppered with alkaline lakes that attract flocks of flamingos. We saw so many giraffes here, probably the most giraffe we had seen on the entire trip. They say the best time to come to the plains is from December, when the great migration herds start to arrive from the north to April, when the herds move back northward, from where they came. Rama told us that during the season there was barely enough room for jeeps to traverse the terrain as there were so many wildebeest. Since we were a couple months before season, the plains were sparse apart from the flocks of flamingos. The one thing that stands out in this area was that there was one side of the Ndutu lake that was literally like a graveyard, as it was filled with bones of wildebeest, our guide Rama told us that this was because during birthing season there are either several stampedes or in some cases a lot of the animals get diseased and what we see there is remains of the animals that die during the birthing season. We saw a pride of lions right beside the track resting under a tree. One of the lionesses in the pride was heavily pregnant. We stopped for lunch right beside the pride and ate our lunch inside our vehicle while watching the resting lion pride just a few feet away.
Day 6, 7 and 8 were the grand finale of the trip, the Serengeti National Park, the reason we were here in Tanzania and boy this was a sight to behold. This was big cat country, we saw a majestic male lion with its pride a few minutes into entering the Serengeti. We saw so many cats here that we kept count and our final count for the trip was 67 lions, 7 cheetahs and 4 leopards. The biggest pride we saw was a 14 lion pride, the dominant males all majestic. This pride had a mating pair as well. Rama, our guide, knew his way around the Serengeti, we went from one place to the other, no maps, no google, all thanks to Rama. He was so experienced that we saw many jeeps stop to ask for directions from him. On the plains, it was difficult to tell one place from the next, every place looked so similar. The things that stood out for us about the Serengeti was the sheer number of cats, the number of wildebeest and zebra that had already started on their migration journey and the vastness of the plains. This place is grasslands till the eye can see. We got to see a leopard with its kill atop a tree, we saw the leopard eating its red buck kill, the videos we got are absolutely stunning. We then saw him climb down the tree. What a graceful agile climber. We saw cheetah brothers who had just taken down a fully grown wilder beast feasting on their kill. A heavily pregnant cheetah all alert under a tree. We saw the famous picture of a cheetah and her cub on an ant hill in person. For our stay we decided to go adventurous and stayed in the Kati Kati semi luxury camp. This was an experience in and of itself. Our tented camp was right in the middle of the wildebeest migration path. At night you could hear everything, the wildebeest, the hyena, and hear a lion roar. A hyena visited the dining tent the first evening and was chased away by the guards. This was unnerving the first night but nights 2 and 3 were awesome.
We decided to fly back from Serengeti to Arusha as we did not want to spend 8 hours driving back. Joe booked the air tickets for us as a part of the package. Rama dropped us off at the Seronera airstrip and waited to see us off. He said he was not leaving until he saw our flight take off. He need not have done that. We felt very well cared for. We took the 16 seater Cessna flight. It was an adventure in and of itself. It flew low right over the Ngorongoro crater and through the rift valley ranges. On arriving at Arusha Joe met us at the airport and took us for lunch. After lunch he dropped us at the Kilimanjaro airport.
All in all we had an awesome nine day trip. Thank you Asili and Joe for making the planning and execution of the trip of a lifetime possible. Thank you Rama and Joe for taking such good care of us, you made this trip memorable. We would recommend Tanzania to anyone who wants to see the Big Five, nothing compares to the sheer volume of wildlife you see here. We have been on multiple safaris in India and have been to Kenya. Asili Explorer Safaris service and the accommodations that they arranged is easily the best we have experienced.
Reply from Asili Explorer Safaris
Posted on Oct 20, 2023Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. We are thrilled to hear that you had an enjoyable safari with us. Our team works tirelessly to create memorable experiences, and your positive feedback reinforces our dedication.
We appreciate your trust in our services and look forward to the opportunity of hosting you on another adventure in the future. Your satisfaction is our top priority, and we are grateful for your support.
IN
Email sufyan | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
AMAZING SAFARI WITH ASILI EXPLORER SAFARI IN TANZANIA
AMAZING SAFARI WITH ASILI EXPLORER SAFARI IN TANZANIA
My Tours Experienced in the Asili Explorer Safaris
WOW!.... WHAT A FANTASTIC TOUR.
With our tour guide who went the extra mile. Joe was there the whole way helping, advising, and being supportive. I was able to enjoy the tour thanks to him. Joe was the best tour guide I have ever had and can’t praise him enough. Asiliexplorer is the best tour operator can say.
IN
Email jasmin | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
"My great 60th birthday trip to Tanzania”
I visited Tanzania between 22 Feb 2022 "My trip was really great. I saw may beautiful things in the almost pristine Tanzania. I had a perfect mix of different habitats and plenty of wildlife. Calving season were one of the main drivers for this trip and I was able to see them around ndutu location. Great Plains offers superb wildlife experience. Logistics were arranged perfectly, we thanks Asili Team and our expert driver guide Joseph (Joe) was very helpful & informative.
PK
Email shahid khan | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
THE TOUR WAS EXCELLENT
THE TOUR WAS EXCELLENT
With so much was included. our tour itinerary arranged by Lilian and Our tour guide Ephata did everything he could to ensure that all the tour ran smoothly and explained everything each day was supper sport animals and on top of that he was always there with helpful suggestions such as what local dishes and wines to try and places to go for culture visits. I would be happy to recommend Asiliexplorer
PK
Email Osama | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Wonderful Experience
Fantastic tour that allows you to see so many incredible places!!! It is fast paced and there are a few things that could be done differently but if you are looking for a trip to see the main highlights of the park. This is the one for you! with Asiliexplorer We had an great group but our Guide joe made the trip extremely enjoyable with his knowledge and great sense of humour and kept everything running so smoothly and tried to accommodate everyone and every request! Shout out to our driver, to all the walking city tour guides and to the customer service team, as they were all part of making this a great trip for me from the time I booked it to finally being able to actually do it!
PH
Email Ediza | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect super nice
Super duper nice. I highly recommend them. Very approachable.
Email Jacobs | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect and excellent African experience
We just returned from a 7-day trip with Asili Explorer Safaris, and wanted to post a review. We had difficulty finding a safari that would allow children, as we were two families with kids ranging from 5-16. What luck to get in touch with Asili! They were extremely professional, always quick with replies and informative emails on packing suggestions, documentation, etc. The trip was so enjoyable and stress free, as they thought of everything, and all transfers went off seamlessly.
We spent 2 nights in a tented camp at Ngorongoro, 4 nights at the lovely Tented Lodge near Seronera in Serengeti and 1 night at Mount Meru Hotel in Arusha. It was a perfect mix with excellent game viewing. Thanks Asili Explorer!
