It Started in Africa
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Member Of:
- IATA, TATO & TALA
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $550 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
CA
Email Lindsay Bisson | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
I would give It Started in Africa 6 starts if I could!
We had the best 5 days of our entire lives when we were on safari with It Started in Africa! Our guide, Emmanuel was extraordinary! He was very knowledgeable, easy to get along with and funny! Overall I was very impressed with the entire experience- it far exceeded my expectations! From the very first email I sent to the send off at the airport, the staff were professional and exhibited exceptional hospitality! It was simply an amazing experience!!! The food and lodges were world-class and we only chose the mid-level accommodations! We felt very spoiled!
I have told all of my friends and family in Canada that they must visit Tanzania!
PT
Email Ze Paixao | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
7 days Nomad Tour Level A - I couldn't ask for more!
We went to Tanzania in our honey moon to do a Safari with It Started in Africa. We get their contact from a friend who has been there and done the same safari and we get a lot of good points from the It Started regarding the organization and what they provide to clients during the safaris. I'll certainly do another Safari and I'll ask It Started to arrange it for me.
SE
Email Melanie | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It Started in Africa delieverd the best service and we had the best trip ever!
From the first contact til the last I've been amazed by It Started in Africa service. They've always answer fast and really did everything they could to make it til our best trip ever.
We did a five day safari (Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater) and we can't describe with words how fantastic it was. We had a really good guide, Erisdo and a really good chef who made us good food during the safari. Over all every employee we met was extremely helpful and friendly.
We really recommend to book the safari with It Started in Africa. You'll not be disappointed!!
US
Email John Hopkins | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
It Started in Africa is a really customer friendly company.
It Started in Africa built a safari trip just to my specifications for a safari in Sept/Oct 2015. This company was a pleasure to work with from beginning to end. On an 8 day Safari I visited Tarangire NP, Lake Manyara NP, Ngorongoro Caldera, and the Serengeti, both the central area and the far north.
As I was travelling alone I had different needs from the normal but ISIA tailored the trip just for me and my needs.
From day one I sent many questions to ISIA by email and Joao Oliveira replied to all of them very promptly answering all my questions in a detailed and very clear way. ISIA provided very transparent information on how they price a safari. They gave a detailed breakdown on the cost of each individual component of the safari. This made it very easy to decide what to select in terms of accommodations, activities etc.
I had a vehicle and guide all to myself although there was room for 6 in the vehicle. The vehicle was a good Toyota Land cruiser with a pop up roof perfect for negotiating the tough terrain of the Serengeti. There were charging facilities in the vehicle for phones, cameras etc. Binoculars were provided.....although if you have your own ones that you really like then I would advise bring them also.
My guide and driver, Deogratis, was extremely pleasant to be with and very friendly. He was happy to take me wherever I wanted to go and stay at any particular viewing as long as I wished. He also helped with photography. And he was very knowledgeable about where to find good sightings. He started early and kept going all day or as long as I wished and was also very nice company at dinner times. I saw the full range of animals (all you could possibly wish for) over the course of the safari and we were also lucky enough to observe many of them engaging in a variety of behaviors such as eating, fighting, migrating, hunting, rearing young, family moments etc and even a couple of wildebeest river crossings.
I also experienced a really good range of accommodations. I chose to stay in public campsites for 6 nights at a really reasonable cost. I didn't care about the level of accommodation as a solo traveler. The public campsites were very satisfactory and the food provided by ISIA each day, both meals and packed lunches, were very good. Plenty of water was provided as well. It was a wonderful experience to sleep in a tent in unfenced campsites in the Serengeti.
To view the wildebeest crossings in the far north I had to stay two nights in the Ang'ata Migration Camp suggested by Joao. It was a luxurious tented camp set up specifically in a remote location near to potential crossings at that time of year. We saw two river crossings thanks to Deogratis finding them and the good luck that they happened while we were there. It was well worth it to travel to the far north to see this spectacle.
Aside from all of this ISIA met me at KJO airport and returned me to KJO airport after the safari. They also arranged a guesthouse for me near Arusha on the day before the safari started and the day the after the safari ended . My luggage was lost by the airline on the flight to Arusha. ISIA managed to take care of chasing down my missing bag and brought it to me the next day after we had already started the safari. What a wonderful service!
On the way to the Serengeti I spent 2 nights at Haven Nature Campsite. This campsite was very pleasant and significantly better than the public ones in the Serengeti while similar in price range. Staying there allowed me to visit both Tarangire National Park and Lake Manyara National Park. I would highly recommend both when visiting the Serengeti as they are very different experiences in terms of landscape and vegetation. On the way back I stayed at a campsite near Ngorongoro for visiting the Caldera the next morning.
I would strongly advise anyone visiting the Serengeti to break the trip from Arusha. It is an extremely long drive and there is lots to see both going and coming. All the parks I visited were great experiences but the Serengeti was my favorite. It easily lived up to its reputation.
Thank you to Deogratis, my guide. Also to Joao Oliveira for arranging a wonderful trip for me over the internet. And to all the other staff at ISIA who I communicated with and/or met.
I highly recommend ISIA to anyone planning a safari or any other trip in Tanaznia.
John Hopkins
CA
Email Karrie | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a lifetime!
We had an absolutely amazing and unforgettable 5 day safari with It Started In Africa. From the moment that we first spoke with the company to begin the process of booking, we knew they would go out of their way to make our safari an experience of a lifetime. We were blown away with the dedication of the staff. When our flight had an unexpected last minute change and flew into a different airport, they quickly made arrangements for a driver to come and collect us there. When our luggage was lost in Switzerland on route to Africa and didn't arrive to Arusha until a day after we started our safari, our driver Elia, added a 3 hour drive back to to the city, after a day long safari drive, to collect our luggage and bring it to our lodge. An unbelievable act of kindness that enhanced our trip further by having our belongings with us!
Our first day in Lake Manyara National Park was a brilliant start to our 5 day adventure. Seeing baboons, monkeys, zebras, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeests, and hippos on our first day was more than we could have ever imagined. Each day after, we were sure that it couldn't top the previous day, but with each day, our expectations were surpassed and our safari experience became a life changing experience for our family of four. Our driver, Elia, made it his mission for us to see the "Big 5" as well as many other animals, and he delivered! He was so patient with us and never rushed us needing to take one more picture of an elephant or lion. He would stop at the request of anyone in our family and was quick to point out interesting sights that we had not spotted. He was pleasant, engaging, knowledgeable and great with kids. He taught us so many things about African wildlife and had a knack of finding hiding animals. On our way to the Serengeti National Park, we stopped to explore a Maasai Village and were entertained by their mesmerizing dances and songs. We also had the opportunity to bring food and school supplies to the village and purchase items made by Maasai women. Our two days in the Serengeti National Park saw a cheetah searching for her babies, herds of elephants grazing the fields, millions of wildebeests flooding the savannah, a male lion killing a hyena, a newborn gazelle taking its first steps, hippos battling, and a leopard lazing in a tree. Staying in the luxury tents in the middle of the Serengeti is an experience I highly recommend. Waking to zebras outside your tent and falling asleep to the sound of animals in the distance was something I will never forget. Our final day in the Ngorongoro Crater offered the last of the "Big 5" as we spotted one of 14 rhinos left in the crater, in addition to warthogs, and baby hippos to name a few! That night we camped under the stars and were treated to a surprise visit from an elephant drinking from the camp reservoir just before sunset. Our children were awestruck by how close they were to an elephant in the wild. We watched a beautiful sunset before retiring to our tents for a wonderful sleep to end an experience of a lifetime. The next day we returned to Arusha for our final night in this city before heading to Zanzibar for a beach holiday.
The final part of our time in Tanzania was also organized by It Started in Africa. We were keen for our children to visit a school and to donate much needed supplies to students in Tanzania. It Started in Africa is affiliated with a school in Dar Es Salaam and arranged for the principal to meet us and take us to the school. Our children both raised funds prior to leaving Canada to purchase 40 soccer balls and $600 worth of school supplies to take to this school. It was fantastic to see the joy on the faces of the children when they received these gifts, and equally pleasing to see our children become global citizens helping those in need. We feel so fortunate to have been able to go on a safari in Tanzania with It Started in Africa and to have the opportunity to visit and volunteer at a school in Dar Es Salaam. I highly recommend It Started in Africa to anyone who wants an experience of a lifetime at an affordable price! Thank you It Started in Africa!
Many thanks for everything!
Karrie, Mark, Ben & Lily
Email Myles | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An Amazing Safari Experience!
Everything was even better than we expected! The guides were fantastic and the accommodations were amazing (stayed in a mix of A & B level camping).
Tanzania is an incredible place and the safari we had was incredible. Saw all of the Big 5 plus lots of others. Truly an amazing experience that everyone should do once in their life (or more as we plan too).
GR
Email Eleni | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Unforgettable 4-day experience!!!
We are a young couple and we have just come back form our trip to Tanzania, including a 4-day safari with It started in Africa. We can hardly find words to describe those 4 days! It was an amazing, unique experience and we are very happy that we did it with that company. We were convinced about their professionalism from the first day we contacted them, but when our trip came a reality they exceeded any expectation! Every employee we met was extremely helpful and friendly. Our guide Joel was fantastic and we really spent our best 4 days with him, driving in the endless plains of Serengeti and in the unparalleled Ngorongoro crater! He was always eager to answer our questions (and thy were many!), he was informative giving as interesting information, being at the same time very pleasant and enthousiastic although he has done the same trip hundreds of times. We managed to see every animal existing in the parks visited and to take advantage fo every moment spent during our safari.
We also had a great cooker who offered us extremely delicious meals everyday!
We could never imagine that a company would be so careful and helpful, finding a solution in any matter we had. We were really impressed when we forgot our battery charger at the hotel in Arusha after our safari and with just one phone call, they arranged to get there, take it and send it to our next station!
We highly recommend It started in Africa with no second thought!
Thank you for the unforgettable trip!
Eleni-Manos
CL
Email Eduardo Hardy | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Everybody should see Tanzania
Ours was a complex trip. We spent a few days in Zanzibar, continued with a Safari and ended in Bukoba, on the western shores of the Victoria lake where we had to be by a given date. It Started in Africa, our company of choice, provided support all along the trip helping with logistics, making hotels, camps and flight reservations and making sure we got from one place to the other on time, especially to Mwanza at the end of the Safari where we boarded a small plane to Bukoba. But the highlight of this adventure was the Safari itself, including Manyara, Ngorongoro and south and central Serengeti. The accommodations were great, but I suspect that at the end of the day it is the choice of the guides that is the most important component in a Safari. And both Freddy Isangya and Jackson Mbise are great professionals, providing linguistic help and knowing where to go, how to spot surprising places and animals, and finding something exciting every day. Thanks also to Joao for constant communications and helping us plan and coordinate the entire trip. Marcia and I returned to Chile with an understanding of Tanzania and its remarkable natural beauties, and even some basic Swahili. And of course thousands of pictures and videos of places and abundant fauna from lions to elephants to gazelles . It was better than we imagined. Highly recommended.
IT
Email Emilio | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
At least once in your life
This was our first safari and will not be the last one. It started in Africa is a quite young safari company in Arusha and already one of the best. The owner, Joao is very kind and support you by email or by phone to organize and plan the trip, trying to match your requests as much as possible at very competitive prices. The rest of the staff is also great, such as Mathias, the office manager, great welcoming from him. There are no words to describe the experience, we visited Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. All of the them are worth a visit, but Serengeti is definitely the best one, it is exactly like in the movie, the Lion King. In the tented camp you really feel the savana. We have seen hundred of animals, all the Big 5, and very cool scenes thanks to our guide, Michael, what an amazing guy. He is very kind and he can see animals from the top of Ngorongoro crater while driving. You should definitely ask for him as guide. Go for It started in Africa, no doubts.
Email Terry H | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
3 days, 3 parks: an amazing adventure!
I chose It Started In Africa to organise my 3-day Tanzanian safari because of the excellent reviews I had read on Tripadvisor. We were not disappointed! Pre-visit communication was excellent and we were met on arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport where our adventure began. Zaire (our driver) was cautious and made us feel very safe on what is a very dangerous road - The Arusha Highway. Alfred was a font of knowledge and over the 3 days proved there was not an animal, bird, reptile, tree or plant he couldn't identify both in English and Swahili. They worked well as a team and never gave up trying to get my wife and I to engage them in the local language. The three parks we visited; Tarangire, Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater I can only describe as breathtaking, each with its own special memory. The herd of 100+ elephants (including so many babies) in Tarangire was incredible - it's hard to imagine how anybody can slaughter these majestic animals either for 'sport' or for their tusks. In Lake Manyara there are monkeys and baboons everywhere and an abundance of birdlife around the edges of the lake. It was also our first sight of hippos in the wild. But, we saved the best till last and nothing can prepare you for the view of the Ngorongoro Crater from the viewpoint just after entering the park. The vast area is simply teeming with wildlife all hemmed in by the steep walls rising to nearly 2,000'. The only one of the 'big 5' we didn't see was a leopard but that was more than made up for by the herds of wildebeest, 3 rhinos and a real up close and personal encounter with the hippos.
So thank you Alfred and Zaire and everybody at It Started in Africa for a magnificant 3 day trip!