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
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful experience, no problems
We signed up for a 10 day safari with It started in Africa in July this year. There were just two of us together with the guide Kueka and the cook Fatheli, not sure how it is spelled, Pronounced Fazili. They spoke amazingly good English and looked after us brilliantly. Both were great company, easy to be with, warm, not intrusive, and put up with us beautifully.Great food, lots of it, and modified to suit my gluten free requirements really well. Far too lovely besan flour patties for me to resist though, a wonderful change from bread, not that there is any gluten free bread in Tanzania, as far as I could tell. Kueka is an animal and bird enthusiast and really happy to take us out looking at animal as much as we liked. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge about the animal and birds and was a fantastic spotter.But he was deft in not overwhelming us with too much information. We slept in tents, with basic beds in the tent on four nights, on mattresses other nights. comfortable enough for us.(We did not opt for the luxury camping option) The vehicle was a sturdy commodious four wheel drive, which had a lift up roof for when we were looking at animals. It felt completely safe in the vehicles opened up because there are strict rules forbidding any kind of interaction with any animals in the parks. As a result, the animals go about their own business ignoring us. We are neither prey nor predator.This means they do not usually run away either, so we get close up viewing a lot. The results of feeding animals, inadvertently or otherwise, are obvious in the permit office areas on the edge of the parks where baboons attempt to get into vehicles to get at food and can be dangerous. There were an incredible variety and number of animals and birds in the four parks we visited.It started with a large family herd of elephants, together with ten or so zebra and a similar number of wildebeast fifty metres inside the boundary of our first park and it just carried on like that. We had one long drive or two shorter drives in a park each day. We visited Tangarire, Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti National Parks. We stayed in public camping grounds some kilometres from the first three parks. In the Serengeti, we stayed in the middle of the park, about three hours game drive in, seeing lions, ostriches, baboons, giraffes etc on the way. The Serengeti camp was open to animals (No fences nor a man with a gun to scare the big animals off!) and there was elephant poo by our tents. We got up one night to find several zebra grazing close by. Elephants spent a lot of time by the shower block one afternoon. Lions roared in the distance one night. I was a bit nervous getting up in the night but no-one else worried. The camping grounds have a large kitchen for the cooks and a large dining hall for us to eat in, all covered over, and netted in and with power and point points for chargers, not that they all work all the time. The whole trip was fairly comfortable and fun and just wonderful in terms of seeing animals.
KR
Email Jingu | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Professional, Transparent, Reliable
My dad and I went 3N4D tour with It Started in Africa.
Especially I would like to mention two persons ; Bernard, the reservation manager was very agile and flexible to my request and David, the driver/guide was very knowledgeable and experienced in the endless plain.
Even though there were some hassles in payment process, since their local bank had in problem to clear my Pesapal payment, Bernard transparently & frequently shared what's going on and my tour was well done without any discomfort or concern.
As many communities said, It Started in Africa had hard time due to their oversea agent problem in 2017, however, now they are doing best to rebuild their brand and reputation. I highly recommend to ask quotes to them and take a tour with them in Tanzania!
