Viola Tours and Travel
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2004)
- Member Of:
- TATO, TTB & TALA
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $50 to $2,000 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
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Reviews
CA
Email Mary | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent
Excellent service and affordable rates cant wait for my next trip with you Viola Tours & Travel
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Email Christine Hoffman | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best Trip of our lifetime Safari (after Mt. Kilimanjaro) with Frank at Viola Tours!
My husband and I took a 7-day safari with Viola Safaris after also using Viola for a 7-day trek up Kilimanjaro.
Our safari was absolutely out-of-this-world fantastic, largely due to our incredible guide, Frank. It was private (just me and my husband) and included 1 day in Tarangire, 1 day in Lake Manyara, 1 day in the Ngorongoro Crater, and 4 days in the Serengeti (1 day driving from the southern entrance to the central region, 1 full day in the central region, 1 day driving from the central region to the northern region, while seeing animals along the way, and 1 full day in the northern region).
We saw everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. We saw the big five, including a rhino sighting, which is becoming increasingly rare, 3 leopards (including watching one hunt), cheetahs, lions, all manner of antelope big and small, zebra, giraffe, elephants, beautiful and exotic birds, hippos, lizards and crocodiles, and two wildebeest crossings of the Mara River (it is every bit as wild a spectacle as it seems when you see it on Planet Earth). Like I said, we saw EVERYTHING.
Frank worked super hard to make sure we had a great time. He communicated regularly with other guides in the park so if something cool happened nearby he could get us there to witness it, and a few times we enjoyed some thrilling Indiana Jones-style rides through the bumpy park roads to see something special. But Frank didn’t need the radio to find wildlife. He has an incredible eye and is able to spot and identify animals in the distance with the naked eye that my husband and I never would have noticed otherwise. He was also extremely knowledgeable, and knew the correct name of every bird and beast we came across. Frank never settled for driving up and parking the car. If he could move a few feet this way or that way to get us a better view, he always did so, without us needing to ask. He was determined to make sure we had the best experience possible.
We stayed in tented camps throughout, except for one lodge. They were all very comfortable, and while we might change some up if we did it again, it would only be to experience something new. Verah, who helped us plan the trip, did a great job from start to finish, and found great accommodations that fit our budget.
Speaking of budget, we got quotes from A LOT of different companies. Viola stood out because of all of the great reviews – which I can now personally attest are true, and the fact that it is owned and operated by Tanzanians (which is important). Also, Viola’s quote was less expensive than many of the other tour operators, even though you get better service and better experiences. If you are deciding between Viola and another company, go with Viola and ask for Frank.
I don’t have any advice for Viola other than keep doing what you are doing. We’ll definitely travel with Viola the next time we are in Tanzania, and will encourage our friends and family to do the same!
I do have three pieces of advice for those looking into going on safari: First, go with Viola (and ask for Frank!). Second, invest in good binoculars and a good camera lens. Finally, be patient. Nature is unpredictable, so remember there is only so much any guide can control. But having a good and knowledgeable guide makes all the difference, which brings me back to my first piece of advice: Go with Viola.
Viola Safaris and all of your incredible guides and staff, thank you for the trip of a lifetime! Our Mt. Kilimanjaro trek and Safari surpassed our wildest expectations!
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Email Linda Smith | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The Best safari with the best safari Company in Tanzania!
Before we went on safari in Tanzania over the Christmas holidays, we researched a number of safari guide outfits and we found that they offered the most flexibility in terms of customizing your own itinerary, which was very important to us. After soliciting quotes from three outfits, we went with Viola. We are glad we did.
First, our guide Frank was absolutely incredible. Very polite and professional, and he has a college education in zoology so he was very knowledgeable about the birds and wildlife we saw. This was important for us because we are well-informed birdwatchers and his knowledge of the local bird population was extensive and accurate. Insist on Frank if you want to birdwatch. Frank was also a responsible guide. We watched many guides nearly run over animals in the Serengeti, while Frank would get us as close as possible without disturbing the animal’s natural behavior or startling them.
Second, the truck was very nice. The truck becomes your second home for the trip. We saw a lot of older trucks used by the bigger companies that we had considered hiring (including some broken down and on the side of the road between Ngorogoro and Serengeti, which has an awful gravel highway). Our truck was a Land Cruiser that was barely a year old, WiFi (!!!), and it had AC for the rear compartment, chargers for our cameras and phones (using a number of outlets, including American 2-prong type), and a refrigerator that came well stocked with water, beer, wine, and soda. Frank either took the car to be detailed every day or did it himself, even when we told him it wasn’t necessary.
Being familiar with off-road vehicles ourselves, we noticed that the Viola Tours trucks had BF Goodrich tires. If you aren’t familiar, these are often twice as expensive as generic/off brand tires. Frank told us that management insisted on BFGs in order to make sure the safaris run smoothly. I thought this was a very important detail that would be missed by most passengers, and it shows that Viola Toursis laying out a good bit of money to prevent breakdowns.
As far as the safari itself, Frank met us at Kilimanjaro International. We had a rough couple of days after Kenya Airways lost our luggage; without getting into too much detail, avoid Kenya Airways at all costs, as they cancelled and rebooked us at least 4 times in addition to losing our luggage. So it lifted our spirits to see that Frank was waiting for us, and he had set out a table near the truck with a bottle of wine and a white tablecloth for us to sit at while we listened to his briefing on the itinerary. We stayed a few nights in Arusha at the Planet Lodge which was excellent. We used this as home base for safaris to Arusha park and Kilimanjaro.
Speaking of Kilimanjaro, Viola Tours gave us a separate guide just for the mountain hike. Saloom (unsure of the spelling) had summitted Kilimanjaro 92 times and knew the mountain like the back of his hand. It was great that Viola Toursprovided us with a skilled second guide just for this hike.
We went to Tarangire, Ngorogoro, Serengeti, and Lake Manyara while we were there. The area around Lake Manyara is hardly luxurious (although it is very safe and we had no issued walking around town at dusk), so the nearby Twiga Camp - where Viola Tours booked us - was not exactly the Ritz-Carlton. However, it was very close to the gate, the people were nice, it had security guards and one of the rarest things in all of Africa - reliable WiFi. We stayed at several luxury camps during the trip also, but ironically, the fastest and most reliable internet access was at the most modest accommodation. Twiga was clean, the food was good, the beer is cheap ($2 for a tall Serengeti/Safari/Kilimanjaro beer), and there’s a grocery maybe 10 steps outside the front gate.
Angata Camp is in the Serengeti and is owned by Viola. It’s very luxurious and is like glamping, except you are actually in the middle of the park with the wildlife. Joseph, the Masai tribesman on staff, escorted us to and from our tent at night. We saw hyenas on the way back to the tent one of the nights, and that was a really cool, authentic experience we won’t forget. I say “tent”, but the tent we stayed in was larger and nicer than most hotel rooms we’ve stayed in. Our room had two king size four-poster beds, a living room/lounging area with chairs, power and a power strip for charging, a bath tub, a separate shower room, a regular toilet, and lots of hot water. We could go on and on about Angata camp and the food, service, and atmosphere there. We recommend it if you plan to stay in Serengeti. The Endoro Lodge near Ngorogoro was also outstanding.
While easily 90% of the people we saw on safari had the ubiquitous “pizza box”, which was a cardboard box that had a plain box lunch in it, Viola Tours got us chef-prepared meals every day, and we had our white-table clothed folding table, chairs, and actual silverware and glassware. At the picnic areas, all we saw were box lunches and people eating in their trucks when there weren’t enough picnic tables.
We rarely ever write lengthy reviews like this, but Viola Tours deserves it. They were competitively priced, but we felt like we were treated like royalty. Really, having a nice safari truck where you will spend the vast majority of your time is critical, and having a well educated guide and actual lunches were more than bonuses. 5 stars
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Email Doreen | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
It was the best experience ever
The communication great, the service was stella. Keep up with the great work you do.