Easy Travel & Tours
- Located In:
- Size:
- 50-100 employees (Founded in 1987)
- Member Of:
- ASTA, TATO & TTB
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $200 to $320 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Knowledgeable Company, Wonderful Staff = Magnificent Safari
In July 2014 my husband, two very good friends and myself left Milwaukee WI for an adventure of a lifetime in Tanzania/Zanzibar Africa. We began our planning process in January 2014 developing our itinerary and sketching out the places that we wanted to stay. We then submitted our itinerary to approximately 20 tour companies. During the process of elimination we considered a number of important factors, responsiveness to our endless questions and changes, suggestions for improvement to our itinerary, our confidence regarding the tour operator to deliver on its promises, the quality of their equipment, the experience of their personnel and price.
Easy Travel & Tours won our business by meeting or exceeding these criteria. After our decision to engage Easy Travel as our TO our relationship continued to grow and develop through ongoing communication via email and Skype. We met personally with Musaddiq Gulamhussein, Director of Sales and Marketing on our first day in Tanzania. He reviewed our itinerary with us again and took care of any last minute changes or concerns that we had, assuring us that he would look into a couple of issues and communicate with our tour guide, Emmilian Matay during our safari. We were soon to learn that Emmilian, a seventeen-year veteran, was one of the best guides in the business. Musaddiq told us to trust Emmilian, advice that would prove to be monumentally valuable throughout our trip. Musaddiq also told us to have patience, which also proved to be good advice.
Our itinerary was as follows:
July 25, Arrive Kilimanjaro International Airport
July 26, Arusha National Park
July 27, Tarangire National Park
July 28, Tarangire National Park
July 29, Depart to Mto wa Mbu visit and Masai Village visit
July 30, Lake Manyara National Park
July 31, Lake Manyara National Park - travel to Ngorongoro Crater
August 1, Ngorongoro Crater
August 2, Travel to Serengeti stopping in Olduvai Gorge and shifting sands in transit
August 3, Southern Serengeti
August 4, Southern Serengeti
August 5, Travel to Northern Serengeti
August 6, Northern Serengeti
August 7, Northern Serengeti
August 8, Fly to Zanzibar
August 9, Zanzibar
August 10, Zanzibar
August 11, Travel home
We would not have changed any of the itinerary as planned. We thought the time at each location was just right and that our travel plans from one park to another was well timed with one exception, the travel day from Ngorongoro Crater to the Serengeti. We had to leave the Crater before the time we checked in 48 hours earlier or Easy Travel would be charged another whole day park fee. That meant we were in a hurry until we checked into Serengeti National Park. It was the most difficult travel day, with roads being what they are in Tanzania. It also meant that we did not have enough time in the Olduvai Gorge. However we did briefly stop at the Shifting Sands, which were mystical! If we were to do it again we would have adjusted our starting time with Emmilian.
The key to a superior African Safari is your guide and Emmilian gave us a magnificent experience. He was able to position us to see tens of thousands of wildebeests, many elephants, zebras, giraffes, cape buffalos, hippos, baboons, lions, crocodiles and hyenas, ten cheetahs, six rhinos and three leopards. In addition we saw hundreds of bird species and other small mammals. We were able to see a cheetah killing a Thompson gazelle and witnessed other kills such as lions eating wildebeest, zebras and impalas, a leopard eating his prey in a tree, cheetah and her cub eating an impala and a pack of hyenas eating a cape buffalo. We also saw zebra, hippos and wildebeest mothers nursing their young and a hyena carrying a hyena cub.
Two highlights, for us, were seeing not one but six rhinos and to see the great migration of the wildebeest over the Maru River. We could not believe our luck in seeing a black rhino in the Ngorongoro crater. Our guide knew the park rangers in the crater and asked them if there had been any rare sightings of the rhinos in the area (there are only 35 rhinos left in the crater due to poaching). The rangers were able to point us in the right direction and were lucky enough to have a rhino come very close to our vehicle. We also saw a mother and baby white rhino in the northern Serengeti and finally we saw another mother, baby and male rhino in the Northern Serengeti. These last two sightings we were totally alone with no other vehicles around. We were often the only one witnessing an event because, I believe, of the experience and patience of our guide Emmilian.
Musaddiq Gulamhussein, Director of Sales and Operations warned us that we had probably missed the Great Migration at our meeting with him in Arusha. While we had planned our trip around the "typical" migration season nobody notified the wildebeest of our desire to see them migrate. We were told that the migration had started in late June so there was probably no chance we were going to see this epic event. Emmilian thought this too but we waited by the Mara River one morning for three hours and by gosh we witnessed a crossing! What a thrill. Then after a lunch and potty break we returned to the river and saw another crossing. We couldn't believe it!
As most Americans, we thought we knew best when we arrived in Africa, when we left we knew that you should listen to your guide's advice, be patient and remain flexible. Emmilian used every resource he had available to him, his intelligence, knowledge of the terrain and animals, his relationships and communication skills, to provide us with the best trip we could have ever imagined.
We found, especially, in the Serengeti that one early morning game drive, starting at dawn to about a two pm was better than two game drives, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Through this arrangement we were able to cut down on travel times and increase safari time. An added bonus, the animals were more active in the mornings.
While I won't list all of the accommodations we chose here, we were either very satisfied or generally satisfied with them all. There were restrictions on electricity, hot water and heat in most places, but you adjusted. Some accommodations were pretty remote to our daily game drive destination, however, we would not have seen the mother and baby rhinos and a leopard close up if we had stayed at other places.
We were sad to say goodbye to Emmilian at the end of our safari. We were glad that we had made arrangements to fly to Zanzibar from the Kogatende airstrip through Arusha. Some of our fellow travelers faced a difficult two-day trip by vehicle back to Arusha. After taking the roads to our final destination in the Serengeti in bits and pieces it was not at all appealing to think about experiencing those roads again in a two-day marathon.
Easy Travel arranged for our tour guide, Zamir, to pick us up at the airport and transport us to our accommodations in Stone Town. During our planning some, in our party, wanted to skip Zanzibar and Stone Town, we were glad we didn't. It is so culturally different than Tanzania it is hard to believe that they are the same country. While you can arrange to stay in a resort type hotel we were happy that we decided to stay at the Kisiwa House in Stone Town. We took advantage of eating in some great diverse restaurants for the two nights we were in Stone Town. On the first day in Zanzibar we arranged for a day of sailing and snorkeling in the Indian Ocean! What a contrast to our safari. The second day, we had an extensive tour of a spice farm and Stone Town. Learned a lot about the tragic slave trade that sold the African people to eastern countries. We visited a local market and walked many miles through Stone town.
To wrap up, we would highly recommend Easy Travel for your African Safari for the excellent staff, knowledge guides, reliable and comfortable equipment, superior coordination of all aspects of our safari, exceptional communication and reasonable pricing.
P.S. In the middle of our trip i was notified that my brother had suddenly died. Emmilian did everything he could to help me get in touch with my family and was personally very supportive. Musaddiq was ready to help us make arrangements to get us back to the States. We felt a real genuine out pouring of sympathy from the people of this company. One more reason to engage Easy Travel for your Tanzania safari.
ES
Email Joan Carles | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Much more than expected. Friendly people.
It was a very pleasant experience, and the Easy travel people made it possible.
Our guide, Emanuel James is a kind guy, that loves his work and nature.
He was the perfect travel companion.
US
Email Ann Pham | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Our tour guide Nico Modamba made our experiences wonderful and unforgettable.
The cummunications with booking, service was above our expectation. Iris Duba responded very promptly to emails and answered all of our questions, she was very professional throughout the whole booking process. Our guide Nico was always on time, very knowledgable and was very accommodating to our needs. It was our first time in Africa and we were very pleased with Easy Travel and would highly recommend to our friends and family. Thank you!
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Easy Going with Easy Tours
We were 7 pax from India and booked our Tanzania Safari trip for 8 Days with Easy Travel based on the TA ranking. And it all proved right. Easy travel were very professional with Owners themselves involved in day to day communications. Sayyedah, Director, responded to all our mails & helped us to plan the most amazing safari. Musaddiq, Director gave us a warm welcome & briefed about our trip & both of them made sure we were comfortable through out our safari which started in Tarangire, then Manyara, then Central Serengeti, then Northern Serengeti and finally ending in Ngorongoro. Herman was our guide and driver and he is not only good in wildlife sightings, but also respects the regulations of the park. We were lucky to see about 32 Lions, 10 Cheetah, 3 Leopards, 2 sightings of Aardwolf, Bat eared Fox, Serval cat are some thing rare to see. We also saw lot of elephants, antelopes, Wildebeest, Giraffes & Zebras & more interesting Birds. We were also lucky to see Mara crossing by a huge herd of wildebeests for which we have to Thank Herman who's patience paid off. Had some intresting moments with the Tsetse Flies. We loved the Lamai triangle for its stunning natural beauty. Earlier we have been to Kruger but Serengeti is the best place in the earth for wildlife and landscape. Now we are among the elite few who witnessed the Mara River Crossing. Thanks to Herman & Musaddiq & Sayyedah of Easy Travel, because without them it would not have been such an Easy going our group. We have also decided to go back with them again in 2016.
CA
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing guide and safari
We just returned from three wonderful weeks in Tanzania, organized through our local travel agency and Easy Travel. Everything was very well organized. We spent the first week on safari through Manyara Park, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. The accommodations were perfect - safe, clean and charming. We saw every animal we had hoped to see, and then so much more, and this was because of our guide, Godfrey. My family and I cannot say enough good things about Godfrey. He was warm and friendly, incredibly organized, enthusiastic and so knowledgeable. He was fantastic with our children (aged 14 and 16), and we felt safe and very fortunate to be under his care. We all had a few tears in our eyes when we parted ways with Godfrey at the airport on our way to Zanzibar. Without a doubt, I will recommend Easy Travel, and especially Godfrey, to our friends and colleagues.
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
After a lot of searching Easy Travel came out on top
Easy Travel made everything easy, our Guide Jackson was superb, he went above and beyond to find the animals in situations you would not expect.
ES
Email Mario Rodríguez Paíno | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great memorable trip. Perfect organization. Fantastic guide in all aspects (thanks Cornel)
There were no problems during the trip. Everything worked perfectly: Cleanliness, punctuality, Great Hotels, vehicle. Much of the success of the trip was the guide. Cornel speaks English and Spanish perfectly. Localized animals away with astonishing ease. Sympathetic. With environmentally conscious. He loves his country. Polite and discreet. Drive safely. Highly recommended agency and guide
Tanzania Safari 11 days Serengeti and Ngorongoro 20-30 may 2014
The organisation of the safari communication, travel, accommodation and food was excellent. We travelled in a small convoy (3 vehicles)and we felt safe at all times. Our driver Hubert Modest was a very good driver, had a wide knowledge of the animals and their habits and where to find them. He added immeasurably to our enjoyment of the safari. We would recommend this safari to all.
David McDermont and Lolita Valencia
CH
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great and safe experience on a 16 days Safari in northern Tanzania
Very nice and good drivers who knew a lot about the animals and where to find them. We drove long distances all the way up to Lake Natron and the northern Serengeti. We always felt safe and pretty comfortable even on very bumpy roads or through muddy patches. The landrovers were cleaned the next morning to start for another exciting early morning tour.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A wonderful vacation with a ecellent guide in North Tanzania!
We have visited 4 nationalparcs in North Tanzania and it was really great. We have seen many animals and beautiful nature. And all of this thanks to our wonderful guide Cosmas. He knew everything about all the animals, nature and history of Tanzania.