The Safari Soles Team
Safari Soles
- Offices In:
-
United Kingdom
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2018)
- Member Of:
- Tanzania Tourist Board
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $300 to $600 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
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Email Troy | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari Soles Tours can be trusted to deliver an unparalleled safari experience.
I highly recommend using Safari Soles as your Tanzanian safari tour operator. With so many local operators to choose from, we were hesitant on which one to pick. Happiness George put all our worries to rest. After making contact she was able to provide an itinerary that met all our wishes from diverse lodging to any food requirement to selection of our guide and driver. All airport transfers went seamlessly. Communication with her and others of the team at Safari Soles was consistent, timely and informative.
Our check baggage did not make the flight to Kilimanjaro with us. The Safari Soles team made sure that when it arrived in Kilimanjaro airport the following night that it was driven over two hours to our location the following morning to meet us at our lodge before our scheduled departure time. What a life saver.
I would like to give a big thank you to Innocent our guide and driver. Without him, our experience would not have been as extraordinary as it turned out to be. He was able to locate and anticipate all the animal movements to position us in a way as to get close with the best angles for viewing and pictures. He worked tirelessly making sure we got everything we wanted out of every day’s safari drives and reviewed our next day’s itinerary with us the night before so we knew what to expect and make adjustments to our itinerary to view as much wildlife as possible. I cannot say enough good things about him. He always had our best interests at heart and was very informative in a wide range of topics related to Tanzania and its animals, culture and people.
The Safari Soles team took our family trip from just a one to remember to a trip of a lifetime. Priceless!
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Email Meredith | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari Soles is highly recommended, well connected, trustworthy, thorough and responsiveI highly rec
I highly recommend Safari Soles for the best Tanzanian Safari Tour Operator experience. The entire staff worked diligently to meet all our expectations from Happiness George that organized our trip including booking wonderful lodges (Suricata Boma Lodge) and luxury tent accommodations (Pakulala Safari Camp on the Ngorongoro Crater rim) to Chief, who picked us up at Kilimanjaro airport and kept us entertained for the entire 90 minute ride to Innocent, our Safari Guide that drove long hours every day thru Tarangire, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater to make sure we saw every animal on our bucket list and more, to Baltazar that drove us to the Kilimanjaro foothills and patiently accompanied us on our hike to the Materuni Waterfalls & Coffee tour, on to the Mineral Springs and back to Kilimanjaro airport keeping us on a tight schedule. It was a trip we will never forget.
I’d like to express additional praise for Innocent whose positive attitude and patience never faltered and always checked to make sure we were “all good”, our new favorite phrase. It is obvious that he is well liked within the community, keeping connected to find the best siting and even stopping to help a stranded driver or two. He was instrumental in making this a trip of a lifetime for which we will be forever grateful. Thank you Innocent!
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Email Robert G | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
10/10 Would Book Again!!!
I have traveled to a lot of places with many tour guides but none as good as Innocente with Safari Soles! Innocente had eyes like a hawk when finding the wildlife and a spectacular scenes of their movements before they happened getting us in position for some amazing experiences! Match that with his unparalleled personality and it makes for a really memorable time!
ES
Email Laura Gomez | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
5/5 experience
We were extremely happy with our experience. We saw a lot of animals, stayed in very good resorts and enjoyed the conversations with Rahim our driver... and all of it for a very reasonable price. They were extemely professional and happiness, the lady that helped us to plan the trip, was very kind and patient with us, specially because we planned the trip last minute. We will repeat for sure. 100% recommended. thanks for everything
CH
Email Priska | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well organized operator who took care of all our wishes.
The tour with Safari Soles was great. From the sales person who was very concerned and always responded super fast whenever we had a question or doubt to all the locations. Everything was perfect.
We booked a mid-rang private tour and it was super nice. We had a very friendly guide (Godlisten) who took care of us in a very good way. If we had questions or wanted to stop somewhere or return, he always took us and your wishes serious and made everything possible to provide a good experience.
The lodges where we stayed were stunning. We did not expect it like that. The tented lodges with showers and comfy beds were great. To go to bed or wake up having animals around you is incredible.
We were definitly very happy and would recommend Safari Soles.
IE
Email Josipa | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great guide and excellent agency
A must do! The safari experience surpassed our highest hopes and not just for the scenary and wildlife but because of our guide Raymond. Such a great personality, excellent safari guide with lots of info on the wildlife, nature, culture, food, history of the region. All in all, we were beyond happy and would recommend him as a safari guide.
Soles tour company, we interacted only for our booking and Happiness was very quick to respond, made all the changes we requested possible, gave advice based on her experience.
Accommodation was superb, we stayed in Sero Tented camp which is a "glamping" tent with excellent staff, amazing sunsets and sunrise views, comfortable "tents" with huge bed, shower with hot water and toilets.
Other accommodation were basic tents but we're equally amazing because of where you are. Nothing beats the african starry night!
Food - we had a cook traveling with us who was great. He would ask us our preferences, we preferences eating local food so he did that most days. Cooked enough food to feed an army! Was delicious, especially considering how remote some of the camps are.
If you're looking for a company to go on a safari, I really recomed safari soles. And especially Raymond as a safari guide, as he made our experience even more amazing
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Email Janette | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great safari company, Great experience
We had a wonderful Tanzanian safari with Safari Soles! Magreth customized our travel experience which made for an excellent private tour with our guide, Isaack, who was wonderful! The hotels and lodges were great as was the food and service. Our guide was able to find the big five, as well as lots of other animals. We also visited several different tribal villages, the Hadza - the last of the hunter gatherers, and a second tool making tribe. It was fascinating to learn about their customs and to see how they are still living today. WE also visited a Maasai village and learned about their customs. All very interesting.
We loved Serengti, South Serengeti, & Tarangire National Parks. The night safari at Lake Manyara was a well worth it! The lodge, Escarpment Luxury Lodge, was a great! We could have stayed an extra day in Serengeti. The lodge, Kubu Kubu had views to die for! We also loved staying at Lions Paw in Ngorongoro, and suggest two nights there as well as two days in the crater.
We loved seeing the great wildebeest and zebra migration as well as the endangered black rhinoceros! The water buffalo, hippopotamus, lions, leopards and cheetah were also amazing as were the warthogs, baboons, giraffes and gazelles. Did I forget to mention the hyenas? Unbelievable! It was a life changing, amazing adventure.
The people in Tanzania were very friendly and kind. We had really good experiences with them. Bring lots of $1 bills and other small denominations for tips. Yes, they accept USD.
We also went to Zanzibar. It was not as interesting as we had imagined. Although Stone Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, it was in poor condition and not very interesting with many tourist shops all selling the same things. We did, however, go on an excellent tour of an organic spice farm. We also visited Chumbe Island where we saw coconut crabs. We snorkeled there, but the reef was not in good condition due to over fishing. Nevertheless, the island is worth staying on for one night for ecotourists. It is carbon neutral. The huts on the island were nicely done. The huts reminded me of the tree house from the movie Swiss Family Robinson! It was rustic, but quite nice.
The weather in Zanzibar is extremely hot. Therefore, if you do not like very hot and humid climates, I would just stay on the mainland. Next time, I want to visit South Tanzania to see the chimpanzees!
Safari Soles is a small tour company that caters to a personal experience. It is competitively priced and certainly less expensive than some of the larger companies. I highly recommend them of you Tanzanian safari. I will travel with them again!
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Email Mark | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fabulous Tanzanian safari tours
Our Safari Soles experience in Tanzania and Zanzibar was simply amazing, extraordinarily well organized with superb local guides. We designed a two-week trip combining the great migration with 5 days on Zanzibar. Magreth helped us design our own private tour and was extremely helpful and generous getting our trip organized before arriving and very responsive to our needs and questions once we were on safari. Our trip was a total immersion into Tanzania from seeing all the major birds and mammals you want to see in Tanzania, getting a personal perspective on life in Tanzania in conversations with the super Safari Soles guides, staying at some fabulous hotels and getting to see and interact with traditional tribal people from Masai villagers to hunter gatherer bushmen. Our local guides were truly special. Izaak, who was our main safari guide was just fabulous. Warm, kind, and a skilled and knowledgeable naturalist, he was a highlight of our trip. We also had an outstanding guide, Alex while visiting the tribal villages who was not only extremely well versed in the cultures we visited, but fluent in English, Swahili, and the unique tribal languages of the people we visited. We were generally disappointed with Zanzibar. We stayed two nights at the Cumbie Island Nature Preserve. It was a well-run carbon neutral island retreat, but the coral reefs were in bad shape and on their way out, so I wouldn't recommend it for snorkeling or diving. We had hoped to see a healthy Zanzibar reef, so were very disappointed. If we redesigned our trip, we would have stayed a single night on Cumbie and skipped the depressing reefs. We had a very enjoyable trip to a spice farm on Zanzibar that we would highly recommend. We also found Stonetown rather disappointing. It was rundown and overrun by tourist shops with little history or culture to compensate for the tourist shop exposure.
Overall, I would enthusiastically recommend Safari Soles for a Tanzanian private safari. It is a very well-run small company that emphasizes quality over quantity with attention to detail. The staff and guides are exceptional and will help you design a perfect trip for your needs, rather than just a generic Tanzanian Safari. My wife and I are experienced travelers and potentially hard to please professionals, I am a retired marine ecologist with decades of tropical experience and my wife is a lawyer with a keen eye for organization and detail. So, we are potentially tough customers, but can't say enough about the quality and people running Safari Soles tours. If we return to Tanzania we will rely again on their experience, knowledge, attention to detail and kindness. They are simply a great group.
Email Gallagher family | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience!
We've just returned from a 4 day / 3 night safari with Safari Soles and it was perfect from start to finish. Initially we had reservations about booking with a company in Tanzania direct, particularly when payment was requested in USD and communication was via WhatsApp. We needn't have worried. Communication prior to our trip was excellent and this continued right through to the very end of our trip. Our guide, Isaac, was fantastic. He was extremely knowledgeable and nothing we asked for was too much trouble. He went the extra mile every day to ensure we saw as much wildlife as possible. We saw the big six close up and so much more. Would highly recommend Ngorongoro - its an experience not to be missed. We stayed at Serengeti Safari Lodge, Sero Tented Camp and Serena Lodge. All the accommodation was excellent and food was tasty and plentiful throughout. All in all, we can't fault Safari Soles and if you have any worries about booking direct, don't. This really was the trip of a lifetime. A huge thank you to everyone who made our trip such an amazing experience.
AE
Email Naveed | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Honest and reliable!
I sent enquiries to 3 tour operators who offered the package i wanted and had good ratings on safaribookings.com, Zuria at Safari Soles took the lead in replying and follow up and i was finalized with her before the other quotes came in as i was making a last minute booking and liked her honest and matter of fact approach with no hard selling!
I customized our tour and extended it to 7 days, upgraded 4 of the 6 nights to luxury category with domestic airtickets both ways Ex- Zanzibar and included the optional Hot Air Baloon and Night Safari and all of the additions cost me about $2125/- extra per person which i feel was very reasonable!
We had a good condition Landcruiser for the two of us and our tour guide and driver was Estomih, Estomih turned out a great companion and Safari Guide, he is a very likeable person who is very networked within the guide community hence if there was a good sighting happening anywhere in the park Estomih would be amongst the first people to hear of it and get us there to be amongst the earliest arrivals be it a pride of lions feeding or a Cheetah settling down in a large tree or a Rhino in the Ngorongoro, he is a cautious and does not take unnecessary risks while driving.
We saw all of the Big 5 to our hearts content. On the accomodation The Serengeti Serena Lodge was great but fell short on the food and need to sort it out, Lake Ndutu Luxury tented accomodation and Lake Masek Tented Lodge were extraordinary on all counts especially the latter! Ang'ata Ngorogoro was great on account of location as was the food however the lack of running hot water was a problem, Suricata Boma does not give you a Safari vibe it is more of a good resort in an inhabitated area which could do with better airconditiong and water pressure.
Our game viewing was incredible being the Migration season the herds we saw of Zebra and Wildebeast were huge and in the 10's of thousands, we had to search for Lions harder for Cheetah's and hardest for Leopords, Rhino's but we saw them all.
What could have been done better, well we felt the ideal place to do the Ballon Safari was in the Ndutu area instead of Central Serengeti in February i.e Migration time which should have been suggested to us, the night safari was avoidable.
