Crater Explorer Tours And Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2017)
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $185 to $550 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
AT
Email Tomas | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very supportive in planning and great teams in the field!
I've done the 7 day Lemosho route to Kilimanjaro with Crater Explorer, it was everything and more that I hoped for!
Emanuel quickly answered all my questions during the planning and provided a fantastic team for the trip. The guide (Maulidi), cook and porters were extremely helpful and great company throughout our tour. Highly recommended :)
PL
Email Rafal | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastic value for money - very reliable company, very helpful and responsive company owner. 10/10
Fantastic experience. We've booked 6 days 5 nights join-in camping safari: Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Everything went as planned. Owner of the company, Emanuel, was very responsive to all our emails and questions prior to booking, also kept in touch just before our arrival to Tanzania to check if everything is ok. Emanuel also picked us from the airport and checked in a hotel we had included in our booking (also - we've received a free upgrade to a much better hotel than the one we were supposed to stay originally!). After safari Emanuel met up with us again to ask about our experience and then drove us to the airport morning of the next day, again by himself. We can definitely recommend Emanuel and his company as reliable and caring.
As for the safari experience itself – I’m not going to go into details of what we saw, because it’s too amazing to describe! Enough to say we’ve seen almost 50 different species of mammals, reptiles and big birds, not even trying to count smaller and less known species of birds as it was probably over a hundred. We slept first two nights in a village close to Manyara lake (fenced area with tents and a bathroom). We were just two in the car for these first two days (Tarangire and Lake Manyara), then 4 other people joined us for Serengeti and Ngorongoro with a bigger car and a different guide. Both guides had an impressive knowledge of all the animals and were really good at tracking them. They were able to get us very close to the animals, yet they still were able to maintain respect for the animals wellbeing and avoided disturbing them even once. Camping areas in Serengeti and Ngorongoro are the best sleepovers we have ever had - this is milion times better than any hotel me - and you, whoever is reading this - had ever stayed in. You can't get any closer to the nature - do not book any lodged safaris, camping is absolutely essential to get fully immersed in Serengeti and Ngorongoro experience.
One more word of praise to our guide in Serengeti – one of the other groups car broke down in the middle of nowhere. Sure, our guide could have said it’s not his problem – but instead, he towed them over away from group of lions and closer to service sites, saving other group of tourists some stress and time. Really glad to see the guides helping each other!
If you are worried about the food during safari - don't be! Our chef was amazing. The quality of food he was able to do in very limiting condition of field kitchen is really impressive - both meat and vegetarian dishes. The amount of food was usually sufficient for whole day (if you know you like to eat more - bring some energy bars or snacks for a time you're on a game drive).
Would we change anything in this trip? Probably not. Maybe just one tiny detail now: we had a great time on our day in Lake Manyara, really fun time, but if I were to go again I would trade Lake Manyara for another day in magical Serengeti or Ngorongoro. But that doesn't change a fact it was still a 10 out of 10 experience.
DE
Email Ben | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Small company which tries so solve any issue as fast as possible
We did a 4 days, 3 nights camping safari which was organized through Crater Explorer. They are a small company with 5 employees and cooperate with another company to fill up the safari Jeeps. Since they are relatively small, they do not have their own Jeeps yet.
For the lazy reader I will summarize our experience, but you can find more details down below if you are interested.
Summary:
The first two days of the safari did not go as expected. But after we mentioned that the owner Emanuel tried it's best to improve it. The next days then where really good. Overall the trip was very nice. Emanuel was very responsive and helpful in all situations.
So I would recommend booking your safari with him. Because if you have an issue and you talk to him, he will try to fix it.
Long story:
We got picked up from the airport by Emanuel and he drove us to the hotel in Arusha which was included (Pearl Royal Hotel).
First day:
At 6am we drove from Arusha to the Serengeti, which was a 12h drive in total. On the way to the campsite we did a game drive but since the guide (Ole) was driving really slowly we arrived very late in the afternoon. Also our Guide barely talked to us which is not what you expect in the first place.
Then our cook prepared dinner which took him 2h for a very basic meal. In the end we had dinner at 9:30pm and needed to get up already at 5:30am in the morning.
Tents and sleeping bags are basic but fine. Here I assume they really do not differ between other companys since they all get picked up at the same place.
Second day:
We woke up early and had breakfast (food was always good) and had our first game drive in Serengeti. This time our guide again barely talked to us so we had no information about the park or the animals. Nevertheless we saw quite a lot of them. But I think our guide only found those because he heard it on the radio from other guides.
When we returned to the campsite in the afternoon, nothing was prepared by the cook. So we had to wait again 1h for lunch and 1h until they loaded up everything (all other groups had already left for a further game drive).
This was the time we decided to talk to Emanuel. As I said he was very responsive, took actions and next day turned out to be better.
Third day:
When we woke up a large breakfast was prepared and we went into the crater. Now our guide talked much more and explained some stuff to us. Also the gamedrive was longer than usual.
When we arrived back at the campside food was already prepared. During lunch they already loaded the car, so we lost no time.
It turned out that Emanuel talked to our guide to improve things. Also for the next and last day he decided to switch our guide.
Fourth day:
Instead of camping we where able to sleep in an apartment, which was really nice and a big plus.
Also we now had a new guide for Tarangire (Kindu) who was really communicative and new a lot of interesting information.
We had a very pleasant last day before we headed back to Arusha.
Back in Arusha we met again with Emanuel to talk about what happend.
And he truly showed us that he was sorry and also decided not to work with the guide any longer.
IE
Email Tom | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent
Emmanuel was very helpful from start to finish. We did a 5 day safari and it was excellent. Our transfer picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel in Arusha. Emmanuel met us there the following morning where he explained each day again to us about the safari. The accommodation/food was lovely. Our guide was also very nice and answered any questions we had. Emmanuel met us again in our hotel in Arusha once the safari was finished. Overall it was a great experience. Emmanuel is very professional.
IE
Email Nicky | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very pleasant and obliging
Very happy with the overall service from Crater Explorers, Emmanuel was very friendly from the beginning and very obliging to all our requests. We chose the 5-day Safari, were met at the airport and brought to a hotel in Arusha overnight. Emmanuel met us himself to go through everything the next morning before heading off on our safari. Our guide was very friendly, and the journey was very comfortable.
We had a small issue with timings on day 3 but that was quickly resolved once we contacted Emmanuel and he more than made up for it.
IL
Email Oriane | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing Safari! Recommend
We booked a 3 days 2 nights Safari (tarangire, mayanra and ngorogoro)
It was the best experience, the guide was amazing, full of knowledge and experience and we didn't give up until we saw everything we wanted to see. The lodges we stayed in were also very good.
Great Communication And Experience
The safari experience was very low stress. Emmanuel was super communicative during the booking process and we were the first ones picked up at the airport. The hotels were new and clean before and after the safari. On the actual safari, we had a very professional driver with 20 years experience, and an excellent chef who cooked three meals a day. We chose to tent/lodge which was an awesome option. Seeing zebras walk around the tents at night and the giraffes behind the dining hall was awesome. There are some massive companies in the safari business, but Emmanuel gave us a great experience.
MA
Email Houda | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exceptional
We had a wonderful time ! Our guide, David, was great and way too nice. He was very patient and full of information.
Food was amazing thanks to our amazing chef.
Emmanuel was super helpful, got us rides from and to the airport. He even showed us around Arusha which as a plus we weren’t expecting.
Our 4 day safari was beyond our expectations, truly the experience of a lifetime.
MA
Email Oumaima | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Professional, friendly, good hospitality
Just finished from an amazong 4 days Safari with Emanual of Crater Explorer. Emanuel was very professional and friendly he accompanied us from the first moment we arrived to Arusha until we came back from Safari. Our guide or prefer to call a new friend David was amazing, professional, friendly with us. Our experience was way better than expected( Hospitality, great food and amazing accommodation). Definitely not going to be our last time here and will always contact CraterExplorer without hesitation for another Safari. Many thanks
FR
Email Fatima Ezzahra Lam'barki | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Friendly and professional.
Highly recommand Crater Explorer for this Amazing adventure that exceeded our expectation. Hospitality, good food and great accommodation are guaranteed.
Hakuna Matata.