In front of our office
Northern Circuit Adventure
- Located In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2010)
- Member Of:
- TATO & TTB
- Tour Types:
- Small & medium group tours (Budget & mid-range)
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $195 to $580 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My first ever safari - expectations exceeded
My sister booked our 6 day safari with Northern Circuit Adventure and dealt with all the communications, and copied me into the many emails exchanged between her and Michael the Director - he was always quick to respond. My sister had been on numerous previous safaris, I had never been on one, but was confident she would choose a reputable company. At the end of our trip she assured me that I now do not need to go anywhere else to have the safari experience as the services offered by Northern Circuit Adventure would be hard to beat! Any expectations I had were exceeded. Michael had given us a warm personal welcome on our arrival at his office and his team of three who accompanied us on our safari, are a credit to him. Our guide proved to be very knowledgeable, confident, passionate and respectful of the wildlife. All team members were extremely friendly and it seemed couldn't do enough to ensure our trip was truly memorable. The food our Cook provided was nutritious, plentiful and there was lots of variety - he amazed us with what he could rustle up over a gas stove! We saw so much wildlife and very close up too, and always felt safe in the jeep with our confident driver/guide. The inevitable jeep problems were dealt with quickly and efficiently, and we never felt we were being "rushed" - our guide was always very obliging enabling us to take as many photos as we wished or allowing us time to just sit and watch quietly for as long as we wanted. I am full of praise for the team and can highly recommend this company as good value for money, well organised and efficient. Thank you for making my first safari experience such a wonderful one!!
BE
Email Debbie, Natasha and Jason | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Totally excellent safari and highly recommendable company !
I did many safaris in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia in the past, together with my safari-guide former husband. The safari I did now in July 2014 with Northern Circuit Adventure is definitely right up there at the top of my list.
As a single mother of two children, ages 15 and 12, I needed to be budget conscious and was not afraid to go for basic camping. The director, Michael, was always quick, efficient and very patient in answering my many emails of questions for a tailor-made safari, always going out of his way to satisfy my wishes and budget. He gave us a very welcome warm meeting at the airport and provided us with a 6-day safari taking in Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti National Park and Ngoronoro Crater.
We travelled together with my sister, accompanied by wonderfully patient, competent and friendly guide Elias, our excellent cook Gabriel (best pilau rice I ate in the whole month in Tanzania ! and plenty of other delicious food) and trainee-cook/fun companion for my children, Sweetbart. They were all extremely pleasant and dealt with the couple of much-to-be expected vehicle problems (considering the terrain we travelled and amount of kilometres covered) with totally efficiency, ingenuity and calmness.
We saw an amazing amount of animals, including 3 leopards in 2 days, a pride of 12 lions, herds of elephants passing within 2 metres of our jeep, etc etc. If you can only afford to do one safari in your life, I can assure you that THIS is the place to come ! The lesser-known Tarangire National Park and Lake Manyara National Park are also teeming with wildlife and worth a visit.
If it's luxury safari you are after, perhaps Northern Circuit Adventure can also organise that, but in any case, I highly, highly recommend them and am extremely grateful for all they have done for us. THANK YOU !
CA
Email David | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome guide and cook, excellent communication and value, average mechanics
We booked our Safari at the very last minute and Michael, the owner, on-boarded us on an existing 5 days / 4 nights budget-level 6 people group tour that corresponded to what we wanted to see. We had been told that the group was to be 4-5 people but it ended up being 6 at the very last minute. I do understand why they try to book the groups as much as they can at this price level, but still I would have appreciated a better management of our expectations in terms of group size. Other than that detail, communication throughout the arrangement process was clear and efficient.
We arrived in Arusha the day before our departure and Michael was at the airport himself to welcome us, very nice touch. He took us to a - basic but OK - hotel downtown for the night, at no additional cost. The morning we left, Michael came back to brief us at the hotel and we realized we did not have much warm clothing. So Michael was kind enough to lend his sweater to my girlfriend (which, by the way, she needed! - if you go to Ngorongoro Crater, BRING SOME WARM CLOTHES, it's freezing cold at night in July at 2800m of altitude in a tent). He really does everything he can to please his clients.
Having booked a budget-level safari, we were expecting the worse in terms of accommodation and comfort. We were delighted to see that on the first and last nights of the safari, we were actually sleeping in a very nice tented camp with bed and private bathrooms. On the other 2 nights we slept in tents that were packed in the land cruiser and brought with us. If you don't have your sleeping bag they provide them, but already used by other people, so keep that in mind.
Our guide, Dennis was incredible. He had a good sight for animals and was very patient. One of our group members was quite demanding (to say the least) but Dennis always stayed professional and was extremely patient. He was always very informative and deployed a lot of efforts to make sure everyone was happy. Our cook, Gabriel, was also very nice. Although a bit shy and distant, his food was excellent and always in gargantuesque quantities.
The Toyota Land Cruiser we traveled in was not in perfect shape. The suspension was literally destroyed and this made the travel on dirt roads quite uncomfortable. During our return from Serengeti, the vehicle's engine stopped. We were stuck on the side of the road and Dennis and Gabriel were trying their best to fix it. We were lucky another driver who was going to get his clients at the airport passed by and offered to bring us at the park gate (our 24h time to be inside the park was almost done). This is when we realized how much of a bad shape the suspension on *our* car was. This new car was cruising smoothly over each bumps, whereas ours was really struggling. Anyways, it took Dennis about 30 minutes to fix the car with the help of another guide and we were back on track. During our return to Arusha on our last day, the car stopped twice, apparently because the fuel was exhausted. Don't know what to think of this one, but anyways, we got to Arusha a little late but we got there :)
Looking back at the learnings after our safari, my only advice to you the reader is *don't try to see everything*. The tour we booked allowed us to visit 4 national parks in 5 days, but looking back, we would have been a lot more satisfied seeing only 2 (probably Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater) in the same amount of time. Travel time between national parks is SIGNIFICANT. Serengeti is *far*. If you want to enjoy your time with the nature and animals as much as possible, please try to limit your urge to see every national park in the region. Select 1 or 2 that you really want to see and go for a real safari! - not highway travel... We had a very limited time to book our safari so we jumped in one of the existing packages Michael offers, but he can also arrange more custom safaris. *I highly recommend* going for more modest aspirations in terms of the number of national parks you'll be exploring during your safari. For most people this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience so do it good or don't do it :)
We are happy we found Michael and his company for our safari... we were not sure if we could trust the reviews here but now we can say you can definitely trust them. NCA comes highly recommended.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very good company that will do just about anything to make your safari an incredible experience!
I highly recommend Northern Circuit Adventure for several reasons. My group (three of us) due to a flight cancellation arrived in Arusha one day behind schedule. We were anxious about how Michael would handle this situation but he was very accommodating and made arrangements with the other traveler on our tour to shift the safari for us. Upon arriving in Arusha, it was much colder than we had expected so Michael went out and found several coat vendors to come to the hotel and show us some. He then drove us to an ATM to get shillings and showed us around the town, telling us some about its history and development.
On the safari, our guide Elias and chef Gabriel were absolutely amazing. Elias would stop at nothing to find an animal we wished to see. He once drove around the Serengeti for three hours to find a cheetah, and he didn't fail us. A similar situation happened in Ngorongoro with a buffalo. He never stopped until he knew we were satisfied and experienced what we came to. Gabriel's cooking is incredible! His soups are probably the best I have ever had. One of my friends has health problems that restricts her from eating many foods and Gabriel always made sure to make special food for her that she could eat.
Overall, amazing experience for a very good price!
NO
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Very good safari, with a trustworthy and helpful company, for a good price.
We had a 4 days/3 nights safari to Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in the beginning of July 2014.
I found Northern Circuit Adventure on safaribookings.com, and after reading the reviews, I contacted Michael in the company. We had a very good contact, and he responded all my questions and offered me safari options afters my preferences. We booked a safari, and did a payment over internet to confirm the booking. This was easy and safe. When I arrived Tanzania and Arusha with my wife, we were picked up at the airport and brought to the office where we met Michael (director in Northern Circuit Adventure). We did the last payment there. In the night we slept in a hotel included in the safari.
Michael was also very helpful when our luggage didn’t arrive with our plane. We put him as a reference for the luggage, and he contacted the airway company, and made sure we received our luggage the next day. Very grateful for this!
On our safari we were 5 person, with one guide/driver and a chef. We drove to lake manyara the first day. The second day we drove to Serengeti, the third day we had a morning drive in Serengeti before going to Ngorongoro crater, we entered the crater the next morning.
The first night we were surprised with a stay in a beautiful lounge. This was not a part of the description of the safari. The other nights we slept in tents, that was also very nice, and we liked the experience very much, as we felt we got closer to the nature. All campsites had showers and toilets. The chef prepared the meals. And they were all incredible!! We don’t know how he managed to prepare all that delicious food! (I normally get a bad stomach when traveling to other continents, but not this time!)
And finally about the safari: Lake manyara was beautiful with it’s many birds and also a lot of animals. Serengeti was amazing. To go from one park to the next will take some hours driving, but it is just to sit back and relax, and enjoy the view. Also remember to enjoy the view of the nature while not seeing animals. The animals will come, but in the meanwhile, the nature and the landscape deserve to be enjoyed. The last day we visited the crater. Without doubt the best day for seeing animals. In the end we saw a lot of lions, zebras, gnus, hippos, elephants, giraffes, we also saw a leopard and buffalos. We were unlucky to not see the rhino – but that is how safari is, sometimes you see animals, sometimes they hide. But in the end we had seen a lot. Very satisfied with the tour, and the guide was excellent when he brought us to the animals.
After the safari Michael drove us to the airport in Arusha. Very good service.
Northern Circuit Adventure is a company I really can recommend. The company with Micheal in charge is trustworthy and helpful and they will at all-time provide the best service possible. The safari was amazing, and there is no reason for choosing others more expensive companies, because you will have an amazing, incredible and unforgettable safari with Northern Circuit adventure. And this you receive for a good price.
CA
Email Avery | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent safari seeing all the animals we hoped to with good guiding, food, vehicle, and tents.
My wife and I had one of the best experiences of our lives visiting Tarangire, Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro with Northern Circuit Adventure. Our guide was very good at finding animals and a good driver. We saw leopards, cheetah, serval, lions, jackals, hyenas, crocodiles, ostriches, monkeys, giraffes, hippos, elephants, an eland, warthogs, herds of gazelle, wildebeest, and zebra, and even saw 3 rare black rhinoceros.
The Land Cruiser was comfortable and reliable with a pop up roof for standing up and viewing wildlife. We visited all of the places we wanted to see in the region including Olduvai Gorge archaeological site. The camping gear provided was good and the campsites all had good working toilets and showers.
We were served good food including some Tanzanian dishes that we really liked, hot breakfasts, and plenty of fresh fruit and bottled water.
I would recommend Northern Circuit adventure to everyone. Communication was really good to organize what we wanted, and even joining with a group of others we were able to choose some activities so we were all happy. The price was reasonable, and we were completely satisfied with our experience.
NL
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great wildlife and scenery experience
First of all: I had a great trip with Northern Circuit Adventure, I definately recommend them.
Me and my friend completed a safari group of 5 travellers to go and visit Arusha NP, Lake Manyara, Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. Our guide Elias had loads of (fun) facts ready to share with us together with a great eye for spotting animals, added with the wonderful (large) meals prepared by Gabriel and an international group made this an amazing time for me.
The only downside was that I had to sleep in Arusha Tourist Inn for a couple of nights, arranged by NCA. Across the street was a mosque where prayers started at 05:00 hrs, I'm definately not used to that kind of thing so it really disturbed my nights. I would choose all the different kinds of tents over this inn any day (the tents were great).
I would definately recommend this safari company to my friends because they offer a great safari for a reasonable price.
TW
Email WangTzuHsuan | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic safari and extremely wonderful trip!
I am a solo traveler so I was trying to find a group to join in,and Michael(the owner) find me ,answer all my questions really quickly,and with patient (by the way he is really a funny guy).
Our driver ,Elias,is a friendly,sincere person!I always felt comfortable while talking to him and I also consider him my friend!Elias always took care of everyone,and he got a extremely good eye sight! We saw all the big 5,plenty of birds,wildebeest and zebra migration,and lots of other animals.
Our cook Gabriel prepared great food everyday,I really enjoyed the soup!
The camp site in Serengeti and Ngorongoro was really nice!The sky,stars,the sound ,and lots of wild life surrounding us,it was just fantastic.
I think I am lucky because everyone in the group I joined is so friendly,funny,and special.We had lots of laugh and good memories.That the good thing about join in a group!
The only disadvantage is that everyone got a different schedule(for join a group),some leave earlier or some later,and sometimes we have to cut our trip shorter to fit the schedule.
It would be better if we could discuss the schedule previously and try to have the most time to visit without delayed other's plan.
It was a really really great trip more than my expectations!And I like that Michael showed at the last day and say goodbye to everyone~I will recommend Northern circuit adventure for my friend in Taiwan!
Thanks a lot!
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Northern Circuit is a great operator for budget concious traveler
We went just before the peak season. We had great experience with an experienced Driver/Guide who took us places and knew where wildlife secret spots were. I would recommend them. If you are south asian the lunch packs will be cold and bland. We went back to the hotel to have warm lunches which the our Guide was more than accomodating to our requests. Michael (owner) was very helpful to customize our daily itinerary. Overall Tanzanians are good people.
65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
An adventure never to be forgotten
My wife and I (age 60s) met up with our daughter and her friend (age late 20s) for a 6 day safari, visiting Tarangire, Manyara, Serengeti and Gnorongoro NPs in early June 2014. We couldn't have enjoyed ourselves more. Our guide and driver, Josephat was excellent. He was well informed, very obliging and a lot of fun. They were very flexible, made easier by our group of four being the only occupants of the vehicle, and altered the sequence of parks to accommodate our daughter being sick on day 1. Food was simple, but adequate, and accommodation was self erected tents on 3 nights and permanent tents on the other 2 nights. This suited our group well as we felt we had experienced the real Serengeti, but may not suit a group less used to camping or wanting more luxury. Our only negative was an attempt to extract payment for the last night's accommodation, when it had clearly already been paid for. No additional payment was provided, and it was recognized fairly quickly that payment had already been made.