6 day serengeti, ngorongoro, tarangire and manyara tour. Outstanding guide made all the difference.
We travelled during February 2014 and were picked up from Kilimanjaro. Everything from this point onwards was pain and hassle free. Everything was taken care of allowing us to switch off and enjoy the excellent wildlife. I imagine we would have received similar quality of service from many of the tour companies but the thing that set Lilac apart was the level of knowledge of the two guides we had on the tour with us. Our guide Ame was a half Masai who had grown up near Ngorongoro and had clearly been running trips in the area for quite some time. He seemed to know where to go to get us as close to various animals at all times. There was some poor weather meaning fewer animals, but even during this time he was able to find us a pack of lions, hyenas and leopards. He managed our time really well and even on this relatively short trip was able to make sure that we saw as many animals up close as possible.
My advice, ask for Ame when booking and trust your guide. All the guides stay at the same accomodation and trade information on where different animals are living at the time. They also pull up next to each other and share information during the day.
We thought 6 days might be too little but it was enough for us although perhaps next time I would book a little longer to allow us to do some walking in the area.
A blinding week and I will be reccommending this company to anyone I talk to