Good Earth Tours & Safaris
- Located In:
-
United States
Canada
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 1995)
- Member Of:
- ASTA, TATO, IMEC, BBB & KPAP
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $220 to $550 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
CA
Email Helen McBrian | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent Choice for Tanzania Safari!
My friends and I wanted to travel with Tanzanians owned Company on our safari; and decided to book with Good Earth Tours after reading many great reviews about them and their involvement in the local communities there.
We had such a great safari- many thanks to our guide George who is an excellent guide with many years of experience; and Baraka in their US office for arranging our trip for us.
I would highly recommend Good Earth Tours to everyone contemplating a trip to Tanzania.
US
Email Peter | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Another Amazing Safari Experience!
It was an amazing trip. Far exceeded our expectations. Great driver, 5* accommodations and the successfully Kilimanjaro climbing trip.
This was our third trip with Good Earth Tours and will certainly do another one with them soon.
US
Email S.S. WEST, Tulsa, OK. | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Good Earth Tours and Safari MADE our trip the Best EVER!!
There are NOT enough Good words to say about Good Earth! From our first phone call (Baraka), the excellent, immediate follow up to the Incredible, Beautiful, comfortable lodges with Great food and last, but not least, our Wonderful Guide, Gerald L! We know there is a ton of planning behind the scenes and we were very thankful but being with Gerald, every day, just MADE our trip what it was. His expertise on everything was over the top from every animal, bird, history of the crater, the serengeti and just all of Africa and he Enjoyed teaching us! Gerald's happy and sincere personality made us look forward to each and every day! Their "trucks" were very comfortable and Gerald made sure WE were comfortable and noticed everything we liked to eat and drink so he surprised us daily. On our return, we would not use anyone but Good Earth Tours and we are so grateful for the memories we will have the rest of our days, thanks to Gerald and the entire company!
S.S. West, Tulsa, OK.
US
Email Yan | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Glad We Chose Good Earth
Planing a once in lifetime Tanzania trip, I was very serious. I communicated with top 8 Safari tours together, and I end up with Good Earth!
Reasons:
1. They take my time seriously
Baraka replies emails promptly, answers tons of my questions patiently.
2. They are knowledgable
After Baraka found out my expectation quickly, he gave many wise advices.
3. They offer the Best Price
I sent my final itinerary to other companies to compare price. Good Earth beat others!
4. Their local staffs are helpful
Our flight was changed at last minute, their local contact Rose was able to reschedule a pick up seamlessly.
5. Tour Guiders are well trained
Our guider Eliaza's eye are better than my binoculars! We always surprised how could he see animals were there. I am sure he can recognize hundreds kinds of animals.
Eliaza always found the best angle to stop for my husband taking pictures.
He cleaned our car everyday, and gave us the highest comfort level.
It was very appreciate that he truly respected my mom during the whole trip.g
CH
Email Alex | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Committed to serving their clients
We had a most wonderful experience with Good Earth Tours in Tanzania in October 2016. First we did a 4-day climb of Mt.Meru, then a 9-day-climb of Kilimanjaro via the Northern Circuit route, and finally a 3-day "comfortable camping" safari to Tarangire and Ngorongoro, and before, in-between and after each trip we always stayed in the Planet Lodge in Arusha. We were a group of 4 friends on the first and last trip, with a 5th friend joining us for Kilimanjaro only.
When planning the trips, I asked for an offer including the Northern Circuit route on Kilimanjaro, and even though it was not officially mentioned on the website, I soon got a good offer which we were happy to proceed with. On the trips, everyone was always committed to serving us in a great way, always cheerful and eager. We were well-supplied with good food, especially the warm meals were very delicious, so we did not need most of the snacks we had brought along ourselves. Needless to say, we all made it to both summits. The Northern Circuit was a great experience, we were able to avoid all crowds for at least 3 days, being totally alone then.
Our safari guide was extremely knowledgeable and skilled, so thanks to him we had some thrilling wildlife sightings that I believe most other park visitors miss, including seeing endangered species such as cheetahs.
We really loved the Planet Lodge that Good Earth Tours uses: the hotel rooms are actually in small bungalows scattered in a beautiful tropical garden, very peaceful.
I believe we really got an exceptional value-for-money deal with Good Earth Tours and I can highly recommend them.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing safari experience
My family and I went on a safari in northern Tanzania this summer. Our trip was more than what we expected, thanks to the experienced and knowledgeable advice of our tour consultant, Baraka and our tour guide, Juma, aka “Bush Baby”
Baraka was very helpful in setting up a customized itinerary for us, which focused on places we wanted to visit, animals we would like to see, and level of accommodations we would like to stay; and a guide who is the best for traveling with family with young kids.
All these exceeded our expectations, and “Bush Baby” was a right fit for our family to have such a great safari experience.
Everything went perfectly all the way so I cannot do more than recommending Good Earth big time!
US
Email KC Funk | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing trip for our family of 5!
I began planning our Africa safari trip for our family of five (three teenagers) about a year ago. To see a diverse sat areas in Africa and visit at least two different national parks. With a family of five budget was also a significant consideration.
Baraka did an amazing job to create a creative itinerary that allowed us to go deep into Zimbabwe and also visit Botswana as well. The facilities he chose were fantastic and within the budget that I had laid out.
His follow up through the planning process and while we were in country was also exceptional.
I highly recommend Baraka and Good Earth Tours if you are looking for a Safari tour provider.
Baraka can provide my contact information if you have any specific questions you would like to discuss.
US
Email Chuck | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Private tour with great guides, accommodations, and experiences.
We toured Cape Town and the Cape peninsula, flew to Victoria Falls, followed by three safari camps in Botswana. All was well planned and delivered. Thanks Good Earth.
US
Email Alex | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Unfortunately, Can’t Recommend
This review is long but explains why we would not recommend GoodEarth after two weeks and two excursions with them. We were on back to back safaris with GoodEarth; we did the Kilimanjaro Machame Route Hike and Serengeti to Masai Mara safari from June 25-July 10. We really REALLY wanted this company to work out for us as we spent collectively nearly $12k (USD) on everything and it seemed promising. However once the tour was handed over to the Arusha based team - things quickly fell apart.
It started at the airport for pickup. We landed 4:30pm on a Sunday and were told we’d be greeted by our driver with our names on a sign. We waited and waited and reached out to all the WhatsApp numbers we were given multiple times before we were informed the hotel driver had the wrong name on the name plate. So we waited for nothing. That was our first impression.
We had sent an email to the Arusha office a week prior to landing about renting gear for Kilimanjaro but they weren’t prepared at all. We had to scramble at 9pm Sunday for our Monday morning climb. The morning of the climb - our tour guide, Fredy, forgot to bring some of the gear with him. On our way to the trailhead he asked US to purchase the gear he forgot to pack. We gave him a stern “No”, then he went and found the cheapest gear possible and it leaked our entire climb. Fredy was nice enough, but an EXTREMELY lazy guide. He needed to make frequent stops, was always late, and didn’t want to do anything for himself. At every meal he would call a porter from across the camp to come serve him food that was right in front of him. The entire time on the mountain we listened to him whining and ordering the porters around. It was deplorable, honestly. The last straw for me was when we missed our highly requested and once-in-a-lifetime sunrise on summit day by an hour because Fredy “didn’t want to be cold”. Luckily, Nestory was the assistant guide and respected our time on the mountain. Most of our hike up and the entire hike down was led by Nestory, as Fredy was too tired, too late, or too slow to meet our needs. We were so grateful Nestory was there and we should’ve insisted on him being lead guide on summit day to make the sunrise. The porters were great, especially Reuben and Ola. And Paul, the chef, was amazing - he even went out of his way to make us local food when we requested it. We were extremely grateful to reach the summit and for the rest of the climbing team.
As an apology, the company paid for our laundry and gave us free hats, which was really nice, but the time and opportunity lost (and money spent) were gone forever.
On our safari we ran into issues with the office apparently not paying the park entrance gate fee, causing an hour delay on our game drive at Serengeti. (Luckily the ranger in the gate office eventually had mercy on us and let us in.) At another gate, GoodEarth somehow didn’t realize the gate didn’t accept cash. So I had to use my personal credit card to pay our entrance. ($320 USD.) We were also delayed at that gate for an hour.
We did send our issues to Ndashy (the manager), but he only referred us back to Rose in the office. Rose was incredibly sweet but perhaps was overworked, hence the disorganization and mistakes.
No matter which company you choose, the type of guide you get is the luck of the draw. Your guide makes or breaks your experience… During our Serengeti safari we had Elias, who checked in with us frequently and made sure we were ok. He wasn’t quite as charismatic as other guides we’ve had, but he’s good. If you’re the quiet type, he could be a nice fit. Elias also helped me surprise my husband with the hot air balloon ride I had secretly booked to celebrate our anniversary. He was so clever in helping me convince my husband we were going for an late night/early morning game drive and I’m forever grateful to him for that! My husband had no idea and the surprise was priceless. We can’t recommend our Masai Mara guide - I’ll leave it there.
Maybe we were just very unlucky with GoodEarth. But it was significant enough for us to not choose them again or recommend them to loved ones. Beside that, obviously the animals and nature were absolutely unforgettable and we hope to visit Serengeti again…
US
Email Anitha | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A Perfect Personalized Safari Experience!
My wife and I just came back from a 10 days safari in Tanzania and it was AMAZING.
We selected Good Earth Tours as our tour operator and couldn’t be happier with our choice. We had contacted a few other companies but Good Earth Tours was the only one that responded to our many questions in timely manner and gave us appropriate advises all the time.
We stayed in amazing camps and lodges (mostly Serena Hotels) and were all of great service with very nice meals.
We had Moses as our guide. He is very professional and incredibly knowledgeable about the parks, history of the country, the culture, and especially the animals and birds. With his expertise we were able to an insane amount of different species of animals and birds. We were very pleased with both our driver and the safari vehicle.
Would highly recommend Good Earth Tours for its very personalized service without reservation.