US
Phenomenal experience
I did the 4 day safari with African Traits at Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. It was an absolute pleasure dealing with Godfrey (the propreitor). He's a very easy-going yet professional person. He took the time to come by and see me after the safari, before I flew out. Wasn't shy on asking for feedback and genuinely felt like he cares about his customers and their experience and wants to improve constantly.
My guide George (Babouuuuu) and cook (Usman) kept me entertained and well fed for all 4 days. I was alone on the safari for all 4 days, so Babou provided me excellent company and kept me constantly entertained with stories and facts about the area. His knowledge of the area and his phenomenal ability to track/see animals is unrivaled. In the first 3 days itself we saw every type of animal that the safari could offer (elephants, gazelles, antelopes, cheetahs, topis, leopards, rhinos, lions...you name it).
My favorite part about African Traits was how accommodating the team was. Godfrey and Babou went above and beyond to accommodate me and my changing plans. They were incredibly flexible with my plans and with what I wanted to do (staying in a lodge, or leaving a day early). Overall a fantastic trip made significantly better thanks to Babou.
If you're planning to do a safari in Tanzania, I wholeheartedly recommend going with African Traits
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297913-d12486257-r569805761-African_Traits-Arusha_Arusha_Region.html#
IN
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best way to go on a safari
Our safari trip was planned within a day! With the help of Nelson and his quick replies on whatsapp , we were even able to heavily customise our trip. Focus team should rename themsevles to focus on customers. We had a lot of help from them not only in arranging the USDs for payments but also in accommodating our last minute changes to the plan , while we were on safari. Herman is an excellent guide , who made sure we saw what we came for- the migration , along with a variety of other wildlife. In all, a great experience, with a great price to go along with it.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Lake Manyara National Park by Seema (@seemaamistry)
See my main review
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Selous Game Reserve by Andrey Lopatinskiy
Selious is big wild territory with wild roads, is more naturally, more real as I like.
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Mikumi National Park by Andrey Lopatinskiy
Minimum is small, but animals with high concentration. But park seems like as hand made
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fantastic. Much better than expected
The safari experience was amazing. It was our first time and we would definitely do it again although we would stretch our budget and stay in lodges rather than in tents. Everything about the safari was excellent and went way beyond our expectations with the exception of the accommodation but I put that down to our budget.
RU
One day in Mikumi
Everything was excellent organized! Safari was incredible! We saw a lot of animals! Abeid and Debby you are the best! It was an amazing experience! Asante sana Hello Tanzania, Mwajabu and her team!!!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Best experience of my life
I cannot begin to explain how much fun we had and how much we saw. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Our guide Shabani was so passionate, he cared about the animals he cared about how much fun we had and made sure we had a good time. We engaged with him and tried to have a laugh, he was good fun and relaxed.
We saw EVERYTHING, the big 5; Lions, a family of cheetahs, sooo many elephants close and far, buffalo, rhino, giraffes, flamingos, hippos, wildebeast. We saw a baby wildebeast walk for the first time, so emotional. Some of the world's only tree climbing lions in Lake Manyara National park. The lion king film is actually like a documentary... the lions sit on rocks all the animals hate the hyenas and pumba trots around. The zebras, wildebeest and hippos all hang out together. Ok, there's no song and dance or crazy monkey... but it's basically the same. Check out Instagram for proof of the amazingness @seemaamistry I have also had people contact me on Instagram to book the same safari we did. Lake Manyara, serengeti, and Ngorogoro crater, 4 days 3 nights camping. They bright mattresses and set up our tents every night. The food was good, curry, soup, potatoes, crepes for breakfast, not great if you're vegetarian you get a lot of carrots! The lunches were a bit dry. And they allow 3 litres of water per day pp which was plenty for us. The serengeti campsite was the most rustic shall we say with big bugs, and we were in the national park not surrounded by a fence. But we were absolutely fine. The other campsites were clean and had decent showers. The weather was perfect, hot but not crazy hot and we had an overcast day which was a lot more comfortable. All in all one of the best experiences of my life.
RU
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing
We ordered our safari on 5 days, 4 nights. When we landing we were met by owner the company and driver named Samuel. They did our transfer to hotel, and the next morning we start our safari.
Then the next 5 days Samuel was our guide, our driver and our helper. The first park was the Selious Game Reserve.
In this place we spent 1,5 days of our safari. This is a very big park with many may wild animals. 2 nights we slept in Hippo Camp.
The next place we visited was the Mikumi National Reserve. 1 full day we spent here. The Makino is smaller, but here was many animals with more concentration. The next 2 night we slept in Bastian Camp.
All meals were included in tour, also water.
Samuel is very good driver, he answered for all our questions, he seeked animals perfect. And decided all problem,that we met.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
6-day fly-in safari
Overall, we had a great first-time safari with TravelPartners. Arranging the safari from London was very easy - I was able to tailor our itinerary over Whatsapp and email quickly and efficiently. We paid half upfront by SWIFT transfer and the rest on the ground. Be aware that taxes can be added on to credit card payments, so cash is better.
We flew into the Serengeti on effectively our own charter flight, which was fabulous! We were then picked up by our driver in the Central Serengeti and managed to see a live cheetah kill in the first hour! Our jeep was great - a Landcruiser with a pop-up top. We spent the next few days in the Serengeti seeing all of the big 5 (aside from the rhino) and chasing the migration. We didn’t quite get a river crossing (it was a bit late in the year for that), but had amazing experiences chasing leopards around in the rain and listening to hippos grunting outside our mobile migration camp in the Northern Serengeti.
We drove out of the Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater, where we saw (at a distance) a black rhino - finally! Our accommodation was mid-high end and was therefore pretty impressive.
The national parks have strict clock-in and out times, which we were unaware of, and this affects how much time you can spend in them on safari, so it is very important to ask for this information up front. As a result, we had an extra day of safari time which we wouldn’t have been able to use if we had not negotiated (while on safari) to include Lake Manyara national park - which worked out well in the end.
As you are now not allowed to go on walking safaris in the Serengeti, you spend a lot of time with your driver, so it’s important to establish a rapport. Anderson, our driver, was very knowledgeable and accomodating. When asked, he was able to offer up lots of interesting facts on what we were seeing.
All in all, we had a great safari experience covering more or less the entire Northern circuit. Flying in saved so much time, allowing us to fit more in. Thank you to the team at TravelPartners!