Tanzania Travel Guide

Country blessed with great open grasslands, rugged natural beauty and abundance of wildlife

Tanzania was very welcoming for tourists. The wildlife tour operators seem very well regulated and self disciplined - we went with Savannah Explorers who were very professional and supportive ( thanks, Sultan!) - right from making a bespoke tour for us to supporting me with delivering my lost transit luggage into jungle camps, to providing us with exotic camps and wildlife sightings. The tour guide cum driver Felix was very experienced and unerringly took us to those exact locations from where the best possible view of various animals was available. We saw all the big five and the unforgettable wildebeest crossing Mara river. We saw fresh kills as well as hunts by lions and leopard.
We also had a great experience with the Miracle balloon ride in Serengeti with Captain Geert who skilfully piloted the balloon and kept us entertained with anecdotes. From the balloon you can really appreciate the vastness of the Serengeti endless plains.
I also have to appreciate the Masaai who were guarding the KonTiki camps and their friendliness as well as their amazing leap dances. the officers manning the transit border areas as well as the Sanctuary gates were all very cooperative and welcomed you with a smile and Jambo!
All in all a brilliant experience where we ticked all the boxes of our objectives. Well done Tanzania!

Life

Great place to visit! Lot of memories to create! We will come back as soon as possible! Thank you very much and good luck!

friendly people, many animals and scenic beauty

best Safari we ever did with Topy Tours through Serengeti, Arusha, Ngorogoro and other parks. Icredible experience to sleep in a tent in the middle of Serengeti and watching Zebras next to our tent. All people, whom we met were very friendly and helpful, it was just amazing. The guide through the parks could answer all questions and we could see the BIG FIVE.
August was a good time to travel there as the weather was very nice, we had 25 to 29 degrees Celsius every day.

Breathtaking parks, mountains, unforgettable meeting with wild animals!

Would you like to spend morning with the lions? Have a lunch with one hundred hippos in the pool? Or maybe take a ride to the bottom of the biggest volcanic caldera in the world so you can see some huge elephants ? Tanzania is one of the best destination in the world. Just two of them Serengeti National Park and Crater Ngorongoro are the must to visit for every traveler. Meeting with Masai warriors- one of the kind.There are friendly people and every bigger or smaller town offers place to sleep and good food. Arusha is a good place to start your journey in exploring parks. Spending couple days in Serengeti for sure you'll meet Big African Five.
I think the best time to visit Tanzania is October-November when great migration takes place.
It could be hot during the day and cooler in the evenings. So always have right clothes with you. I also recommend to visit Zanzibar. Beautiful island that belongs to Tanzania. Warm Indian Ocean, white beach, unique City of Zanzibar with Stone Town and parks with endemic animals will satisfied everybody. If you need more information visit my blog
http://www.travelpod.com/members/ania12

Breathtaking, awe-inspiring, and you'll never ever forget your time there!

Tanzania is a great destination - with a heady mix of exotic wildlife, vast landscapes, and even beaches to relax and take it all in. Add in super-friendly people, who love to help the tourist and teach Swahili, and I can't recommend it enough.

Logistically, it's surprisingly easy to visit - with many tours and transport links designed to take tourists to all the major destinations without a problem. Even when you go off the beaten path, the hospitality of the people make it easy - one nice man even ran a few hundred meters to talk to a bus driver for me, and just gave a big smile when I said "Asante sana" (thank you!).

I'd recommend going to Ngorogoro first, then the Serengetti - this works you up from parks in terms of size. Follow that up with 3-4 days on Zanzibar and you have the ingredients to a perfect holiday.

Note - I would definitely avoid Dar Es Salaam; there's not a lot there from a tourist perspective, and it has it's unsavoury parts. The smaller towns of Tanzania are far more enjoyable.

My African Dream (if you can forget the Africa of today)

We travelled as a family of five- and we did enjoy all of the trip. Went from Arusha through Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Kainokaoa, Serengeti to Mwanza and across Lake Viktoria. Went down to Lake Tanganjika, crossed it to the south on the MS Liemba. Stayed at Lake Shore Lodge near Kipili and made our excursions to Katavi from there. Staying there was just a dream, best place ever we have been to. Made a long way home from there to Daressalam and Europe. We havebeen to Bali, Laos, Thailand, Mauritius and a lot of other places: we never were so sad when we had to go home as we were after our trip to Tanzania. These things said one more thing: please consider ecological and social aspects when chosing your tour operators; ask your european travel agent to ask their african partners! We still feel a bit ashamed that we did not do that enough-and we realized that we should have done so only during our trip. Should you go to Tanzania? YES! Go! All the best.

Our expectations exceeded

My wife researched many of the safari operators before selecting Gosheni. Boy, did she get it right! This company is exceptional. Peter, the Managing Director, responded immediately to her email enquiries and tailored a tour to our expectations and needs.
We were met on arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport by Jonas, our driver/guide, and taken to Arusha for lunch with Peter and then off we went. We immediately struck up an excellent relationship with Jonas who was full of fun. When we were out animal observing he really demonstrated his skill in finding and understanding the animals' behaviours. One example: as we drove around the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater we encountered another vehicle watching the long grass and bush alongside the road. We stopped and discovered that they were watching a leopard moving about in the scrub. After a time the leopard disappeared and the other vehicle moved off. Not Jonas though,who said that the animal will show itself again in a few minutes. And so we sat there for several minutes when the leopard suddenly moved out onto the road and walked along passing the vehicle within a meter while observing us. And so it went. He was able to find some exceptional sights and experiences for us - surrounded by elephants, a herd of 26 female lions and two young male brothers, a giraffe that had survived a lion attack, a pride of lions patiently waiting for a wounded cape buffalo to weaken, and so on. We were there in the middle of the annual great migration of the wildebeest which also was another amazing experience.
The company's vehicles were late models, beautifully maintained (we saw three other vehicles break down), and comfortable, the accommodation was excellent, the food first rate, We flew back to Arusha from the Serengeti airstrip and were again met on arrival and taken to lunch where we de-briefed with Peter before being taken to Kilimanjaro Airport for the return flight.
Our safari was flawless and the experience of a lifetime. We have no hesitation in recommending Gosheni.

Super and Outstanding

I do not think I have to praise the northern national parks. Everyone is well aware of its beauty. I probably googled Tanzania for a month straight before I landed there and I must say a computer screen can not encompass the beauty.

Most people may praise the wildlife, but my review will praise the courteous people. We began our trip by flying into Nairobi and then into Kilimanjaro International Airport and we had lots of issues at the start of our trip in Kenya. But once we arrived at Kilimanjaro Airport our fate turned. Our guide was extremely friendly and knew exactly what he was doing. The people were all very friendly and offered to help us whenever we looked lost. During our safari, the guides, security guards, hotel receptionist, room service were all extremely helpful.

From the 3 national parks we visited, they all had their different flavour, so variety. Infrastructure to get to the parks is good.

For a first safari and a brilliant driver/guide, Tanzania was perfect to see the Big Five and most other animals