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Email Richard S | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Great country for a full safari experience
Highlights were Ngorongoro Crater and Central Serengeti. Scenic beauty and wildlife were stunning. Abundance of animals. Wildebeest migration with their Zebra escorts were a unique moment to capture. Soul of Tanzania were a great operator to use (Jose) and we were able to customise what we wanted.
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Email Chris | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Tanzania is great, even in the rainy season
Tanzania is very friendly, not dangerous, and has amazing wildlife. We spent two nights in a camp in Tarangire, two nights in a camp in the Serengeti, and two nights in a lodge in Ngorongoro. Tarangire has lots of elephant and giraffe, Serengeti has everything, but spread across a vast plain, Ngornogoro has everything concentrated in a 30km diameter. We were there in mid March, just after the main rains. We had just one night of rain, which made for good mud the next day. In March we also had lines of wildebeest stretching beyond the horizon, and we did not have crowds of other trucks and the camps were pleasantly half full. So next time I will certainly go in the "off" season. In planning the trip I did not realize how long it would take to get from Tarangire to the Serengeti. It took ten hours with just a couple of stops. So be cognizant of the distances when you are planning the trip. On the main roads you may do 50mph. On the unpaved trails 30mph is rough. The other thing I would have done differently is that I would have planned one day to just sit in camp, with a book, and enjoy the bush. But it was fantastic.
Afterwards we had three days in Zanzibar. Stone Town is quite small, especially in the rain, but the beach was great, and we just got a half hour of rain. The trip was arrange by Orege, who were very efficient. Our guide was Deo, who was a good careful driver, a great guide, and full of energy. We stayed at Baobab Tented Camp, Mawe Tented Camp, Lion's Paw, Kijani Beach Villas, which were all good.
CA
Email Ryan | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bucket List Trip
Travelling the Serengeti should be on everyone's bucket list. You will not find anything else like it in the world. There are multiple sleeping accommodations depending on how much you want to spend and how close to the animals you want to sleep. In general it is an expensive trip but I promise you it's worth every penny. Do it once in your life.
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Email Mark Bertness | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fabulous 2 wks in Tanzania
Our Safari Soles experience in Tanzania and Zanzibar was simply amazing, extraordinarily well organized with superb local guides. We designed a two-week trip combining the great migration with 5 days on Zanzibar. Magreth helped us design our own private tour and was extremely helpful and generous getting our trip organized before arriving and very responsive to our needs and questions once we were on safari. Our trip was a total immersion into Tanzania from seeing all the major birds and mammals you want to see in Tanzania, getting a personal perspective on life in Tanzania in conversations with the super Safari Soles guides, staying at some fabulous hotels and getting to see and interact with traditional tribal people from Masai villagers to hunter gatherer bushmen. Our local guides were truly special. Izaak, who was our main safari guide was just fabulous. Warm, kind, and a skilled and knowledgeable naturalist, he was a highlight of our trip. We also had an outstanding guide, Alex while visiting the tribal villages who was not only extremely well versed in the cultures we visited, but fluent in English, Swahili, and the unique tribal languages of the people we visited. We were generally disappointed with Zanzibar. We stayed two nights at the Cumbie Island Nature Preserve. It was a well-run carbon neutral island retreat, but the coral reefs were in bad shape and on their way out, so I wouldn't recommend it for snorkeling or diving. We had hoped to see a healthy Zanzibar reef, so were very disappointed. If we redesigned our trip, we would have stayed a single night on Cumbie and skipped the depressing reefs. We had a very enjoyable trip to a spice farm on Zanzibar that we would highly recommend. We also found Stonetown rather disappointing. It was rundown and overrun by tourist shops with little history or culture to compensate for the tourist shop exposure.
Overall, I would enthusiastically recommend Safari Soles for a Tanzanian private safari. It is a very well-run small company that emphasizes quality over quantity with attention to detail. The staff and guides are exceptional and will help you design a perfect trip for your needs, rather than just a generic Tanzanian Safari. My wife and I are experienced travelers and potentially hard to please professionals, I am a retired marine ecologist with decades of tropical experience and my wife is a lawyer with a keen eye for organization and detail. So, we are potentially tough customers, but can't say enough about the quality and people running Safari Soles tours. If we return to Tanzania we will rely again on their experience, knowledge, attention to detail and kindness. They are simply a great group.
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Email Kristopher Munn | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A trip to Tanzania truly is a trip of a lifetime
Tanzania is a place where you feel most welcome the minute you step onto its African soil. The people are abundant in their warmth and are quick to let small talk turn into real conversations about their lives and families. The guides and the government show great care in how they manage the national parks, and it is evident in the conditions as you travel throughout these vast and diverse regions. I came to see the many animals of this land; but what I really saw was a place that needs to be felt and touched by shaking the dust off of your hat and feeling the winds blow across your neck - the adventure is so much more than what a safari might look like on the internet. From the shores of Zanzibar to the openness of the Serengeti; the land reaches into your heart and makes you realize that wherever you may be now, your true wish was that you were back there again. I truly thank the people of Tanzania, and my tour operator Ozon Light Tours for the memories and stories I'll have for my lifetime.
BR
Email Barbara Barbosa | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
amazing Wildlife, great people
Late March 2024 I did a solo Safari with Soul of Tanzania to Serengeti and Ngorogoro. My driver, Losioki was the best I could have asked for. Very respectful and polite, and with an impressive ability to spot animals (because of him I was lucky enough to see a leopard!). Apart from that, People are very welcoming, services providers are well trained, and polite, you can trust them. As a solo woman traveler I felt safe. Right now, I wish a haven't had gone just to have this experience again.
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Email Aleksandra G | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
great hikes and people on the mainland, unpleasant in touristy areas
people on the mainland were absolutely lovely and very friendly, in Zanzibar the experience was the opposite - very insolent and everyone treats you like a bag of money. terrible flight coordination - your boarding pass, airport schedule and actual departure time are completely unrelated, resulting in unexpected change of plans as you go
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Email Michal | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Well above expectations
Tanzania with its natural beaty cannot be missed. The views in Ngorongoro and Tarangire were amazing. The island of Zanzibar is also a very beatiful place worth visiting especially for those who enjoy snorkling and scuba diving
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Email Ryan Phillips | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tanzania roadside is legit awesome
My wife and I decided to do a safari in Tanzania for our honeymoon and it was INCREDIBLE. The country was extremely safe, the people were all very warm and kind, and the food was great.
More importantly than all of the basics, our guide James was a tremendous. James should have a PhD in safari. He knew every type of bird, mammal, and reptile - where they lived, if they live in packs, when they mate, roughly how old they are, it was unreal. We’d double check on google and the guy was NEVER wrong. He also always knew where to be for the best view of the animals even when packed in by other cars - time after time, we were somehow always in the right spot. Beyond his safari knowledge he was a true gentlemen - he opened doors, he was polite, he was thoughtful. Twice along the trip we ran into other safari vehicles broken down, and while others drove by, James stopped to help the other drivers get their passengers to safety. If you go to Tanzania, go with Tanzania roadside and request James.
Aside from that, the Serengeti was beautiful but in March the grass was pretty tall so we actually saw more animals in Ngorongoro and Tangerie national parks. Most the hotels were very nice, however the Meliá in the Serengeti stands out above the others as the most beautiful and worth the splurge. Lastly, if you have the budget for it I would tell you to do a private safari - you’re in the car for 6-12 hours a day on bumpy dirt roads, it’s nice to say when you’ve seen enough, and not have to worry about waking up at 6 am if you don’t want to.
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Email Miroslav | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect safari
Everything was perfect, the organization before the trip, the trip itself, the guide, the accommodation during the safari, the safari itself, the return to the airport, the meals. A truly perfect experience, on a safari combining nature with animals, especially Ngrorogoro. Thanks again to the entire Serengeti African Tours team.
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