Wonderful
Great Tanzanian vacation experience
We were part of the “soft opening” of this lodge and so happy with the experience! The lodge is lovely and very comfortable, with tasteful local art decoration. We were introduced to Raina, a local artist, who paints amazingly emotional oil painting and we purchased one of her pieces.
The staff at the lodge is 5 star quality. Israel in particular is such a fun character and he’ll get anything from the kitchen or bar that you ask for. The Masala tea was the best of any lodge we went to and the morning crepes are not to be missed!
The Lodge made all the safari arrangements for us and we loved our 12 day travel to Ngorogoro Park, Tarangire Park, and Zanzibar. They booked the flights for us to and from Zanzibar and took care of airport transfers. They also picked us up from Kilimanjaro airport so we always felt safe and well taken care of.
The staff recommended we visit a local Masai village, a Masai market and the Cultural Heritage Center. We did all this since we spent several nights at the Lodge before we began the safari. I highly recommend seeing all three venues!
The safari was in a very comfortable Heart of Africa safari vehicle with an open air top. Our guide, Ephata, did an excellent job, bringing us to close proximity to the big 5 (lions, elephants, Buffalo, rhino, and even a leopard), along with various African birds and other animals.
We went during “wet season” but the rains were short and we got sun every day. I even got a mild sunburn! We saw plenty of wildebeest even though they weren’t “migrating”.
The last day we went to the Snake Park. I’m not a fan of snakes but this was a surprisingly excellent tour where I learned a lot about snakes, reptiles, as well as local culture. There are even camels here you can ride!
I hope to be fortunate enough to visit Heart of Africa Lodge again in the future. I love the fact that they also run an orphanage close by, with part of the profits from the Lodge going to support this wonderful non-profit organization.
