Experienced a 5-day Southern-Tanzania safari with Grassroots Safaris in July 2014.
Grassroots Safaris really delivers for the price they sell! I travelled with three friends in the 5-day Southern safari tour.
We started off at Dar early morning with requested stops at ATM and groceries. Lunch was arranged at a eatery close by Morogoro (if I recall right). We were puzzled at this because we had a chef with us. The food at the eatery was great, but I had severe stomach problems later that evening. By the late afternoon we had a stop-over safari in Mikumi with great close-by views on elephants and zebras among others. We spend the night at wonderful Tan Swiss Lodge. The place exceeded our expectations, but we would have wished for better explanation on what was included on the stay by Grassroot Safari staff.
Day 2 we started off towards Ruaha national park. We enjoyed the views and the quick stop at Iringa town where we had another lunch in a restaurant. I cannot remember the name of the place, but the service was not good. I wouldn't recommend Grassroot Safaris to continue taking guests there. However, a small guided tour in Iringa would be amazing add to the safari program!
We arrived to Ruaha National parks' new Camp by the sunset. It was not that excotic as a tent camp, but the cottages with indoor showers and toilets and a common restaurant house once again exceeded our expectations. We had wonderful two nights with bright star skies and beautiful river views there.
Day 3 we started off with a great omelet and pancake breakfast (with Nutella!) and had a whole day game drive in Ruaha with packed lunch in a designated lunch area. We were lucky to see a lot of elephants and zebras, a great big heard of buffaloes, several type of antilopes, giraffes and a male lion. We had great fun photographing and chatting with my travel mates, and we enjoyed the explinations of our driver and guide from Grassroot Safaris. Anyhow, we could have listened more of stories about the place and animals during our safari days.
Day 4 We started with a morning game drive where we could marvel the sunrise from a viewpoint, several elephants and birds among others. We had a quick look on a leopard, too, before it disapered to the bush! After the breakfast we headed off towards Udzungwa national park where we arrived after a two hour sightseeing (on our own) stop at Iringa and a lunch stop at a road side... we thought these could have been better arranged. Anyhow, it was fun to observe the goats as we ate our box lunch.
After a day on the road that seemed to last forever we finally arrived to our camp in Udzungwa. It was really a loooong day on the road and we already started to think it would have been better to pay extra for flying back to Dar from Ruaha, but Udzungwa Forest tended camp Hondo Hondo really was amazing! We were flubbergasted by the luxury tents and private dinner table set in the garden. It was magical!
Day 5 - Great private breakfast set in the garden before setting off to the mountain trail for a few hours. We had amazing guide, Maria, she really was so helpfull and darling we could have stayed another day or two hiking those mountains! The waterfall and the views to the sugarcane plantations after reaching the top were great! Our enthusiasm on the hike lead to late start off towards Dar. This together with a terrible traffic jam at Dar outskirts made us reach our hotel at midnight instead of 8pm as planned!! We were dead tired, but happy to reach our destination.
Grassroot Safaris is a great option for anyone looking for a budget safari. They are really flexible to find the best solution to your wishes and price range. We really enjoyed our 5 days on safari!
