Benson Safaris Tanzania

Company did ok but guide was disappointing

I communicated via email with Benson on a 1-week itinerary for me and my 3 children and he presented a comprehensive mid-range safari package in a timely manner. Everything went well until we started out with our private guide. Logistics were smooth with one exception that was clarified with a quick call to Benson. Otherwise, the guide was obviously more interested in chatting with others on his 2 cell phones and car CB than in providing information to us, his clients. Some of the communication was between guides sharing animal sightings in the area and there was no shortage of those the guide pursued but there was more than one case of me seeing an animal in a place that required backing up and the guide disregarded my request. This was my 3rd time on a guided safari but my childrens’ first and they missed out on so much, even with my advocacy. I prompted the guide several times to provide information - differences in species, etc. - and answers were one or two sentences at best. It got to the point at one meal where, after loudly reminding my daughter that using electronics during dinner was rude and unacceptable, I had to ask him to put his cell phone away minutes later. He never asked what kind of animals we were interested in, never pulled out a field guide, and offered very little personal insight. I felt like my family was a load to be transferred between locations rather than a family who had crossed half the globe to appreciate his homeland. We met other Benson guides who showed far more interest in their jobs (and us) so I think we got the guy who’d grown tired/bored after 15 years of guiding. One other minor thing: Benson claimed he would come by to meet us which he never did. The week was good in the sense that the animals are everywhere in the parks, camps and food were good and we didn’t have any catastrophes but I know the trip would’ve been MUCH better with a different guide.