Our Head Guide Nico and our Signature Hot Lunches
Unlimited Expeditions: The Soul of Tanzania
- Office In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2015)
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $400 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
CA
Email Adam | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A Great Experience!
Overall, a great experience—probably once in a lifetime. My wife and I did an 8-day safari for our honeymoon. Each day and each accommodation had a unique flavour. I didn’t know what to expect with the hotels, but was very impressed by the ambience, service and cleanliness. A couple of the hotels were even comparable to high-end hotels in the Mediterranean!
Just want to advise folks to bring a lot of cash as a lot of places won’t accept credit. There are also a few points in the tour (the tribal visits) where you’ll be expected to tip. For an 8-day safari for two, I’d bring at least US$500. You don’t really need Schillings, but bringing US$100 worth would be good.
We want to give a special shout-out to our safari guide, Cleopa. Don’t underestimate the impact that the guide will have. He wasn’t just the driver, he was our travel companion. He was reliable, and we trusted him fully. He had amazing eye sight as well! But more than anything, we developed a special connection with him on a more personal level, and will keep in touch hopefully for years to come.
We’d recommend Soul of Tanzania for your safari adventure, and Cleopa in particular if you can get him.
Email Claire | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience with our main man Wilson!
We did a safari with Soul of Tanzania for our honeymoon and it was incredible!!
Booking - we booked through Soul of Tanzania and were looked after my Marta. Marta was amazing and helped shaped our experience and itinerary based on our budgets and needs. Thank you Marta for being so patient and creating and excellent experience.
Guide and safari - we were blessed with having Wilson as our guide and he was literally the highlight of our trip!! Wilson made us feel like family as soon as we got off the plane and I really feel like part of his extended family. He is not only Knowledgeable in wildlife and where to find animals but also Tanzania and East Africa history and culture. We spent most lunches questioning him and he was more than happy to explain the importance and significance of where we were. Wilson is a kind, hospitable and engaging host who I cannot recommended enough to anyone looking to book a safari. He has an Amazing eye for wildlife and spotted animals from miles off! Wilson has greay communition skills and we always knew what would happened and when. He let us know when bathroom breaks woule be and when we would eat. He was totally flexible and changed the agenda according to our neesa. We feel so thankful to have had such an amazing, Knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide during our tour. Wilson we cannot thank you enough for a brilliant stay, we look forward to meeting again in the future.
Food - the food was fantastic during our trip. We were wined and dined throughout our trip with the most amazing views. As a vegetarian I was a little worried but I was well and truly full after every meal.
Accommodation - I must thank Marta for helping us to choose these but we were BLOWN away with every place we stayed.
Value for money - I couldn't recommend Soul of Tanzania enough, they really came through and helped us create an amazing experience based on our budget. On top of that, our guide Wilson truly made it a magical experience and the wildlife we saw was unbelievable!
A huge thank you to Soul of Tanzania and especially Wilson for an unforgettable experience!
CH
Email Lauren | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A guaranteed experience of a lifetime!
This safari exceeded all expectations, it was honestly an experience of a lifetime!
We (a couple) did a private 6 day/5 night Safari in Tanzania, including visits to the Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara NP, Serengeti NP and Ngorongoro Crater.
Marta our trip organiser quickly helped with all our queries throughout the planning process and ensured all logistics were organised ahead of the trip, including all accommodation and transfers.
Shaffie our tour guide was AMAZING! He shared his great knowledge and passion for the local wildlife, culture and people throughout our trip. His in-depth knowledge of the parks ensured that we were able to see a large range of wildlife, including of course the Big 5. He always went the extra mile to ensure we got the perfect photos.
The accommodation, food and included wine was also great!
If you’re thinking of doing a safari - do it. And I highly recommend this tour provider!
Email Amber | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Wonderful safari trip + perfect holiday, with every detail taken care of by SoT
We travelled as a family of four (grown-up children), following a personalised 6-day itinerary that covered Tarangire, Ngorongoro and Serengeti. All of us absolutely enjoyed the trip! We cannot find fault with our experience, from airport pickup on day 1 to the drop off at Seronera airstrip on the last day. We really appreciated how well planned the trip was, and are glad to have chosen Soul of Tanzania as our tour operator. Despite the relatively short trip (effectively only five days, the last day being a travel day), we didn’t feel rushed and felt we were able to enjoy each location fully, thanks to Martha's expert planning and the hard work of our guide, George. We really benefitted from the unlimited mileage and the flexibility afforded by the fully private tour, with George taking into account our opinions as to when we’d like to start each day, what we’d like to see on the day, etc. Moreover, George and the team took care of every detail of our trip, which allowed us to be completely hands-off and do nothing but relaxing and having a good time. The same perfection goes for the many small details on the road, e.g., slowing down upon pits to reduce impact, patiently answering our most random questions, dealing with check-in and bags at the airstrip.
With accommodation and food, everything met and often went beyond our expectation. In particular, it was good to have experienced both tented lodges (highly recommend Nimali in both Tarangire and Serengeti) and a more traditional resort hotel (Melia). The food was always of high standards, both in terms of the selection and quality, and always served attentively, both when at the dining table and when out in the fields (shoutout to George again). The lunches were always hot, well prepared and the portions more than generous (including wine). As a vegetarian myself, my dietary need was always well catered for.
In short, a big thank you to SoT's best team who brought us this incredible experience! Glad we chose the company, and would highly recommend if you're looking to book an unforgettable, hassle-free safari holiday.
US
Email Michael | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Exceptionally Incredible Safari, Thank you!
Exceptional!!! Our 14 day private, customized (base on 11 Day Spirit and Soul of Africa) safari was incredible - exceeding our expectations. BIG Thank you to Sandy, our trip designer/main contact; and all 3 of our incredible guides: Nesta(Lake Nakuru, KE), Julius (Masai Mara, KE), and James(TZ - Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire).
From the start, Sandy was great and answered numerous questions, discussed park options, travel times and options transferring between parks, etc.. to create an incredible private, custom safari for us. She also helped communicate and coordinate changes during the trip due to flight cancellations. Thank you, Sandy!
A huge THANK YOU!!! to all 3 of our guides: Nesta(Lake Nakuru, KE), Julius (Masai Mara, KE), and James(TZ - Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire). All 3 had eagle eyes, spotting animals big and small. Guides make or break a safari trip. We simply cannot thank each of them enough for their contributions that made our safari absolutely incredible and the envy of other safari travelers we shared our experience and photos with during our travel home.
We saw all of the “big 5” during the trip and 4 of the big 5 on several days. We saw 2 male white rhinos fighting…We saw lions daily; including cubs to full adults both male and female….We saw leopards and cheetahs several days…We watched lions and cheetahs hunt and eat….We saw servals cats in two parks. We say hippos, giraffe, and elephants in almost every park; along with a variety of smaller animals and birds. Yes, we have almost 5,000 photos and videos (high end 400zoom camera rental from lensrentals.com) documenting our incredible trip. We highly recommend Soul of Tanzania and Spirit of Kenya; along with our guides (Nesta, Julius, and James).
Here are the items we customized and what we would do differently….if you are interested….
We customized their 11 Day Spirit and Soul of Africa trip), removing Lake Manyara, adding an additional day to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater parks, and replaced Amboseli Park KE with Tarangire Park TZ. We were very pleased with our substitution of Tarangire for Amboseli and highly recommend Tarangire. It wasn’t on the original itinerary, but we (and our guide James) would highly recommend Tarangire. We saw and watched several different large elephant families (infants, adolescents, and adults) on every game drive. We saw more elephants in Tarangire than at all the other parks combined. We also saw leopards, lions, and cheetas; along with many other animals. The park swap allowed us to avoid long travel drive times to Amboseli and from Amboseli to Nairobi by flying directly from Kilimanjaro airport to Nairobi.
We recommend spending at least 2 nights or ensuring a full day of game drive (6-8 hours) in each park, i.e. spend more time on game drive(s) in a park than it took to get to and from a park; otherwise reevaluate why you are going to that park… We would drop Ngorongoro Crater completely and shorten the trip or add those days to Masai Mara or central Serengeti. Yes, we saw some huge herds of buffalo and wildebeest, and the landscape itself was unique being inside a crater. But, we didn’t see anything new, the crowds around an animal sighting were huge (40-50 vehicles) – making actual viewing and photography difficult; and beyond buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, and gazelles… other animal sightings were sparse and often from a great distance.
We replaced any drive between parks that was over 4+ hours with air transfers (SafariLink, Coastal) – think large (10+ passenger) propeller airplane “bus type service” between park air strips (aka these are not private, direct charter flights). Inter-park Air Transfer Recommendation: If your considering inter-park air transfers: Don’t just focus on the travel drive time, but also on road conditions…i.e. ask if the inter-park road is paved versus unpaved… if unpaved – travel by air. Unpaved roads = cross breed a motel vibrating bed with a mechanical bull ride. 3 ½ hours between Serengeti and Ngorongoro was absolutely brutal and exhausting.
If you are transferring between parks by air…get the name and phone number of the guide(s) you are meeting at the next camp/location. If you have any flight delays or cancellations, this will provide you a way to communicate and coordinate accordingly.
African airlines (both commercial and those providing transfers between parks) are known for delayed and cancelled flights… plan as best you can…then go with the flow . Flying between parks/locations definitely increased game drive time…but with added complexity, hassle, cost, and risk versus driving. Honestly, if the roads between the parks/locations are paved – I would drive instead of fly. Note, air transfers between parks are at an additional cost and you will likely have a new guide at your destination. Driving = same guide through all parks in a country and no additional costs.
Cost & Accommodations
Private vs Shared safari/vehicle – the guide and vehicle were $560US per day…the more people you have in a vehicle = lower cost per person (Shared option). We saw many vehicles packed to their maximum 7-person capacity which looked quite cramped… In our opinion, a maximum of 4 persons per vehicle is ideal, providing room to move and the ability for everyone to easily reposition to see things. I would also expect a “shared” safari would likely limit your ability to customize it, but I’d ask accordingly.
Accommodations – This is likely the largest cost component of the safari. We were offered 4 levels from budget to luxury ranging from $100-200 per person per night up to $1000 pp/night. Do your research and read the reviews… Is the accommodation in the park? How far/long is the drive from the accommodation to the main game drive area? One of our accommodations was in the park but 1 hour away from the main game drive area, hence we wasted 2 hours’ round trip each day. Tent Camps can be better than large lodges, don’t automatically discriminate. Our tent camps were far superior in service and quality versus a couple of the lodges we used.
If you are still reading and interested, here is a list of questions I compiled to compare operators, tours, etc… Good Luck
Categories Question
Company How Long Have or Your Safari Company been in business?
Company Do you run your own tours or outsource to others?
Contract What are your deposit and cancellation policies?
Contract Require Vouchers for all accommodation 1-2 months prior to departures…to ensure the room is booked and paid for(avoid canceled accommodations/last minute changes)
Insurance Do you offer trip insurance? Can I get a ballpark quote?
Company Where can I find reviews of this trip, you, the tour operator(if different), and the guide?
Contract Request detailed Itinerary, including travel time between locations.
Contract Ensure contract lists of what is included; meals, lodging, beverages, park fees, game drives, airport transfers…
Contract, Extras WHAT NATIONAL PARKS FEES OR CONSERVATION / COMMUNITY FEES ARE NOT INCLUDED?
Contract Payment terms? Payment Options(direct transfer, credit card, etc…)
Contract/Rates Are all Taxes included? If not what & how much is it?
Extras What Extra charges should I expect at each accommodation and how can I settle them?
Tour WHAT CURRENCIES ARE ACCEPTED at each destination/accommodation?
Tour, Game Drive Ensure this is a Private tour…what part of this tour will be shared with others…such as game drives? Vehicle type, max people?
Travel, Transport How many days/hours of travel between each leg?
Travel, Transport What type of transportation for each leg? Vehicle Type? Amenities?
Travel, Transport If driving between legs, is flying an option? Cost?
Travel, Transport Is transportation between legs/locations included in this package?
Guide Who will our guide be? Same or different for game drives?
Guide How well does out guide speak English?
Game Drive Does the game drive have a CB radio? Sharing/Receiving sighting information?
Guide How many years of guide experience does he/she have? Feel free to ask for a specific driver?
Guide, Contract If I am not satisfied with the guide during the trip, what are my options and how would I exercise them?
Guide How many times has the guide done this tour?
Game Drive Are game drives included in every accommodation? Any limitations, like # I can do per day?
Game Drive What is the game drive schedule and lengths at each accommodation ?
Game Drive SEATING POLICY ON GAME DRIVE VEHICLES
Tour, Game Drive How accessible is each park relative to its accommodation? Is the accommodation inside the park?
Accommodation Any special/required attire for dinner at any of the accommodations?
Accommodation Can you tell me about the accommodations, amenities, communication facilities?
Accommodation What are the laundry options at each accommodation? Cost?
Accommodation Sustainability and ECOTOURISM PRACTICES, Policies, etc...?
Accommodation, Food Are the meals included individual, family style(limited to our private tour, or buffet?
General What sort of day and night temperatures can be expected?
General What is the malaria risk in the area you are travelling to?
Tour, Game Drive Which of these are national parks versus private reserves? If private reserves, are they open or fenced?
General What are the tipping and gratuity expectation for every aspect/activity/accommodation of this tour? Are they included?
DE
Email Raphael | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing tour with a minor organizational hiccup
Our guide Hassani was amazing, funny and open to explain the different cultures, also he drove very well and made us feel safe. He never felt short of helping us in any way possible to make our tour the most comfortable possible. The hotels were very nice and in most cases well choosen, but a better understanding of the distances between them and the attractions would improve a lot the whole experience. E.g. for visiting the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, our hotel was located almost 2hours after it, so we ended up in the car 4h more than necessary. Our warrior guide didn't complaine about driving the extra hours, but it was really intense, even for us not even driving. Especially if all this could have been avoided if someone would have advised us a hotels closer to the park. Other than that everything was very smooth, the food delicious and in total an incredible experience. We totally recommend them!
Email Scott | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Trip of a lifetime
I booked a safari with Soul of Tanzania. I was nervous at first but they had high ratings on the websites I checked. Everything was first class starting with my initial conversations with them trying to determine what Safari was right for me. Marta who was my main contact worked with me for a few weeks to plan the perfect safari for my budget. It did not disappoint. Everything was well organized and well executed.
My guide Micheal was awesome. We spent 4 days together and and toured a number of parks including Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. The wildlife, scenery and meeting the indigenous people was one of the most amazing experiences of my life! Michael was a great guide and made sure we always had the best opportunity to see all the animals up close. A couple of times I thought the elephants and the lions would jump right into the car.
I compared other safari prices and for what I wanted this wan a great deal for the money I spent.
PT
Email joao nascimento | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Memorable Safari with an incredible guide Edwin
We are a family of 5 and just returned from a memorable safari in Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro, where we've spent 6 days.
Even before the start of the safari, the experience with the safari design was very good, and credits to Jose. Since my first contact, the answers were swift, always very clear and aiming to please our requests. I also found interesting the packages “comfort”, “exclusive”, etc … it’s easy to understand and reflect well the different options.
The Safari was an incredible experience, everything was according to our expectations and went very smooth. A big part due to Edwin, our guide. We’ve seen an unbelievable number of animals 30+ lions, 50+ elephants, 4 cheetahs, 3 leopards, hyenas, giraffes, hundreds of zebras, Thomson's gazelles, wildebeests, etc … … truly remarkable! We’ve found Edwin to be a very talented guide. His knowledge of all animals and Serengeti is absolutely amazing, sounding like a real “encyclopedia”. His relationship skills were fantastic, both with me and my wife, but specially with our kids as he created a friendly mood, that was precisely what we were looking for in our vacation. A big, big thank you to Edwin!
All the accommodations were great, but the ones in the middle of the savannah were amazing - Acacia Luxury Camp, Acacia Migration Camp and Nimali (this last one, superb). The food and beverages were very good and prepared with care. We found all the staff to be super friendly and made us always feel at home - thank you to all of them.
Summing up, it was an incredible experience for all our family and we will definitely recommend Soul of Tanzania.
João
FR
Email Beloslav | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing experience with incredible guide and professional team
We spent 8 days on safari with Soul of Tanzania, visiting Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Central, Serengeti North (to see the Great wildebeest Migration) and Lake Manyara. The trip was honestly the experience of a lifetime, and I cannot recommend Soul of Tanzania, and especially our wonderful guide Eddy (Edward) enough.
The company itself was very professional, with very prompt responses to our questions when we were planning the trip early on and very flexible with our requests / changes to the itinerary. Both our pick up from the airport in Arusha and our pick-up from the hotel the next morning were prompt and on time. The company also stands out from a lot of the other ones we saw by providing a delicious warm lunch every day which really makes the whole experience feel a bit more comfortable.
The main thing that made our experience so special was our guide Eddy. He really went above and beyond. Not only did we see the Big 5 (and many many more), but we saw each of them at least twice and all of them from extremely close (like could count the spots on a leopard close). As soon as we told him one of our group was a keen photographer, he would make sure to show us each animal from multiple angles so we could get the perfect shot. He also wasn’t just ticking boxes by showing us each animal once we saw each one in multiple states - for example, we saw lions sleeping in a tree, a lion climbing up and down a tree, but then also saw them stalking prey, watched some lion cubs playing and even saw them mating. He was incredible at spotting animals, and we were the first jeep on location on numerous occasions. He was also so knowledgeable about all the animals (and we really grilled him on even the obscure bird species) - he knew everything about the animals’ habits, behaviour, you name it. Patience was another of his virtues that proved times and times again very critical - we would wait as long as we wanted to see aniamls in actions. I think how great a guide he is and how committed he is to making the experience truly once in a lifetime is best captured by our trip to Serengeti north to try and see the wildebeest and zebra migration across the Mara river. We were expecting to maybe see them cross once. Eddy managed to find not one, not two but three groups crossing, with each group more spectacular than the next. Even the camp staff where we were staying couldn’t believe he’d managed to find three groups for us to observe in one day! Honestly cannot recommend him enough! Thank you Eddy for making the trip so special - ahsante sana, rafiki!
One thing we would recomment -- skip lake Manyara and spend as much time as you can in central Serengeti. We found lake Manyara a bit underwhelming with very little to see, whereas our 4 days in Serengeti would gladly be extended.
Email Fran | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Truly a Signature of Excellence!
Seeing all the animals in their own habitat doesn’t come close to anything we’ve seen before.
All accomodations were superb, and the food delicious. SoT is I believe the only tour group that provide a lunchtime hot meal during the game drives most days.
Our guide Jovin was a excellent, with very keen eyesight and an abundance of information.
The days are long (~9-10 hours of game drives per day), so it was a pity we didn’t get to use the hotel facilities much, but it’s understandable as Jovin wanted to maximise the game drive time.
We did a 6 Nights, 7 Days tour - we felt this was plenty.
The canoeing experience at Lake Manyara was good fun but not what we were expecting. We were under the impression that it was a small lake and would therefore see the animals around the edge/ drinking from the lake. The lake is that big (and salt water) that you can’t see the borders and so we didn’t see any animals. So it was a fun experience but not quite what we were hoping for. The Hot Air Balloon Experience with the Champagne Breakfast was great. Very early morning start but the Sunrise from the balloon makes it worth it. Again, we expected to see animals concentrated together as on TV but in reality the expanse is so vast that they’re all spread out. Champagne full-English breakfast is set-up in an open area and was excellent - an elephant even came over to say hello!
Plenty of toilet facilities (very clean) and even wifi spots throughout the tour.
Lastly, our SoT tour booking operator Luis was magnificent. We had to rearrange our tour 3 times due to Covid, and each time he did it seamlessly. He provided lists of accomodations at each stop to suit our budget and requirements. He provided plenty of information on the different activities we could do throughout the tour. All the details were very easy to follow on his emails - an absolute pleasure to work with.
A Honeymoon we will never forget. Without a doubt would recommend SoT.
