Travel Partners
- Located In:
- Size:
- 100-250 employees (Founded in 2007)
- Member Of:
- TATO, TTB, TANAPA, NCAA, Tanzania Top 100, Tanzania Private Sector Foundation & Tanzania Investment Centre
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $1,500 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
MX
Email Ruth | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
they were just great.
It was an amazing and unforgettable experience! Communication with the crew was without trouble. Defenetly my expectations were fulfilled.
MX
Email Miguel Chicón | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
amazing safari
Our trip to tanzania was a great experience, amazing service and treatment from all the team. They made us feel home, away from home, totally superb locations and guidance. We will come back for sure!!! thks a lot
Email Himu | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very good experience with all arrangements taken care of
Everything was very well arranged. Except for our first gate entry which took more than 1 hour everything else was perfectly planned and done. Excellent professional and polite service through out our stay.
CN
Email david.w | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A professional agent with bount resource of Safari
The entire trip was well organized, the guides are experienced and enthusiasm, and also we are lucky enoughto witness the Mara cross several times.
Hope to upgrade the hotel/resort settlement both in Arusha and Lake Natron
Email Iona | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
6-day fly-in safari
Overall, we had a great first-time safari with TravelPartners. Arranging the safari from London was very easy - I was able to tailor our itinerary over Whatsapp and email quickly and efficiently. We paid half upfront by SWIFT transfer and the rest on the ground. Be aware that taxes can be added on to credit card payments, so cash is better.
We flew into the Serengeti on effectively our own charter flight, which was fabulous! We were then picked up by our driver in the Central Serengeti and managed to see a live cheetah kill in the first hour! Our jeep was great - a Landcruiser with a pop-up top. We spent the next few days in the Serengeti seeing all of the big 5 (aside from the rhino) and chasing the migration. We didn’t quite get a river crossing (it was a bit late in the year for that), but had amazing experiences chasing leopards around in the rain and listening to hippos grunting outside our mobile migration camp in the Northern Serengeti.
We drove out of the Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater, where we saw (at a distance) a black rhino - finally! Our accommodation was mid-high end and was therefore pretty impressive.
The national parks have strict clock-in and out times, which we were unaware of, and this affects how much time you can spend in them on safari, so it is very important to ask for this information up front. As a result, we had an extra day of safari time which we wouldn’t have been able to use if we had not negotiated (while on safari) to include Lake Manyara national park - which worked out well in the end.
As you are now not allowed to go on walking safaris in the Serengeti, you spend a lot of time with your driver, so it’s important to establish a rapport. Anderson, our driver, was very knowledgeable and accomodating. When asked, he was able to offer up lots of interesting facts on what we were seeing.
All in all, we had a great safari experience covering more or less the entire Northern circuit. Flying in saved so much time, allowing us to fit more in. Thank you to the team at TravelPartners!
RU
Email Alex | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
best time ever, i enjoyed
i like the animals safari, people and the excellent services of the company, i really appliciate and i would like to come back again and again) Thanks in advance!
Can’t say it was the best experience in my life
Things I liked:
- beautiful nature and animals;
- accommodation was perfect;
- the car was new and safe;
And what spoiled my impression:
- our guide wasn’t a real guide. I would say that it was a driver. I don’t remember anything interesting he told us about wildlife.
- a lot of cheating everywhere. It would be nice if a travel company or a guide warned tourists against all those beggars on every step. In a massai village native people literally extorted 40$ from us. It’s one of the points of the tour and I felt unsafe there.
- 5-days tour is very long. In fact, 3-4 days is enough for what we have seen. On the 3 day in serengety the driver dragged time and we drove with the speed 20 km ph. At 3 pm he brought us to the lodge. The only thing we saw on the fifth day is massai village (15 min) and then at 11 am we arrived in Arusha.
- there were a lot of misunderstanding with the guide and the manager. They asked additional money for massai village (100$ pp) inspite it was included into our package. Only my email to another manager helped. Plus, initially we agreed to leave us at the border with Kenya after our tour. They said that it’s no problem, it’s on our way. At the end of our trip our guide asked 100$ for it. That’s so miserable.
US
Email Amy and John | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Poor selection of subcontracted safari guide, disorganized and inacurate information.
We selected Travel Partners Ltd. though not the most economical because of our initial correspondence with them. Belen was good to work with and did her job well. However, she was in a difficult position as her company was not as professional as she. Most safari companies do not require 50% upfront as do Travel Partners. Before leaving the U.S. we asked if a Bank (cashiers) check for the second half would be OK, and were told in writing that yes a check would be fine. Once in Africa ready to begin our safari they informed that a check was not OK after all and asked for funds to be wired instead. It is very difficult to wire internationally from the U.S. if not there to sign. Travel Partners pushed Belen to push us for the wire everyday during our safari. Most U.S. banks would not have been able to comply, fortunately we had an account at an institution that once all international requirements were met were able to wire. This issue was unnecessary, and caused needless stress. -- We tailor planned a safari to visit several parks in Tanzania spending most of the time in Serengeti including the north Mara area to see the Wilde-beast crossing. Our driver although pleasant was unprofessional and a very poor driver. We had two vehicle accidents during our 5 day safari, one could have been very serious, both were driver related. The vehicle and the driver had been subcontracted by Travel Partners. The vehicle was only in fair condition, (it caused permanent damage to luggage). One accident was a near head on collision at high speed with another safari vehicle (thick dust impaired sight), loss of exterior mirror and severe body damage to the entire length of the vehicle resulted from the accident. It was that close to being very serious. Due to the accidents, we had to ride with other safari drivers until our driver could repair our vehicle enough to continue. We had two experiences in other safari vehicles with other drivers, both were far superior drivers to ours, and the vehicles were in better condition (they even had cold water in the cooler, we did not - sometimes we did not have water at all.) A flight from central Serengeti to Zanzibar was part of our itinerary. Our flight was to leave Serengeti at 11:00 a.m. and arrive Zanzibar at 2:00 p.m. via Arusha. Although not the fault of Travel Partners, the flight was delayed both at Serengeti and in Arusha, so we arrived at 6:00 pm causing a loss of 4 hours in Zanzibar - Belen said she would try to get some compensation from the airline if possible.
--In spite of the above mentioned incidents, we enjoyed the experience. The accommodations were charming, and we were able to see so many animals. Serengeti is very beautiful!
--Overall, I would suggest looking at another safari company to plan your safari. The wonderful experience of being in Tanzania and the parks was not the result of Travel Partners, it was Tanzania itself. A different company could enhance the experience rather than inhibit it.
Reply from Travel Partners
Posted on Sep 11, 2018Dear Amy, we regret you didnt have the best experience in your safari. I would like to clarify some points mentioned in your review.
We have very good and professional drivers as you can see in all our positive reviews, our clients are delighted with them. We hired your driver, since we were in peak season, from another company and we were assured that he was competent and professional. We apologize for his behaviour and we will make sure, as I mentioned to you, that we dont work again with him in the future.
Regarding the payments, most if not all licensed safari companies require a 100% payment, days before arrival, in order to pay all the accommodation and park fees. We facilitated for you a 50% downpayment, and the rest to be paid on your arrival, Also we provided for you the most affordable price considering that you spent 4 nights in Serengeti, with flights from central serengeti to Zanzibar, and accommodation at double tree Hilton for 3 nights.
The planning for your safari trip was very accurate, for months and trying to adapt and tailor all your requirements and budget.
We arranged very well your trip, your good car was available capacity for 7 people, all your accommodation as agreed paid in advance, full board accommodation, all your park fees paid on time, flights tickets were booked months earlier, your transfers, even briefing prior to your departure to greet you and gift of Ngorongoro and serengeti Migration map.
We regret that your driver didn´´´t meet your expectations and was not up to the level, but we find it unfair that you recommended not to use our company, considering that most of our reviews are positive and we have been operating safaris succesfully for more than 10 years.