African Pangolin Safaris

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After browsing sites like safaribookings.com, we found a program from African Pangolin Safaris that appealed to us, well-filled with what we wanted to see, and affordable within our budget. At our request, Mansoor further customized the program with an extra safari day in each of the three National Parks: Mikumi, Ruaha, and Nyerere (Selous). He also arranged a hotel stay in the city upon our late-evening arrival and an extra day in a beach hotel before our return flight, as well as all transfers. Furthermore, due to an announced strike at Amsterdam Airport, we arrived in Dar es Salaam a day early, so we left for Mikumi a day early for an extra day of safari. Mansoor arranged everything. Mansoor, who also accompanied us throughout the tour, and Ismael, who arranged the transfers to and from the airport, are friendly, polite, attentive, punctual, and careful drivers. We always felt safe, both in the hustle and bustle of the city and on the busy main road and unpaved dirt roads. The program was well-structured. The distances are what they are, but were kept short by overnight stays in interesting places like Iringa and MoroGoro. Thanks to Mansoor, we also visited places you wouldn't normally visit as a tourist: in a restaurant in town, in a village for lunch, or buying bananas or water at a roadside stand. Free drinking water was plentiful in the cooler in the vehicle, which had a pop-up roof for the game drives in the parks. Except for the dinners in Iringa and MoroGoro, all meals were included. There was plenty of choice, usually soup, chicken, beef, fish, pasta, potatoes, rice, and melon, pineapple, or cake for dessert. Lunches were sometimes packed, sometimes in restaurants. It's definitely worth visiting all three parks in the Southern Circuit, as each is completely different. What particularly appealed to us after visiting the northern parks 24 years ago was that the southern parks are much less crowded. The guides almost all know each other and exchange information about what they've seen when they cross paths, but even without that, Mansoor amazed us with sightings we would never have been able to make on our own. We saw a huge number of animals of various species, certainly thanks to Mansoor's more than 15 years of experience as a guide. He knows every path in the parks like the back of his hand and knows where the animals like to be at certain times. We opted for basic to mid-range accommodation and were very pleased to be able to stay close to, or even in the midst of, nature in many places. We feel like we've made a new friend in Mansoor and expect to return to Tanzania in the relatively short term to explore the even more unknown parks in the western circuit. Returning to Tanzania for a next safari, will definitely be again with Mansoor and African Pangolin Safaris.