US
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent expirence from start to finsh.
The Beach & Safari Holiday Zanzibar package was perfect for us, the timing between each destination was just right, and P&W customer service was amazing – not only they were able to accommodate extra nights for our cancelled & delayed flights, but they also arranged a cake for my wife’s birthday in between our Safari extrusions.
Our trip started from arriving in Stone City where a driver with our name picked us up and took to the Shaba Boutique Hotel. We stayed there for 2 days (just 1.5 days if counting early departure and recovery time from our flights) but it was enough to take a walking tour of the city to see Slave market among other interesting points, visit Freddie Mercury Museum, and eat at local restaurants (highly recommend Cape Town Fish Market). We did use a 3rd party website to book the walking tour so I can’t comment on the in-house extrusion services. The flight to Arusha for Safari was early in the morning but our driver already was waiting for us with our plane tickets to take us to the airport.
Safari 1st day:
When we arrived in Arusha, Ed our tour guide and driver was already waiting. He took us to Tarangire park for our 1st Safari drive. The drive from the airport was pretty long, about 2 hours or so but was well worth it. Tarangire park was amazing, we got to see all of the animals in that park including a sleeping leopard. The park drive was about 4 hours or so and then another 1.5 hours to get to our accommodations in Lake Manyara.
Safari 2nd day:
This was a “slow day” – it only included a visit to Maasai Boma village that lasted about 2hrs. You can book another day trip or just relax at the campsite. We wish we knew this early as by the time we wanted to book an excursion later that day it was tool late for any tours that would interest us.
We enjoyed the camp site – we stayed in a tent with full bathroom/shower. They also have a bar, pool and restaurant but the most amazing view is the animals walking all over the place, zebras and baboons were everywhere you looked, including running on our tents in the morning. The restaurant offered good dinner options, but breakfast could be a bit better – it was the same thing without a choice every morning. The lunch boxes were ok but it did seem that the main food consisted of left overs from the last night’s dinner. The staff was nice and accommodating.
Safari 3rd day
Ngorongoro Crater Safari Drive - about 2hrs drive from the camp site, we spent about 5-6 hours at the park which was even better than Tarangire in my view. We also got lucky and saw all the animals the park has to offer including lions, hyenas and rhinos.
Safari 4th Day:
Lake Manyara drive – which is the same park the camp site is located. It is a very small park with not a lot of tourists but we also got lucky and saw a bunch of lions, families of elephants among the usual zebras and baboons. The drive was fairly short about 2.5hrs as our flight to Zanzibar was in the early afternoon.
Zanzibar Reef and Beach Resort:
We stayed at the villa right at the beach with ocean view and private hammock and beach chairs. The place is very well kept and has the “paradise” vibe. Every night they had some form of entertainment and during the day you could either stay at the pool or book an excursion to explore the island. Breakfast and Dinner options were good, but the snack bar could have a better variety of snacks since the restaurant is only open during specific time frames for dinner and breakfast.
The beach is pretty non existing especially during low tides. The Jetty Bar can somewhat compensate with their beach chairs and places to relax but if you are the type to just lay in the sand by the ocean, this might not be the place for you.
We did end up going to Paje Beach which is a short taxi ride - the beach there is amazing and there are plenty of restaurants along the way - highly recommend Mr. Kahawa Restaurant and Bar for a refreshing drink and great food.
Overall, a picture-perfect paradise resort with great customer service. It appears to tend to customers 40 years or older (or at least that was the crowd when we were there) where you can relax but also gives you some options if you want to be a bit more active. If you are used to Mexico or Caribbean All-inclusive experiences, it is a very similar experience.
All in all - we were very happy with Paradise & Wilderness as our travel booking company, they took good care of us, everything was arranged as promised including all the transfers, and the customer service was simply amazing. I highly recommend them for your Tanzania travels.
Additional information for first time travelers to Tanzania:
US Dollar and credit cards are also accepted in most of the touristy places, but Tanzanians are good negotiators, and you will end up paying way more in US Dollars vs local Tanzanian Schillings currency. You can get shillings from an ATM and use that to negotiate prices – you need to negotiate prices everywhere including taxi before you get in the car – for example, our first offer for a taxi from Reef and Beach to Paja was $20 and we negotiated to 20,000 shillings which was about $8 ad the end. Gift and souvenir shows are the same way - you are better off paying in Shillings and you should be able to negotiate to at least 50-70% off the initial price (we learned towards the end of our trip that starting at 25% of initial given price gives us the best outcomes, and if you start to walk away, you will get that price)
Maasai people – you will see them at the Beach and obviously in the Maasai Villages, they will try to sell you something and be prepare to either spend 15-30 minutes every time they start conversation with you or just say no thank you and keep walking. They are also great negotiators and the above applies.
The tour drivers & guides – they are 3rd party contractors(and there is yet another company that owns the car itself) that every company uses, they just put the sign of whichever operator you buy the trip from on their cars. Our guide Ed was great, his English was very good, and he was very accommodating and knowledgeable.
Airports – you have to scan you baggage when entering and leaving the airport but we had a feeling no one was paying attention to any of the scanners, at one point the guard was just sleeping when we put our bag on the belt and picked it after the x-ray machine. The service is very very slow – see below. Do get a visa ahead of time online - it will save you a lot of time.
Pole Pole (slowly, slowly) – I might be a bit biased since we have lived in a fast paced area for the last 20 years but be prepare to wait everywhere especially at the airports – to give you an idea – there were two people in front of us for the passport control and still took almost 2 hours to get thru it. Restaurants, stores etc outside the resorts are similar too.
Generally, we felt very safe when exploring Zanzibar and Stone Town on our own, and the people are very nice. Zanzibar is Muslim Island but the tourists are free to drink alcohol and dress however they want.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Decent safari, could've been better
Communication before the safari was clear and quick, but not everything was up to our standards. For starters, make sure you read the bill carefully. We almost overpaid until we pointed out that our deposit counted towards the total sum. Furthermore, our guide didn't have any binoculars or a cooler for us to cool some drinks in during our safari. The animals stay quite far from the road in Amboseli so binoculars are a must, and we felt our experience suffered because of it. On the plus side, our guide was knowledgeable about the animals and spotted some hard-to-see ones, including a well-camouflaged small owl in the middle of the day.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
One of the finest
Extreme professionalism, good service and we were updated at every stage. I will continue using fine bush tours for their reliability and value for money.
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tim knows how to give you an excellent experience
I had my first Safari experience, with Monkey Adventures from 23 December to 30 December.
The Safari least 8 days, we started with 4 days at Masai Mara, staying at Julia's River Camp, we had a tent experience in the VIP camp, right next to the river. Julia's River Camp is surrounded by the river and it's open to wild animals, nothing that you have to take care about it because security does it for you, escorting you from and back to the tent, after dinner or when you need it.
We enjoyed our stay at Masai Mara mostly because of the game driving, thanks to our guide Timothye, it was easy to see a lot of wild animals, also see Zebras crossing a river with wildebeest and some
IT
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Professional, reliable and available tour operator that satisfy all our requests.
I can start saying that the Safari was simply amazing.
The trip was really well organized by the company Spirit of Kenya. They are reliable, always answering to our requests and needs. The organization was perfect and we think that was really good to see different parks (Amboseli, Nakuru and Masai Mara).
All the accomodations were good, especially Ashnil in Masai Mara park. It was clean and really beautiful.
Last but not least, I say thank you again to our driver Johnstone that was really nice to us. He made a lot of effort to let us see all the animals. He was always very friendly, professional and ready to explain everything.
Thank you again Spirit of Kenya for this amazing experience!
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Well informed and time cautious
One of my biggest highlights of 2022 is going to the delta with Fine bush tours in March @ Mmadinare Camp -Kwando Safaris. We took a flight from Maun to the delta, no delays and everything was up to date … we got to the airstrip and a 4by4 vehicle was waiting for us. We took a drive to the camp and along the way we saw a whole lot of animal and the house was very informative and conversing with us together with the tour operator.
We got the camp and was welcome by the lovely Mmadinare camp staff with non alcoholic drinks
FR
Safari with the best driver Freddy
Amazing trip with our driver Freddy. We saw the best that nature could offer us thanks to Freddy’s sharp eye. He never missed anything and was aware of the best spots. Lightness also made us have an amazing time as she organised everything very well!!!!!
FR
under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An unforgettable experience ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It was a dream come true! I will never forget all the animals and gorgeous landscapes that we saw! I was also so impressed by how attentive Freddy was to the wildlife! He spotted so many animals that I would have never seen if he hadn’t shown us! I recommend 100%!!!!!!! Thank you also to Lightness who did an amazing job organising this incredible trip!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing and responsive service. We had the trip of a lifetime.
I can't say enough about our experience with Rose and The Luxury Safari Company. I contacted the company at the beginning of the year, and was immediately in touch. We had one phone conversation where I described what we were looking for. I received a proposal with actual camps within days. It was a no brainer to go with Rose over the other companies I explored - they provided a tactical idea of what was possible and what it would cost immediately. The process for payment and locking in the trip was transparent and Rose was very patient with us as we navigated some complicated travel insurance questions.
In terms of the trip itself, it lived up to our wildest expectations. We said we wanted to go on a trip you couldn't do anywhere but Africa. The camps were small, intimate, and felt incredibly special. It was also a truly luxurious experience.
If we are ever so lucky to return to Africa, I would absolutely call the Luxury Safari Company again. I couldn't recommend their services highly enough.
SE
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Excellent and proffessional from start to end!
Amazing experience for our family with teenagers. Stayed at Enkorok camp for 4 days in nice tents with bathrooms and shower. Zebras walking outside the tent in the morning. Breakfast that suited us all. A very professional guide with lots of experience of Masai Maras animal and wildlife.