Tanzania trip Jan/feb/mar 2006

Old Apr 17th, 2005, 01:40 PM
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bat
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Tanzania trip Jan/feb/mar 2006

Hello:

I am posting for the first time for advice on a first time trip. I wish I had found these postings right away but at least I have now. I have read many of the previous posts so I will try not to be repetitive. I am also getting a late start on planning/booking this trip for that time of year.

February is preferred but it may not be possible to get accommodation in the migration area. Ndutu lodge is booked, another poster indicated that Kusini is wait-listed. I am checking out semi-permanent and mobile camps. But if I have to choose between late January and early March when should we go--what do you think?

Other questions:

re itinerary: I am thinking we would stay 1 day at the crater, 2 nights at Olduvai camp, 3 nights at Kusini or Masek (or other semi-permanent or mobile camp) or Ndutu.
Has anyone stayed at Ndutu during migration? Ndutu is less expensive but much larger--I have images of 30+ vehicles heading out together every morning. [On the other had a lively bar scene at night appeals to me!] I wonder whether Masek and Ndutu have a slightly better location than Kusini.

Will 5 days of intense migration be enough? I have been told it is possible to get migration overload.

Where should we go for the next 3-4 days?
If we are not concerned about chasing the migration, what area would be a nice contrast?

What about ballooning--is it worth it? Does the time of year matter? If we balloon then it means staying in the serenera valley as I understand it. I would prefer not to stay in the lodges but I have not had the chance to check out the website re semi-permanent camp sites. One of the tour operators I have spoken with offers mobile camping ("medium" and luxury). Has anyone had experiences with any company in particular?

Re companies, I have been communicating with Africa Travel Resources and Africa Dream--both representatives have been extremely punctual and responsive but I suspect these companies ara more expensive than others (I am waitng for a quote from Roy's which a number of you have mentioned). Any experiences with ATR or Africa Dream?

Has anyone stayed at one of the Nomad company's semi-permanent camps (They do Masek, Piaya and some others in the dry season.) You cannot book directly with them and I do not think that all tour operators use them--Africa Dream does not, ATR does.

Because ATR's representative is so effusive about Nomad, and they only guide at their own locations, his proposal has our trip split between 2 local safari operators--Nomad and MK. Do you see any problem with this? At one point we get "handed off" to the Nomad folks.

Re plane tickets--do I need to be panicked about making those arrangements right away as well? Or do I have more time on that--had hoped to see if I could cut the cost with FF miles.

Re hotels at the crater, I have decided to abandon the thought of staying at the Crater Lodge because the price difference basically costs me a day I could be on safari. So I am deciding beteen the Serena and the Sopa. I know that the Serena is newer. I think I would like the open balconies at the Serena more than the "solarium" inside-your-room view at the Sopa. But I understand the Sopa has sunset views and access to a road right there. Any opinions about the sunset views and how much of an advantage is the proximity to the road (for the early morning departures into the crater)?

Alot of questions! So I had better stop.
Thanks in advance
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Old Apr 17th, 2005, 02:28 PM
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Others will be able to better answer your itinerary questions, but I just wanted to say that if you're planning to use ff miles for your tickets, now is the time to start checking for availability. Most programs allow you to reserve seats starting approx. 11 months in advance and award seats are very limited, especially if you plan to redeem in business class. Economy is usually a little easier. Which program do you belong to and where will you be flying from? I believe KLM is the only carrier that flies directly from a European gateway to Kilimanjaro (JRO) airport in northern Tanzania. With other carriers, you'll most likely have to ticket to Nairobi (NBO) and purchase a separate NBO-JRO onward ticket. How important is it for you to use your miles? Keep in mind that the timing and duration of your trip may be dictated by the availability of award seats rather than your choice of dates. You may also run into some difficulty coordinating air availability with availability at your preferred camps. Not to say it's impossible to accomplish but just that you've got extra factors to contend with traveling in the height of season.

If you decide to purchase tickets, then there shouldn't be any problems and it's not something I would be concerned with at this time. Get your itinerary and camp availability finalized first. You'll have plenty of time to shop for tickets.
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Old Apr 17th, 2005, 03:46 PM
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Thanks Patti:

We have miles on Delta and USAir plus Amex rewards points. Last time I tried I could not get USAir to even answer the phone for international awards. I was not sure whether I could FF all the way to Africa but I thought I might be able to FF a round trip to Europe (That's off season at least)and then purchase the Europe-Africa portion to reduce the overall cost. Coach would be okay--my travel agent told me the fare is about $1500 right now so that is a significant savings.

I realize that I may be forced to make a decision about committing to the trip to get accommodations before I can pin down the air travel. In fact I am going to pretend that I have FF tickets lined up for purposes of my budget [someone on the list, I can't remember who-said that was how they dealt with how expensive these trips are-compartmentalize the costs.]

I can spend time on this tomorrow--any thoughts on the most efficient way to approach it? Fall back position will be to buy the tickets--and you have helped me there to understand that I don't have an immediate time crunch for that. [I started to worry I might be making a hefty deposit on a trip for which I would not be able to get a plane ticket.] Unfortunately I am going to be rushed to make decisions.
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Old Apr 17th, 2005, 03:49 PM
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Patty--Sorry, how rude--misspelled your name. Also, in answer to yoor question, we'll be flying from Ohio.
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Old Apr 17th, 2005, 05:44 PM
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bat,

Delta and KLM are both part of the Skyteam alliance, so you'd be able to use your Delta Skymiles to redeem a ticket all the way to JRO (assuming seats are available and you have enough miles). USAir is part of Star Alliance and the last time I checked, no Star Alliance carriers flew into East Africa, so with USAir Dividend Miles, you'd probably be limited to ticketing to Europe only.

You're right that getting the transatlantic award seats will be relatively easy given the number of airline partners you can choose from and the fact that it's winter season in Europe.

I would look at Delta first and try to ticket all the way to JRO if you have enough miles to do this. I think it's a much better deal mileage wise and cost wise. You'll need 80000 miles for each economy ticket from North America to Central/Southern Africa (versus 50000 from North America to Europe).
Also when I checked prices for roundtrip tickets from Europe to East Africa, it didn't seem like there was much cost savings over purchasing a through ticket from the US. I did a quick check for January and KLM was pricing out at $1200+ for a roundtrip from Amsterdam to JRO, but perhaps better fares are available from consolidators.

I would start by checking award seat availability on this site:

http://book3.nwa.com/jp/booking/asp/...S=YES&TYPE=NEW

In case you get some Japanese characters, just click on 'English' in the upper right hand corner. Enter your departure and destination airports, date, and number of passengers and click search. I would check segment by segment for best results starting with the AMS-JRO and JRO-AMS flights. On the next page, if seats are available, you'll see the flight listed. A circle next to the class of service (business or economy) indicates that seats are available in that class of service. On the same page, you have the option of continuing to search for flights on the same route either 7 days before or 7 days after your selected date.

Availability is actually not too bad. I searched for 2 seats and found economy class seats available on the AMS-JRO flight on 1/19, 1/23, 1/24, 1/25, 1/26, 1/27, and 1/29 in late January. Returning JRO-AMS in early February, I found economy seats on 2/5, 2/6, 2/17, 2/8, 2/12, and 2/13.

Once you've found workable dates between AMS and JRO, the rest is easier. You have a lot of choices for flights from US east coast to AMS. Delta flies nonstop to AMS from their JFK, Atlanta(ATL), and Cinncinati(CVG) hubs. The CVG-AMS flight only operates 4x weekly (Mo/We/Fr/Sa outbound and Su/Tu/Th/Sa return) in the winter season but frequently has better award availability than the busier, daily JFK/ATL originating flights. The CVG flight arrives in AMS at a later hour than the others though (9:35am) so it's somewhat of a tight connection to the KLM JRO bound flight which departs AMS at 10:50am. Other flight possibilities into AMS using Delta Skymiles are the KLM flights from JFK, Newark, Boston or Chicago, Northwest Airlines from Detroit, or Continental Airlines from Newark. All of these flights get into AMS early enough for you to connect the same day, and you can mix and match any of these Skyteam carriers on one award ticket. To check Northwest or KLM availability just leave the default 'Standard' in the bottom box. Choose Continental or Delta to search for their respective flights.

You also have the option of having one free stopover (either coming or going but not both) if you choose. I like to use the free stopover on the way to Africa to help get over jetlag and in case of any flight delays with my outbound flight from the US. This is especially a consideration when traveling from a northern US city in the winter. I don't care if I miss my flight coming home!

Once you've found your flights, you'll need to call the partner award desk at Delta to reserve your seats. They'll hold your reservation for 14 days before you need to ticket and in the meantime you can transfer your Amex points. Once ticketed there's a $50 per ticket fee for any date/routing changes.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
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Old Apr 18th, 2005, 07:18 AM
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Patty:
You are a goddess!!! I read this quickly and have to go back to work but I'll let you know the outcome.
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Old Apr 18th, 2005, 12:25 PM
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Patty:
I have been unable to access the website. I get a window telling me I need a Japanese text display support but when I try to download it I cannot. Any ideas? Another way to access the site? It seemed to be a Northwest site and I tried accessing it through that but no luck.
Thanks
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Old Apr 18th, 2005, 01:07 PM
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bat,
The link I provided is the award reservations page for Northwest's Japan site. Try going to the site's homepage and navigating from there:

http://www.nwa.com/jp/jp/

Can you click on English in the upper right hand corner (next to the blue KLM logo)? Then go to Reservations Center and Award Travel Reservations. See if that works.

Unfortunately, the US version of Northwest's site doesn't provide all of the information that the Japanese version does. The ability of the Japanese site to search +/- 7 days also makes the search process much quicker.

If that still doesn't work, you might try using a different web browser. I use Internet Explorer 6.0 and it displays the Japanese text correctly.
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Old Apr 18th, 2005, 05:57 PM
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To address your crater question. The private road at Sopa is its biggest advantage.

I used the general road once when staying at Wildlife Lodge and it really was rather congested on the way down and a bit on the way up. You could avoid the crowd by going earlier, but then it was not very light yet and it meant a very early departure before breakfast, with a breakfast box.

The sunsets were spectacular at Sopa. In July the solarium room in the evening was very welcome with the cold temps.

As to late January or early March, here is a Ndutu link for past migrations. The reports from previous years are at the bottom of the web page. http://www.ndutu.com/archives/index.html

I saved this interesting tidbit From Liz, who recently bid farewell to the Fodor’s board, but her knowledge lingers on:
“Louise at Ndutu Safari Lodge told me last year that the Wildebeests begin calving the first full moon after the 1st of February. It usually goes on for about 2 weeks. “

In 2006 that Full Moon is Feb 13 2006, so early March may be best. But determining the wildebeest’s habits is not as easy as just checking moon phases.

As for migration overload, there will be other animals and birds to observe. Even some of the insects are quite interesting. I recall a somewhat recent post of dung beetle photos.

Three days is bare minimum for the migration, four is good. Five is not necessary, but if I had a choice I’d do five.

Where else for 3-4 days?

How about 2 days at Lake Manyara, which is a good spot this time of year.

Tarangire is not at its absolute best in Jan-Mar but the landscape with its baobab trees is always interesting and not what you’ll see in the Serengeti.

If you are flying into Kilimanjaro, a real contrast to the savannas would be Arusha National Park, which is much more forested with animals like the colobus monkey.


And good luck with your flights!
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Old Apr 19th, 2005, 02:44 PM
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I've been to Tanzania twice in the last 9 months, both in June and in February. After the June trip, I was asked to put together a trip to Africa for a bank group; hence the February trip. May I suggest Kibo Safaris, out of Arusha? They have their own properties in Arusha, Tarangire and on the outer slopes of Ngorongoro Crater. They also operate mobile tented camps in the Serengeti. I don't know if I'm allowed to post an e-mail link to them, but you can find them on the Web or contact me. Josiah or Nicole should be able to help you.

We spent a couple of nights in Arusha, and went to Arusha NP, a beautiful park with views of Mt. Kili and Mt. Meru, and had lots of giraffe. We also walked to a waterfall. Next was Tarangire NP. I can't imagine why so many companies skip this park. In addition to baobab trees, there are elephants EVERYWHERE...yes, even in Feb. Kibo has a beautiful tented camp there, overlooking the (usually) dry Tarangire River. One night, we watched elephants move right through the camp, 15 feet from us. We also walked in the bush with local Maasai warriors. Lake Manyara is a pleasant half-day trip, but I've not been that impressed with it, compared to Tarangire.

We then stayed at Ngorongoro Farmhouse, near the entrance to the Crater Conservation Area. The drive is a bit longer, but we had plenty of time in the Crater. The views from the Rim are nice, but you can't really see the wildlife from up there. Also, coming from the Farmhouse, the Sopa Road down into the Crater is a viable option. Try to visit a Maasai village in this area, too. There are several on the far side of the Crater, on the way into the Serengeti.

Kibo has several mobile tented camps that they use in the Serengeti...ours even had flush toilets! We were set up in the Ndutu area, but, because of the extremely dry conditions, the Migration had moved closer to the Central area. We took lunches and made a day of it. Even without the Migration next door to your camp, you would still be able to see lots of wildlife. In June, the Migration had moved out early and we still had lots of wildlife in the area.

The bank club director said that the food we had on this trip was the best she had ever had while traveling. She travels for a living to places like Paris and New York, so that's high praise!

Ballooning isn't a good option in Feb. as you would have to stay in the Central area, instead of the Southern area where the Migration should be. You have to go the day before to do the paperwork, then go back the next day before dawn for the ride. It's a wonderful experience, but not practical unless it's May/June and you're staying in the Central area.

Regarding weather: I've been in June and February and I prefer June. Late May would also be good. The temperatures are pleasant and it's truly "dry season." This Feb. it was 100 degrees plus on most days. At the very end of our trip, it rained (hard) and, had we been in the Serengeti, we wouldn't have been able to get around.

The wildlife of Tanzania is wonderful, but what you will discover is that you will lose your heart to its wonderful people. We spent 3 days in the Karatu area (near the Crater) visiting the Rift Valley Children's Village and the nearby Geytighi Primary School. A half-day trip to visit these children will open your eyes and capture your heart.

Have a wonderful trip!
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Old Apr 19th, 2005, 03:13 PM
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ShayTay - thankyou for a wonderful addition to these posts -I haven't seen your name before. I will definitely check out KIBO.

Question - when a company has their own camps like Kibo, can you jusst book into one camp (Tarngire for instance) or do you have to go the entire safari with them?

Are the all mobile tents or are some permanent?

BAT - I will be very curious to see how you do with the FF miles. I am counting the days until I can start calling American for my June 2006 trip.

I am planning on booking my Safari prior to my air however - and will hopefully get my dates. If not do you all think it will be a problem to move the safari camp dates up or down one or two days? I know when I went to Thailand the operator was very understanding about mileage tickets.

Thanks
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Old Apr 19th, 2005, 03:42 PM
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Thanks for your kind words, csuss. Africa is a passion of mine (6 trips), so I'm glad to have found this forum.

Kibo is expanding their Tarangire permanent tented camp, so I think they are booking other travelers in there. Those "tents" are on platforms and under thatch, with nice bathrooms, albeit still with the "bucket" hot-water system. The mobile tented camps are just that, but have en-suite showers and toilets. I try to stay in as many tented camps as possible when in Africa. It's such an amazing experience!

Kibo's website isn't very up to date, but don't let that put you put you off. They are continually upgrading their camps, vehicles, etc. I was delighted at the all the changes they had made, just between June and February. The owners, Willy and Mama Wilson Chambulo, are an interesting couple. They are quite busy with the business, but are also actively involved in local communities such as in Karatu, where they are helping build a secondary school.

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Old Apr 19th, 2005, 03:57 PM
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csuss,
My tour operator didn't have a problem rescheduling our safari for us. We also used award tickets and had originally booked for late Feb, but then some new dates opened up and I changed it to late Jan. They were very accomodating. Of course, if the camp you've selected is already booked on your new dates then there isn't much they can do. But you'll be able to start checking with AA around July so hopefully that's far enough in advance so you won't run into availability issues.
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Old Apr 19th, 2005, 04:10 PM
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Thank you ShayTay for mentioning the Tarangire River Camp!

I've seen it in the past and it looked very nice but will be staying there for the first time this June!

It looks like a great alternative to the other camps!

Csuss, as I understand it the owner of Kibo Safaris, Wilbard (Willie) Chambulo, set up a new company called Tanganyika Wilderness Camps to manage the River Camp in Tarangire, some seasonal camps and the Farm House in Ngorongoro.

I appears to work the same as A&K and their Sanctuary Lodges offspring!

So you should be able to book these through you current outfitter. You can see (book) the camps at http://www.africawilderness.com/river/index_river.html
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Old Apr 20th, 2005, 04:32 AM
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Climbhighsleeplow -

Your comment
>>owner of Kibo Safaris, Wilbard (Willie) Chambulo, set up a new company called Tanganyika Wilderness Camps to manage the River Camp in Tarangire, some seasonal camps and the Farm House in Ngorongoro.<<

Question - How new? I have brochures from Tanganyike Wilderness at least 2 years which I know include Tarangire River Camp and the Ngorongoro Farm House.
 
Old Apr 20th, 2005, 06:07 AM
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Sandi, my fault

I used the wrong word - should've said "different" not "new". English is not my first language and I get it wrong sometimes!

Nevertheless, I think we all agree that these are great camps/lodges that should be on most short lists for Tarangire and Ngorongoro!
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Old Apr 20th, 2005, 08:49 AM
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Arghh! My lengthy reply just disappeared and I do not have time to re-write at the moment. A quick thanks for all of the good advice. I was able to get ff economy tickets (did not enquire about business). I'll write more later and ask some follow-up questions.
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Old Apr 20th, 2005, 11:58 AM
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climbhighsleeplow -

... forgiven. Hey, English is my first language and I make a mess of it often!
 
Old Nov 7th, 2006, 06:44 AM
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Sorry, that wasn't the correct link to Eben's report. Try searching Eben West Kilimanjaro
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 06:45 AM
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Woah...how did that happen? This post was supposed to be on another thread. Sorry!
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