Canadian_Traveler

Hi All,

I just wanted to say thanks to so many of you for helping us out with our itinerary for Tanzania in Nov. We can hardly wait!

Hopefully I will repay my dues a little by posting a trip report once we get back but I have to admit, I have to be one the World's biggest procrastinators (over two years later, our fully paid professional photos have not been slected for our wedding album yet ).

Anyway, in the meantime, I did want to report what our itinerary looks like. We decided to go with Sunny Safaris as no other company could compete price-wise and we had a limited budget and we were not all willing to do basic camping. So far I'm thrilled with the itinerary and especially the cost! I've also read lots of great reports on Sunny but will at the very least let you know what we thought once we get back...
The email correspondence was great.

25th Nov: Check in dinner and overnight at Impala Hotel (half board).

26th Nov: After breakfast 09h00, P/up from Impala Hotel, depart for Ngorongoro, descend to the Crater floor for gamedrive, lunch at hippo pool picnic site, ascend to the rim, dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge

27th Nov: After breakfast depart for Serengeti National Park, en-route gamedrive to Northern Serengeti, picnic lunch and afternoon a short gamedrive in Serengeti Park, dinner and overnight at Lobo Wildlife Lodge.

28th Nov: Early morning gamr drive, after breakfast, drive back to Central Serengeti with lunch boxes, morning and afternoon game drives, dinner and overnight at Seronera Wildlife Lodge

29th Nov: After breakfast full day in Serengeti National Park(early morning, mid and afternoon gamedrives), all meals and overnight at Seronera Wildlife Lodge

30th Nov: After breakfast full day in Serengeti National Park(early morning, mid and afternoon gamedrives), all meals and overnight at Seronera Wildlife Lodge

1st Dec: After breakfast depart for Tarangire National Park, picnic lunch and gamedrive Tarangire National Park, dinner and overnight at Tarangire River Camp.

2nd Dec: After breakfast full day in Tarangire National Park(early morning, mid and afternoon gamedrives), all meals and overnight at Tarangire River Camp

3rd Dec: After breakfast, drive back to Arusha, then transfer to Kilimanajaro International Airport.

3rd Dec: Transfer from Zanzibar International Airport to Tembo House
Hotel, Overnight at Tembo House (bed and breakfast)
4th Dec: After breakfast, transfer to Breezes Beach Club &SPA, dinner and overnight at Breezes Beach (Standard room)
5th Dec: Half board at Breezes Beach Club
6th Dec: Half board at Breezes Beach Club
7th Dec: Breakfast at Breezes Beach, then transfer to Zanzibar International Airport.

All for a cool $1680/pp (private safari for 4). We booked our flight JRO to ZNZ with our international flight on Expedia.

We paid our 30% to Sunny and will pay the rest on arrival. The only couple things we want to modify are:
1) depart Arusha earlier in the morning per a few helpful suggestions here in order to not be very rushed in Ng.
2) Add a cultural tour of some sort. The brand new "Rough Guide to Tanzania" has a few suggestions but we'd be happy to hear from anyone that had a great experience somewhere near our route!

Also, one last question:
The Rough Guide does not list Tarangire River Camp and recently, I read in this forum that it has been converted to a hunting lodge!!! Anyone been there recently?

Well, thanks again everyone for all the fantastic ideas, reports, and help in general. So many of you have been most gracious!

Cheers!

ShayTay

Tarangire River Camp was sold to Chimpanzee Safaris who are definitely NOT operating it as a hunting lodge. It's next to the National Park on Maasai land. I think Eben has previously debunked that rumor. Kibo, the previous owner, sold it and has built a new camp in the area, Maramboi. I've stayed at the River Camp a couple of times and think you'll find it one of the highlights of your trip, given that it's your only tented camp. We had a couple of bull elephants move through the camp one night and seeing them in the moonlight was fabulous!

If Chimpanzee is still operating it as Kibo did, you should be able to go for a walk with Maasai warriors there. Also, you can visit a Maasai village in the area. There are also Maasai villages between the Crater and the Serengeti that you can visit. On your way back to Tarangire, you might be able to visit a school in Karatu. There is also an orphanage in the area, Rift Valley Children's Village, but you should get permission to visit. Their website is www.tanzanianchildrensfund.org.

bat

Great price.
In addition to ShayTay, Calo was at TRC very recently. Here is the report:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34846477

hguy47

Wow, only $140pppd, what a deal! So a nice safari can indeed be done on a reasonable budget. We are also using Sunny in February, I will be anxious to hear about your trip.

Canadian_Traveler

Thanks ShayTay and bat. I did read Calo's fabulous trip report (almost cried at the description of seeing the Crater for the 1st time!). Hopefully we'll end up with a better room at Lobo than Calo.

hguy, not bad eh? I will definitely let you know what we thought. As I mentioned, so far our correspondence has been great - especially since we changed our mind NUMEROUS times! You must also be excited for Feb.!

Patty

Great price! I'm curious why you decided to go with a 1/3 split between Lobo and Seronera rather than a 2/2 split.

Bill_H

"Wow, only $140pppd, what a deal!"

That's a really good price, but partly because they are going in November (which can be rainy) and partly because they are staying 5 nights at the Wildlife Lodge chain, which are inexpensive but seem to get a lot of complaints for shabby rooms, poor service and, occasionally, bad food. Calo's report was typical except she liked the food.

Bill

Canadian_Traveler

Awww Bill, way to spoil our fun. I'm just teasing...

True, late Nov. / early Dec. is not peak season but also, as I mentioned, we were on a pretty tight budget. We love to travel and just couldn't break the bank on this one (though we still managed to come close!). We generally don't spend a lot on accomodations no matter where we go and I actually would have been happy to camp but we had to compromise for the 4 of us. We ended up opting to splurge a little on Zanzibar because we read reports of VERY hot weather in Dec. where people had to sleep on the porch due to no AC and no electricity for a fan for a couple hours during the night at Pongwe (our original pick).

The cost of the safari actually works out ~$180/ppd (safari and Zanzibar were quoted separately). We got a great deal on ZNZ too (cheaper than booking directly with Breezes but including transportation).

Patty, I'm not really sure why the split. It was suggetsed to us by Sunny and I kind of figured it was because Seronera was more central and thus better for trying to follow the migration. Again, this was just my inexperienced guess!

breezydreezy

Hi Canadian_Traveler!

I'm Calo's daughter.

I just wanted to mention that if you decide to seek permission to visit the Rift Valley Children's Village it does take quite some time for them to reply to any questions you may have. They don't have easy access to the internet, so are only able to check for emails once a week.

Another cultural tour I might suggest is the Ngiresi Village Tour. It's 7km out of Arusha. We included it into our itinerary, and weren't disappointed! I won't go into detail about it seeing as you've already read my mom's trip report.

I hope this wasn't too redundant! And I hope you enjoy your African adventure as much as I did. I'm excited for you!