A group or not a group ???
 

We are well seasoned travellers and will be going to Tanzania next February. We have very good friends who want to come along on this trip but we are concerned that if we book a custom safari we'll all be wanting to kill each other by the time the trip is over. We value their friendship so we are considering doing something we have never done before, that being taking a small group tour. Hopefully not more than 10 or 12 people. This way we won't be spending 16 hours a day with the same couple. Can you suggest a reliable company ? We can't afford 5 star - maybe 4 star would be good. Comments on the pros and cons of small group tours would be appreciated.

I still recommend you stick with a custom made safari to Tanzania. The only options are game drives/walks outside of Zanzibar, so to make the most out of your safari a custom made trip is something i recommend. With 10 to 12 ppl and with everyone hving a varied bunch of interests/requirements you are going to be more irate than just your friends. On my last safari, i travelled with my sister and two othe ppl and no, we didnt end up killing each other........

I agree with Hari! There's too much to see and do to worry about fighting with your friends! Why risk getting stuck with a bad group of people that you don't know, you know your friends and there's enough down time to have your own space. You could get stuck with the "Ugly Americans, Japanese, Germans, Brits" or whatever, you never know.....

Galiano - there's always opportunity to have down time when you get back to camp and would suppose in the evenings if you wanted to just relax in your rooms/tent. Since you are expressing concern already, may not hurt to review some group trip itineraries and see if any suit your interests.

Attaching a link to pre-packaged safari's discussion that has some operators noted and if you look for my notes some trips for Tanzania that looke decent. http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...over&fid=4

Think the major benefit we saw was not sharing a vehicle with a LOT of people and being able to see/sight what you have an interest in seeing with as little compromise as possible. You'll be in locations and camps/tents/lodges at night with other people and have a chance to socialize with a larger group then. Those are my hopes, since I've not been on Safari yet myself.

That link didn't work when I checked it. Here's the link to Pre-packaged safari discussion: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=4

So, guess I'm learning how to copy and attach a link to a previous thread post. Still didn't get it right before. Third times a charm??!!
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34793154

There is always the chance that you and your friends will find like-minded companions on a small group tour and all the personalities will get along like a house on fire. As they say, it is best to travel hopefully. Group dynamics are tricky,however, even among people who do know each other. I advise a customized itinerary where each of you has agreed upon similar needs and focus. Is it possible to ask other friends along? A private group of eight typically travels in two vehicles. Switching between vehicles every day or other day helps. Lastly, someone has already pointed out that personality differences will fade in importance to being in Africa and what you will see there.

Hi Galiano,
That's a difficult question that only you can answer.
I do agree with the others in that a private customized safari for most of us is the way to go - we did this when we went to Tanzania and are very glad. We were able to come and go as we pleased and didn't have to wait for straglers or whiners.

Also, I found that when in smaller groups (2 at most) your more inclined to seek conversation with locals rather than staying in the comfort zone of ready made friends.

I'm back to the same dilemma for my upcoming trip, as I have friends who want to join us in Botswana. I'm leaning toward seeing how affordable it would be to have private vehicles and shared camps. Perhaps to keep the cost down we may do walks and other activities together.

If something like this appeals to you, talk to your TA and perhaps they can tailor something that will please everyone.
Good luck!
Sherry

Thanks for the replies. This is a real dilemma. If we get a custom package for 4 of us how does it work ? Are we met at the airport and stay with the same guide throughout ? Our concern is that, as much as we enjoy our friends, spending every waking moment with them for 2 weeks might prove really difficult. As you all know, travel often magnifies small conflicts. I think we need to consider small group tours so I would love to hear from anyone who has done a lot of independant travel but who has also done a small group tour to Africa. We may end up with a custom package but really need to know more about the pros and cons of small groups.

If safari is important to you, i would not do "small groups".........people talk too much in the car, dont hv patience to stay at sightings etc etc., To me Africa is not a destination for travel with unfamiliar ppl........if i were you, i would travel with people who shared the same passion/interests in game viewing.

Well I suppose there could be the problem of getting with a group of people who were annoying enough to ruin a trip. Hmmmm.....

If you're on a private driving safari (or driving one way and flying back), you'll most likely use the same vehicle and guide throughout which will provide both your transportation between parks and your game drives.

I don't know how small group tours work, but I imagine that you and your friends would be assigned the same vehicle and guide for the duration of your trip unless you specifically request that you and your friends be placed in separate vehicles (which would seem like an odd request). I don't think that group members rotate vehicles but I could be wrong. You'd mingle with other members of your group at the lodge or camp, but you could do that with other lodge/camp guests anyway even if on a private safari.

We've found it easier to socialize with other guests at smaller camps. At larger lodges, where there may be bigger groups and a greater degree of anonymity, we've found that each party tends to stick with their own group more.

If I had friends who could go with me I would absolutley do it privately. You would have the vehicle all to yourselves, you could stay at one pride of lions all day if your hearts desired! I would just have a pre-Africa meeting to get everything on the table in terms of expectations. You could make it clear that during midday breaks you'd really like to be on your own at times, and is that OK with everyone?

As others have pointed out, you will be with others and meeting new people at the camps and hopefully having wonderful, meaningful conversations. I would think that Africa will provide more than enough fodder for conversation and shared, new experiences. I can't imagine you'd find much time to nitpick woth one another. Just make a pact that no matter what, you'll all be honest and accept one anothers' feelings and desires!

Just call me Dr. Phil.... good luck with your decision!
Sharon

Just one other thing I'd like to emphasize: I understand your concerns. I've traveled with other couples before and I do know that it can be twitchy - which restaurant, which museum, etc... But in Africa, once you've chosen your camps, you really have few decisions to make. So not a lot to discuss and debate about. Make sense?

I've traveled with just 2 people in Southern Africa to 14 in Tanzania. I went with Overseas Adventure Travel to Tanzania at the request of a friend and enjoyed it just as much as the small group trips I've had in Southern Africa. I also put together a bank club trip for 14 to Tanzania. In both cases, the Tanzania trips were outstanding.

On the Tanzania trips, we traveled in 3 vehicles with 3 guides. We rotated vehicles so that we had different traveling companions and also the expertise of a different guide each day. I really enjoyed meeting new people on the group trips; some have become good friends. You may find a person or two that aren't your "cup of tea", but, in my experience, people who travel to Africa on safari are good travelers with good attitudes. As MamaTembo said, "Travel hopefully." I think you can could either stay with your friends in the same vehicle for the duration of the trip if you wished, or rotate around. Our foursome did that on the OAT trip. Given that you already have concerns, however, a group trip would be a great way to travel with your friends without being with them all day.

We were also able to stay in a mobile tented camp in the Serengeti, which is always a highlight for me. I think this would be more difficult to set up (and more expensive) with only 4 people. OAT always includes opportunities to visit with locals and has recently changed their itinerary to strengthen this component of their Tanzania trip.

Take a look at their trips. (www.oattravel.com) They have great prices and their ground operator in Tanzania, Kibo Safaris, is excellent. OAT includes airfare, which is a bonus because they get such good rates. After your first trip, you'll want to go back to Africa. Then, you can look at a custom trip to another African destination.

ShayTay,
Good to know that you can rotate vehicles on OAT trips. Do you know if this is typical of group tours? Is the rotation up to the group members to decide?

Well, speaking as someone who's embarking on a safari with my parents and an aunt, I can understand being wary about your traveling companions. Memories of two-week cross-country road trips with my parents in my childhood continue to haunt me. ;)

Have you considered taking a test trip first? You and your friends could take off on a long road trip over a long weekend and see how you get on. Your concerns may be overblown, or they may be validated by the experience.

Also, you need not spend every waking moment with each other. Agreeing up front for some "alone" time at certain parts of the day can give you breaks from one another.

One extreme to explore is to simply hire a second safari vehicle. Figure around $200-250 extra per day for a second vehicle. So, for a 10 Day safari, it's an extra $2500 to have an extra vehicle. You'd essentialy be doing 2 custom safaris in parallel. This way, if one couple wants to get up early, the other can sleep in. If one couple is go-go-go on vacation, and the other more relaxed, you can follow adjusted schedules. And, while this does seem like an extreme expense, if you look at the costs of group safaris, you may find this option still competitive. However, you would have to come up with an excuse for your friends as to why the 4 of you are traveling in two vehicles. (it's more comfortable, we have an extra in case of emergencies, etc...)

Hi Patty,

I'm not sure about other group tours. With OAT, the lead guide asked that we do the rotation. It was up to us to choose our vehicle and traveling companions for the day. All the travelers worked well together to do so and it evened out fairly well.

I do remember that Africa-Adventure had group departures using private vehicles - if that makes sense - meaning you all leave at the same time and stay in the same camps/lodges but use private vehicles for as few or as many people as you want. The price was dependant on how many people would be in each vehicle. If I recall the extra fee for this was only 300. - 500.pp USD (don't quote me) for a vehicle with 2 people for a 12 day safari to Tanzania. The cost of these trips were not much more than typical group safaris.
Sherry

Well we have in the past travelled with this couple. We did a Nile cruise and it went very well. We did a trip to Malaysia and although it was mostly good, there were a few minor frictions - we are though still very good friends. I suppose that if we sat down and hashed out all the possible tensions that could arise it might work out just fine. Someone earlier in the thread made the excellent point that having most of the decisions like meals, hotels etc. made for us likely would alleviate many of the things that could cause friction. This is such an important ( and expensive ! ) trip for us that we want to get it right. There are real bonuses travelling with another couple who you get along with but I'm concerned there might be disasters waiting to happen. Hmmmmm.........

Not to pry, but what were those minor frictions? That was cooncat who pointed out that the format of a safari prevents many conflicts from ever occuring. So minor upsets in Malayasia may not be an issue in Africa.

Midday when you are back in camp, most people read or nap or update their journals, etc. There would not be that much interaction during these times.

Like everyone else, I'd opt for your own private departure. Speaking from experience, I did a private Kenya/Tanzania trip with 3 other women, so there were four of us. I knew one pretty well, but not the other two very well. We had ample down time from each other. All went fine.

Your first post mentioned a fear of 16 hours per day of togetherness. It is more like 4 hours game drive in the am, an hour for brunch, 3 hours game drive in the pm, then about 2 hours for appetizers, dinner, campfire, etc. That adds up to about 9 hours for an average day. Driving from camp to camp should be about the same since you only drive in the daytime. Of course you may opt to do more flying than driving.

Because you requested small group info, here is some:

I stayed for 4 nights at a camp in Kenya with an International Expeditions group that seemed very good. I was not part of that group.

I've traveled several times with Natural Habitat on small group wildlife trips, but never to Africa. They have a highly reputable operation. I ran into one of their groups of 8 a couple of times in Uganda and everyone was having fun.

I have done small group travel twice in Uganda with Africa Adventure. I set up the itinerary the way I wanted it and then they found me traveling partners to make the trip affordable. We were a group of 5 each time and it worked out great.

There was a good report about Brendan Tours, that I believe is a partner with Globus. That trip did Kenya and Tanzania. Ironically one of the positive points noted with Brendan was that part of the trip was a private departure for two.

If Tanzania is your destination, Thomson's has a very good reputation for small group travel in Tanzania. I've talked with them but never traveled with them.

Please post your itinerary as it develops.

Atravelynn : Thank you for the excellent post. The specific information about how a day might unfold is really useful. I think when travelling with another couple it's really important to have down time on your own and it sounds as if that might be the case. Someone suggested that the smaller the lodge the more liklihood of interacting with other travellers so we'll keep that in mind too. From all the posts in this thread the consensus seems to be that we should book a tour for four and I'm now leaning that way.

If you genuinely have even slightly different interests (e.g. they like hiking and you like to sit with a good book and a glass of wine and watch the world go by) you would have a good reason to split up at some point temporarily - could even be for a few days. Different locations in the same general area often have very different activities on offer. I would definitely do that on a private group trip because I think there's a tendency to feel obliged to be with each other a lot more than is necessary or desirable unless you plan to split up in advance. You pretty much have to plan every day of a safari-based trip ahead of time and so this works better than a trip where you want to leave some free time to fill until you are there. Even my wife and I split up for the odd half day when we were in Kenya - and have actually planned our destinations so that we can do just that again on our next trip there.

Whether traveling with a spouse, friend or family... I believe everyone has to have time to themselves. There's no need to be tied to one another, anymore than when you're back home.

What's nice about African safaris is that while there is time travelers are together with their companions (those you choose or others), there is more than enough time when you can be alone.

Certainly there are schedules to keep, but no one is obligated to go out on every game drive. There are pools at many lodges/camps; you have options for game walks and any number of alternate activities depending on where you're visiting.

Being with a group of strangers in addition to your own little party shouldn't have any impact on your individual needs during your visit. But independent/private travel offers so much more.

For sure, you won't have to decide where to eat, which movie to see, museum to visit, place to shop. Even if these have been issue on previous travel with your friends, Africa will be a different experience.

And, as stated above, before you make any decision, all of these issues or concerns should be talked out so everyone knows the feelings of the participants, expections and how to resolve these should someone's hackles rise up.