anyone heard of ACACIA-AFRICA ?[overland tour]
 

i've planned to do overland tour across east africa for june/july.

has anyone done overland tour in east africa ? or heard of ACACIA tour company?

Any comments would be very much
appreciated!

Hi - I've done a few overland truck trips in Africa but not in East Africa - that's been more of an independent thing.

I have heard of Acacia. They have been operating for a while. Are they the only company you have been offered/come across, because there are lots. If you haven't already I would look around some. Not saying Acacia won't be wonderful but you might find something better.

Happy travels.

There are tonnes of overland companies, Acacia Africa, Dragoman, Intrepid. I did travel once with Acacia, what are your specific questions?
They do have better vehicles then many overland companies.
Laura

You could try these - both are independent reviews of Acacia Africa - whatever you decide have a gr8 trip =)

http://www.dansadventure.co.uk/


http://myafricanchapter.blogspot.com...1_archive.html

Have you discovered Drifters a South African overland company, http://www.drifters.co.za/Overlandtours.asp

I've done a couple of their accommodated trips and they were fine. I have friends who done 3 participation camping trips and enjoyed each one.

Regards,


Pol

As mentioned above, Acacia are one of numerous overland Africa companies.

Not sure if this is too late for you, but anyway...

My wife and I recently completed an East Africa overland trip from Nairobi to Jo'Burg (after spending 2 months volunteering in central Kenya) which included the Masai Mara and Lake Naivasha in Kenya, through Tanzania (and across to Zanzibar), Malawi, Zambia, and Botswana.

We LOVED it. We went with a UK based company called African Trails, a budget operator, paying just over £2,300 for us both for the six week trip. We thought they were fantastic.

They amount you pay for one of these tours seems to come down to a few factors. Af Trails seemed to be budget because:

- many of the excursions are not automatically included in the price, but are optional extras. We liked the flexibility this afforded, especially as we had done a lot of game driving in the past and didn't want to pay extra for safaris we didn't really want to do (for example a 2 day Serengeti safari is in the region of $500 USD)
- Lunch was not included. This, we felt, was a benefit as it can be a bit of a faff catering for 20 people in the middle of the day, especially a long drive day.
- They only have one crew member meaning you have to muck in with the cooking, washing up and so on. Again, we actually enjoyed this. It is a fantastically sociable experience.

Most of the different companies follow identical routes, staying at the same campgrounds, and have reliable trucks and comfortable tents.

The thing that will most affect your enjoyment is the group you are with and the driver/guide. There's very little you can do to influence this except go with a good attitude, smile, and enjoy the experience.

I wrote several articles during this trip, including one on what to expect from an overland tour (Happy clappy claptrap); see all the posts in April and the first two in May: http://www.helen4ian.blogspot.com

If you have specific questions then re-post and will do my best t help.