Can you recomment a guide from Good Earth Tours?
 

Hello,
We're planning a trip to Tanzania in August with Good Earth Tours. Can you recommend a guide from Good Earth that you especially liked? We would like a guide that is knowledgeable about and interested in birds.

We're also like to hear about any guides you would not recommend.
Thanks.

IMHO, you would be well served to make sure that Good Earth understands that you want someone that knows birds, and trust them to match you up with the right person. For our safari with GET in January 2007, we did that, and they came through for us.

If you try to nail down a specific guide based on someone else's recommendation, you may or may not have the same positive experience. Or may end up with someone else anyhow due to scheduling problems, and will start your trip with a negative ("this ain't the guide they promised").

If you have previous experience with a specific guide, that might make it worthwhile to insist on a repeat engagement. If this is your first safari and you've already made the leap of faith to hook up with an Operator, its not that much of a stretch to trust them to do the right thing in selecting a guide. By telling them of a specific interest, you are setting yourself apart, i.e. asking them to make a conscious decision about who is assigned to your safari. I see that as a big step beyond just getting whichever guide is next/available.

Jim

I would definately suggest our guide - Good Luck. While we weren't birders, he had much knowledge to offer on birds. Agreed, just ask Narry/Joe at the Good Earth office who they suggest for bird knowledge. Many of the guides, like ours, have been to school for in depth training

Hi,
I am very interested in birds as well. We went on a Good Earth safari, and our guide was Joseph. He was great. He was very knowledgeable about, and interested in birds. He spent a lot of time helping me identify birds (sight and sound), and would let me know what to look for at the various lodges where I went birding after our vehicle safaris.

My advice would be that no matter which guide you get, point out that you are interested in birding. Once I mentioned that to Joseph, he started to really point out all of the birds. From what I observed, it seemed like the majority of tourists were interested in the animals, so I would definitely make a note to your guide that you are a birder.

On another note, I bought the book "Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania" for the trip. It was great!

have fun!

I just got back from a Good Earth safari and I also had Joseph. I am not a birder but Joseph was wonderful. He's just so pleasant to be around. He has an answer to every question and makes great conversation without talking your ear off. I would highly recommend him.

We had as our guide Christopher. We had him for 9 days. Late for our first day hotel pickup, he could not find our first stop Swala, (he called and got directions after taking several roads that didn't pan out),he was an eratic driver, not a good game spoter, mixed up paperwork causing us to miss the first 3 hours we had planned to enter Ngorogoro Crater. I emailed Good Earth in the states, and my dh called the Arusha office asking for another driver. Didn't happen. The calls did cause him to cut down on his personal calls when we were out with him. He was making lots of obviously very personal calls.
A bad guide can really put a damper on things. On this same trip, we had wonderful guides in Kenya, and in South Africa. Much good luck to you.

Hi,

I can recommend Kisali who was my guide in October 2005. He was a good spotter, quite chatty and friendly and as I was the only person on the safari he went out of his way to try to locate animals and birds that I wanted to see.

I will be requesting him when I return in June 2008.

Cheers,

Pol