Hi everyone,

Here's something I'm wondering about as we're planning our first trip to Kenya and Tanzania. When you are staying at lodges, if you have a guide for a private safari does that person get to eat meals with you in the lodge? I've seen some discussion on this board about where the guides sleep, but I was wondering about their meals as well. When we went on a tiger safari in India our guide shared every meal with us, and we had such a great time getting to know him -- but that was at a forest rest house, which was very low-budget and informal. What was your experience in East Africa?

For what it's worth, we'll be staying at the following lodges (not in this order!):
Serena: Mountain Lodge, Sweetwaters, Mara and Ngorongoro
Samburu Intrepids
Sarova Lion Hill, Lake Nakuru
Karama Lodge, Arusha
Oliver's Camp, Tarangire
Plantation Lodge, Karatu
Kirurumu, Lake Manyara

I appreciate any feedback you can give. Thanks!

yes for eating meals at smaller places. no for larger places. in my experience.

It may depend on your local operator. I've had guides eat separately and I've had the guide join me for each meal.

A few meals "off" is a nice break for the guide, I think.

On my first trip, my guide usually ate with his buddies but joined me for a couple meals. One was a lovely buffet with an array of sumptuous offerings.

He good naturedly ridiculed some of the more colorful non-green vegetables saying he did not think they were really food and he would not eat them.

Chicken was one of the entrees and he put some on his plate. When we sat down to eat he told me, "My mother would not allow this chicken in her kitchen. It is so dry, we always laugh that the clee-ants (clients) are eating wood." He summoned a member of the wait staff and told him, "Please take this 'wood' away and bring me something an African can eat."

A stew-like chicken dish was brought to the guide to replace the wood.

I asked this of Mirjam and was told that it completely depends on the policy of the lodge/camp. Some won't "allow" the guide to eat with clients and must eat in the canteen.

Our guides host every meal in camp, at lodges and in town. (They sometimes skip breakfast with us when they are taking care of camp-business on our early safari drives at sunrise). Typically, they host our last meal at the end of our trip in their home before taking us to the airport.

Yes and no...as others have said, it depends on the lodge/camp. There are only 2 places you're staying where we stayed last year, but our guide ate with us at both - Ngorongoro Serena and Kirurumu. At some places we requested that our guide eat with us, but we would have had to pay $30 for his meal which I found a bit steep.

the lodge me and my wife stayed at in south africa our ranger ate meals with us but our trackers did not

Keri Keri
The best meal is Pap and Wors followed by Rams head and gravy wrapped up in newspaper. Or on the other hand a good restaurant in South Africa.

Ask your guide to do something special for you if you can afford it.

Varies depending on the camps/lodges. At small camps, often using camp guides, they eat with guest, very much as rangers eat with guests in Southern Africa.

In East Africa, it's rare at lodges, but often can be arranged at smaller camps. You can inquire of this during your planning stage and cost of your guides meals will be included in your rate. Meal rates will also vary depending on whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner.

While it is nice to have the company of your guide, you may not once you've met your guide want to eat with him. Besides, he may not necessarily want to eat with his clients. They may look forward to private time with his buddies and food that is usual for them rather than "eat wood".

Our gude went off with the other guides, to the back of the camp. There they tucked into African goodies, while we got European style food in the dining tent. He did join us afterwards a couple of times by the camp fire.

Answer is, it depends.

Don't forget, sometimes the guides WANT to get away from their customers... and talk about what jerks they are

At the Sopas & Serenas, my guides dropped us off and we didn't see them again till morning time.

Of course when we had boxed lunches in the car, the guides were there with us.

Sometimes when on road driving across country, we would stop someplace and depending on prices they would eat with us.

Sometimes the guide would take us to "the good" restaurant and would go get something cheaper.

I think I was in Rwanda and our guide Richard dropped us somewhere and we were getting burgers and fries for $6ish and that was out of his league.

We offered to treat, but there was a local place down the street where he could get something for $1.

Thanks for all the replies! Yeah, I do realize that the guide wouldn't always want to eat with us and would want some time off -- we're not THAT interesting. But my concern was whether they would be treated like an employee and "not allowed" to eat with us. So I'm glad to hear that sometimes you can all eat together, if everyone wants to.

MyDogKyle,
As a twist, you could request in advance to be served traditional African food for a meal, which is probably what is prepared for much of the staff. You could have your guide join you for that meal if he did not eat with you regularly.

You'd probably be eating some cornmeal-type staple with meat or vegetables on it. But you could find out exactly what the staff was being served and if it was of interest.