Will be a first time travelor to Tanzania, with Good Earth Tours, in January 08. Besides the recommended tip for the guide, are there any suggestions for an additional gift?

I gave my guide a camera lense that fit his Canon camera which he greatly appreciated. This is out of the ordinary, but he did a superior job and offered to stay out all day as the game viewing was so spectacular.

I know they would appreciate any binoculors, used or otherwise. Espcially smaller size ones. Strange as this may sound, when I asked what they would like, several said American Dvd's, especially documenteries.

On a side note, I did carry notecards that I wrote individual thanks to each guide or tracker, and included the cash tip. Not a new idea, but they seemed to like it.

Have fun, and no worries on what youo bring, they will appreciate the thought.

Thanks ShellCat. I can hardly wait to go, 14 days and a wakeup.

In addition to a cash tip, we gave the guides some of our warm clothing, which we didn't need for the safari. We had brought some older clothing (though still in good shape) with us that we didn't mind leaving. Our guide really, really liked the casual cargo-style pants we gave him. He was showing them off to all the other porters with a big grin on his face. Our guide was Earnest, and he did get us to the summit, though I wouldn't recommend him. He basically left us to the assistant guide, and spent all his time with a single person who was lagging way way behind for the whole trek, instead of staying with the main group, though it was clear she had no business being there at all. Of course she didn't even try for the summit.

Woops, you didn't mention if you were doing Kili trek or safari or both. For our safari we had Joseph who was very good at helpign us identify birds. However, he didn't provide an ice chest in the safari vehicle. You should insist on one, we had to eat warm lunches and warm water the entire safari, and worried about the food spoiling. He was also a very very conservative driver. I mean SLOW. All the other tour companies vehicles were always passing us. But then we we did make it through the tour safely, but covered less ground.

I had traveled with an old pair of sneakers I was going to through away. I figured I could wear them on the trip, and then toss them to save room in my luggage on the trip back.

My guide was happy to get them instead. So, old clothes/sneakers may be appreciated, but make sure the stuff is in fairly good condition and relatively clean.

I also left a gore-text parka and rain pants after my Kilimanjaro climb for the porters.