sandi

When you book thru an outfitter they provide the guide/vehicle for a drive itinerary, or can have your guide/vehicle meet you when arriving by air. The guide/vehicle will then drive you between parks/camps till you return to the next flight or final land destination. You can work out what's best in your situation. The benefits of a private safari.

As to the fee for the guide fees - daily pay (they do get paid), accommodations, meals, park fees, etc. are included in the daily rate along with cost of vehicle/petrol/insurance. The guide fee, however, is based on the local residence rates, thus in Tanzanian (or Kenyan if in Kenya) shillings converted to USD... they are very very reasonable; a small fraction of what the client pays.

Being on a private safari, especially if a return/repeat visitor, who knows what they'd like - spending more time in one area, being up earlier and out for photography, etc. is easily arranged with the private guide. The visitors has the benefit of an earlier experience and can base their subsequent visits on different criteria. The guide will understand this and accommodate. It won't be "show them everything as quickly as..... keep on moving."

cary999

Sandi - can you give a range of guide plus vehicle costs out of Arusha? Too include all guide expenses their lodging etc. Length of time might be important so say two for weeks, total or per day average $$$$. Thanks.

regards - tom

sandi

Haven't the slightest! Sorry. I get one price, not unbundled. I've seen numbers on other sites of $150-$250/day, but can't attest to how true these are.

Patty

That range seems about right to me.

Maurice_M

Hi Dana, I am my own driver and guide. This is because this suits me the best. I do not want rush from sighting to sighting, when I find something I am happy to stay there as long as I need to until something interesting happens or not as the case may be.

Maurice

Dana_M

Thanks Maurice. Having seen your photos of the lions and hippo, (which are fantastic, by the way), I can understand your reluctance to be at somebody else's whim on a game drive. I look forward to your trip and photos of Ndutu.

Bill_H

<b><i>Bill,
Do you rent the vehicle and the guide/driver separately, or together? Do you then pay for your driver/guide's accomodations at each of the lodges? Did you put each of the pieces together yourself or do you have a ground operator put it together for you?</i></b>

Dana, I missed this Q since we were in Kenya ... we simply offer an itinerary to the outfitter in Arusha and he comes back with a total price for everything (vehicle, driver/guide, lodging, park fees) and we either tweak it down by changing lodges or tweak it up by adding more days, depending on the price (which has typically been around $400/day/person for these type of mid-range lodges).

So typically we drive the entire route and stay at Manyara the first night or two (Tarangire would be a good alternative), then drive to Ndutu area for a few days, then to central Serengeti (some trips, others we skip this), then on the return maybe hit Ndutu again, then the last full day will be at either Ngorongoro Crater or Manyara since from either place we can do an early AM game drive on the fly-out day, then make it to Arusha in time to freshen up at a day-room and then catch the night KLM flight.

Bill

Dana_M

Thanks Bill. Appreciate the response. Hope you had a fantastic time in Kenya. I started reading your post on the travel conditions but got sidetracked. I'm going back to look at it now.

I'm approaching my trip the way you described, offering an itinerary and getting one price, or as Sandi said &quot;unbundled.&quot; Then of course I'll do the inevitable tweaking when time/price come in.

I didn't realize you had a trip to Kenya so soon before your trip to Tanzania. I am SO jealous!