Hi,
I have quotes from Good Earth and Leopard Tours. The Leopard quote is lower but I have read good things on the forum about Good Earth. Can anyone offer any advice?
Tnanks.

We only have one experience in Africa, so have nothing to compare, but our safari was wonderful. Our small group booked through Intrav, using Leopard Tours and were 100% happy. Our group had 2 vehicles, therefore 2 driver/guides. The vehicles were both well maintained and the drivers were both knowledgable and personable. Based on my limited experience, I can recommend Leopard.

I've just returned from africa yesterday. Personally i wouldn't touch Leopard tours with a ten foot pole. They are a HUGE operator and from my understanding cut corners in quality (quality includes quality of guide). The price might be good, but you're getting what you pay for.

From my brief exposure, good earth is in a totally different class (much better) than leopard.

Hope to address some of this stuff in my trip report.

I believe Leopard has over 120 jeeps and drivers, and what I was told is that many are good but because they are so big they have a lot of staff turnover in the last 40 or so drivers, so a lot of relatively inexperienced ones.

I remember photographing a breeding plummaged whydah bird (unique species with an exceptionally long tail) and a Leopard driver stopped and asked my driver in Swahili what kind of bird it was, which I found really surprising. Like a North American guide not knowing what a Ring-necked pheasant looks like ...

I know of two photo tours who used to use Leopard for their low prices but switched to more expensive companies because they kept running into occasional problems with the guides Leopard provided. On the other hand I have met three people who used Leopard and had no problems.

In contrast the people I've met who used Good Earth always seemed pleased, but it appears to be a much smaller company.

If there's a really big gap in pricing (say 25% or more) and the money was an important factor I'd ask Leopard for a really experienced driver and probably go with them, but if the bids are relatively close I'd personally probably stick to GE.

Bill

Bill,

That ring-necked pheasant analogy, has me laughing in splits......thanks

Hari

<b>has me laughing in splits

</b>I've never heard this expression before, Hari. Now <b> you've </b> got <b> me </b> laughing (never mind Bill's ring-necked pheasant).

Calo:

I just had a minute to peek on the Forum and I am glad you topped this post and it is the one I read!

hWaWrWi's comment,

'has me laughing in splits'

is new to me as well but I found it made me, 'shake my sillies out' this morning!

Den

When planning our safari, after reading some not-so-flattering feedback on Leopard Tours on the Lonely Planet board and other travel sites we eliminated them from consideration for our trip. Maybe just google and see what you come up with because this was two years ago. We ended up with Good Earth and were happy we did. We did see a lot of Leopard vehicles when we were there, but have no personal experiences with them.

I just got back from Tanzania yesterday. We had our safari with Good Earth. Like other posters, we saw many, many Leopard vehicles. All Leopard vehicles had 4-6 occupants and were in a caravan of 2-3 vehicles.
With Good Earth, it was just me and my husband in the vehicle. We really enjoyed the flexibility to look and see as we liked. GE was very professional and I would recommend them.

Calo,

Glad to provide the laugh!!!

LOL,

Hari