TerryThor

GAMEWATCHERS, GAMEWATCHERS, GAMEWATCHERS! It is like having a family make sure every part of your trip is perfect.They will help you put together a great itinerary. I just got back from Kenya and Tanzania and my trip sounds similar to what you are looking for. I would stay in the Porini camps in the conservancies for that experience and then a lodge or two for luxury. Check out Gibbs Farm if you are going to the Crater. I thought it was glorious.

laurieco

Dear Laurie,

Thank you so much for your patience as I prepared this itinerary for you. I am pleased to present you with this wonderful itinerary that I think you will really enjoy. Below is a link to the safari and I encourage you to explore all of the tabs as there's lots of helpful information in there.

http://itineraries.ejafrica.com/Itin...4-f04e6f9018f6

Here is the basic outline -

Aug 3 - Land JRO. Transfer to Rivertrees Country Inn in Arusha (bed and breakfast rate)
Aug 4/5 - Transfer with private guide (who will remain with you for your entire safari) to Tarangire National Park to Maramboi Tented Camp (fully inclusive)
Aug 6 - Transfer with private guide to Lake Manyara National Park for picnic and game drive en route to Karatu (town outside of Ngorongoro Conservation Area) to Kitela Lodge (fully inclusive)
Aug 7 - Ngorongoro Crater game drive. Overnight at Kitela Lodge (fully inclusive)
Aug 8 - Day at leisure in Karatu. Overnight at Kitela Lodge (fully inclusive)
Aug 9 - Transfer with private guide to Northern Serengeti (6 hour drive!) to Mara Under Canvas (fully inclusive)
Aug 10/11/12 - Mara Under Canvas (fully inclusive)
Aug 13 - Private guide drops you at airstrip. Fly to Zanzibar (included). Transfer to Kisiwa House in Stone Town (half board)
Aug 14/15 - Kisiwa House (half board)
Aug 16 - Transfer to Zanizbar airport for departure flight

Things to note -
*Because this is a driving safari (driving from each location to the next), you will have the same private guide/vehicle throughout
*The drive from Karatu to the Northern Serengeti on Aug 9 is LONG. Most of this will be inside the Serengeti, so a game drive, but you need to prepare for that. If you'd prefer not to drive that long in one day, you could fly (but then you'd have shared game drives with the camp's local guide at Mara Under Canvas) or spend one night in the Central Serengeti to break up the drive.
*Mara Under Canvas has bucket showers. The others all have normal showers.
*These properties are on the bigger side, but the combination gives us a very favorable rate. Having a private guide is really helpful at properties this big to make sure you have a very personalized safari experience.

Let me know what you think and when you'd like to set aside some time to talk through the itinerary together. I'd be happy to answer any questions and would love your feedback.

Best,
Pearl

laurieco

Meant to start that post by saying that this itinerary looks like it was prepared with my requests considered. It's a few hundred dollars more than I wanted to spend but I'm willing to do so to get a great experience. Please let me know what you think, what you would change, and any advice to get the price down some.

amyb

I'd run the same dates and general routing (locations but not the camps) by another safari planner and compare the camps they come up with. I would never rely on one proposal. Look at the camps on Africa Travel Resource's site (both the synopsis and the photos) and see if they're places you'd want to stay. Anything more than 8-10 rooms/tents is too big for me, a couple of these are quite large.

laurieco

I can't afford to go with all smaller places. We will have a private vehicle so we won't be with other people in the same vehicle. I realize that there will be other vehicles but it's a trade-off. The tent in the Serengeti is smaller. I did get another itinerary (other than the original Warrior Trails) from Serendipity, but I did not like the itinerary as much, I didn't feel like it was put together with much thought on what I wanted, and, she refused to give me a price quote until I said which properties I wanted to stay at (there was a choice of two for each stop). Well, sorry but price plays a rather large part in my choice so I would have liked to know what it would cost for each one. Also, no credit cards, but, if I had to use one, a minimum of 5% of the total cost would be added on. I found that ridiculous. The banks charge 3% and it should not be more than that. When I wrote back and said the 5% was a deal breaker, I got a rather curt email stating that no one works for free. That turned me off big time. Whatever happened to taking credit cards as a convenience to your clients/customers, like most businesses, and most absorb the cc fee. When I go to Macy's or Shop Rite, I pay the same amount whether I use a credit card or pay cash. It's called the cost of doing business. That said, I'm willing to pay the 3% but certainly not 5%. Not on $15,000+

Leely2

I don't know that I'd want to spend so much time in Karatu rather than the NCA.

Agree that it might be time to price check and review check on the ATR website. You could contact them too.

amyb

If you're looking to save "a few hundred dollars" (and probably more) you can do this if you float this routing by other safari planners. I know this for fact having 1) done it myself and 2) have just in the last month helped three friends plan a safari and they did the same.

I think there's value in talking to your safari planner, especially for your first. Access2Tanzania will schedule an initial and follow up call for you. Karen is excellent at reading guests and squeezing out what they really want. A lot is lost in email only, particularly your first time when you don't know what you want or what's on offer.

Different safari planners have relationships with various camps or chains of accommodations. Not all of them have access to the best price for particular dates for the exact same lodging. One friend of mine just shopped the exact same camps with two planners and saved nearly $1000 pp with the second one, he just had better access to the camps' rates.

So if you're married to this routing and/or one or more lodgings in the routing, find another planner and have them shop it. You can choose to give them your current proposed cost or not (that may inspire them to cut it down further).

There may be things you're not taking advantage of, like staying with more than one of a particular "chain's" lodgings to get long-stay discounts, etc. You won't know this unless you talk to more people willing to help you. Yes, this is an enormous decision for an expensive investment, but I promise you, if you put the work in, you can get camps you want at the budget you want. I think on my first two safaris I talked to at least 5 planners before I decided. I would not go with the first one that is kinda sorta like what you want. You're not happy with this, you say it with your "it's more than I want to spend".

I would still spend some time on ATR's site really looking at camps and run a search for trips in TZ at your time of year and your budget. You may find something on your own you like better which you can tell the safari planners, "hey, add this camp in instead". I'd also read a lot of the Trip Reports on Safaritalk to see and hear how others booked theirs and liked the arrangements they came up with.

amyb

I just flipped back through the thread and you realize that you're using a luxury safari planner, yes? I would seriously reconsider that for your budget purposes and float this itinerary by ATR, Gamewatchers, the Wild Source (a friend just booked with them, as do many Safaritalkers), Access2Tanzania, Expert Africa.

laurieco

I'll do that but I feel kind of guilty since Pearl has put in what seems to be a fair amount of time on this.

amyb

It's pretty common that you shop around and they are aware that you do. For my gorilla trekking adventure, I got 8 proposed itineraries, and while a lot of them had similar or even the same lodgings, the price range for the same number of days had a $5k spread. That's significant. Trust me, you have to take another look. You'll feel better if you come in within budget and with camps that you would want to stay at. It's too big a trip not to completely flesh it out.

laurieco

Thanks Rocky but you appear to be advertising, which is not allowed on these forums. I see that you just joined and have only posted on two threads, this being one of them.

laurieco

Sorry safarilegends, I do trust this forum. I have been on Fodor's since 2003 and have been getting great advice for almost 15 years. I am much less likely to trust you. Especially since this is the only post you have ever made. I'm sure someone here will alert the editors and you will be gone in a short while.

laurieco

As expected, safarilegends is gone. Wonder who s/he will come back as next.

amyb

I actually reported safarilegends last weekend when he/she surfaced an old thread only to take a respected Fodorite to task. Fodors cleaned that up too. I didn't see either of these posts, but I'm willing to wager it was more of the same!

Any luck with other safari planners, laurieco?

laurieco

I sent my wished for itinerary to a few more planners. I imagine it will take a few days for them to get back to me. I will contact a few more.

Pearl called me today and we had a good conversation. I told her that I want to stay at Jafferji House and Spa in Zanzibar, actually I emailed her about it a couple of days ago. She had never booked them but she checked it out and not a problem. She said that she checked with her contacts and people she knows and she got good feedback, and it won't cost any more as the price is on par with the place she originally suggested, and she knows that I already checked the price out. I fell in love with that place while looking at hotels in Zanzibar. http://jafferjihouse.net/

I told her I only want breakfast included in Zanzibar, she has half board for us but we want to choose our restaurants for both lunch and dinner. That will bring the price down. I also said that we can stay in a cheaper hotel in Arusha since we will be there for all of 8 hours or so. As long as it's clean and has private bath/shower, it's good.

For the other areas, they generally deal with properties with this company and get a good rate http://twctanzania.com/en/

She will put together some other less expensive properties, most likely still within this group, and it should reduce the cost. To be honest, I looked at the properties and I really do like the ones she has us at. ATR has several of them as well (I did submit a request to them). Since we have a private driver, I'm not too worried that a couple are a bit bigger. We can go out earlier than everyone to secure a good viewing point. I also really do love that we have a private guide and vehicle. I know we are paying more for that but that is something that I think is worth it.

Going through ATR's website left me dizzy! There is too much to digest and I'm only talking about accommodations! I was glad to see some of the places Pearl has us at on that website, but I still want to see what others put together.

Pearl said that prior to setting us up with a guide, they send a questionnaire to see what our interests are (photography etc) to match us with a guide who will be best suited for the type of safari we want. She seems very thorough and really is listening to what I want, and even said she could set up a conference call to have my husband in on it so he could put in his two cents. Safari_Craig did say that they were rated 4th in the world by Travel and Leisure. Even though I don't have Elizabeth Gordon personally handling this, I feel like I'm in good hands. But I am listening to you amyb and keeping my options open.

laurieco

I just got an email from The Wild Source with an itinerary. I just contacted them this afternoon! It doesn't look bad, it's about $500 less than Extraordinary Journeys, but the accommodations don't look as nice for the most part. Also, I specifically said I wanted to stay at Jafferji House in Zanzibar, but she has us somewhere else. I'll post the itinerary if you like.

amyb

Sure, post if you like. One of my friends just booked with him for Tanzania and got a very competitive itinerary at some great camps. I'm curious to see what he came up with for you.

Having your own guide/vehicle is much more common in Tanzania than it is in Kenya. I think because the getting from park to park is more easily done by road than air and you don't stay long in each one.

A2T will question you about your interests and personalities before assigning a guide to you. I told Karen we were four Type A independent women, and she gave us a guide who was more than able to handle us! LOL!

If you find one of your properties on ATR site, scroll to the bottom to Trips. You can then do a search for the month of the year, budget and number of days to find other trips they've put together with that property within your constraints. You can also type in and add other properties to that to "build" trips based on what they've already done in their database. That may help you better compare like for like. I spend HOURS in there generating trips based on places I like.

laurieco

Hi amyb,

I'm posting the link to the itinerary. I've already contacted them to tell them that I do not want the hotel for the night of August 4, I want it for August 3 as we get in at 1:15 AM on August 4 so I just want to get some sleep, a shower and get on our way instead of wasting a day in Arusha. I also said reiterated that we want to stay at the Jafferji House in Zanzibar.

http://itinerary.thewildsource.com/I...e-8136053c7558

amyb

Laurie, my friend is doing the same routing (but not Zanzibar) next month. The first two camps are the same, but the others are more upscale, for a cheaper price. Although I think your extra flight to and stay in Zanzibar is what is probably kicking your cost up. Her other camps are Lemala Ngorongoro Tented Camp, Namiri Plains Camp and Sayari Camp. They are more upscale but, as I said, her trip comes at a lower overall price point for the same number of days, if you want to swap one or more of your out for those.

I agree with getting right to it when you get there, although landing at 1 a.m. it's likely to be close to 3 a.m. before you're at the hotel. Immigration and baggage take ages there.

CaliNurse

Hi Laurieco, While I haven't posted on this thread since late September, I've been following it, and "feeling" the challaenges of working out exactly the right itinerary with the right agency/planner.

"Safari_Craig did say that they were rated 4th in the world by Travel and Leisure." Any recommendation by glossy"specialty" groups or magazine should be looked at somewhat skeptically,. . Rated by whom? What sample group? Readers of that particular magazine? Votes which are sought and campaigned for via the internet? Trade groups?

I'm not saying NOT to use that particular agency; rather, please do not be swayed by such a "rating" which by itself, means little, other than the desire of whomever mentions it to "wow" you. It's no coincidence that a recommendation by Travel and Leisure will also be the most expensive of the options you've seen.

My own trip to TZ was decades ago, so no agency recommendations to share. I've used Gamewatchers in Kenya, but for TZ would do as you are doing, ask Fodorites, and compare price where "apples=apples."

Good luck! Don't despair--there is no reason to not find what you seek!!