New to forum but love reading all the posts. Planning our first trip to Tanzania, July 2008...2 adults and a 12 year old. Wondered if anyone has experience with Wildland Adventures and their family packages? Looks wonderful! I am also looking at Roy's, Sunny and GoodEarth but love the cultural part that Wildland offers. Any comments would be extremely appreciated!

Wildland Adventures is a top notch organization. Its owners have been in the business for many years. I had lunch with Kurt after I took a 5 week one woman custom trip to Egypt with them. He's very dedicated to making your experience wonderful and to giving you an introduction to other cultures beyond the standard tourist activities. It received an award from Conde Nast's Travel & Leisure for its ecotourism. You might try asking them if you could email with some who've taken the same trip. They asked me if I would correspond by email with a woman who wanted to try a trip similar to mine. Which I did.
If you ask them, they

if we ask them they what?

Does anyone know of other outfitters that offer such a great mix of cultural interaction and game viewing?

I don't see anything special on the cultural front in Tanzania - seems pretty standard as offered by most local outfitters (when asked).

Why not contact the ground operator direct - Kibo? You may save $$!

Sorry, "if you ask them they may" was a case of a cut-and-paste error -- I forgot to delete it. see earlier in the article about contacting them to see if you can get a reference or two from them who will talk to you.

I have been emailing with them about a trip to Egypt, and I love what Adrian had to say about the Nile cruise ships. I will quote:
"How important is going on a cruise ship (in Egypt they are termed ‘Gin Palaces’)?

I know cruising is big part of American tourism, mostly I would think, because Americans get so much less free time than other westerners (I am English), and there is much convenience to floating in a four star hotel – it fits the limited time available, and its like traveling without the effort of really going there, and we have been trained to think a good vacation is primarily about value for money and a good hotel. In my opinion, traveling is much more than that. Travel is about mind-expanding experiences, not value for money, about opening up new worlds and finding ones self, especially for kids (I have an eight year old daughter). Travel is about seeing how the world really is and seeing who you are within it. Staying on a cruise boat will restrict such insights and experiences, and separate and distance a participant from Egypt proper.

So, if it is not so important, might I suggest you do a land itinerary and avoid the boats?

Further reasoning is that most Gin Palaces are owned by the large US and international hotel chains, so very little of the profits remain to benefit Egypt and the Egyptians who work the boats. Instead profits are sucked into Western coffers, and the employment for Egyptian staff is badly paid and fickle. Also, Gin Palaces have changed the entire atmosphere of both Luxor and Aswan, with row after row of the ugly craft moored three and four deep poring oil and sewage into the Nile and causing awful pollution. The previously stunning views of the ancient cities of the pharaohs today look more like a billboard for a boat-sellers convention."

I know many people will disagree with this and that many Egypt travelers have gone on Nile cruises and loved it, but we won't. I think Wildland Adventures looks like a good organization.

I second Eben's recommendation of Kibo. We had a great safari with them in June and had some fantastic cultural experiences (Maasai, Hadzabe, Orphanage, etc.). They offer a family safari, but with the right guide, any safari can be a family safari. Kibo has some of the best guides in Tanzania, I think. We had Peter Njau and Godliving Limo. Both would be great with kids.

Thanks for the imput...I will indeed contact Kibo and see what they can do for us!