nelder

Hi, Am planning a trip to Tanzania (between 8-14 days) for summer 2009 to Tanzania. Looking at two tour companies - one private (Wildthingsafaris.com) and one a small group tour (Go2Africa.com) - basically seeing the same things. Would love some feedback on either/both companies and whether a private tour is worth the extra money. We are bringing our 9 year old daughter with us and are celebrating our 20th anniversary.

Thanks!

ShayTay

You might consider booking directly with a Tanzanian safari outfitter, which is fairly simple to do and would save you money. I use Kibo Guides, but there are other companies used by Fodorites, as well.

nelder

thanks - I appreciate the help!

sandi

If traveling with your daughter, it would be best you have a private tour. There are discount rates for child under 12 sharing with adults. You can pretty much make your own schedule, i.e., later/earlier game drives, stay as long or short time at sightings, activities a child might enjoy

Also, unless there are other children on the group tour, your daughter might not be comfortable, and to be honest, regardless how well-behaved, many adults prefer not to have children on their safaris. Then, there are some adults who would prefer not to have some other adults with th em

Private safaris really shouldn't be all that more expensive than a group tour.

Besides Kibo, consider
Green Footprints
Roy Safaris
Good Earth

or do a search on this board for Tanzania tour operators - other names will pop up.

nelder

great -thanks - I was leaning towards a private safari - the "family" group safaris were not all that exciting.

eco2

I got home from a trip to Tanzania in December. While I didn't book with either of the companies you are inquiring about, our driver's brother owns Wild Thing Safaris and we saw them out on safari. They are Tanzanian and locally owned. They had really nice Land Rovers, which are better than Land Cruisers in staying out of mud. We also were in a Rover and passed so many Cruisers stuck in the mud. You can ask for our driver, Amme, or you can book directly through his own company: http://lillacadventures.com/index.html
He was awesome!!! I've been to Tanzania before, and Amme was the best driver and guide I've had. He can help you come up with a perfect itinerary. Tell him Erika from NH says hi! I wish we had booked directly with him. Good luck and have fun!

nelder

thanks so much!

striderhopkins

i just returned from a 5-day safari. i don't know about those other two companies, but thought i weigh in with my recommendation for goodearth tours. we were very, very impressed with them. the owners and guides are tanzanian, but they also have an office in florida, which helps a lot with the planning phases if you live in n.america (don't have to worry about time changes). one of the owners, narry, helped us put our tour together and he was good about getting back to us and making suggestions to meet our needs. i think what it all really comes down to in terms of a successful safari company is their guides. our guide goodluck was awesome! he was incredibly knowledgeable, very personable and found us lots of amazing animal sightings. i've read other reviews referring to their other guides and they have all been favourable. if you mean, by 'private tour', your own vehicle, i would definitely go this route. you can set your own agenda and spend as little or much time at the various sightings. we had our own landrover which was very comfortable and spacious (there were 5 of us). accommodation is also important, but as far as I can tell, all tour companies will pretty much offer the same options and they play the middlemen between you and the hotels etc. choices seem to come down to: 1) tent 2) wildlife lodges 3) tented camps and 4) upscale lodges. being the middle-men, best they can do is match your needs/expectations/budget to the right level of accommodation. goodearth was very good about explaining what we could expect at each level and helping us decide what work best for us. hope this helps.

nhulberg

We arranged our trip through a local Tanzania-owned company, "Multichoice Safaris".

[email protected]

We were extremely happy from start to finish. "Agness" handled most of the arrangements. The price was reasonable.

Our guide was "Hubbert" who gets four stars from our family. A very positive experience.

plbk4

Hi, My family (Me, wife, 14yo and 9 yo) did a private safari last year and had a magnificent time. Private was the only way to go in my view. We used Sunny Safaris who were cheaper than all the other quotes we got, very good vehicles and a great driver/guide. We were able to upgrade to whatever we wanted. We did a half circuit so to speak - drive in and flew out.
Cheers
Peter

NIkka

I would recommend a private safari as it will give you more flexibility on your safari (i.e. what time you woudl prefer the safari to start /end, spend more time looking at an animal/bird that you like, etc).

billisolv

HI, we traveled on a private camping safari with our teenage daughter at Christmas time. used Bright African Safari's. I cannot say enough good things about them..they went above and beyond the call of duty to give us the most amazing experiance..In addition, the young owner assisted us in contactin our daughter who was workign as a volunteer. She was in a remote location and we had not been able to communicate arrangements to meet up with her. He contacted her for us, and made arrangements with a relative in Dar to pick her up from the hostel they were returnign to after the project, had her brought to the airport to meet us and then drove us all to our hotel for less than it would have cost us to rent a taxi.....amazing service...and it did not end there..but not time to write all that they did for us.. However if you would like more please email me at [email protected].
You can contact the company either through the website. brightafricansafris.com or email [email protected].
Billi

jill_h

Nelder, I would like to recommend Across Tanzania Expeditions to you.
www.acrosstanzaniaexpeditions.com/

We took a northern circuit safari with Hezron in 2007 and stayed at the Sopa lodges in Ngorogoro Crater and in the Serengeti. The accommodations were great, food even better, but Hezron made the trip a dream vacation. He is extremely knowledgeable of all wildlife and has a great sense of humor. He is a man of great integrity and you will enjoy working with him. When we go back some day, we will again call on Hezron to show us the animals!

pippa13

would highly recommend to contact the following companies who own camps but work with others as well in order to put together a great safari experience - not only fly in but also vehicle/guide :

http://www.nomad-tanzania.com/

http://www.asilialodges.com/

pattyroth

okay, one more recommendation. We loved Roy Safari and their USA agent, Susan Wood for our private and reasonable but luxurious safari. A private tour IS worth the money. My trip report is at at "Safari for Photography with Roy," I think, and photos at pbase.com/pattyroth, FYI