Tell me about South Africa or Tanzania, Please!

[chicago]

If you've been...

1. Where did you go?

2. When did you go? How long were you there?

3. What was your itinerary?

4. What did you do that you loved?

5. Anything you would change?

6. Did you plan on your own or use an agent/company?

7. Any good books, websites, etc. for research?


I'm starting to research this as our last 'big hurrah' trip before TTC. I had been thinking that we should visit South Africa, but we typically like to end with a few days at the beach. Zanzibar and Seychelles are both more easily accessible from Tanzania, so I'm starting to rethink SA. Most important to us will be a safari component and some time on beautiful beaches, though I'd love to see Cape Town and the winelands. We've been to Napa and Tuscany, so visiting vineyards isn't a must-do.

FWIW, we will have to travel in June/July and would probably be working with 10-12 days.

Also, if anyone feels comfortable throwing out a general idea of what they budgeted, that would certainly be helpful, but I know that can change based on lots of variables.

[SJ]

We spent 2 weeks in Tanzania last August.

We rarely use travel agents, however, for this Tanzania trip, we did use a few just because of the time and schedule constraints. There is a lot of overland travel involved, in addition to both in-country and international flights, so it is easier to let a travel agent handle the logistics. I also found that they were getting better rates than I could find myself. We did a lot of research, read physical guidebooks, etc. I pretty much knew what I was looking for. You can do these trips for a bare bones budget or travel in the lap of luxury. I found safari lodges that cost thousands of dollars per person per night, or camping options for very cheap. We were kind of middle-of-the-road I would say.

Basically we spent one week in Arusha (near Kiliminjaro) with a nonprofit microfinance group. My husband is a filmmaker and he was doing work for them. We flew into the Kiliminjaro Int'l Airport (JRO). We stayed at the Ngare Sero Lodge which we really enjoyed. The food was incredible- locally sourced, organic, delicious. www.ngare-sero-lodge.com/

We then traveled (with Premier Tours, see below) to the Ngorongoro Crater for more extensive safari. We stayed at the Sopa Lodge www.sopalodges.com/ngorongoro/home.html It was pricy, but we chose it for its proximity to the crater rim which means you can get down into the crater earlier in the morning. It felt more like a "big box" resort, but amenities were perfectly fine and I think the location/setting was worth it. The animal viewing was INCREDIBLE. The crater has some of the densest wildlife in the world- we saw black rhinos, elephants, hippos, lions, cheetahs, leopards, monkeys, ostrich, zebra, giraffe, etc. etc. etc.

Next we went to Zanzibar (flights booked through Premier Tours/Simba Safari). Flew from the Arusha Airport to Zanzibar. On the way home we flew through Dar and back to JRO to pick up some equipment/baggage. On Zanzibar we stayed up north at the Langi Langi Beach Bungalows in Nungwi. The beach was fabulous, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend that resort. The rooms were not very nice (although perfectly fine), but ok for a budget. The food was great though We spent some time in Stonetown as well (no overnights)

The first week we were there was planned using Thomson Safaris. I HIGHLY recommend this organization. They were professional, experienced, and the guides spoke excellent English which really does make a difference. The nonprofit has used them for several years and trusts them fully. Here is their website www.thomsonsafaris.com/

The second week we wanted to save money, so we used Premier Tours which was recommended by another poster on the Travel Board. They were also responsive and flexible and worked with our budget. We went back and forth over the itinerary. We were happy with the service, but they subcontracted to a group called Simba Safari for the ground work once in Tanzania, and we just thought Thomson was a little better. Our Thomson guide was much better than the Premier/Simba guide. Here is their website www.premiertours.com/

A third option which comes recommended also on the Travel Board was Adventures in Africa. I did contact them and get a quote, and once again was impressed with their responsiveness.
www.adventuresinafrica.com/

Rock-N-Voll has also recently contacted several agencies for her safari trip so she might have additional information for you.

Hope that helps! We had an amazing time and I'm sure you will too.

Oh you asked about budget.....
International flights were $2500 each (from Chicago, but we only paid for mine as DH's was covered by client)
The first week of the trip was $2500 (would have been $5000, but DH's portion was covered)
The second week of the trip was $4000 (this is for both of us-the part done through Premier Tours, included land transfers, accommodations/food at Ngorongoro Crater, game drives, flights to Zanzibar, accomodations (half board) at Langi Langi and flights back to JRO)

So we paid about $9,000, but "market price" would have been $14,000 or so.

[chicago]

Thank you! This exactly the kind of info I was hoping for!

[chicago]

RnV - This is great, thank you! Yeah, when we first started talking about this trip, H and I both figured $20k sounded about right (for 10-12 nights there, not including travel time). I think I'd like to cut that back a bit since we are also simultaneously saving for a down payment on a house, which is obviously a higher priority...Still, we want to start trying for babies next spring/summer, so if this trip doesn't happen next summer, it won't happen for a looooong time.

I had the same trouble getting onto the Adventures in Africa site, but it seems to be just the main site that isn't working. I was able to get in by clicking on their 'Africa' subsection.

I'd love to check out your itinerary, but the Proboards link is coming up 'dead'.

Thanks for these resources!

[katieh]

South Africa- 36 hour layover in Madrid, Cape Town for 6 days, Kynsna for 2 days, Cintsa for 3 days and then 3 days on Safari near Kruger

We went in Dec - actually flew back on NYE (which saved us more than $500)

I really liked Cape Town. Some of my favorite things we did were when we took a bottle of wine up to Table Mountain one night to watch the sunset, which was amazing, Robbin Island, and a one-day wine tour, and drove down to Cape Point. We also went shark diving (or actually, my husband did - I got sick off the side of the boat for 3 hours). And I loved our safari at Kapama, which was luxurious but on the lower end of the price spectrum I saw.

The one thing I would have changed was cutting out Knysna and Cintsa. I really liked Kynsna, but I would have been fine without it. And I didn't like where we stayed in Cintsa (a backpacker hostel that had rave reviews but was beyond rustic). We had basically added those two because we were meeting with a friend who was getting out of the peace corps and she wanted to go there. Had we skipped those places (and then not had a rental car for an extra week) we would have saved about $1000.

We planned it all on our own as a TA told me there was no way I could do it for my budget and that there were no Cape Town hotels under $100 a night.

We spent roughly $8k for 14 days
$2000 (total) on flights to JoBurg from Chicago, with the Madrid layover, coming back on NYE at 11pm
$1000 on internal flights (Joburg to Cape Town, East London to Kruger, Kruger back to JoBurg)
$500 or so on the car rental for a week plus gas (we did not need the car in Cape Town, except the one day to go to Cape Point)
$1500 on safari for 3 nights
$150 on 3 nights in Cintsa
$300 on 2 nights in Kynsna (because we paid for a huge suite so my friends could stay with us)
$500 for 6 nights in Cape Town
$500 on shark dive
$500 on horseback riding, robben island, table mountain and other activities
$200 on wine tour
$300 or so on food and drink for the 5 days out of Cape Town, as we mostly cooked for ourselves
about $500 for food and drink, transport, shopping,etc in Cape Town for 6 days

If I had it to do all over again, I would have added 2 days in Cape Town for more day trips (maybe do 1-2 nights in wine country rather than a day trip) and then the 3 day safari. Three days was plenty for me.

[chicago]

Jul 20, 2012 14:47:09 GMT -5 katieh said:

...and then the 3 day safari. Three days was plenty for me.

This is something I've wondered about a lot - how many days/nights on safari? I tend to overdo things a bit, especially when it comes to travel. My instincts would have been 4-5 nights...too much?

I would love to hear more about the shark dive! I love the idea - I think H might freak out a bit, but I'm pretty sure I could convince him!

Also, I didn't realize so many posters are from Chicago!

[sunshinedaydreams]

1. Where did you go? Johannesburg, Vic Falls Zimbabwe, Tanzania

2. When did you go? How long were you there? Last September, 20 days

3. What was your itinerary? One night in Johannesburg (in transit), 4 nights in Vic Falls at Ilala Lodge, one night in Jo'burg (in transit again), one night in Dar Es Salaam, TZ (in transit), one night Lake Manyara at Kirurumu Tented Camp, 2 nights Ngorongoro Crater at Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, 3 nights Serengeti at Migration Camp, 4 nights Zanzibar at Baraza (an upgrade courtesy of Premier)

4. What did you do that you loved? Um, everything? We didn't really do any excursions to comment on. Vic Falls was a really awesome add-on.

5. Anything you would change? Skip Lake Manyara. They're famous for tree-climbing lions, but apparently the lion spottings are SUPER rare. The park was just okay and not much to see. It's very wooded, so not a large range of visibility like in the other parks.

I probably would not have gone to the Ngorongoro Crater. I think I wrote in the other post R-n-V linked you to, but I didn't like the feel of the crater with TONS of vehicles rushing in on/completely surrounding the animals. It was WAY too crowded and I felt bad having such an impact on the wildlife. I am not exaggerating at all when I say that one morning we sat in a group of 45+ jeeps surrounding two rhinos because they are rare to see. IMO, not how I want to see the wildlife.

I also would have given us a day between getting off of Zanzibar and flying home to the US. We had a bad experience trying to get a flight out of Zanzibar (which is apparently pretty common) and ended up having to pay a crapton of money at the last minute for another flight so we didn't miss our flight back to the US.

6. Did you plan on your own or use an agent/company? I did all the research on my own, decided where we wanted to go/stay and then went through a tour operator to book for us. I used premiertours.com/ and Julian was fabulous to work with.

7. Any good books, websites, etc. for research? I second Fodor's Complete African Safari Guide. I think I already deleted all my bookmarks from my research, so I'm not helpful on websites. I did a lot of googling and exploring, though.


On cost - we were gone for 20 days. Including R/T flights from the US, R/T flights between Jo'burg and Vic Falls, several other intra-African flights, a private jeep driver for XX days of our trip and several nights in luxury camps, we paid a little less than $20k, so I think your budget (or less) is definitely doable.

[GilliC]

1. Where did you go?
Kruger, Jo'burg, and a few stops in between

2. When did you go? How long were you there?
Right before the last World Cup. So that would have been... around Easter 2010. We spent about a week in Mozambique, and about a week in SA.

3. What was your itinerary?
Flew into Jo'burg and then drove to Mozambique to go diving at Tofo. After driving back across the South African border, we spent the night right outside Kruger and entered first thing the next morning. Spent three days in the park (2 nights at Satara) and then drove back to Jo'burg

4. What did you do that you loved?
Watching a pride of lions 10 ft from our car. Having giraffes cross the road right in front of you. And of course getting to see a pack of wild dogs (so lucky)!

5. Anything you would change?
I would have stayed at two different rest camps so that we didn't have to cover the same ground so often making roundtrips from the camp. (And for Mozambique, I would have rented a 4WD and never driven after dark. Especially not around Maputo.)

6. Did you plan on your own or use an agent/company?
Completely on our own.

7. Any good books, websites, etc. for research?
The Tinkers' Kruger Park Guide & Map was fantastic.

The 3 days of safari in SA would have cost around $600 for the two of us (we were traveling with another couple and could split the cost of the car and accommodations, so it was slightly cheaper than that). I have the details on my blog, but the photos got destroyed when my website was hacked.
blog.megdesk.com/inexpensive-safari/

[aurora]

We just loved our Tanzania vacation. Never been to South Africa (probably will in 2014) or Kenya, though, so I can't compare them. To answer your questions:

1. Where did you go?
Tanzania only. Flew into JRO (which is quite an adventure - an international airport taking large jets in the middle of nowhere) and stayed in Moshi, which is less common than staying in Arusha but that's where our guide company was based out of. Some people told me that Moshi is a little safer but I have no real basis in fact for such a statement, and my experience was that the people were very friendly and not threatening (though they certainly did want to try to sell you things).

2. When did you go? How long were you there?
We went in September for 2.5 weeks.

3. What was your itinerary?
2 nights at our guide service's hotel in Moshi (we wanted a day to recover from jet lag and also to make sure all our luggage got there)
6 nights climbing Kilimanjaro
2 nights back in Moshi (again, another day to recover)
5 nights on safari (2 nights each at Ngorogoro Crater and the Serengeti, 1 at Lake Manyara, with a stop along the way at Olduvai Gorge)
1 night back in Moshi before our flight out

4. What did you do that you loved?
I absolutely loved the safari. I could have spent twice as much time there and been happy. We saw so many amazing animals and I just really loved watching them, even if they were mostly just lying there (sometimes we saw real action, though - mostly lions chasing and eating zebras)

5. Anything you would change?
I would magically have more time off and also do more traveling in the area. We met so many people who were taking 3-6 months to tour across Africa and their adventures sounded really cool. But, that wasn't realistic for us.

6. Did you plan on your own or use an agent/company?
We went with www.zaratours.com/. It was recommended by some friends who had done a similar trip the previous year and, because it's based out of Tanzania, it's much less expensive than using a US-based guide service (cuts out the middle man). They did everything for us - picking us up at the airport all the way through to dropping us off again. The hotel in Moshi was basic but clean. During the safari, we could choose between tents (which we did) or lodges (we were too cheap at the time, though today I might choose differently). It's been some years but I think our total cost per person was about $4000, including tips and everything. Of course, I've heard that since then the national park fees (Ngorogoro Crater, Serengeti, etc.) have doubled, so that might not be possible anymore.

One of the best things about Zara is that we got to choose whether we wanted our own jeep for the safari. There were only 3 of us, so we debated whether we wanted to join up with some of the other fun travelers we had met, but in the end we went with just our group in a jeep that held 7(?) for no extra cost. It was really nice not to be crammed in with a bunch of people we didn't know and to get to decide our own safari itinerary.

I realize I am starting to sound like an advertisement, but really I am not affiliated with Zara at all. We just had a great time.

7. Any good books, websites, etc. for research?
It's been a long time, so I don't remember specifics.


Good luck planning your adventure!

[definitelyO]

1. Where did you go? We went to Tanzania and Zanzibar

2. When did you go? How long were you there? We went quite a while ago - in 2000 for 2 weeks. it was a private safari with just now DH and I and the owner of Adventures in Africa and his now wife.

3. What was your itinerary? Arive Arusha, stay with friends overnight. drive to Ngorongoro Crater - stayed at the lodge 1 night. Serengeti, Lake Manyara and Tarangire and then one night in Stone Town and 3 nights on a beach on Zanzibar.

4. What did you do that you loved? We camped in regular tents in the Serengeti. we had a Maasi warrior with us that cooked and kept the campground safe. it was crazy to be out in the wilderness like that. but we felt safe. I also loved Tarangire! We stated in the tented camp and the view of the river at sunset was incredible with all the animals coming up to drink. we met an elephant researcher while we were there and saw so many elephants. We also canoed on Lake Manyara (note to never canoe with DH again...).

5. Anything you would change? I would skip Stone Town - the city was too busy, crowded for us. This was our first international trip and honestly we were a little out of our league. we did Zanzibar on our own w/o guides or anyone and it was just a bit much.

6. Did you plan on your own or use an agent/company? We used Adventures in Africa (we're from Denver) and LOVED it. At the time the owner was still living in Arusha

I can't quote on prices b/c it's been way too long.... but we are definitely going back (and have promised DS when he's older we'll take him) and will use Adventures in Africa again.

[definitelyO]

I don't think you'll be disappointed in them at all!! The owners used to live in Arusha - so it's nice to have a US based company who has real experience there. I think the owner heads over a few times a year to try new places/resorts, etc....