Bay Area Houston

If the accommodations had had larger coffee cups this vacation would have been perfect! (but it really was perfect!)

Access2Tanzania.com
We spent 11 days visiting Tarangire National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania which the locals pronounce Tan-Zan-ee-uh not Tan-za-nee-uh. We booked with Access2Tanzania almost a year in advance and they did not disappoint. From the time they picked us up at the Kilimanjaro Airport till the time they dropped us off 11 days later they took care of us, kept us safe, and made our trip absolutely perfect! They provided guidelines and timelines to make sure we had all necessary vaccines, documents, VISAs and more. The food and drinks at every accomodation was all safe to eat and drink. It was worry free. They really took care of us!

Danny
Danny was our guide. You can read his bio and reviews here. He made our trip absolutely perfect. He has hawk eyes and could spot animals in the distant where we needed binoculars. As an example while other tours were viewing a nearby lion Danny noticed strange movements by a number of hyenas which led us to a lion eating a fresh kill. The hyenas eventually surrounded the lion wanting to steal her kill. (video here) This was just one of the many times Danny found different animals to view and we saw many including the Big 5, the Rhino, Lion, Leopard, Elephant, and the Cape buffalo. We spent 11 days with Danny and we enjoyed every bit of it! He was friendly, knowledgeable and just fun to be around. It was a very emotional event when he dropped us off at the airport.

Accommodations
We spent 2 nights at the Rivertree resort in Arusha after landing at Kilimanjaro Airport. This gave us time to adjust to the time change, grab some local currency, visit the city, and shop. Rivertree was awesome! Food was provided at all of our locations as well as safe water to drink and a fully stocked bar! We had a 6 hour wait for our flight to go home. They gave us a room for a few hours so we could take a quick nap, shower, eat, and get ready for the long trip. It was very nice!

We then spent a couple of nights in Tarangire National Park in tents. (clamping) it was a very comfortable large tent with a king sized bed, bathroom, and shower. Showers had to be completed prior to 6 PM since the workers could not safely fill up the water bag at night. We could not leave the tent without calling for an escort due to the animals being close by. In the morning we would look for tracks. At night we heard lions and hyenas.

We spent another 2 nights at the Lions Paw in the Ngorongoro Crater. The rooms were again in very nice tents and were as nice as many fancy hotels I have stayed at. The main area had a beautiful restaurant and a large outdoor viewing area with campfires and a bar.

The rest of the time we were in the Serengeti National Park, again in large tents. The staff at every location were friendly and very helpful. They all were very helpful and waited on us. If we needed anything they were there to help. As an example we thought our last place had laundry service and were confused when the clothes were not taken. The next day they had our clothes cleaned and folded!

The Safari
Each day Danny would pick us up in a Toyota Range Rover. It had a top that could be pushed up so we could stand and view. We were told that the ride would be bumpy and dusty but all very well worth it. They were right! We bought scarfs to protect us from the dust. All of the seats had extra padding. Danny would find the animals and position us to the best viewing area. A hot lunch was provided sometimes at a picnic location or in the middle of no where. It was local food cooked by the chef at the camping ground. On a couple of days we left early in the morning and had breakfast and lunch in the field.

The Villages
We visited a couple of villages and met with the locals. They cooked a great lunch providing different samples of local foods. They gave us a tour of the banana plantations and shared some banana beer with us. Banana beer is a social drink that is always shared with others. We met some kids, age 12 and 14, who walked 7 miles each morning to take their 75 goats to a grazing pasture and back home in the evening. We were taken on a canoe ride on the lake. Everyone was very nice and in good spirits.

I’ll post some pics of the animals we saw in the next post. If you are interested in an Africa Safari consider Access2Tanzania as your tour company. You will have a vacation of a lifetime!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 3rd, 2024 at 10:26 am and is filed under Consumer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.