Safari
Nzuri's Africa
Voyages
Tanzania
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After reviewing our Tanzania page,
below, please feel free to drop us an email at: mail@safarinzuri.com If you
would let us know your party's size; your goals and expectations for your
safari; when you'd like to visit Tanzania; and whether you'd prefer an
exclusive tented safari (somewhat more expensive) or some of Tanzania's most
highly regarded small, permanent camps (somewhat less expensive), we would be
glad to provide you with particular guide or camp materials that should best
meet your requirements.
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Overview
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To the right: the great wildebeest migration snakes
its way through the southern Serengeti each December through March
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While in the
southern Serengeti in December-March, or in the western Serengeti in, say,
July, the wildebeest migration is the greatest show on earth: 1.1 million
wildebeest, 250,000 zebra and 125,000 gazelle. Tanzania is also home to the vast Selous in the south. And it is also home to Mahale
Mountains National
Park, where the largest concentration of eastern
chimpanzee on earth share their lakeside forest with an exquisite little
beachfront camp. For the latest State Department information on Tanzania, click here.
Please
note that all rates quoted herein are based on double accommodations. Single accommodations will normally
entail a single supplement.
Also,
note that prices are for ground arrangements only. Air transfers between camps or safari
locales are additional, and will be quoted on an individual safari basis.
Finally,
Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) is considering significant increases in its
entry and conservation fees. These
fees currently average about $50/person/night, and may well double at some
point in 2010. Rates quoted here do
not include these fees. Bear in
mind that these fees, which are also charged (in one way or the other) by most
popular safari destinations, pay
the cost of preserving some of the greatest natural shows on earth.
Safari Season, and “Green Season” Discounts
A Serengeti safari
aimed at the migration can be taken in the southern Serengeti in December
through March, when the plains are green from the short rains and you’ll
often pay lower shoulder season rates. Or, you usually find the migration in
the northern and western Serengeti in June through November. In the south, the Selous' peak season runs from mid-June through October, and
its “green season,” when rates are lower (except during the
Christmas and New Year’s holidays) runs mid-October through mid-February.
Our Approach to Tanzania
Something of a
tourist circuit has grown up around Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Serengeti
national parks, and Ngorongoro Crater, at times and
places rivaling Kenya
for crowds. And, in many places, walking is restricted. Safari Nzuri works with Nomad Safari Guides, which own and operate
private tented camps in the Serengeti, Roland Purcell’s wilderness
masterpieces at Mahale and Katavi,
and Richard Bonham’s famed Sand Rivers Selous
Camp, to ensure that our guests experience an isolated safari experience rich
in game but away from the tourist trade.
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Northern Tanzanian Safaris...a choice of:
..ONE, a classic mobile tented safari
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Nomad Safaris walking guide Mkombe
Mniko and Masai askari Sekita ole Kituta encounter a pair of bull elephant in the northern
Serengeti during a walking safari
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From November
through May, Nomad offers classic mobile Serengeti, Tarangire,
Manyara and Ngorongoro Highlands tented safaris that move
location according to your custom itinerary. And
according to Conde Nast (Nov., 1999),
"Nomad Safari Guides run the best tented mobile safaris in northern
Tanzania, in exquisite locations, teeming with game but mercifully devoid of
other people." Your exclusive lightweight tented camp moves ahead of you
as you change locations, and you have not only a completely exclusive camp, but
your private guide and private vehicle. Rates for 2010 are $470/night/person
for each of a group of 4. The mobile safari belongs exclusively to your group,
who dines, sleeps, and explores in the grace, luxury and solitude of a classic
19th century safari.
There is only a two-person minimum to book one of theses
safaris, and an eight-person maximum.
TWO, Nomad's exclusive Serengeti tented camp
Nomad maintains a
luxury, 12-bed isolated tented camp that also moves with the migration--from
the southern Serengeti in December-March, near the Grumeti
River in June, and then on to the northern Serengeti for July-November. The
advantages of Nomad's camp include:
- Authentic tented camps in the style of the
traditional East African safaris of the old days. Large well-furnished
tents with ensuite bathrooms, hot showers, fine
food and great service.
- Expert guides with safari-equipped private
Land Rovers. Each group will have its own private vehicle and guide,
regardless of group size.
- Complete flexibility to game-drive at your
own pace and, in some areas the freedom to walk, picnic and enjoy
sundowners and alfresco bush meals.
For a description
of Nomad's Serengeti camp, Click Here. 2010 peak season rates run
$740/person/night, plus park fees.
The peak season in the Serengeti covers about 7 months, with “low
season” occurring in January through February and again November 1 through
December 20. Low season rates are
reduced to $600 person/night, plus park fees, and February is a good time to
catch the Wildebeest Migration in the southern Serengeti.
...AND THREE, Small Permanent Camps, but with your own private
guide and vehicle
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To
the left: lion lie like speed bumps throughout the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater.
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Northern
Tanzania
is blessed with a network of small, 12-20 bed, luxury permanent camps in prime
wildlife areas of the Serengeti, Tarangire, and Lake Manyara, and a choice of
lodges at the Ngorongoro Crater. For small groups in
particular, these exclusive camps, which blend so gracefully into their
isolated natural setting and invariably host an array of patio-side wildlife,
are an economical alternative to the private tented safari. Nomad offers the
best of these camps, but with an important twist--your own private guide
and vehicle. A couple may have 10 join them for dinner at camp, but
during the day they will be out on their own, to do exactly as they please.
Prices vary widely depending on your choice of permanent camp; the distances
between them; and the length of your stay.
Please contact us, and we’ll price an ideal itinerary for your needs.
Mahale Mountains
Tented Camp and Katavi Camp
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To
the right: one of Africa's jewels, and a bit
of eden--Mahale
Mountains Tented camp on
the beach at Lake Tanganyika
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·
One
of the most precious small camps in Africa
lies on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, and is
reached by small airplane to Roland Purcell's
private airstrip. Mahale
Mountains Tented Camp holds 10. The camp is located on a white-sand beach,
the rival of any in the Caribbean, on the edge
of 80-degree, drinkably pure water. Behind camp, in
the lush forests of the Mahale Mountains,
reside the largest concentration of eastern chimpanzee in the world--one troupe
has over 80 members. Purcell also operates a small permanent camp in Katavi National Park, an
as-yet undiscovered wilderness, awash in plains game and elephant, just over
the Mahale
Mountains. Access to Mahale and Katavi is only by small air, but Nomad Safaris offers
regular service between Mahale or Katavi,
and Arusha, on Mondays and Thursdays. In 2010, Katavi’s
peak rates are $647/person/night, while Mahale’s
peak season rates are $868/person/night, plus park and chimp viewing fees,
based on shared double accommodation.
Peak season runs June-October, and around Christmas. During a low season that runs at Mahale from January through March and then again November
20 to December 20, Mahale’s rates drop to
$684/person/day (plus park and chimp viewing fees), while Katavi’s
decrease to $574/person/day (plus park fees) during a low season that runs from
November 1 to December 19 .
Tanzanian park officials are still contemplating significantly-increased
chimp viewing fees at Mahale (of perhaps
$150/person/day), and may also limit chimp viewing permits to one permit per
stay. We will keep you
advised—the threat has hung over us for years, but has never
materialized. Mahale
is closed from March 20 through May 31, while Katavi
is closed from January 1 through May 30.
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Above: a Mahale
chimp displays his lack of concern for the photographer while resting on the
forest floor of Mahale Mountains
National Park.
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Sand
Rivers Selous Lodge
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To
the right: sunset on the Rufiji River
from the open-air verandah of one of Sand
River Selous'
lodge's luxury huts
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The
45,000 square kilometre Selous
Reserve in Southern Tanzania covers five
percent of that country's land surface. It is the largest watered game reserve
in Africa; it is home to more elephant
(57,000); more hippo (40,000); more African wild hunting dogs (1,300); more
Cape buffalo (110,000) and more crocodiles than any other park on the
continent. With access limited to small airplane service from Dar es Salaam, and
with virtually no improvements, it is utterly wild. The entire reserve sees
maybe 5,000 tourists a year, and it is as close to old Africa as you'll find
anywhere on the continent. Safari Nzuri offers this
wilderness in two ways:
Sand River Selous
Lodge
One of Africa's most remote, adventurous and romantic
destinations is Sand River Selous
Lodge. Built in 1994, the lodge's 8 stone and thatch cottages hold
stunning views of the Rufiji River,
and lonely game drives in this untraveled wilderness are done by open vehicle,
boat and foot--indeed, the freedom of the wilderness is the rule here, and a
client's imagination about the only limitation. 2010 peak season rates here are
$890/person/night, plus reserve entry and conservation fees. “Green season”
rates (January though March 24, and November through
December, except the immediate Holiday period) drop to $620/person/night (plus
reserve fees). An
exhilarating add-on here is to depart the luxury of the lodge for a couple of
nights of fly-camping deep in the Selous wilderness,
at a $175/person/day supplement.
Selous Walking Safaris
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To
the right: Sand River Selous'
walking guide Alex Hunter watches a baby elephant nurse during a walking safari
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Since 1979, Kenyan
Richard Bonham, son of an African game warden and who once organized a
cross-continent water safari, has been leading old-fashioned porter safaris
across this great nowhere. Today, Sand Rivers Selous
is a base camp for walking safaris on which the traveler will encounter no one
except his own accomplished crew and a diversity of wildlife nearly as abundant
as when Georges Selous was shot by Germans here in
World War I. For a detailed
description of this exquisite Old Africa experience, Click Here.
1020 rates for these four-night safaris are $2400/person (for the
safari—not per night)
for an exclusive walking safari for your group (minimum: 2 guests; maximum: 6
guests), plus reserve entry and conservation fees.
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