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 2008.  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. 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.

Drawbacks

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.

 Northern Tanzanian Safaris...a choice of:

 

..ONE, a classic walking 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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Nomad offers classic mobile Serengeti, Tarangire, Manyara and Ngorongoro mobile safaris that move location with the wildebeest migration and other northern Tanzania game movements. 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 luxury tented camp moves ahead of you each day as you, your private guide and private vehicle drive and walk through old Africa. Rates for 2008 are $565/person/day for each of four, or $705/person/day for each of a group of two, plus park fees.  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. 2008 peak season rates run $600/person/night, plus park fees.  The peak season in the Serengeti covers about 10 months, with “low season” occurring during the green season of late March into May.  Daily rates are reduced by $50/person/day if one stays at least five nights in Nomad’s Serengeti Camp, or in any combination of Nomad’s three northern Tanzania camps (the other two being Nomad’s wonderfully isolated camp on the Loliondo concession area abutting the Serengeti, and Nomad’s new camp at Tarangire National Park), as long as at least 2 nights are spent at each of the camps that you’ve chosen.  Off-season rates are $450/person/night (plus park fees), with similar discounts for combining the Serengeti, and/or Loliando and Tarangire camps.

...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

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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 2008, Katavi’s peak rates are $520/person/night, while Mahale’s peak season rates are $750/person/night, plus park fees, based on shared double accommodation.  Peak season runs for about 10 months, and excludes the green season of early November through December (Katavi also has a discounted “green season” from mid-January to mid-February).  Stay in the “green” season, and: (i) Mahale’s rates are reduced to $550/person/night, plus park fees; while (ii) Katavi’s are reduced to $460/person/night, plus park and chimp viewing fees.  Also, stay at least seven nights at a combination of Katavi and Mahale, and your Katavi rates decline to $480/person/night (peak season) and $420/person/night (green season).

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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. 2008 peak season rates here are $720/person/night, plus reserve entry and conservation fees.   Rates are reduced by $50/person/night for stays of five nights or longer.  “Green season” rates (November through March, except the Holiday period) drop to $625/person/night (plus reserve fees), with similar discounts for stays of five nights or longer.   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.  2008 rates for these four-night safaris are $2040/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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