Tanzania

For the love of wildlife

Most watched channels at our home are Sony BBC Earth, Discovery, Animal Planet, Nat Geo Wild. We are big time animal lovers! Masai Mara and Serengeti had developed an unsaid familiarity. Travel to Africa was like a dream come true after years and years on watching animals on screen

Independent travel is quite difficult in Tanzania with limited or no public transport, and camps at quite remote locations into national parks. Most camps with decent reviews are priced above $300-500 per night. Since this was our first trip to Africa, we were not sure how reliable small tour operators are. We wanted to avoid situations of money getting stuck if another wave of COVID came in

We chose Natural World Safaris. They were 20-25% higher priced than the cheapest quote we got. They had a lot of positive reviews and initial interactions seemed very professional. They did not try to upsell or be pushy about closing the decision of going with them. We had good set of guides both in Kenya and Tanzania.. They seamlessly covered Kenya and Tanzania with a smooth handoff, and also gave us each a Masai Shukha as a souvenir which was a sweet gesture

We wanted to spend a good amount of time to cover the wide variety of animals and landscapes. You can do even a one day tour to cover key animals and get a sense of what a safari looks like. We took a 10 day safari with 6 days in Kenya, 4 in Tanzania. It never felt repetitive, probably due to our love for animals and for the fact that the landscapes were actually varied

Best time to visit

We picked August to witness the great migration. It gets expensive, but we didn’t want to be stuck in rains during rainy season (March-May). June to October dry season is good. December to February is good to see animal babies

Visa

E-visa costed us $50 which we applied for here

Getting In

We entered Nairobi from Mumbai through Kenya Airways, crossed the border into Tanzania at Namanga while going in and Isabenia while getting out. You will have to change vehicles. Your bags can be loaded into your vehicle post screening

Currency

USD was accepted everywhere and we didn’t exchange any money into local currency. At some places, we got change in local currency

Things to know

1. Vaccinations: A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required if entering through African countries like Kenya. We got our yellow fever from Mumbai at Girgaon for INR 300 and Polio vaccine from South Municipal Dispensary at Parel before leaving. You can find other centers here

• List of yellow fever vaccine centres in India
• List of oral polio vaccine centres in India

It is expensive to take one in Nairobi at $50+, so ensure you get one from India

2. Safari bookings is a good website to find safari operators and compare prices

3. Validate authenticity of operators extensively through reviews on multiple sites. Many of them are fraudulent and change their names as they get bad reviews. Ensure they are authorized by organizations like KATO, TATO

4. Kenya single entry visa is sufficient to enter into and come back from Tanzania

5. Although we went in August during great migration season, we could not see the famous river crossing of wildebeest escaping the crocodiles. It requires immense patience and waiting time to witness river crossings. We did see large herds of wildebeest, zebra coming into Masai Mara behind each other

Places to visit in Tanzania

We covered these national parks in Kenya in addition to ones in Tanzania which we will cover separately

• Tarangire- For mighty baobab trees. Manyara National Park, home to tree climbing lions is almost next door, but we skipped it as we did not hear recent sightings of lions on trees

• Ngorongoro crater- To see how an ecosystem gets formed and survives inside a volcanic crater. Olduvai Gorge Museum is close by, where you can witness pre-historic remains of Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Zinjanthropus skull from 1.6 Million years ago
• Serengeti National Park– Contiguous to and larger than Masai Mara, with vast savannas spreading endlessly in all directions. Famous for great migration

We spotted a variety of animals and birds over 10+ days including

Where we stayed

Natural World Safari provides a list of accommodation options on their website. You can select a preferred one basis reviews and finalize

Tarangire Acacia Luxury Camp

Ngorongoro Farm House: A wonderful farmhouse with loads of vegetables that they use in their restaurants

Serengeti- Pumzika Luxury Safari Camp: We saw a group of lions an cubs trying to hunt a bison right across the river near the room

How much does it cost

This has been the most expensive trip for us so far. We spent around $6000 per person for 11 days in Kenya and Tanzania. We paid tour cost to the agency via wire transfer to avoid card fees

• Flights: $920 (Mumbai- Nairobi return and domestic flights to Mumbai)
• Hotel + Tour including breakfast, lunch, dinner and transport from – to Nairobi: $4650 (for 11 days including 4 days in Tanzania)
• Food- coffees: $40
• Visa: $85
• Tips: $130. You are expected to tip $10 per person per day and additional $1-5 for bell boys depending on number of bags
• Insurance: $15

Explore next

• Kenya
• Egypt
• Jordan
• Turkey