re: Saving for a safari trip

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The best of both worlds is finding the right tour and making sure it is very small. I would never want to be on a big bus full of folks, but small tours with 4-8 people can be very good.

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There'd be 4 of us so it might be possible for just our family to be by oursleves. My fear though is that a safari would be like a outfitted duck or goose hunt where there are "preferred" customers who get the good blind while anyone else gets the spoonbill blind.....but everybody is paying the same amount of money. I get the same deal when chartering boats....it happens more than it doesnt. If I am going to lay out $30K for the 4 of us I would be more satisified seeing 1/4 of the animals on our own than seeing 4 times that with a bunch of strangers and being herded about like cattle.


WHat I would really like to do is combine it with a couple of days of bird hunting....never cared anything for hunting shite that can hunt me back...yeah, I am skeered LOL....but there is some world class bird hunting in most of the continent. Thats a bucket list trip!

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There'd be 4 of us so it might be possible for just our family to be by oursleves.

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Yeah, I'd definitely do that, or at least have a vehicle to yourselves. After the trip I just took my recommendation would be to look for a company in Arusha, Tanzania. Safari tourism is a large part of their economy and it's the nicest place we saw in Kenya and Tanzania. Kilimanjaro International airport is about a 30 minute drive away and relatively painless to fly into and out of. Delta/KLM works really well with direct KLM flights from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro. I really liked northern Tanzania - good roads and not a lot of people. Every safari tour vehicle we saw was a Toyota Land Cruiser with 6 seats in the back next to the windows, and the top pops open so people can stand and look around. We had our tour leader in the front with the driver, and 4 of us in the back. I wouldn't want more than 4 in the back, just enough room for the luggage to go in the back and for us to all get good views from the window and open top. I'd try to find a highly rated company on Tripadvisor and one that can get you a private tour that visits Tarangire / Ngorongoro Crater / Serengeti (pretty standard route) and also Amboseli not far away in Kenya. The border crossing into Kenya at Namanga is a new facility and easy. Amboseli is worth it, great view of Kilimanjaro and a wetlands that had the most wildlife of our trip.

For the next poster - about cost - I dropped just under $10K, for 3 weeks, solo in a group of four. A birding tour that included wildlife, so probably not much different than safari costs. But we did have a bird guide in addition to our driver who also knew the wildlife, so a private tour with just the driver would likely be cheaper. All the safari lodges were very nice. I'll put together a trip report eventually but for now I'll add that I really liked the Ngare Sero lodge in Arusha - a great place to wind down from the trip, would be good for arrival too.

I'm sure there are other options - I heard good things about Kruger in South Africa, and Botswana is supposed to be really good. But Tanzania/Kenya is all that I really know. And that exceeded expectations.

I have done Tanzania twice. Group of 3 and group of 5. Used Good Earth Tours for private safari..just your group and your driver/guide. They'll plan a trip with you. They are based in Arusha but have a US office. Get your travel agent to work with their US rep. Moderate pricing. Highly recommend them. I like Tanzania much more than Kenya. Excellent trips..nothing like it!

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Tigris

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What was your camera and lens setup?

Thanks.