Booking your first safari trip can be a bit daunting. To make things easier, I’m sharing my experience and the things I’ve learned in hindsight.
Booking process
Our search for the perfect safari all started on Safaribookings.com (not an affiliate link). We simply entered βTanzaniaβ, our start date, and 2 as the number of people on the home page. This gave us a list of available safaris from numerous different tour operators, which we then filtered down based on the duration of our safari, our budget, the luxury level of the accommodations, private or group safari, etc.
We really approached booking our safari trip as booking a once in a lifetime experience, so we chose to do a private safari. Booking a private safari allowed us to customise our itinerary. It also gave us the freedom to amend our itinerary even during the game drives, and it gave us plenty of excellent photo opportunities. Yes, we even bought a new camera with a sharp zoom for our safari adventure.
Since it was our first time doing a safari, we didnβt feel brave enough to set up our tents in the middle of a campsite, and in between the wild animals, so we searched for a semi-luxury safari to stay within our budget. We ended up sleeping in lodges and bungalow tents throughout our safari.
Through Safaribookings.com, we submitted an enquiry to the safari operator whose standard itinerary and fee quote we liked the most. After some back and forth correspondence, we amended the itinerary by adding an extra night in Serengeti to increase our chances of witnessing the Great Migration of the Wildebeest. We also swapped lake Manyara for Tarangire, and we negotiated the final price.
First night in Arusha
Most safari adventures start with a night in Arusha, so you should double-check if this night is included in your safari package.Β
We had assumed that we needed to book our own hotel for the night before the safari, only to find out that our safari operator had also booked us a hotel for that same night. Our safari operator was very relaxed about this and refunded us for the hotel they booked, so we had no extra costs at all.
Β After returning from our safari, we stayed one more night in our Arusha hotel. This way, we could leave most of our luggage in their storage room, and only take a small backpack each on safari.
Budget versus quality
We found a safari within our budget, and our safari operator was a lot cheaper than other operators with a similar itinerary. However, we got what we paid for.
Unlike other safari operators, ours didn’t have any technology to track the Great Migration of the Wildebeest. This resulted in us completely missing out, while we always clearly communicated that watching the Great Migration would be the highlight of our safari. We even booked an extra night in Serengeti to increase our chances. We knew about apps that track the Great Migration, but didn’t have any reception on our cell phones throughout the full five days of safari.
Our driver was slow, and other safari jeeps constantly overtook us. He also always complained that where we wanted to go was too far (we blame it on his lack of speed, rather than the distance). In hindsight, we wished we had saved up and spent a bit more money for a better safari experience.
On the bright side, our driver taught us a Swahili song to which we still remember the lyrics (even after three years). Of course, we also had a lot of precious moments while watching the wildlife. Since I won’t be booking with this safari operator again, I will not mention their name on my blog.