Which countries for African Safari

[Munchkin]

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Originally Posted by travelover +1 on Ngorongoro Crater. It is truly like a little Eden. Travel by road is very slow in Africa, so flying is a lot more time efficient if you want to see multiple places though more expensive. My best experience was going to one spot and spending most of my of time there and getting to know the area and people.

Totally agree on the Crater. We were at a camp just on the ridge and saw a lot of elephant. Too bad - there are only about 10 rhino left and they each have a armed guard each night. Loved the hippo pool - that was a nice surprise.

[Scuba]

We did a safari in Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia in about two weeks. Wildlife was great. We saw the biggest variety in Botswana but South Africa and Zimbabwe had a lot too. We did a canoe safari which was much more adventurous than we’d realized. Hippos kill more people than all of the other animals combined. We learned this just as we embarked on the Zambezi River in our canoe. Great trip and the last few nights in Capetown were a real treat too.

[levindb]

I would recommend you check with:

https://www.natureencounterstours.com/

Carol Petersen set up a series of 7 safari camps over 5 weeks and there are not enough days left this year to share the tremendous experiences we had. Keyna, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Animals in different areas (desert, river delta, forests, etc.) tend to behave differently. All camps we were in were small (6-10 cabins/tents) and we saw the brutality of nature every day. In order for some animals to live, other animals must die...it was very difficult to watch at times, so be prepared to see these types of things before you start your planning. We were not with a travel group, just DW and I, and at each camp some people would arrive and others would depart each day. We had 2-6 people per safari vehicle and the best places to visit allowed off road travel. Some national parks, like Kruger, only allow travel on roads, which keeps you at a distance from what you want to see. I took all my pictures on my iPhone because we were allowed only 26 lbs of luggage...we flew on some pretty small planes between camps.
I can provide more details and suggestions if needed...this was so much more than we ever dreamed it would be.

We did Blow That Dough on this trip, but it was worth it.

[24601NoMore]

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Originally Posted by Munchkin Hi there - we went all in to Tanzania last October and it was the highlight of our life. Highly recommend Access2Tanzania and a private guide. It was worth the extra money.

We also chose Tanzania and Access2Tanzania for our Tour Operator and had a similar (highlight of our life) experience. Can't recommend either highly enough.

A2T only offers "private" tours, where a guide takes you and the rest of your party (just me and my wife on our trip) out into the bush in a Land Cruiser that's solely "yours" for the entire trip. There's no-one else aside from your guide and the others in your party in the vehicle. So, the entire trip is up to you (with your guide's suggestions, of course, on where to go)..if there's something you want to stop and watch a while, that's fine - you tell the guide when to move on. There's really no other way, IMHO, to do a trip like this, and I can't imagine being in a big tour bus with dozens of others where you have no control whatsoever on your itinerary or when you start and stop different parts of your tip. You also select your own lodges and camps. Between that and the private guide, it's truly an entirely "custom" safari that YOU control.

I'd suggest determining when you want to go, then narrowing things down from there. Not sure about the other countries, but in Tanzania, you'd visit the "North Circuit" (Tarangire, Lake Manyara Ngorongoro, the Serengeti) at certain times, and either the South or other areas at different times of the year..that's primarily because of weather - Tanzania has a "wet season" and a "dry season" and the animals manage both differently. We went in the "dry" season (late Sept/early Oct of 2019) and the benefit of doing that is that the animals have to congregate around water sources as it's more limited - so they're easier to find. In the wet season, water is not as scarce and there's less congregating at water holes..the foilage is naturally totally different as well..dry season - far easier to see the animals in the more brown'ish grasses..wet season where everything is green - harder..

We did a 10-night safari (followed by 4 nights on Zanzibar at end of our safari to wind down - safari is hard work!) with A2T and visited most of the North Circuit including Arusha National Park, Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Central Serengeti and the Northern Serengeti. Saw literally thousands of animals including all of the "big 5"..but one of the highlights was seeing The Great Migration in the north, with hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra making their way down from Kenya across the Mara River and onto the plains of the Northern Serengeti. Life changing stuff for sure.

Oh, and the comment above about the roads is spot on - we've never seen anything like Tanzania "roads". Our Land Cruiser was built like a tank, and it's a good thing - because any "normal" vehicle would have been totally destroyed by those roads. If you have back issues or any other health problems, be sure to talk through this with both your Tour Operator and Doctor - it's really rough going most of the time, at least in Northern Tanzania.

Happy to answer any questions that might help..good luck!

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scuba We did a canoe safari which was much more adventurous than we’d realized. Hippos kill more people than all of the other animals combined.

We met a couple, (he was with the RAF), in Botswana at one camp, and ran into them again after we had both visited different camps.

They went on a canoe ride at the camp we didn't go to.......the hippos started getting aggressive, and their guide told them to quickly evacuate the canoe and wade to the river bank......crocs be damned.

[Scuba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo2 We met a couple, (he was with the RAF), in Botswana at one camp, and ran into them again after we had both visited different camps. They went on a canoe ride at the camp we didn't go to.......the hippos started getting aggressive, and their guide told them to quickly evacuate the canoe and wade to the river bank......crocs be damned.

Interesting. I thought DH was going to kill me the first day of our canoe safari. We had not realized the danger when we planned the trip. Makes for great memories though.