Review: Africa Safari, Tanzania, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, Zanzibar, Local Culture

We worked with a travel planner from this safari travel agency.  She was very knowledgeable and gave us good advice in the planning of our trip.  We decided on the structure of the trip including countries, length of stay at different stops,  priced out the trip with various companies.  We concluded that this travel planner was our best choice and that proved to be accurate.  My only negative with this travel planner is that sometimes it took her a little while to get back to my emails, although that may be because she changed companies and I believe she merged her company into a larger one.  

When we arrived Kilimanjaro airport we were greeted by our guide.  He was to be our guide for the next ten days.  We also met the next morning with the tour guide owner who was gracious and helpful at certain times during the trip.  We visited Lake Manyara, Oldeani Mountain area, had visits with the Masai, the Bushmen, and the Hadzabe, which, although a bit sad for their lifestyle and poverty, were amazing.  Their kindness and friendliness was not expected and we learned a lot about them.  We visited Ngorongoro crater for one day (wish it had been 2) and had 6 day safaris in the Serengeti. Every day was an adventure, and watching the animals and enjoying the locations we stayed made the trip a true joy.  We cannot say enough positive things about our guide.  He was knowledgeable, engaging, and wanted to share his knowledge with us as well as learn a bit more English and who we were.  We laughed a lot with him and felt a strong bond when we departed.  We hope to keep in touch with him if he wants.  Our only negative was that when we were tired, he continued to try and show us more.

We left the Serengeti and flew to Zanzibar, which was a timely respite from the grit and grime of the safari.  We stayed at a boutique hotel, which was lovely- right on the ocean, with great rooms, excellent food, and terrific staff.  When we checked in they had us in a regular room with bed and breakfast.  We had requested and paid for an ocean front room with half board.  The front desk person was very understanding, and we called the tour company owner who confirmed that a mistake had been made and quickly fixed the problem.  My father got very ill while we were there and the front desk staff greatly helped with connections to the U.S.  We are indebted to them for this.

All in all, this was one of the most memorable trips my wife and I have ever had and I would recommend highly all aspects of our trip-our travel company, the tour company, our guide, and all hotels.  This is our third trip with Zicasso and probably will continue using them.

Alan and Cristina Fishman