Travel Review: Luxury Africa Safari, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti

We have now been back from our safari experience for six weeks, doesn't seem possible!  In the interim, we had a family wedding and multiple commitments related to work, that event and family members from out of town.  It has indeed been a busy time.

As we reflect back on our experience, we will carry fond memories of this experience.  It was indeed a memorable.  In order to give you feedback that hopefully will be of value to you in serving others clients I will give observations and critique as follows:

1. Organization and Planning: This was very good.  No problems here at all.  All of the pick-ups, hotels and transportation needs went off without a hitch.  Smooth as silk as the saying goes.  The booklet provided to us with the description of where, when and what we would be doing along with packing suggestions etc. was very helpful and we found nothing lacking.

2. Accommodations:Clean, well kept and maintained, comfortable, and accommodating staff.  The environment of all facilities was relaxing and had a air of being comfortable and inviting.  The food was as a whole outstanding.  We did have one appetizer of chicken liver that was not of our personal taste or liking but the manager was conciliatory.  I must admit however, we were a bit taken back by this particular selection as most westerners would probably not relate to chicken liver as a normal part of their diet.

3. Guides:It is difficult to evaluate the guides as a whole since each one was more or less at the mercy of his environment and immediate circumstances.  As a whole, the guides were not as good as those we had on a safari in Zimbabwe.  They were OK but not as personable, interactive or seemingly friendly as those we had previously.  They were knowledgeable but often seemed more interested in talking with their spotters than with us.  Maybe it is a cultural thing in relating to strangers but in a tourist industry cultural patterns of behavior must be shaped to the guest.  We felt sorry for our main guide in Zambia as he really put forth an effort to find interesting subjects for us but was largely unsuccessful due to circumstances beyond his control.  Which brings me to the last evaluation, locations.

4. Locations: Zambia:  To be completely honest and frank it was, with one exception (a pride of lions with cubs), a total waste of time and money.  There were no animals in any numbers and the environment was terrible.  For purposes of fire mitigation, the authorities would burn off great swatches of land and we would drive for literally hours through burned out landscapes, blackened and ugly.  Because of the burned off areas, there was little to no vegetation for animals to feed upon and therefore, no game for observation.  Our guide really tried to find us game to view but was at a severe disadvantage due to the overall status of the environment.  In short, we would never ever recommend someone go to Zambia for a safari experience.  Accommodations were the only saving element of this experience.  In fact there was one point in time had we had access to a telephone we would have called and asked to be scheduled on the next flight out that is how bad and disappointing Zambia was as a safari experience.   I am going to attach pictures for your review. Tanzania:  Much better than Zambia.   Ngoro Ngoro crater was a good experience.  This, as did the Serengeti, proved to be a learning experience.  We were able to see and observe the game we had hoped to see with the one exception of a rhinoceros.   The learning experience is how the game throughout Africa is being decimated.  This is from a combination of factors, poaching, environment issues and sociological impact.  Africa, just two examples, is losing an average of 100 elephants a day and losing on average four rhinoceros per day.  The great heads of wild animals roaming the Serengeti no longer seems to be the norm at least where we were.  The migration patterns may have played into this.  We did see large groupings of the Wildebeest, water buffalo and small groupings of elephants.  But, one must drive for some distance at times to find game and that is often facilitated only by the use of technology.  If it were not for the drivers and guides communicating with each other via radio where animals are located many game sightings would have been lost.  When we expressed to our guide in the Serengeti our desire to see the big cats he went on an all out effort to find lions, cheetahs and leopards and we saw each.  

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   In view of the above two paragraphs, we wonder if we shouldn’t  have gone/been directed to Maasai Mara instead of Zambia.  I trust that the evaluation as presented will be helpful.  Please be assured that this was an overall good experience for us.  Any negative comments that have been made are intended only as a tool to hopefully benefit you in your service to others.