Safari recommendations

Avoid the touts above (they probably be kicked out today anyway)

Finding an operator is difficult and can make/break your holiday. Three suggestions:

1. take one that is REGISTERED. Might be a tad more, but you know what you get.

2. (what I did) You are going late January. That is slightly off season peak. hence, you can just show up in Arusha and arrange next-day travel and shop around. Make sure you take one that is recommended by folks in Arusha (hotel owners, what not).

3. if you go for an unregistered one recommended from this board, make sure the recommendation comes from an independent and check the handle; eg posts above are touts.

Hi, I used a company called Lasi tours, in Sept this year a basic fair priced company looked after me well. do a search you should find more recommendations.
Cheers

Hello there,

I think it is a good idea to book in advance with a reputable tour company so as to ease up things upon arrival in Arusha.
I dont have much experience with most of tour companies in Arusha...but I would however recommend info@africanscarletsafaris.com who really made our holiday a great experience. Their staff and driver guide were very friendly, knowledgeable and charming all through. Maybe you should try them out amongst the rest.

Happy travels.

In 2005 we booked three arrangments with http://www.safarimakers.com/<BR>First we had a fantastic safari with Maluta (driver) and Mushi (cook) in Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro.
Then we walked the very recommendable Crater Highlands Trekking from Ngorongoro to Lake Natron incl. Ol Doinyo Lengai,
again with our bushcook Mushi and Maasai guide Maruka. All luggage was carried by 4 donkeys.
We visited the Masaai meat market in Longido
and we walked all the way up Mount Meru, ending with a short safari in Arusha N.P. offered by Safari Makers.

Barbara Cole and her husband run their business very well and are very reliable.
We paid all the money in advance and they even refunded us
for a price differce, because they also arranged our flight to Zanzibar and the prices changed meanwhile.
They only asked us part of the money, but we preferred to travel with less cash on us.

Look at the pics on my website. You will have a wonderful trip.
Maybe the scenery will be different (greener) because you will travel in another period.
Our journey was in july. Enjoy it.

greetings from Belgium

Dirk

I hired Nature Beauties (www.naturebeauties.com) for 6 weeks during the summer of 2006. They ended up being very reliable, even if not every guide is great. Try to deal with Yohan by email, and try to ask for Jackson as a guide: he was outstanding. William and Saidi were good, too, but not as good. Mike was my guide on kili: a bit quite for my taste, but still well prepared. Make sure not to get Nicholas: another group of Nature Beauties got him and they were very disappointed. They are considerably cheaper than most other companies, but still professional. Don't expect frills, they are not fancy at all, but their vehicles are pretty good (at least those I had the luck to be on) and they keep their word in terms of itinerary agreed with you. The LP guide has a list of recommended agencies, but you can find more at: www.tatotz.org clicking on "members"
Make sure you get the receipt of your payment, with stated what is/is not included, plus the confirmation of the departure date (if you arranged any).

I would click on every name of people replying your post and make sure they have a good number of posts in their record. If somebody advertises the services of a specific company and has just a handful of posts in his/her record, I would doubt that person is really a traveler. Most of the times, people who reply to you in that way are employees / managers / owners of a company, and are trying to get you book with them. In this way you would have no guarantee that their services are actually good and reliable. Careful with them.

I'd also recommend Safari Makers - my husband and I used them for our honeymoon this past August and they were great. We also did a one-way sort of deal, ending in the Serengeti and flying to Zanzibar, without any problems. I wrote a longer review of Safari Makers back in Sept. - probably still there if you search for it.

We camped and their prices were a little more expensive than Sunny's but well below the prices of Roy's. Sunny's seemed more likely to have those minivan-type vehicles, which could explain the lower prices. We saw no apparent difference from Roy's, in retrospect, and the reason we didn't go with Roy's in the first place was that they redirected us to a US-based company without any real explanation of who the company was and why they'd passed us on to them. It was just odd and didn't sit right with us.

I just got back from Arusha in October and had a great experience with Albert of African Scarlet Sarfaris, info@africanscarletsafaris.com. Email him and I'm sure he can help you out with something.

My husband and I were at the crater along with Lake Manyara. It was GOOD times!!!

We are going to Arusha in December. Booked with Bright African Safaris www.brightafricansafaris.com. It is localy owned by a borther and sister. they have been very helpful and have changed the arrangements several times when we have changed our minds..Although we have not yet been on the safari their attention to our needs is giving me great confidence.