Now that I am back in the United States and have had a day or two to reestablish myself into my regular life, I’ve had some time to reflect on how awesome the past 25 or so days were. Surrounding the several short stops in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Moshi, were three completely different, completely amazing experiences. All three (safari, Kilimanjaro, and Zanzibar) went by without a problem. I would like to think it’s just that I’m lucky, but moreover, it’s mostly because we had Brian and Natalia help with everything. They hooked us up with great tour guides and great places to stay – people and places we may have easily overlooked. In this post, my goal is to provide as much of this information as possible for anyone who has gained an interest through reading my journal and might want to do what I did.
Before I jump in to the details, I first want to preface that we setup and negotiated both the safari and Kilimanjaro with one guy that Brian and Natalia had gone through. If you aren’t interested in doing both, want to spread the wealth to others, or just want to use the tour guides that I have mentioned in my blog, all of their information is below. Otherwise, this guy is great:
Pasian Peter
ppmoshi@gmail.com
Safari:
Cost, not including tips: $1250 US (per person)
The safari was incredible because it was just the two of us and our driver Justin. The biggest benefit to having our own driver was that we had complete control of our day and where we went. Justin was very warm and very fun to talk to and knew more than enough English to carry a conversation throughout the day. What makes a tour guide great is the ability to convey important information and point out things you might have otherwise overlooked and Justin was great at this. I would highly suggest his services if you are interested in going on a safari. Here is his contact info:
Justin Lucas
+255 784 842 252
justinlucas2007@yahoo.com
Another important part of the safari is where you go and where you stay. Our safari totaled four days. After Justin and Pasian picked us up at Kilimanjaro Airport, we stayed in Arusha for the night at a great little place called Tumaini Cottage. Justin picked us up the next day and then we drove to Serengeti National Park. We spent our first two nights at the Sopa Lodge: Serengeti which was great and allowed us to go out into the park with ease. Then in between our visits to the Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara we stayed at the Sopa Lodge: Ngorongoro which is up on the rim of the Crater and also offers sweeping views. When we booked with Pasian, he offered the Sopa Lodge package for $100 US more than one with lesser hotels. It was definitely worth it.
Kilimanjaro:
Cost, not including tips: $1050 US (per person)
The enjoyment of your Kilimanjaro climb, like the safari, also can heavily rely on how good your tour guide is. Just like the safari, a great tour guide points out areas and things of interest along the way. However, opposed to the safari, are a lot more things to consider. Instead of just one driver, you have a whole team of people catering to your needs. Depending on how much you want to drop and when you want to go, the “luxuries” available to you during your climb and at each camp differs. Considering that T and I, like the safari, went by ourselves, we had everyone catering primarily to our needs. Based on my experiences during the climb, the money I paid compared to what I overheard others had paid (over $5000 US), our money went along way. In total we had seven guys in our group: the head tour guide, an assistant tour guide, the cook, an assistant cook, and three porters. Each day, the head guide would hike with us and after we left, the other six would tear down camp, pack up and then carry our extra gear, their gear, and all of the camping equipment to the next camp, passing us on the way and would have it set up before we got there. On top of that, some of these guys had to hike as far as a mile once camp was set up to the nearest stream to get water for cooking, drinking, and hand washing. Incredible. The food was surprisingly awesome. Keep in mind, these guys either carry the food throughout the entirety of the trip or barter with other porters in passing. We had a beef pot roast, spaghetti bolognese, a rice and fish dish, more noodles, among other things and eggs every morning for breakfast. As far as removing the food from your body, there are toilets (i.e holes in the ground concealed by wooden shacks) along the way, but we saw some of the more expensive climbing outfits even have popup tents with toilets inside. See Alpine Ascents. Anyways, if you are interested, for $1050 US I feel as though our outfit was tough to beat.
Not included in the cost was lodging for before and after our climb. For that, we stayed in Moshi at the Leopard Hotel ($60 US / night). It wasn’t the greatest by any means, but it served it’s purpose and at the very least, gave us a hot shower even if we had to wait a little while. And how could you argue with a great pizza from Ristorante Italian Passion downstairs at the lobby. The hotel also has WIFI internet that you can purchase at the front desk at varied prices depending on the amount of time you need. This was huge, until the power went out
Here is the info for our head tour guide:
Augusti Michael Temu
PO Box 8052 Moshi, TZ
+255 755 570 927
a_manyota@yahoo.com
Zanzibar:
Zanzibar was somewhat different than the safari and Kilimanjaro in that we were basically going to an island with beaches to relax and from there, we could sign up for excursions like snorkeling, diving, sunset cruises and more from the beach hustlers. During the six plus days we spent on the island, we stayed up north in Kendwa at the Sunset Bungalows Kendwa resort ($90 US / night) and then finished up with a day and a half in the main hub of Zanzibar, Stone Town where we stayed at The Dhow Palace ($100 US / night). Both places served their purposes very well. The water could have afforded to be just a tad bit warmer at Sunset, but hey, it was a small price to pay to stay at a place where the surroundings look too good to be true.
Getting Around Tanzania:
After spending an entire day getting to Tanzania from the United States, we had three awesome mini vacations to look forward to with just one problem: each place was quite far from the other. We booked flights with Precision Air (online reviews made it the most reputable) to get from Dar es Salaam to the Kilimanjaro airport and from then Kilimanjaro Airport to Zanzibar (~$210 US / person) and then also booked a ferry Fast Ferries to get from Zanzibar back to Dar es Salaam.
