Travel Africa Safari Agency — Attraction in Arusha

If you’re looking for a well organized and high value safari trip look no further. I can’t recommend Travel Africa enough, if I could give 6 stars I would (and I’m pretty stingy with my 5 star ratings). Our safari was an 8 day, mid range, private wildlife safari and cultural excursion. Mohamed, from my first email, was very responsive and answered all my questions (I had so many questions!). He arranged our pick up and drop off (we had a very early departure) and greeted us the first day for a briefing of our trip and made sure to come by the hotel on our last day to send us off.

The quality of your safari has everything to do with your guide and I’m convinced we had the best. You should absolutely request to have Omari as your guide (we took to calling him by his Tanzanian name of Mtanagi). He’s been guiding for 15 years and is really passionate about the animals, birds and history of the land, so he has so much information to offer. Because of his experience he knows so many of the other guides which is really helpful in finding animals. He had a real knack for putting us in the perfect viewing position for all the animals and he has an amazing eye for spotting animals. I actually challenged myself to find a big cat before he did, I did it once and felt pretty proud of myself. Beyond all this, we always felt safe with Mtanagi. He’s a skilled driver, he got us out of tricky spots in mud and was well prepared with all the safety tools and it’s clear he knows how to fix and deal with a safari rig. He’s a dad of 10 so he understood how it is traveling with kids (we have an 11 and 13 year old). I think what made us really love him was he was present with us, he shared about his life and asked about ours, he ate most of our meals with us (at the hotel it was rare to see guides eating dinner and breakfast with their clients). He treats all people with such kindness and care that it’s impossible not to love him. He took such amazing care of us, it felt really sad to say goodbye.

Our accommodations were top notch. The organization and schedule was seamless but was never so ridged that we couldn’t adjust a little bit along the way. Things ran promptly which I appreciate. The rig was comfortable and roomy and well stocked with water, beer and wine which was a nice perk.

There are so many tour companies and can be daunting in trying to figure out which one to go with. We felt like the value was high for the price and the experience was absolutely...

I booked a safari tour with "Colours Africa" but they subcontracted me and unknowingly randomly put in a tour with (Travel Africa Safari Agency.) Anyways the whole tour was really not the best and i wouldnt recommend either company. Accommodation (tent/budget hotel) was not good and the food during our tent days were ok, but always cold. The food from the budget hotel weren't great and it was small quantity. The tents were not in good condition. We had to borrow things from other tour groups like chairs. The jeep's windows were stained with black dots so you wouldn't be able to take pictures if the windows were closed. Their cooler was not working properly. The driver/guide was always driving below the speed limit and very slow and he was constantly checking the engine. My tour group and I believed that he couldnt drive at a normal speed because the jeep was having issues, but he didn't want to say. The cost of these budget tours are double what it should be. If you are not aware of africa pricing/salary.... a guide is making about $10 USD a day, which is consider in africa a pretty good salary. So when a tour costs $800 makes you wonder who is pocketing the money. When you do the math and calculate food, gas, park fees and accommodations it doesnt add up to the prices of these tours. On top of everything the tour guide and cook are expecting a tip of $10 a day. In the end of your trip the guide even requests their tips. Very rude and unprofessional thing to do. It seems like we the tourists are paying for a lot of people's salaries, based on the tip they want. What I've learned from my travels all over Africa is that in Tanzania and Kenya all budget companies will subcontract their passengers when they can't fill the jeep/van with 7 people. They all say they don't, but they do. So it will happen in the end with any tour company. Unless you pay for a private tour which is also crazy expensive! The upside is i saw beautiful things at Seregenti and Ngorongoro Crater. Also be aware the driver is just a driver and not an actual guide with knowledge, so dont expect much info/facts about what you are seeing; this will happen with most budget tour companies. Unfortunately, to have a good decent safari seems like you need to spend a couple of thousands dollars on a private tour. It's unfortunate how these tour companies are getting away with a lot schemes. The poor quality service these companies are offering in tanzania are...

We had a good experience with Travel Africa. First of all, we didn't book via them, but via Polecat Safaris and these local, Tanzanian tour operators (approx 10 of them) apparently share their customers in shared group tours to avoid half empty cars. In general, I would recommend to do a bit of research and support these local operators to support Tanzania and not some foreign companies that just take the money out of the country. Back to the tour: In the end we were 7 people, which is max capacity for one car. Nonetheless, these "budget Safaris" are the best choice for me as a younger traveller. If you're a bit lucky like we were, you meet some amazing other people and can have a really fun time. The tour itself was perfectly organised. Everything just worked. Our tents were always ready and waiting for us, even though they were a bit moist sometimes. When you book camping, be prepared for very basic camping spots. It does not matter which company sells you camping, they are always the same. You can only upgrade by going to a lodge. Was happy that I had my own sleeping bag. But We had a private cook, Adari, just for the 7 of us who accompanied us during the safari and who made amazing food each single day, made lunch packs, great dinners and was just kind and friendly. We always had a meat option, a veggie option, 1 side dish, a variation of a pizza and salad and dessert. It was plenty and we were never able to finish it. Very amazing experience with Adari. Our driver guide Macha was always very knowledgeable, very safe driver I would say and he would acknowledge our wishes and tried to plan the days around what we said we wanted to see and when to start. For some reason, he had a feeling for when to be where and his experienced eye spotted the most impossible animals from very far. He also quite clearly said what we're going to expect from the tour and the specific days. In general I would fully recommend Travel Africa Safaris, our experience...