Savannah Explorers Limited — Local services in Arusha

We had an absolutely wonderful experience with Savannah Explorers! The tour was incredibly well-planned, and Agusti in the office went above and beyond to tailor the program to our specific needs and preferences. He was very flexible with accommodations and any changes we requested, making the entire process seamless. He made it possible to mix game drives with walks up Mount Kilimanjaro, a coffee plantation tour and a Maasai village visit for our brilliant 10-day holiday! Our guide, Paulo, was fantastic— very friendly, very good driver, knowledgeable about the animals, and always patient. He sensed when we wanted to stop, having glimpsed one of the beautiful animals, or just a dung beetle crossing the road 😅. He was brilliant at finding the big five, spotting them from far away! One of the highlights of our trip was his thoughtful gesture of preparing coffee and tea for us every day from his "secret box," (sorry for giving it away!) adding a personal and special touch to our safaris. Paulo truly made it his mission to ensure we had the best experience possible, even patiently teaching us words in Swahili, endlessly repeating them for us - asante sana! The accommodations were all amazing. The lodges were beautifully situated near activities or within nature, giving us a true sense of being in the wild, yet they provided exceptional comfort. It was great to see their strive to be eco-friendly using natural materials and the frequent use of solar panels. The meals were varied and plentiful and we loved the cardboard picnic lunchboxes as well as the Tanzanian policy of 'Trash in, trash out', protecting their environment. The staff at each lodge were attentive, caring, and incredibly friendly, adding to the overall charm of our trip. Nzuri sana! A nice touch could be to advise anyone booking a holiday with Savannah Explorers to bring along pencils, stickers, crayons, etc to give to children as we walk along tracks and villages - such smiling little faces greeting you everywhere you go! We wholeheartedly recommend Savannah Explorers to anyone looking for an unforgettable safari experience, and more, in Tanzania. Thank you for such a...

We absolutely loved our tour. I’ve been lucky enough to have travelled a lot and this trip immediately shot to the top of my list of one of the coolest/best trips I’ve ever been on. As part of our trip, we requested going to the Serengeti to see the Great Migration and we could not be more happy that we did!. I highly recommend Savannah Explorers and our guide Evarest. Our group was three women in our early 30s. The trip was organized perfectly. From picking up each of us individually at the airport (including accommodating two of us who had flights that were delayed by more than a day) to drop off, we didn’t have to think or worry about anything other than enjoying ourselves. They gave us options for different hotel packages depending on our budget. We loved staying at Nyota Luxury Camp and Lake Masek Tented Lodge and we also liked Ngorongoro Marera Mountain View Lodge.

Most importantly we loved our guide, Evarest! He was professional, thoughtful, good at picking up on how we were feeling & planning/adapting our days accordingly. He was kind, had a good sense of humor, we felt he was always dedicated to us having the best experience possible from the beginning until the end of the very long days, etc. As three women, we felt we were in great hands with him. If I remember correctly, he’s been doing this for 15 years and knew the unmarked/bumpy roads of the Serengeti like the back of his hand. He was a great driver, and clearly has a lot of love and respect for Tanzania and the wildlife. And most importantly he was GREAT at spotting animals (guides from other tour companies would sometimes stop Evarest on the road and ask where to find the big cats that day). To be fair, it was my sister who planned the whole trip so I wasn't sure what to expect, but the variety and proximity of animals we saw exceeded any and all expectations I could have had. We were able to get so close to all the beautiful animals while still feeling like we/Evarest were respecting them. It really was a dream come true, it’s making me want to cry just writing this haha. Thank...

We did a seven day (five full) covering Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, and the Serengeti (south and central). Every day felt distinct and presented new exciting animal sightings. I kept thinking "we can't top that", but every day I had another wow moment.

Our tour guide, Jackson, was amazing. He clearly communicated the schedule for the day and provided details about the behaviours of the animals we saw. He was great with our 9 year old and accommodated sudden needs for bathroom breaks. Also, I'm pretty sure he had binoculars for eyes because his ability to spot animals was uncanny. He identified a rhino down in the caldera from a lookout high above Ngorongoro. Even with 7x binoculars it was still tiny. Unreal.

Some of our sightings included; a herd of Wildebeest (and a few zebras) crossing a lake (and then some of them crossed right back); giraffes galloping, eating, and looking at us with suspicion; lions sleeping and 100% not caring about us at all before disappearing in a bush that seemed too small to accommodate them; hyenas eating and others playing in the water; and cheetahs just being cats (thrilled we got to see them).

One day Jackson kept us out late because he'd heard that a leopard had been spotted. We had our way through the park and found her sleeping in a tree. While we watched she woke up, stretched, came down the tree, ran past the safari vehicles, up another tree, and started eating a kill she has stashed. Great experience. Hilariously, she was still there the next day, sleeping.

On our last day we came across a large herd of elephants (not our first) with juveniles of many ages. As we made our way down the road we found ourselves blocked by a large one who starred us down until the others had cleared the path. It made for some great photos.

Overall, a great experience.

P.S: I'm not an expert photographer (or any kind really) and everything I took was on my phone. So don't judge the experience by the quality of the photos, but the opportunities...