 Game drive organized by lodges or safari companies?
> David writes ...
>
>We are planning to visit Tanzania in september and doing a 4 day
>safari. We don't want to drive all day during safari and Iam wondering
>if staying in a nice lodge with morning and evening safari trips is a
>good alternative for the 4 day safari trips organized by the safari
>companies
You can organize a private safari with your own driver and do it the
way you describe ... we always go out at 6 AM, come back for lunch and
rest, then go back out around 3 PM since we are mainly photographing
and the light is usually poor mid-day. You can arrange this with your
driver/guide on a private safari, but probably not on a canned package
tour where you are sharing the vehicle with other people.
>Anyone can give me some advice in terms of quality and costs
>when comparing these two?
Just contact a couple of companies like Leopard Tours or Roy Safaris or
similar and ask for their prices for a custom trip and then compare I
guess ...
> How about transportation to the lodges for example?
You didn't say where you were going ... from Arusha it's pretty quick
to drive to Tarangire or Lake Manyara, just a couple hours, and maybe
another 90 minutes to Ngorongoro Crater so it would make sense to start
early from Arusha and you still have time to do a game drive that
afternoon. But Serengeti is a much longer trip and in Sept you
probably want to go to the northern part anyway, which could take all
of one day, the last several hours over bumpy dusty roads. In that
case you might be better off flying into Seronera or even further north
.... I think Precision Airlines has daily flights from Arusha each
morning, for example ... if doing this and staying at one nice lodge
you could easily arrange to be met at the airstrip and then use the
lodge's jeep, then fly back at the end of your trip, but it will be a
hassle if you want to switch lodges or parks. Alternatively the
companies I mentioned will also send a driver out from Arusha to meet
you, but this might cost more.
Probably you need to decide which game areas you wish to see
(Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro are fairly close to each other
and to Arusha, but Serengeti is about half a day further), then decide
if you want to drive or fly, then decide if it makes more sense to do a
custom trip or use the lodge's vehicles (which I would think makes most
sense if you are flying into one lodge in the Serengeti since it's
otherwise hard to move between lodges).
Bill
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