Colette's Grand Detour

After a few days to reflect on my adventure to Kenya and Tanzania, I have put together some thoughts on my trip for anyone thinking to come to East Africa on safari. I’ll caveat by saying, some of the information below is specific to East Africa and some is more generalised and can apply to all safari’s.

The first thing you want to decide is your budget. There are a huge number of tour companies offering trips to East Africa and a good portion of them do a similar-ish circuit so it can be a little overwhelming. For me, as a solo-traveller, I always join small-group tours offered by companies like Intrepid and GAdventurers, but even here you need to pick your budget. And if you are going private, you can tailor absolutely everything so you need to decide what you want

My priorities when picking the trip I have just done (which was the National Geographic Journeys by G Aventures trip) was to:

1. Be in a small vehicle where everyone got a window seat (I didn’t come all the way here to crane my neck over someone else’s camera to see the animals)
2. Stay in slightly more luxury accommodation with tents that had full amenities like hot showers, bathrooms and comfortable beds (I don’t like camping)
3. Include cultural visits in addition to game drives (e.g. not all tours visited Oldupai Gorge or had cultural tours of Mto Wa Mbu)
4. Have adequate time to explore both the Maasai Mara and Serengeti by staying overnight in both parks
5. Time my visit to see the Great Migration animal crossing of the Mara River

I would say the most important things to consider are:

1. The time of year you want to visit. Different times of year will have different highlights to see, but will also vary in price. For example, I really wanted to see the great migration, and so does everybody else, so August is peak season to visit and you pay for the privilege. But other seasons have great things to see too, for example if you came in February you could see all the animals giving birth or if you come during the driest months, animals are more concentrated around water sources.
2. How much time can you go for? Our trip took almost 2 weeks and you will have some long travel days to get between places. I felt like the length of my trip was perfect. Any shorter and we would have missed out on things I wanted to see. Any longer and you might get safari fatigue and need a little break. We drove between everywhere (except when we flew between Nairobi and Arusha) but you can also do fly in/fly out safaris as most parks will have an airstrip and hopping between parks like this can save a lot of time. But it was also cost you a lot of money.
3. The accommodation and the vehicle. You can pretty much come on a shoe-string budget or spend more than most people make as an annual salary on a safari. Budget options would include much larger vehicles (think a converted truck with enclosed seating on top) which take 20+ passengers and are much slower moving due to their size. These trucks are often used on some of the longer trips that small-group tour companies run that cross multiple countries. The accommodation for these types of trips could be camping-style where you put up your own tent each night and help with the cooking and cleaning. The next level up would be camping but the tents are already up when you arrive so you don’t have go through that rigmarole or semi-permanent camps with bigger tents, proper camping beds and a working toilet and shower in the tent. I did the latter type of trip when I went to Botswana years ago and it was still very comfortable. In Kenya and Tanzania 95% of groups were travelling in land cruisers that seated 6 people (so everyone gets a window seat) , slide-open windows and a pop-up roof for better game viewing. This is what we used and it was perfect. We also had a driver plus our tour guide. I would recommend this as it is more eyes searching for wildlife, but also it means the driver can concentrate on getting you places whilst the guide talks to you about what you are seeing. Our accommodation was super nice, with big spacious tents, four-poster beds, full amenities, great views and often a swimming pool. And they were in great locations in the thick of things so you didn’t have to drive far to start your game drives. But there were much more expensive options that might be more exclusive, be in some sort of special location or offer even bigger more luxurious tents. These can be pretty unaffordable and would have meant I would have to half the length of my trip to fit my budget.

Now I have completed my trip I have a much better sense of the options and what works for me. I really liked that our trip took us to different environments and it wasn’t something I realised I would enjoy so much. Visiting Lake Nakuru, Naivasha and Manyara was great and we saw things there such as the black and white rhinos and birdlife that we did not see in other places. Don’t just stick to the open grassland and savannah environments like the Maasai Mara and Serengeti.

I would also recommend including cultural activities within your plans. It would be very easy to bypass this and focus on getting to the parks but you would not learn much about the country, the people and how they live. I really enjoyed all the cultural parts of our tour and wouldn’t have swapped them out for my time in the parks.

Both the tour leader in Kenya and Tanzania were brilliant. A good guide can make or break your trip. You want someone who is knowledgeable not just about spotting animals but explaining their behaviors, knowing where to best position the vehicle and where to search for different species. And you want them to be passionate about wildlife – their enthusiasm will set the tone for your trip. David (Kenya) and Davis (Tanzania) offered this and I have taken their direct details in case I ever want to come back and explore more of each country. I’m happy to share their details if anyone is interested in organising a private tour with them. In particular I think I will come back to Tanzania to explore the south of the country and I will plan to use Davis when I do this.

If you are thinking about doing a safari then I cannot recommend it enough. Its a brilliant adventure to take and each trip is completely unique and different to anyone else’s.