Before going on a tour of Kenya and Tanzania with
Guerba, I've notices there were very few, if at all, reviews and feedback from past travelers about such an organized tour. Therefore I try to describe here some of my experiences, observations and what to expect from a Guerba tour to Africa.
Our 'Faces of Kenya and Tanzania' tour lasted for 21 days and in fact was two separate tours, one for Kenya and a different one for Tanzania.
What to expect
For us, each day of the tour was somehow different and so it was always fun and never boring.
Expect to see a lot of wildlife up close and probably meet the Massai people in one of their villages. Otherwise, we had very few encounters with the locals, except for our guides and a few hours spent walking through towns; thus there is hardly any opportunity to experience the local culture.
If your tour either goes across several countries or starts in one country but is actually a tour of another country, then expect to spend a good portion of your tour traveling on the road between places.
Expect to wake up early in the morning every day and mostly sleep in the tents.
Also, you will have to do some small chores each day (eg. cleaning the truck, cooking, dishes, etc)
General infoWe traveled around the country along with a cook and two guides in a big safari truck. For the Kenya tour we had 6 people plus the staff and for the Tanzania we had 16 + staff and a smaller truck: go figure. Personally, I thought on the Tanzania tour the truck was a bit crowded and probably wouldn't recommend going on a tour with more than 15 people. You will have to travel a lot in the truck and if it is too crowded, there is not space to lie down and rest.
Guerba usually tries to hire local guides, and our guides were friendly and knowledgeable about anything we wanted to know.
Camping and CampsitesPretty much every night we camped outside in our tents. We were given air mattresses and some really good tents. Whenever we were in game parks, we usually stayed in campsites inside the park or just on the outskirts; this meant there was usually no fence between the animals and us. Nonetheless, I think it is still very safe and actually a significant advantage over staying in lodges and hotels. The surrounding animals provided some interesting moments and entertainment.
The conditions in campsites vary significantly. Most of the toilets in game parks were not sitdown and were basically just a hole in the ground, things improved outside the parks. Also it was rare to get hot water in a shower; most places had only cold water and in some parks there were no showers.
Food and Cooking
As I mentioned, we had a cook traveling with us and he was doing most of the cooking for us with some minor help from a different group of us each day. The food was amazing! It seriously felt like it was restaurant quality food! Every day we had 3 meals.
Also, Guerba has pretty high standard for hygiene and there are processes in place to wash your hands and dishes properly: this was rather impressive. Having said that, a couple of people still managed to get an upset stomach.
Every day a different group helps to wash the dishes and everyone participates in the drying -flapping- ritual :)
Wildlife ViewingWe were lucky enough to see pretty much all of the animals we wanted to see and in abundance. Leopard was the hardest to spot, but we managed to see a couple of them.
On our tour we visited the following national parks; Amboseli, Samburu, Lake Nakuru, Hell's Gate, Massai Mara, Serengeti and the Ngorogoro Crater. All of these have a different landscape and some of the animals vary as well in type and quantities.
Optional Activities and Money WithdrawalI have to warn you that usually on a tour lasting more than 1 week there are lots of optional activities and they all cost extra money, as the result many of us ran out of cash. Another problem is that the prices for these activities are not provided in the brochures; If possible, I suggest you find out the cost of the activities of interest to you well ahead of time.
We also encountered lots of problems withdrawing money from the bank. First of all, we were rarely near a bank and when you are the following should be taken under advisement
1) If you have a credit card, it better be a Visa, since MasterCard is not accepted almost anywhere.
2) Withdrawing money from a credit card outside of a bank will cost you a fortune!
3) You better know your pin number.
4) Under no circumstances should you bring Travelers cheques with you!
It would be best not to rely on your credit card and have a lot of cash instead. In small-town banks, especially in Tanzania, they don't accept any credit cards.
Other AdvisesIf you want to buy souvenirs, the best thing to do is wait, don't jump on the first thing you see; a lot of the souvenirs are the same everywhere in the country. Most importantly thought is Always Bargain!
Our guides has a lot of interesting stories to tell about their encounters with animals in the parks, so don't forget to ask them about that :)
Also,
here are the pictures from the trip.
Tags
Africa Guerba Kenya Tanzania Travel African tour organized wildlife review East Africa Expectations advice issues expect safari
