Kenya and Tanzania Safari

“Aren’t you scared?” This is the question that I kept being asked by people when I told them that I was going on an African safari. For me, it was quite the opposite. Excitement and anticipation. I wanted to experience a National Geographic moment, and test my knowledge of the Lion King characters. 😄 There were only a few moments that sparked a bit of fear, and mostly with monkeys (more on that later).

I traveled with Tauck, which is a tour company based in Connecticut, but they use local safari operators for their classic safaris. When traveling to Europe, I usually go with Globus or Collette tours. Since I was traveling to Africa, I wanted a more inclusive tour with higher-end hotels.

Tauck and many other tour operators offer safaris to Kenya/Tanzania, but also to South Africa and Kruger National Park. I originally thought that I wanted to travel to South Africa, but the tour guide on my Portugal tour, who had been on a few safaris, told me that I needed to go to Kenya and Tanzania to experience a true safari. I’m thrilled that I listened to him. It was a jam-packed tour and I was going non-stop from the moment I woke up in the morning (which is very early most days), but so worth it.

I flew into Tanzania on Emirate Airlines, and then was transported to the Gran Melia Hotel in Arusha. Arusha is considered a base for Mount Kilimanjaro climbers as well as safaris, since it’s close to Serengeti National Park and many other wildlife parks. The hotel was fabulous, and grew most of its own fruits and vegetables, as well as coffee beans.

After relaxing at the hotel for my first full day, I met up with the tour director and the rest of the group. The tour director was fantastic. It turned out that he was from Connecticut and moved to Africa years ago to work with Tauck. We were chatting and when he heard my profession and the area in which I lived, he asked if I knew one of his good friends, who happened to be in the same profession. I certainly did! We both had a good laugh.

We visited Lake Manyara National Park during our second day for a short game drive. I called this a “tasting drive” since it provided a preview of things to come on the trip. Next up was Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera with its own ecosystem. Animals roam throughout the crater, which is massive. This is the game drive area that shouldn’t be missed on safari in Tanzania. We saw so many animals, including zebra, wildebeest, hippos, warthogs and hyenas. Our hotel was the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge, which literally overlooked the crater.

Our next destination was Serengeti National Park, known as the endless plain. We traveled there as a group via small plane (all organized through Tauck), and when I say small, I mean packed in like sardines with a cabin ceiling height meant for short people like me. It was all part of the experience, and the destination was worth it. Serengeti National Park is known for big cats. We hit the ground running as the airport is located right in the park, so our transfer to the hotel was a game drive. Luck was on our side since our driver spotted a leopard. I was extremely excited, to the point that I jumped up and down like a little kid. The leopard is the elusive cat that everyone on safari is trying to find. We scored on Day 1 in the park, so I was thrilled.

Serengeti is home to one of the most fascinating migrations on the planet when thousands of animals crisscross this area each year in search of food and water. Note to anyone interested in traveling to Africa on safari….it’s best to visit during dry season, which forces all the animals out in search of water. Also, there aren’t as many bugs during dry season. I traveled in early September, which is considered the end of dry season, and the research I did on this topic paid off.

The hotel that Tauck partners with in the Serengeti is the Four Seasons Safari Lodge. It’s actually located in the park, with a pool facing a waterhole for wandering animals. There’s not much else I can say about it other than it was amazing. The only drawback in this area of the Serengeti are the tsetse flies. It’s important to wear long sleeved clothing and pants on safari, especially in this area. I also sprayed my clothes with a strong insect repellent before I left home so that the scent remained on the clothes for 2 weeks. I was fortunate not to get any bites, but a few folks in our tour group were not so lucky. The hotel rooms each have a large balcony that overlooks the plains. I honestly only went on the balcony for a few minutes to take some pictures as I was worried about getting bitten.

We went on several game drives in the Serengeti over a few days, including early evening drives. I was able to see many lions, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, and the crazy hyena (at least to me). What amazed me the most about the lions is that our jeeps would pull up close to them, yet the lions didn’t care at all. I asked our driver about this, and he said the animals know we are in their home, and that they don’t see us as an enemy. Case in point….we drove right up to a sleeping lion. When he finally woke up, he just shook his head and long mane, and then put just sat there and looked around him. He was totally uninterested in us. Early evening drives were my favorite as you see the sun setting across the Serengeti. Some of the cubs were certainly inquisitive.

The Serengeti game drives seemed unreal at times. I couldn’t believe that I was witness to all these animals in their natural habitat. I remember speaking to someone on the tour and he said that he won’t be able to go to a zoo again after seeing the animals in these parks. I truly get his point.

After several days in the Serengeti, we flew to Amboseli, Kenya, where the game drives in this region were concentrated in Amboseli National Park and Masai Mara. Our hotels were the historic Fairmont Mt. Kenya Safari Club (majorly awesome), Fairmont Mara Safari Club (awesome), and the Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge (would have been awesome, other than the monkeys that were running on top of my tent). We were told to zip our tents at all times and put our tote bags or a piece of furniture in front of the zipper inside the tent so that the monkeys couldn’t get into the tents. These animals are so smart that they know how to work a zipper! They are curious and know that many tents have food. As for my stay in this “hotel”, I concluded at that point that staying in upscale resorts was the best thing I could have done (thank you Tauck!). Sleeping closer to nature, even in a “glam” tent, was not for me, even though this was considered an upscale tenting lodge.

The animals were abundant in this area, and I was even treated to peacocks on my balcony at the Mt. Kenya hotel. The rhinos truly looked like something out of Jurassic Park.

Our last morning we rode in a hot air balloon over the Masai Mara. We were there at sunrise, and it was incredible. So many tour operators offer this as an excursion as it’s billed as a once-in-a-lifetime view. If it’s not offered as part of a tour, my advice is to research and ensure the operator is reputable. I had complete faith in Tauck as they work with well-known vendors in the local areas.

Bottom line: this was a bucket list trip for me, and it was everything I had hoped for and more. For anyone interested in a safari, I can tell you that it is worth the hype. Travel time is long, but the overall trip can be done in 2 weeks or less. The local people that I met made a lasting impression on me as they were all so welcoming.

After returning home from the trip, my Dad asked me, “how could you ever top this trip?” Well, it will be difficult, but I will keep trying.

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning, a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or gazelle….when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” – Author Unknown