Serengeti Safari: Know Before You Go -

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Booking a Serengeti safari can feel complicated and overwhelming—trust me, I’ve been there! I definitely learned a few things along the way, so I’ve compiled this list of things to know before you go so that ou can learn from my mistakes!

Types of Safaris

Before you start planning your safari it’s important to know that there are two different types of safari experiences: point-to-point driving safaris and fly-and-drive safaris. Both types can provide excellent safari experiences, but it’s important to know the difference and choose the type that’s right for you!

Point-to-Point Driving Safaris

On a point-to-point driving safari, you’ll spend almost every night at a different hotel and spend your days doing safari drives en route to your next hotel. For example, I spent the first night of my safari in Arusha, then we drove to Lake Manyara and did a safari drive there. We then spent the night in Lake Manyara. The next day, we did a safari drive en route to Serengeti Acacia Central Camp, where we then stayed the night. So you’re packing and unpacking every night and the days in the safari vehicle can be long as you travel from point to point and do safari drives. On the plus side, you get to see a wide variety of areas throughout your safari trip.

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Fly-and-Drive Safaris

With a fly-and-drive safari, you fly into a safari lodge and spend several days there. Early morning and late afternoon game drives are available and you can choose to do as few or as many as you’d like. Your mid-day is typically free to relax at the lodge and enjoy amenities like the pool or spa. Fly-and-drive safaris are usually a more expensive option and you may see a smaller area of the region on your game drive. Some people choose to do fly-and-drive safaris and do a few days each at two different lodges to see a larger area.

How to Choose a Safari Company

Booking a safari can feel overwhelming! I suggest poking around Pinterest and Instagram to get a rough idea of what areas you’d like to see. Once you’ve done that, know whether you prefer a point-to-point or fly-and-drive, and you have your proposed travel dates and budget in mind, I’d suggest using a site like Safari Bookings (not sponsored) and requesting quotes from three different safari tour providers.

Three quotes is a good number to start with so you don’t get overwhelmed since you’re likely to have some email dialogue with the tour providers as they ask questions to help provide you with the best itinerary and pricing. Go over their proposals item by item and do your homework! Research the accommodations and activities they suggest and read reviews on sites like Tripadvisor. Pro tip: always sort by most recent when online reading reviews!

Don’t be afraid to ask questions about their proposal and don’t be afraid to ask for substitutions. I received an itinerary that mostly aligned with what I was looking for, but one of the hotels didn’t appeal to me, so I asked if I could substitute a different hotel. It came with a small additional cost due to the pricing difference between the hotels, but the tour provider was happy to make the substitution.

Price Doesn’t Matter (Kind Of)

It’s important to know that paying more for a safari doesn’t guarantee that you will see more or “better” animals. Wild animals are, well, wild and there are no guarantees, no matter how much you spend on your safari. So what does a higher-priced safari get you?

Better Accommodations

Safari accommodations can range from hardcore tent camping to five-star luxury and everything in between. Five-star luxury will, of course, be more expensive. But mid-range accommodations can be fairly reasonably priced, which I was happy to discover because I’m more of a glamping girl than a camping girl, if you know what I mean!

Better Food

It also holds true that higher-end accommodations will have higher-end food, which means better breakfast and dinner. However, one thing that didn’t occur to me is that the hotel I stayed at each night would be providing the following day’s lunch on the go. And without me realizing it, the hotels I booked all provided a hot lunch. I didn’t realize this was out of the ordinary until once or twice when we stopped at shared picnic spots and I saw guests with other safari companies (and presumably other hotels) having sandwiches for lunch. Not that there’s anything wrong with sandwiches, it’s just something I didn’t know enough to ask about when booking my trip.

Better Vehicles

In theory, higher-end safari companies will have nicer and better-maintained safari vehicles. However, this may not always be the case. One thing to ask when you’re booking your trip is whether or not the safari vehicle is enclosed. The trip I took was in a Toyota Land Cruiser, which is an enclosed vehicle that seats eight people (including the driver). Each person had their own window and the roof lifted, so you could stand and look out. That said, I did see a few open-sided safari vehicles which seems cool in theory until you realize just how dusty it can be in the Serengeti. Plus the Land Cruiser had air conditioning, which I imagine the open-sided vehicles didn’t. There was a plastic covering that rolled down over the sides when it rained and I can only imagine how stuffy and humid it got in there! For me, the Land Cruiser is the no brainer!

Payment

Different safari tour operators have different payment schedules and require different methods of payment. For example, the company I used took a 25% downpayment, 25% due 90 days before travel, and the remaining 50% due 30 days before my trip. Their preferred payment methods were wire transfer and Wise, and they did take credit cards, but they were subject to a 5% fee. Wire transfers and Wise don’t have the same level of protection that credit cards have, so that’s why it’s very important that you thoroughly research your tour operator, especially if you’re going to use one of those payment methods.

Contract

Ensure that the tour operator provides you with a contract that itemizes everything that is included in your tour package. Your contract should also list your payment amounts and due dates as well as acceptable methods of payment. It should also cover what happens if you need to cancel your trip. No one ever wants to cancel, especially an epic trip like this, but life happens which is why I highly recommend travel insurance.

Sleep is for the Weak

Something that I was pretty unprepared for about going on safari is that it’s exhausting! You’re often waking up in the pre-dawn hours for breakfast and a sunrise safari drive. Then, in the case of point-to-point safaris, like the one I went on, you’re in the safari vehicle all day long. Yes, you’re seeing animals and cool stuff along the way, but the roads are bumpy (my Apple Watch thought I was doing some sort of workout due to all the motion) and it’s tiring! Then you arrive at your new accommodation and have a very little bit of downtime before dinner. Dinner is a scheduled experience, at least at the accommodations I stayed in, so you eat on their schedule. Then it’s time for a shower and bed because you’ve got to get up early to do it all over again the next day! It’s not bad the first day or two, but by day four or five, the lack of sleep definitely caught up with me!

To give you an example of what one of the longer days looked like, the morning I did the hot air balloon flight I was picked up from my accommodations at 4:30 AM! After the hot air balloon experience (which included breakfast) we drove from Central Serengeti to Western Serengeti to see the Great Wildebeest Migration. The drive was nearly 3 hours each way and of course, we stopped a lot along the way to see some incredible wildlife and enjoy a picnic lunch. By the time we got to where we were staying, it was nearly 6 PM and I had just enough time to shower and get ready for dinner at 7 PM. You can be I passed right out after dinner that night and slept like a rock!

The Bathroom Situation

Let’s address the elephant in the washroom, shall we? When you’re out on safari drives, you’re going to go sometimes hours without visiting an actual restroom. Now you can be dumb, like me, and just let yourself get dehydrated so you don’t have to pee (0/10, do not recommend!) or you can get something like a pee funnel and bring some Stall Mates and ziplocks to pack out your trash. Please make sure to practice Leave No Trace principles and take only photographs and leave only footprints!

And when you do get to stop at an actual restroom, they don’t often have hand dryers or paper towels. If you’re lucky, there’s a roll of toilet paper to dry your hands with, which doesn’t work so well! So I suggest bringing a small hand towel to carry with you.

I also strongly recommend packing either hand sanitizer or wet wipes to clean your hands before enjoying your al fresco lunch.

While we’re on the topic of hydration I always travel with electrolytes and a refillable water bottle and strongly suggest you do the same!

Accommodations Vary

This is true of hotels everywhere, but I found it most noticeable on my trip to Tanzania. For example, Africa Safari Lake Manyara and Acacia Central Camp are both positioned as glamping accommodations but are worlds apart. Lake Manyara is more rustic than Acacia Central Camp and feels more like camping than glamping and while this is reflected in the price, it’s not something I picked up on before my trip.

Let There Be Light (and Water)

You’re in the middle of the Serengeti, you’re occasionally going to experience brief periods where the accommodations are without power or water. Some places have scheduled downtimes, while it just seemed to randomly happen at others. It’s not a huge deal and it’s something you quickly adapt to, but if you’re like me and need to charge all the things I suggest packing this solar charger power bank to give your phone a quick charge after a long day of using it to take photos and videos. Also be aware that water pressure may be on the weak side and while there is hot water, it won’t last forever, so avoid excessively long showers.

Close Encounters

Not with the animals, but with people! Particularly with a point-to-point safari, you’re going to spend a lot of time with your safari guide and the people in your safari vehicle. You’ll typically also share a dining table with them at your accommodations in the evening, so it’s a lot of togetherness. You can rent an entire safari vehicle for your group, but that will of course come at an extra cost. However, if you’re on the introverted side it might be worth it!

Safety

A lot of people asked me if I felt safe as a woman solo traveling in Tanzania and I was never made to feel unsafe by people! Everyone was welcoming and friendly and it was a great experience that I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone!

On another safety note, at some accommodations like Acacia Central Camp, you need to be walked to your room at night due to the animals. For someone like me who is hyper-independent, I was a little frustrated by this concept but understood and respected the necessity for my personal safety.

What You May(or May Not) See

Wild animals are wild and have their own agenda, so seeing specific animals is in no way guaranteed. Experienced guides know where certain animals typically hang out and they communicate via radio with other guides when animals are spotted, but even with that, you still may not get to see a specific animal. However, you’ll probably see a ton of zebra since they’re pretty much everywhere. I saw four of the Big Five safari animals, but the rhino eluded me. Guess that just means I need to go on another safari and try again!

Odds are good that you’ll one or more of the following: animals mating, hunting, killing, and eating the carcasses of their prey. Seeing some of that can be upsetting, I know, but it’s the way of life in the Serengeti.

Food

Meals at the safari lodges are usually buffet style and after a few days, the options can get a bit redundant, even with moving lodges every night in a point-to-point safari. Don’t get me wrong, the food I had was actually quite good, it was just a lot of very similar dishes each night at dinner and the same held true for packed lunches.

You’re Gonna Get Sold A Lot of Stuff

When you’re doing a point-to-point safari, you stop in a few places that have bathrooms (particularly on the drive from Arusha to Serengeti National Park) and at every bathroom stop there’s the requisite gift shop. You’re given time to browse and maybe I just have a hard time saying no, but I definitely felt like there was the expectation to buy something and there were some hard sales tactics. That being said, negotiating is acceptable and expected in Tanzania, so don’t be afraid to do so!

Pack Light

Here’s the truth, you need to pack light for safari. If you’re doing a fly-and-drive, the small planes have very low luggage weight limits and if you’re over, you could end up paying huge overweight luggage fees. If you’re doing a point-to-point drive, everyone’s luggage needs to be able to fit in the safari vehicle each day as you drive from accommodation to accommodation. So pack light and do it in a soft-sided bag (required by some tour operators, appreciated by all) and plan to utilize laundry service at one of your accommodations. Check with your tour company to see if they have binoculars available for you to use and if so, skip packing them!

Cash is King

Typically when I travel I get local cash from an ATM when I land at the airport. And while no one in Tanzania said no to local currency, US dollars were far more preferable. So I would suggest bringing as much US cash as you feel comfortable in small denominations. Make sure the bills are newer and untorn and not written on. I would still also suggest getting some Tanzanian currency when you land and credit cards are accepted at hotels and large stores.

Let’s Go on Safari!