Everything people ask us
before they book

For the June to October high season and the December holidays, six to nine months out is realistic — the best camps in the northern Serengeti sell out roughly a year ahead for river-crossing season. For the green season, three months is usually comfortable. That said, we run trips booked with three weeks' notice most months of the year; it simply narrows the choice of camps.

Budget camping safaris start around US$230–280 per person per day. Mid-range lodge and tented-camp trips sit between $380 and $600. Luxury camps and fly-in itineraries run from $750 to $1,400+. Park fees are a large fixed component — the Serengeti alone is US$70 per adult per day, and a Ngorongoro Crater vehicle permit is US$295 — which is why very cheap quotes usually mean fewer park days than you think. Our proposals itemise every fee.

Unless stated otherwise: all park and concession fees, government taxes, a private 4x4 Land Cruiser with a pop-up roof and a professional guide, all accommodation, all meals on safari, drinking water in the vehicle, and airport transfers. Excluded: international flights, visas, travel insurance, tips, drinks and personal items.

Both, though the great majority of what we do is private. A private trip means your own vehicle and guide and a route built around you. Scheduled small-group departures — maximum six travellers — run on the classic northern circuit routes and cost roughly 25% less per person.

A 30% deposit confirms your booking, with the balance due 60 days before arrival. We accept international bank transfer, and card payment through a secure Tanzanian payment gateway (a 3.5% processing fee applies to cards). Bookings made inside 60 days are payable in full.

More than 90 days before arrival: deposit refunded less a US$150 administration fee. 60–90 days: deposit forfeited. 30–59 days: 50% of the total. Under 30 days: 100%. Some luxury camps and all Kilimanjaro park fees carry stricter terms, which we always flag before you pay. Comprehensive travel insurance is a condition of travelling with us.

Most nationalities do. Apply online at visa.immigration.go.tz before you travel — the ordinary single-entry tourist visa is US$50 and takes up to ten working days. US passport holders must take the multiple-entry visa at US$100. Visas on arrival are still issued at JRO but the queue can be long after a late arrival. Your passport must be valid for six months beyond your return date and have at least two blank pages.

Kilimanjaro International (JRO) for anything on the northern circuit — it is 46km from Arusha and 40km from Moshi. Dar es Salaam (DAR) is a six-hour flight and drive away and only makes sense for the southern parks or the coast. Zanzibar (ZNZ) can be entered or exited directly, including on the seasonal Serengeti–Zanzibar light-aircraft link.

Only if you are arriving from, or have transited for more than twelve hours through, a country with yellow fever transmission risk — which includes Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Arriving directly from Europe, North America or the Gulf, you do not need one. Carry the certificate if you have it; officials do check on the Kenya route.

Yes, and it is included on every trip. Your driver waits in arrivals with a Nayara Africa board, and we track your flight, so a delay is not a problem. If you miss a connection, message the WhatsApp number in your travel dossier — someone answers it at any hour.

Yes. Tanzania is one of the more stable and welcoming countries in Africa, and tourism is a large and carefully protected part of the economy. Petty theft happens in Arusha, Moshi and Stone Town as it does in any city — keep your phone out of sight on the street at night and use hotel safes. On safari you are with a professional guide in a licensed vehicle throughout.

Malaria is present across Tanzania, though the risk on the northern circuit is lower than on the coast and is genuinely low at Ngorongoro's altitude. Take prophylaxis — speak to a travel clinic six weeks before departure about Malarone, doxycycline or Lariam — and use repellent from late afternoon. All our recommended camps have mosquito nets or screening.

Nothing is compulsory except yellow fever in the case described above. Travel clinics typically recommend being current on hepatitis A, typhoid, tetanus, and hepatitis B and rabies for longer or more remote trips. Please take medical advice from a professional, not from a tour operator's website.

Yes — it is a condition of booking. It must cover medical evacuation. For Kilimanjaro it must specifically cover trekking to 6,000 metres, which many standard policies exclude. We also register every climb with Flying Doctors AMREF evacuation cover.

Do not drink tap water. We carry filtered drinking water in the vehicle throughout and refill from a 20-litre container rather than handing out single-use plastic bottles. Bring a reusable bottle. Ice and salads in the camps and lodges we use are fine.

Wake at 06:00 with coffee at your tent. Out by 06:30, when the light is good and the cats are still active. Back to camp between 11:00 and 12:00 for lunch and a long, unapologetic siesta. Out again at 16:00 until the park gates close at 18:30. Dinner around 19:30, bed early, because you will want to. On full-day drives we carry breakfast and lunch and stay out.

On a private trip, only your party. Our Land Cruisers seat seven, but we cap them at six so everyone has a window and a row to move across. Photographic trips are capped at three. On scheduled group departures, a maximum of six.

Most lodges and permanent camps have Wi-Fi in the main area, and it is frequently slow. Mobile signal exists around Seronera, the Ngorongoro rim and most gates, and disappears in between. Mobile camps in the far north often have no connection at all, which their guests generally come to appreciate. Buy a Vodacom or Airtel eSIM on arrival if you need data.

Yes. Every vehicle has 12V charging sockets and an inverter. Camps have charging points in the main area, and better ones have power in the tents. Bring a UK three-pin adapter — Tanzania runs 230V on the type G plug.

Neutral colours (avoid blue and black, which attract tsetse flies, and full camouflage, which is illegal for civilians in Tanzania), layers for genuinely cold mornings on the crater rim, a warm fleece, a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, high-factor sun cream, binoculars, a headtorch and any medication in its original packaging. Luggage on light aircraft is limited to 15kg in a soft bag, no wheels or frame.

Tipping is customary and genuinely matters to guides and camp staff. Our guidance: US$25–35 per vehicle per day for your safari guide, US$10–15 per guest per day into the camp staff box, and on Kilimanjaro roughly US$300–350 per trekker across the whole crew for a seven-day climb. We publish a full breakdown in your travel dossier.

Very. Most camps take children from six, some from any age, and a few luxury camps set a minimum of twelve. Under-fives on a long game drive are hard work for everyone, so we build shorter driving days, book family tents and put a patient guide with you. Children under five enter national parks free; five to fifteen pay a reduced fee.

Fit enough to walk five to seven hours a day on consecutive days, and eleven to fourteen hours on summit day. There is no technical climbing on the standard routes. Three months of hill walking with a loaded daypack, two or three times a week, is the training that actually works. Age matters far less than people expect — our oldest summiteer was 74.

The nine-day Northern Circuit, at over 95%, followed by eight-day Lemosho at 90–95%. The controlling factor is not the route but the number of days: six-day climbs average around 65–70%, eight-day climbs above 90%. Buy the extra days. They cost less than a failed attempt.

Above about 2,500m, thinner air causes headaches, nausea, poor sleep and breathlessness. It affects fit and unfit people alike. We manage it by walking slowly (pole pole), building acclimatisation days into every itinerary, checking oxygen saturation and pulse twice daily against a Lake Louise score card, and carrying emergency oxygen and a stretcher on every climb. If a guide says descend, you descend — that call is not negotiable, and it is why our safety record is what it is.

January to mid-March — warmer, quieter, a good chance of snow on the summit. June to October — the driest and busiest months, with the clearest summit mornings. Avoid the long rains from late March to May, when the southern routes turn to mud, and the short rains in November, though Rongai stays workable then.

We are a Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project partner. Loads are capped at 20kg, every porter is paid above the KPAP-recommended daily rate directly and in full, and we provide three meals a day, proper sleeping tents, and boots and jackets from our gear store to anyone who needs them. You are welcome to ask any of our crew about this at the gate.

An assistant guide descends with you at any point, at no extra cost — which is why we run one guide for every two trekkers. Below the gate, a vehicle takes you to your hotel. Serious cases are evacuated by stretcher to the nearest gate and, if needed, by AMREF Flying Doctors.

Direct light aircraft from the Serengeti (Seronera or Kogatende) to Zanzibar in the high season, roughly three hours with one stop — the civilised option. Otherwise fly Arusha or Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar in about ninety minutes. From Dar es Salaam it is a twenty-minute flight or a two-hour ferry.

Nungwi and Kendwa in the north: minimal tide movement, swim all day, livelier. Paje and Jambiani in the south-east: big tides, shallow turquoise lagoon, kitesurfing. Matemwe and Michanwi Pingwe in the east: quiet, best for honeymoons, close to Mnemba. Stone Town for one or two nights of history at the start or end.

Zanzibar is a predominantly Muslim island. Beachwear is fine on the beach and at resorts; in Stone Town and the villages, cover shoulders and knees. Women may want a light scarf. During Ramadan, avoid eating and drinking in public during daylight in town.

On the east and south-east coasts, yes — at low tide the water can retreat several hundred metres and swimming is out for a few hours. Most resorts have pools, and the exposed reef flats are fascinating to walk. If you want to swim in the sea whenever you like, stay in the north.

Park and conservation fees go to TANAPA and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and fund anti-poaching patrols, ranger salaries, road maintenance and community projects around the park boundaries. On a typical mid-range safari, roughly a third of what you pay us is government conservation and concession fees.

Filtered water instead of single-use bottles; camps chosen for their solar capacity and waste handling; strict off-road rules where regulations require them; and a hard limit on how close our vehicles approach a sighting, no matter what other drivers are doing. We are a member of TATO and follow its code of conduct.

Every guide, driver, cook and office staff member is Tanzanian, most from Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions. We pay a share of each booking into a schools fund in Mto wa Mbu and Karatu, and we buy produce for mobile camps from village markets rather than trucking it from town. Our cultural visits pay the host families directly, at a rate they set.

It can be, and it can also be exploitative. We only work with communities who invited the visits, who set their own fee and who receive it directly. We ask you not to photograph people without asking, not to hand out sweets or pens to children, and to treat the morning as a visit to someone's home — because it is.