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Just Returned - Kenya & Tanzinia Tour (5/18/13)

sm1218sm1218
in Kenya & Tanzania
Just returned from the Kenya and Tanzinia Tour and happy to answer any questions. In short, it was an awesome tour and extremely well organized! One big recommendation would be to buy the Cannon Powershot with 50x zoom as you'll need it to get the close up shots of some animals.

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    Smiling SamSmiling Sam
    Did you see an abundance of the Big 5 - elephant, rhino, leopard, cape buffalo, and lion?
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    sm1218sm1218
    Yes we did. You see everything several times over. The leopard was the hardest one to find; we only saw three of them hiding in a tree during our visit to the Serengetti. We saw like 8 lions during the trip, they are also not as easy to find, but you'll see them. Elephants and buffalo are everywhere. You'll only see the rhinos in kenya, but you see them no problem.
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    D49D49
    Did you get a yellow fever shot?
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    sm1218sm1218
    Yes, I did get the shot. No one asked to see evidence of it though at the airport. It would primarily be asked if you were coming from Kenya into Tanzania - as most folks fly from like Amsterdam to Tanzania; they don't typically ask. Everyone on the trip did get the shot as it's more of a safety thing.
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    gabbocagabboca
    Last year I had no problem getting my Tanzania visa at Kilimanjaro Airport but I was only in Tanzania for the trip. It appears you cross the border into Kenya via bus. Is getting your Kenya visa pretty easy at the border crossing? Did most of the folks on your tour get both of their visas in advance?

    Thanks for the help!
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    BWertBWert
    sm1218 wrote:
    Just returned from the Kenya and Tanzinia Tour and happy to answer any questions. In short, it was an awesome tour and extremely well organized! One big recommendation would be to buy the Cannon Powershot with 50x zoom as you'll need it to get the close up shots of some animals.
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    BWertBWert
    We are thinking of this tour in October 2014. I this a good time to go?
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    sm1218sm1218
    You need to get your VISA's before hand; everyone did and it was best. You can do it directly with those country US Embassy's or you can use Tauck's service provider (which I did). It was like $300 to use their serivce provider; but it was easy to do. On this tour, you do cross the boarder into Kenya via land/bus. It's rual and you probably don't want to have to "get your visa" while you're there. Honestly, we had one or two people in our tour group who had to do it at the boarder and it held up the group. 95% of the folks in your our group took care of this before hand.

    Separate advise: Bring a small table-top tripod for your camera. Especially if you decide to bring the Cannon Powershot 50x zoom (you'll need that zoom as you can not go off the "road" in Tanzania).

    Have a great trip - it was awesome.
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    sm1218sm1218
    October should be a good time to go - We were told the two weeks we went in May were awesome weeks as it was the end of rainy season and start of high season. So we had the best of both worlds - no one was in the parks (for the most part other than us) and we had the run of the various hotels we stayed in.
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    gabbocagabboca
    Thanks for the visa recommendation. My documents are going out next week to Tauck’s service provider.

    Regarding water at the hotels, is it potable or is it bottled water at all locations? If bottled water (which I’m assuming), do the hotels stock the rooms with a couple of liters each day?

    Thank you for all of the great information. It’s a big help.
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    suellynsuellyn
    Hi SM1218,
    I'm leaving in 6 days! So excited! Did you spray all your clothes with anti-bug spray that's recommended
    before you left? Thanks for any info!
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    NanaangieNanaangie
    Any suggestions about clothing to take or what's not necessary? Going in September.
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    YaYa's on SafariYaYa's on Safari
    Aug. 21 Tanzania and Kenya.
    Have been hearing about the incidents in Tanzania, and of course the fire in Kenya. Just wandering about safely issues?
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