Arrival in Arusha
Hi Tauck travelers, I am scheduled to go on the K & T safari in August 2021. I am presently looking into my booking reward flights to Arusha. Did those of you who have done this tour, come a day early and if so, what activities might you have done? I know Tauck has changed the arrival hotel in Arusha, but would still appreciate any input. I know I could "rest" a day after a long flight, but I am presently looking at a flight arriving at 2:30PM which I am guessing would give me enough time to rest up before the morning start of the tour. I have a slight bit of apprehension in case one of my flights is delayed and I can't get to Arusha until the morning or afternoon that the tour starts. Any info concerning what worked (or didn't work) for you would be appreciated.
Comments
Definitely arrives at least a day early. Also note, it’s not uncommon for your luggage not to arrive until 24 hours later, So wear safari style clothing on the plane, or suitable for safari on the plane and be sure to pack at least one full set of clothes into your hand baggage plus wear a suitable pair of shoes and have your hat and buff with you too.
Most people go to Arusha National Park on the day before the tour. I’ve not checked out the new hotel, but if it has a pool, pack your swimsuit too.
I agree with British. Arrive a day or more early. The only negative about this trip is getting there. When I was working I sometimes did trips like this, went to sleep and slept fourteen hours and upon waking did not know if it was AM or PM. The first time we did this trip my wife ripped a lamp off of the wall thinking it was the door handle to the bathroom. For those who can sleep on airplanes I’m sure it is a better experience. There are no ‘sleep in’ days on this trip, so if you arrive a day early, that is the only one you will get.
We flew to Arusha this past January for the Great Migration tour. We were on the direct KLM flight from Amsterdam. I leaves around 10:00am and arrives around 8:30pm. We arrived a day early with the "gift of time". It turned out there were ten of us Tauck travelers that all arrived on the same flight. I thought arriving after dark was fun. After leaving freezing North America, and then Amsterdam, and stepping off the plane (This is a small airport and you walk down steps to exit the jet.) into the hot and humid night air felt like something out of an old movie about Africa! Just a tip, we also flew to Amsterdam a day early and stayed overnight at an airport hotel. We just weren't sure about traveling in January and wanted some cushion and time to recover from the jet lag. Amsterdam was cold, but during our afternoon there we went to Rembrandt's house and had it almost to ourselves. Towards the end of our trip we heard about a virus in China.....
Agree with others to get there a day early to recover from jet lag and more importantly just in case your flight and luggage are delayed. We did this trip in July 2018 with Sealord and it remains our all time favorite. About 12 of us visited the Cultural Center and Tanzanian coffee plantation as recommended by our tour director on our day early arrival. It was an easy afternoon and we toured the plantation, participated in the coffee making process, sampled the coffee, and many of us ordered coffee beans that was made fresh and delivered to our hotel that evening! We brought the coffee home and were glad we did. We have been buying Tanzanian coffee from an East African coffee company ever since and love it. Enjoy the trip!
We also plan to go on K&T in August. We booked our air (through Tauck) on KLM and planned a layover in Amsterdam for a couple of days. Then on to Arusha with plans to arrive a day early. We were supposed to do this tour this past August. Hopefully it will proceed in 2021.
I’ve arrived in Arusha three times, twice with KLM, Once with Qatar air, there’s no comparison. If you can book Qatar air, I highly recommend it. We used Qatar air for our Borneo tour and that’s probably why we were not stuck in Malaysia when the lockdown happened. We had booked Qatar for our Singapore Bali tour that we should be on now.
When we did K&T in August 2015 we arrived on KLM via LAX-Amsterdam-Arusha arriving a day early. We opted for a guided walk around the lake that the hotel was on. The Arusha Cultural Center was already included as an itinerary item on our tour. The coffee plantation tour that Virginia Travelers did does sound fun. As tour itineraries are somewhat modified from year to year some possible pre-tour activities may become included or dropped from the regular tour itinerary.
Early arrival day activities tend to be very personal. Some people opt for a complete day of rest and relaxation, others opt for some amount of activity with some rest time, while others opt for scheduling as many additional activities as possible.
As I mentioned earlier tour itineraries are tweaked from year-to-year, but a 'semi-rest' day is usually scheduled somewhere during the tour. So if you aren't fully rested at the beginning of the tour you will get another chance to catch up during the tour. I've found that my adrenalin at the start of a tour can keep me going for a few days even if not fully rested. For our tour the 'semi-rest' day was at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club. Some people played golf, others rode horses, among some of the choices for that basically on your own 'rest' day.
We did this tour in Sept. 2019. Just to add to Smiling Sam's note - the horse ride at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club was a highlight.
We did the bridges tour in December, 2018 and used Qatar Air through Doha. Overnighted at the airport hotel there, then went to Arusha the next day and we did arrive a day early. When you overnighted at Doha, there was a fee city tour that they had for incoming guests who were overnighting there. And you didn’t have to worry about visas or anything to do the tour.
Am I’m glad we overnighted in Arusha as well. My husband and I just laid by the pool and Rested a while our family did the mountain climbing tour, which they enjoyed. Definitely add that extra day to the tour!
Flights don’t come out until about 11 months prior to when you need them. So,whatever may apply now may not even exist in 2023.