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Tanzania, Serengeti to Zanzibar

Sweet Haven

Good afternoon all! We are getting very excited for our trip to Africa in the next few weeks and are wondering about a few things specific to the Tanzania, Serengeti to Zanzibar trip. We see so many different ideas of what to pack as far as clothing and extras. Do you recommend packing for only for 4 days and then washing your clothes? That brings me to shoes, should a nice pair of sneakers and one pair of sandals be sufficient? I don’t think we will be doing any crazy hiking. Also, what might your experience be with Bugs around this time of year? I’m sure this can vary from year to year so just trying to get an idea on late June early July experience because we will be there the first and second week of July. Lastly, we are in the process of purchasing binoculars and wanted to know is it worth it to get a really expensive pair knowing we will probably not use them again? It doesn’t sound like we have a lot of free time but any suggestions would be great! Looking for any and all recommendations for this trip no matter what it is. Thank you!

Comments

cb2labs

Sweet Haven wrote:

Good afternoon all! We are getting very excited for our trip to Africa in the next few weeks and are wondering about a few things specific to the Tanzania, Serengeti to Zanzibar trip. We see so many different ideas of what to pack as far as clothing and extras. Do you recommend packing for only for 4 days and then washing your clothes? That brings me to shoes, should a nice pair of sneakers and one pair of sandals be sufficient? I don’t think we will be doing any crazy hiking. Also, what might your experience be with Bugs around this time of year? I’m sure this can vary from year to year so just trying to get an idea on late June early July experience because we will be there the first and second week of July. Lastly, we are in the process of purchasing binoculars and wanted to know is it worth it to get a really expensive pair knowing we will probably not use them again? It doesn’t sound like we have a lot of free time but any suggestions would be great! Looking for any and all recommendations for this trip no matter what it is. Thank you!

I think about this trip all the time, my friend and I were on this trip July 3, 2017. It was a trip of life time! Everyone packs differently, I took enough clothes for whole trip and did not do any laundry. Laundry is available and inexpensive, you spend two nights at each location so you do have time to send it out, if need be. The tauck duffle bag is large enough to hold everything. You will find half guests will stay in "safari clothes" through dinner, others change. We had time on this trip to go to room, shower, change, and take a deep breath before group "sundowner and sunset" time. Then it was onto dinner. I enjoyed having a few simple cotton tops that I wore at dinner only. Anything goes. As far as shoes, I wore sneakers with socks during the day on safari drives. When you stop in the jeep to view animals and take pictures, most people would stand on the seats and look out the "open" roof. You MUST take your shoes off to do this. So, I pretty much just left my shoes off during game drives, as you are stopping and moving around in jeep constantly. I had a pair of simple sandals for dinner at night, just to give my feet a "change"....Take a light parka/wind breaker for at night, and also for early morning hot air balloon. A buff for your face is a great idea for "dusty" road days, though, I only used mine once. We had no issues on our trip with bugs at all, but you never know. I did spray treat my "safari clothes" with Permethrin before I left home, and of course, had some "bug wipes" with me. Definitely take binoculars with you. You do not want to have to pass them around and share, you might miss the "special moment"....As for free time, not going to happen, haha. This is a very fast paced tour. I actually sat out on one of the afternoon safari drives late in the tour...for me, to relax and regroup before heading onto Zanzibar. I enjoyed the "private" down time.

This will be a trip of a life time for you, I am always so excited for anyone taking this tour. Special extras and moments you will not expect. The animals are amazing and scenery. Tauck Directors and drivers are wonderful. Enjoy, Enjoy. I thought that one trip to Africa would be enough, but I find myself wanting to go back. Actually have Botswana trip booked for May 2019.

Sweet Haven

cb2labs, thank you so much for the great feedback. Can you advise on what time of day the game drives started and did you start with pants early in the day and change to shorts or did you just stay in pants? just trying to get a feel for packing. I am even more excited after reading your post! What great information. I am sure this will not be my last either. I have had this dream forever. Thank you again!

British

We also took this tour in mid July and pretty much agree with absolutely everything that cb21 says. Buffs we wear all the time. They are good for cushioning your camera and binoculars around your neck. If you take sandals, be sure to take closed toe ones because some of the pathways are very sandy on the way from your tents. We never wore shorts, we like to protect our skin from the harsh sun and insects and reduces the amount of sunscreen and Deet you need to wear. Mosquitoes bite at night, so this is also why you need to wear long pants in the evenings. I think this is the trip where we were troubled with tsetse flies a little and they bite and hurt right through clothing. Avoid black and dark blue fabric that they are attracted to.
You get very very little exercise on the Africa tours, you crave even a walk when you get back home.
We use our Binoculars fairly frequently in Africa and would not be without them, others here find no use for them, your choice. There are plenty of choices of good but but decently priced binoculars.
Yes Africa is wonderful, we have been on 5 tours and have one booked for next year.

Sweet Haven

British, this is perfect info. I am so happy I can hear about other peoples experiences and can pick their brains. So helpful.

cb2labs

Sweet Haven wrote:

cb2labs, thank you so much for the great feedback. Can you advise on what time of day the game drives started and did you start with pants early in the day and change to shorts or did you just stay in pants? just trying to get a feel for packing. I am even more excited after reading your post! What great information. I am sure this will not be my last either. I have had this dream forever. Thank you again!

the jeep safaris usually started around 8-9am, after breakfast, each day our tour director gave us our assignment of who was in each vehicle. That way we got to get to know the other folks on the tour, along with the other driver guides. It works very well. Except for in the ngorongoro crater (where you will have picnic lunch in crater), we were usually back for lunch at our accommodations, noon, and then another safari 2-3pm until 6 and then back for dinner. The parks you will visit do not allow "after dark" safaris, so the one morning that you are up at 4am for hot air balloon, will give you a look at an after dark safari. We saw the hippos up and walking, as they are in water during day to protect their skin and because of heat. There were some other animals also moving around as we made our way to the launch site for balloons.

I saw people in shorts, capris, and long pants. Most of time, I wore capri length, and changed into pant length for dinner time, as it was getting dark, and was worried about possible bugs. I took light colors and actually, at the hot air balloon landing spot was the only place bugs bothered our group the whole journey. The tse tse flys were biting us, even wearing white....the director said it really doesn't matter, they will come for you, LOL...As we left there and made our way to the champange breakfast spot, no bugs....Be prepared but don't worry to much about bugs! We all took our malaria pills in morning with breakfast, and no one seemed to have any side effects.

Helpful hint I took away from the blogs here on Tauck Forums, regarding water ......keep mouth closed when you are in the shower, and put a washcloth over the handles on the wash basin. It helps when it comes time to brush your teeth, you want to rinse with bottled water. You will find bottled water in the rooms, and also in jeeps on safaris. No shortage.

Sealord

The no night safari thing must be a Tanzania thing. There were night safaris in both Kenya and Botswana.

British

Cb2labs, we took our tour here in 2014 and never remember the safaris beginning so late in the morning, it must have changed how they do things because we were always woken up before dawn with a hot drink and snack and then had breakfast when we came back. Can anyone else tell me I am getting mixed up with my safaris. I just never remember going on any safari that leaves so late. By that time it’s getting hot and you miss the opportunity of the stragglers still around from the night time hunting.

cb2labs

Yes, the no night safari is in Tanzania, Serengeti.....and yes, British, our safaris began after breakfast, prob more like 8am on the road, in each camp except the one morning from Serena Serengeti where we did the hot air balloon. Gosh, I want to say that was a 430am wakeup on the road time? This was last year, July,2017, so possible they vary start times with seasons of year????

Sealord

As I remember them, we always got up in the dark. We often left in the morning with the headlights on, and returned after dark with the headlights on. I liked the places where the wake up call was a delivery of coffee in a French press, which they gave us a briefing on how to operate, but the one they brought looked nothing like the one they used in the briefing. We did figure it out before the water got cold. That should be in the “before you go” info. Learn how to use a French press coffee maker. (;-). Actually, those were on the South Africa trip. If they had them on K&T I would have known how to use them.

British

cb2labs wrote:

Yes, the no night safari is in Tanzania, Serengeti.....and yes, British, our safaris began after breakfast, prob more like 8am on the road, in each camp except the one morning from Serena Serengeti where we did the hot air balloon. Gosh, I want to say that was a 430am wakeup on the road time? This was last year, July,2017, so possible they vary start times with seasons of year????

We went in mid July, how strange

Sweet Haven

Wow all this information is so helpful. I am very excited to see what they have in store for us. I do hope the hot air balloon ride allows us to see more animals. Especially if I am getting up so early. haha I am sure it is beautiful no matter what.

Floridamom

Hubby and I are doing the Tanzania,Serengeti safari July 8,2019 and all the info has been very helpful.