Guest Reviews

Our dreams come true beyond our wildest imagination

Before my wife and I visited the Serengeti, I had 2 fears. First, I had visited the Serengeti 25 years ago and was fearful it had changed for the worse. I was pleasantly surprised that the wildlife was still very diverse and plentiful. Second, I was fearful my wife would not enjoy herself. She’s a city girl not used to camping. After our first night “glamping” she announced she loved it. She was enthralled every day with the immense vistas and close proximity to animals. She dubbed the extraordinary daily events as “WOW moments” We worked with Walter of Galloping Safaris on our itinerary which we wouldn’t change. In summary, we landed near the Grumeti River in the Western Serengeti and traveled south east Serengeti/Ndutu Plains spending 4 nights before embarking to Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park make our trip the total of 11 days and then back to Arusha.

The camps recommended by Galloping Safaris based on our requested agenda were great. We stayed in Tent Camps/Tent Lodges all of which were roomy and had complete bathrooms. The camp staffs were genuinely friendly, generous, helpful and we shared many joking/laughing moments. The homemade Soups and BBQ Chicken dinners are memorable. Big breakfasts were available in the early morning so we could depart by sunrise. Finally, we always slept well in our mosquito netted beds and loved being serenaded by nearby hyenas and zebra.

Lastly, Galloping made our arrival in Tanzania absolutely painless thanks to Walter & Laurence! Two very tired people were met at Kilimanjaro airport and personally guided thru customs express line, all transfers on safari, and delivery to Arusha airport for departure.

During our return flight home my wife said, “I would return in a heartbeat”. She still speaks of the limitless savannas stretching as far as the eyes could see in all directions and the absence of human presence. She was enthralled by the innocent beauty of gazelle, zebra and elephants, and the harsh but elegant reality of predator lions, leopards, and hyenas.

Aurora Spear
Houston, TX

The staff are all professional and courteous, the food is outstanding

I grew up in Arizona, and it seems like most of my childhood memories are outdoors. Our family vacations almost always featured the camper and hiking boots over hotel rooms and large crowds. We’ve always enjoyed the nature of Arizona (and California, where I live now) and thought it was one of the best reasons to live here.

My parents and I, and especially my Dad, have always talked about how amazing it would be to go on an African safari and see a whole new wilderness. My parents recently retired and decided it was high time to make that dream a reality. And I, despite being an adult with a child of my own now, somehow lucked into becoming their third wheel.

First, a brief run-down of our trip: We arrived in Arusha and opted to stay a full day at the Arusha Coffee Lodge, which I highly recommend. It was nice to have a day to acclimate to the time (and weather) change before heading out, and it gave us a full day to take a tour of Arusha and spend some time shopping for souvenirs and Precious famous Tanzanite stone from Cultural Heritage store and we explore the city, meet with local people back to the Lodge.

From there we took a short flight into the Serengeti right on the middle of the action and began our safari. We stayed three nights at the Olakira Ndutu Migration Camp, three nights at the Four-Season Serengeti Lodge, and two nights at the Sanctuary Ngorongoro Crater Camp in Ngorongoro. I would absolutely recommend any of these camps. The staff are all professional and courteous, the food is outstanding, and the accommodations are surprisingly comfortable, considering the remote locations.

But honestly, we only stayed at the camps to eat, bathe, and sleep. Our guide, Laurence Mosha, gave us the option to depart at sunrise and we took him up on it every single day. The early morning light is spectacular, the temperature is much cooler, and the animals are active. I know it may be tempting to sleep in, but I definitely encourage the early morning drives. You can sleep at home!

I’m a wedding photographer and work very hard at running my own business. It seems like we always have something on our calendar. I hadn’t spent a prolonged amount of time alone with my parents since finishing college (some undisclosed number of years ago). It was a privilege to take this vacation together as adults, and I can’t possibly think of a more beautiful location to do it in or better company to organize it than the expert Local Galloping Safaris and his team.

We must come back to Tanzania again and our amazing, beautiful memories will last forever

Sarah Cox & Family
Phoenix, AZ

Two words “Wow Experience and Life Changing

It was such a comfort to be greeted by two Galloping representatives who made our entrance through immigration a breeze as they took our passports and documents to the front of the line. No waiting for us. Our first accommodation was the Kili Villa a countryside authentic African rural setting with individual cottages. The next day we toured the city of Arusha

As we arrived at our first Lodge in Tarangire at Lemala Mpingo Ridge we were welcomed with a refreshing juice drink and a cool towel. The tent had all the comforts of home. This was a big concern of mine and I could not have been more pleased. We felt safe in our tents even with lions roaming at night just few feet away.

Our second camp Lake Masek Camp had a beautiful view of the lake and a new infinity pool but sill maintained the safari ambience experience we were wanting. A Maasai Warrior walked us back and forth to our tent before breakfast and after dinner. Our last night we were surprised with a sundowner cocktail party near the lake with hippo’s, flamingos and our Maasai warrior to protect us! Doesn’t get any better than that!

Our third and last camp Lemala Ngorongoro Camp was more on the rustic side but we had a nice warm tent when we returned from dinner with a hot water bottles in our bed to keep us warm. We saw all of the big five and more. If you love zebras as much as we do then you will see thousands of them. They travel with wildebeest. We fell in love with the prancing ostrich, vervet monkeys and warthogs. Have you ever seen a dung beetle at work? We did!

If you planning a safari visiting a Maasai Villages is a must! They will welcome you with a dance, give you a tour of their humble home and explain how they live. Best of all was the school house. The children sang to us and recite the alphabet. Two words “LIFE CHANGING”!

Another must be a visit to FAME which is a hospital that was started by a physician Dr. Artress and his wife from Los Angeles. It has grown from a mobile bus to a state-of-the-art hospital, laboratory and outpatient clinic.

We left our hearts in Tanzania and hope we will return again someday. Thank you Water Tenga for making our dreams come true beyond our wildest imagination and for the many surprises along the way.

Kate Ford Family
Fort Lauderdale, FL

We are all of the same mind when we say ‘this safari “Extraordinary Super”.

Hello Water

I thought it would be useful for us to provide you feedback on our safari with Galloping Safaris, now that we have had a few days back here in San Francisco to reflect on our experience. And when I refer to “we”, I am speaking in a collective sense on behalf of Wood, Richard, Barbara and myself. First, we are all of the same mind when we say ‘this safari experience met and exceeded all of our expectations’. At the end of each day, and at the end of our ten-day safari when we would gather to talk about our experience, the tone of the conversation and the actual sharing usually started with “wow”. Obviously, we cannot accurately attribute this all to Galloping Safaris as so much of our experience was from the actual sights we saw and encounters we had, be that with people or wildlife; however, much of our trip was due to the efforts on your part and of course, Lawrence Mosha. We thank you for this experience of a lifetime.

I think it is safe to say that your objective of providing us the true luxury safari experience in a way that also allowed us to achieve our objective of seeing and learning about Tanzania, the people/culture, the physical nature of the country, and of course the wildlife was each achieved. Let me approach our feedback by speaking to a two number of factors:

Communications.

• We were very appreciative of the efforts on your part to communicate and respond to the many questions we had over the past several months as we prepared for the safari. I think the web site you have developed anticipates a lot of what we needed to know but it was great to be able to have clarity and other information provided by you.
• I would offer the suggestion that there be additional clarity on the subject of ‘binoculars’ as it would assist in clients determining whether to bring binoculars with them. Specifically, I would suggest that your web site indicate that there will be a set of binoculars provided in each jeep as you provide for absolutely free of charge, we were surprised for that we really appreciate generous, but that if clients wish to have more than that, or use their own, they should feel free to do so. (although for us as it turned out the two set that was in the jeep was sufficient even if we could not get them to function 100%).
• One other minor note, and one that arises simply because of ‘first language’ is that there are a number of grammatical or spelling mistakes in English on your web site. While not major, they may be areas you wish to review and attend to as part of your overall efforts to ensure quality communications.

GUIDE

A key piece of our experience was the expertise and leadership of Lawrence as our tour guide. He displayed throughout our trip a high level of expertise, sharing his knowledge of the country, the people and the wildlife in response to our many questions and as part of ensuring that we understood the context of our travels. We established a very good relationship with him, and he was responsive to any requests we made and demonstrated a great sense of humor and understanding of our interests/needs. While we cannot compare Lawrence to other guides, what we did see was a man who cared deeply about his country and our experience in his country, and a man who respects the wildlife and the dynamic between humans and wildlife.

It was this respect for the wildlife that meant a lot to the four of us, as that sent a real message of who we had in the jeep with us.

You have every right to feel very proud to have Lawrence representing Galloping Safaris and yourself.

Martin Sacks
San Francisco, California

Incredible Climb that treats the porters well

Climbing Kili is going to be an incredible experience with practically any company you go with. However, when you price out itineraries, you’ll find Galloping Safaris price on the higher side. Don’t let that scare you. You get a lot for your money. Our five-person group had about 30 porters
supporting our climb, all of which are paid a fair wage and treated with respect by this local tour operator. There are tours that are cheaper, but I heard many disturbing stories of porters not receiving all of their tips or being allowed to eat all of their meals in an effort to reduce the prices for the guests.

Since the porters are treated so well by Galloping Safaris, you can expect to have some of the best and most experienced guides and porters in Tanzania helping you achieve your goals and doing it safely. Please note, when it comes to tipping, you’ll want to follow Galloping guidelines as opposed to what you find online. The group Galloping Safaris puts together is much different than most other local tour operators (you’ll see why as soon as you reach the first camp) and online guidelines don’t quite compare.

Thank you so much Walter and team, fabulous time with Hillary and lots of beautiful memories.

Many thanks for putting together a wonder safari for us. We had a fabulous time and lots of beautiful memories. we loved all the places we stayed at especially the tented camps, best was the Embalakai Camp, the location and staff were great and we were glad we ended up there even if it was not in the plan due to Heavy rain season in Serengeti. Off course Hillary made all the difference and gave us all a safari to remember.

We will all be sure to recommend Galloping Safaris in future. I am sorry we did not have time to meet you in person.

Asante Sana,

Pamela
Springfield Massachusett, USA