Tanzania Photo Safari

National Geographic Expeditions Preferred
Has very high quality customer experiences and demonstrated commitment to responsible travel practices. read more
57%
Travel Style: Array Full on
Physical Level: Walking or physical activity half to most of day - no carrying equipment. Easy
Lodging Level: The highest level of comfort and service. All accomodations are in four or five star hotels, boutique lodges or high-end homestays. Luxury (5*)
11 days
From: $ 8,795 $ 800 / day
Checking price

Overview

Highlights (Bullets)

  • Learn how best to work with movement and light as you frame dazzling herds of zebra, lolling lions, and a colorful spectrum of birds.
  • Spend time with the Maasai in their village and enjoy a rare chance to shoot portraits and photograph the traditional way of life of these iconic pastoralists.
  • Head out on safaris, walks, and other activities designed to maximize photographic opportunities.
  • Go on a photo shoot at a coffee plantation, and fill your lens with scenes of lush fields, bright coffee beans, and local culture.

Short Description

Set out on a photo safari amid some of East Africa’s most spectacular landscapes and hone your skills while photographing an ever-changing tableau of wildlife. Learn how best to capture movement and light as you frame dazzling herds of zebras, majestic lion prides, and wildebeests on their annual migration across the Serengeti. Spend time with the Maasai and document their traditions in the Ngorongoro Highlands.

Style Private guided tour
See all the highlights and popular spots on a classic tour.
Itinerary Focus Classic Highlights
The highest level of comfort and service. All accomodations are in four or five star hotels, boutique lodges or high-end homestays.
Lodging Level Luxury (5*)
Flight & Transport Inclusions All internal ground transport
Start City Arusha
End City Arusha

Itinerary

Days 1 & 2: U.S./Arusha, Tanzania

Depart on an overnight flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport, and arrive the following evening.

Arusha Coffee Lodge

Day 3: Arusha/Lake Manyara National Park

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Plantation Lodge

Drive to Lake Manyara National Park, famous for its elephants, hippos, giraffes, flamingos, and tree-climbing lions. Get your equipment ready for our first safari this afternoon, and train your lens on giraffes or Cape buffalo against the stunning mountains of the Rift Valley.

Day 4: Lake Manyara National Park

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Plantation Lodge

Rise early for a morning game drive, heading to the shores of Lake Manyara to photograph the numerous bird species and other wildlife that congregate here. Visit a coffee plantation this afternoon, and document the coffee production process and the culture of the local people

Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater

Meals: Breakfast,Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge

Travel into the Ngorongoro Highlands after breakfast for a very special opportunity to visit with a Maasai community off the beaten path. With your camera in hand, pay a visit to a school, witness an initiation ritual, and learn about this fascinating culture from the village chief and his wives. Capture the spirit of traditional song and dance, and enjoy time to work on portraiture and photographing daily life with these proud people. After lunch, descend 2,000 feet to the base of the Ngorongoro Crater, where volcanic slopes shelter almost 25,000 animals. Document the interactions of predator and prey; zoom in on birdlife from marabou storks to rainbow-hued lovebirds; and test your wildlife photography skills on elephants, rhinos, cheetahs, and more.

Day 6: Ngorongoro Crater

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge

Return to the crater floor at sunrise for breakfast and a morning photo safari. Take the afternoon to relax and, look over your images. Listen to a talk by our National Geographic photographer, and ready your camera to catch the sun set over the crater this evening.

Day 7: Olduvai Gorge/Serengeti National Park

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Drive to the Olduvai Gorge where, on a National Geographic-sponsored expedition in 1960, Louis and Mary Leakey discovered Homo habilis, one of the earliest members of the human genus. Take a private tour of the site and learn about recent finds before continuing west to Serengeti National Park. In order to provide travelers with the best opportunity to witness the wildebeest migration, the Serengeti days differ by season. The March departure coincides with wildebeest calving season, when the animals move south to give birth to tens of thousands of calves. Travel overland to our luxury tented camp on the southeastern border of Serengeti National Park, stopping to photograph lions, cheetahs, and leopards along the way.*

Days 8 & 9: Serengeti National Park

Meals: Breakfast,Lunch, Dinner

Embark on an off-track safari in the Ndutu area in search of resident lion prides, giraffes, and bountiful herds of wildebeests, elephants, and zebras. On morning and afternoon game drives, photograph magnificent birds, hippos, packs of hyenas, and pairs of jackals lurking around the surrounding marshlands and lakes. For the ultimate photo experience, you may choose to soar over the plains on an optional early-morning hot-air balloon ride, photographing magnificent scenery and distant herds from the air.

Days 10 & 11: Serengeti/Arusha/U.S.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation: Rivertrees Lodge

Take a final morning photo safari before we fly back to Arusha. Enjoy the afternoon to take a photo walk in town or just relax at the hotel. We transfer to the airport tonight for evening flights home.

Availability

Checking price
Price From $ 8,795
Price Per Day: $ 800 per day

30 National Geographic Expeditions Travel Reviews & Ratings

57%
3.5 out of 5 (100+ reviews)
Excellent 16
Great 0
Average 3
Disappointing 5
Terrible 6
Value
3.3
Guide
3.7
Activities
3.8
Lodging
3.6
Transportation
3.6
Meals
3.4

Tanzania Photo Safari

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Company Reviews

Inconsistent information, No Refund

2.0
Details
Value2.0
Guide2.0
Activities2.0
Lodging2.0
Transportation2.0
Meals2.0
We booked a National Geographic expedition Holland and Belgium by River. The promotional literature promised a 14-day deposit refund window. The “invoice” was marked “non-refundable” deposit. We completed the National Geographic Traveler Information. About 8 days later we received the “Travel Agreement” to be signed. We both approved and signed the National Geographic documents. A Cruise Line Travel agreement was enclosed but had no signature line. This document contained language which was unacceptable. We submitted the signed NatGeo documents. The following day we canceled the trip due to the unacceptable Cruise Line language. Cancellation was made 12 days after booking and no deposit was returned. We were told on the phone that the refund deadline was triggered by the 14 day window OR signatures on the Travel Agreement which ever came first. This was NEW information. To date, we have received NO refund of our $1000. We cancelled our trip within the advertised 14 day window.
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How to Ruin a Trip to Norway

2.0
Details
Value1.0
Guide1.0
Activities2.0
Lodging2.0
Transportation3.0
Meals1.0
My husband and I took the Norway "Trains and Fjords" tour because neither of wanted to drive the twisty roads to see the majestic areas and wanted to avoid a cruise ship. The main problem was that our guide was seriously sick -- coughing and hacking and barely able to talk. This was in Norway, where people can take sick leave! Did Nat Geo not have any backup plan? At one stop, the guide left us to go to a pharmacy. There was a sick passenger, too, and instead of protecting the rest of the passengers from getting infected, the guide seated the sick passenger in tight quarters with the rest of us. Neither of them did anything to cover their coughs or avoid exposing the other tour members. My husband and I both got sick, and had to leave the tour early and we had a few thousand dollars extra in travel expenses because of that, on top of the ridiculous cost of the trip.
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TOO MUCH TOO FAST

3.0
Details
Value3.0
Guide4.0
Activities5.0
Lodging3.0
Transportation3.0
Meals3.0
Firstly, it was my understanding, and confirmed in a phone conversation with the company’s representative prior to our departure, that the schedule of events would go at our pace. We found this to not be the case. For example; we arrived in Cairo on October 25th, from Tel Aviv, Israel, later in the night than scheduled due to an airline delay. We were met at the airport by your representative and taken to a hotel 45 minutes from the airport. We checked in shortly after midnight. The representative said that we would “meet at 4:00” to be picked up to fly to Luxor. I thought he meant 4:00 PM, but no, it was 4:00 AM!!! We had less than 3 hours sleep before we were whisked off to our next destination. (By the way, the representative spent those few hours waiting in the hotel lobby; he didn’t even get a night’s rest.)

We arrived in Luxor, were taken to the hotel, deposited our luggage (the room wasn’t ready), had breakfast, and then met our tour guide at 10:00 AM for our first tour. We were exhausted, but mustered our energy for the occasion.

Is there a good reason why Cairo wasn’t the first city on our tour? In retrospect, it should have been for many reasons, not the least of which was the logistics described above.

All right, so now we’re in Luxor, and by afternoon we’re ensconced in a luxurious hotel with a magnificent view of the Nile River. There’s a swimming pool that we’re looking forward to relaxing by the next day during some much needed down time during the free time described in the itinerary; exactly what we expected from National Geographic. But instead, that evening we were told by our guide that we needed to have our luggage ready to check out of the hotel the next morning to relocate to the Nile River ship Minerva (coincidentally, owned by the same company as the hotel). We obliged, and in the morning we were taken on a tour with the luggage in the car, and then brought to the ship in the early afternoon. Our four suitcases were put in a room that was barely large enough to contain the bed, but the view of the river from our room was good enough to overlook this inconvenience, at least for the moment. I looked forward to resting in our cabin in the afternoon because I was exhausted. In fact, I was so tired that I have little recollection of that morning’s tour until I look at the photos to affirm that I was actually where the itinerary said I would be.

We went to lunch in the ship’s dining room and returned to our cabin to find that our view of the Nile was obliterated by a ship that had tied up alongside our own. This is now our view (see photo) and the blackout drapes that were drawn to hide it made the small cabin a crowded, dark dungeon.

Furthermore, that ship’s bunker oil fumes were now in the air conditioning system of our ship and flowing freely into our cabin making me nauseous and giving me a headache. I complained but there was nothing to do about it.

And if this wasn’t bad enough, the sound of the neighboring ship that accompanied the smell was intolerable.

Other issues I had with our cabin on the ship included;
- The bypass closet door wouldn’t stay shut
- There was a leak under the bathroom sink
- The carpet in the area near the bathroom was wet
- The toilet seat lid came off repeatedly
- Wifi on board the ship was only in the main lobby area, and was poor at best

I talked to the ship’s desk clerk, and he assured me that things would be taken care of shortly. They never were.

This doesn’t take into consideration that the buffet style food served on board was repetitive if you didn’t take the offered main course, which was usually meat (I don’t eat meat).

Oh, and I didn’t yet mention that our ship wouldn’t be leaving its mooring until the next day! We had traded a luxurious hotel for this!

With that said, it begs the question of why we were taken out of a luxurious hotel 24 hours in advance of the ship sailing away from Luxor? No pool to sit by, no view of the sunset over the banks of the Nile, no quiet room in which to sleep, and no dinner of delicious food. Certainly not what we expected from a Nat Geo Private Tour for which we had paid a premium price!

Unrelated to these issues, NatGeo’s survey asked if we felt that our health was well-protected. “No” is the short answer. A fuller reply is that we both got Covid on this trip; my husband first, then inevitably, myself three days later. We had avoided catching it for more than 2.6 years, and now we had it. I realize that one takes risks when going out in the world, and I certainly don’t blame NatGeo for our getting sick. But their people weren’t wearing masks until I asked them to, mostly to protect themselves from us. One agent who met us at the airport when we arrived back in Cairo from Aswan, now openly sick with Covid, disappeared for 10 minutes to purchase a mask when I told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to wear one around us.

Overall, NatGeo profited from our illness as we were too unwell to utilize the dining allowance at the Cairo Ritz Carlton or to go to out for most meals offered with our guide. The one restaurant I was taken to for dinner without my husband was a touristy place with fake grapes leaves hanging from fake arbors. When a 35 person tour group trouped in past us it told me all I needed to know. My bowl of pasta with a tomato sauce not much thicker than tomato juice certainly couldn’t have cost more than $10, if that much. Then, the next day I was too sick to go out at all, my husband, who was feeling better by then, went out alone with the tour guide for the day, but it’s my understanding that they skipped all meals.

All in all, there were many aspects of the trip that were memorable for all the right reasons, but also memorable for the above mentioned wrong reasons. For us to have paid as much as we did begs the question, “Was it worth the expense for this private tour experience?” As seasoned world travelers, I’m hard pressed to reply in the affirmative.
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Best Part of Trip was Cancelled

2.0
Details
Value2.0
Guide3.0
Activities1.0
Lodging2.0
Transportation2.0
Meals2.0
signed up to travel the Columbia-Snake River to visit Hell's Canyon. That part of the trip was cancelled by Nat Geo without notifying the passengers. Instead we visited a farm market. Wow, big deal, I can do that at home. It was a major disappointment and of course NG did not give any refunds for leaving out a major part of the trip.
Read more

Cancel my trip but no refund

1.0
Details
Value1.0
Guide1.0
Activities1.0
Lodging1.0
Transportation1.0
Meals1.0
This company canceled my trip due to COVID but failed to refund all money so I am out $1500 for Lindblad portion, and will never travel with NatGeo again. They have lost my trust as a company that puts travelers best interests first.
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DO NOT BOOK WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - LOST MY TRIP MONEY

1.0
Details
Value1.0
Guide1.0
Activities1.0
Lodging1.0
Transportation1.0
Meals1.0
I booked a trip to South Africa with National Geographic... what I thought was a reputable company. A couple weeks before I was supposed to go, they canceled the tour.

They have not refunded any portion of my money. They said the airfare was non-refundable and that I couldn't even have a flight credit. But they are the ones that canceled the trip. However Delta told me that a refund check was sent to the agency. Then they said they would refund the other portion of the trip expense, but it may take 6 months. It is completely unacceptable. The entire 100% of the trip should be refunded and should have been refunded the day they canceled the trip.

The business is not responsive to this. I filed a complaint with the BBB and they did not respond. I sent a 30 day demand letter in preparation of filing in court against them. So far no resolution.

I expect a 100% refund AND I share this story to strongly advise against anyone ever booking a national geographic trip of any kind.

I will be posting this review online in every spot I can find.
Read more

Details

Optional Activities

  • Rwanda Gorilla Tracking - Post-Trip Extension, 6 Days
  • Ruaha National Park - Post-Trip Extension, 4 Days

Flight & Transport Inclusions

All internal ground transport

Trip ID#:

tanphonat

What's excluded

  • The “Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner” notations apply to the period during the expedition only and do not include any meals on flights to/from the Trip
  • International airfare
  • Optional gratuities
  • Personal items

Meals Included

8 Breakfasts, 9 Lunches and 9 Dinners

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