Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you only going to Tanzania? If so, and if you are doing a typical route (basing out of Arusha and maybe visiting Ngorongoro, Tarangire Park, etc), you need never set foot on a small plane. Safaris require a lot of driving so you will be traveling a lot, but by car.

If you want to be more adventurous and try to go to Lake Victoria or something, you may need to do a small plane. If you want to see Zanzibar, it will be a smaller plane but by no means a tiny/prop plane.

OP here, thanks for this. We are planning on Arusha, Tarangire, Central Serengeti, and then Zanzibar, so good to hear it isn't a prop plane.

Did you use a company to plan the safari? I've looked at Oddessey Safari, and they came recommended and seem reasonable, but want to do some comparison too.

PP here. We used Easy Travel and Tours Ltd, a local company. It has been 6 years so I do encourage reading more recent reviews (I’m sure Covid changed things a lot too). They were very professional, reliable, and very responsive to our requests/needs. They planned a trip, which we signed off on, by car over the course of maybe 10-14 days. Typically you start in Arusha and then make a big circle out to Masai Mara and/or the Serengeti, hitting spots along the way. So our guide drove several hours, then we’d stop for 1-3 days and stay in a lodge or camp (lodging can also be very customized- do you want to camp? or “glamp”? Or stay in a hotel?) then go on. We then went back to Arusha to go to Kilimanjaro. Base camp can be hiked in a day and is a lot of fun. If you want to do all of Kilimanjaro, you must plan for several days.

The roads did not bother anyone though of course they’re not always smooth or easy. Sometimes they can be pretty rough. They can be different based on the season and other factors, of course, but I quite like seeing so much of the country by driving/bouncing along through it.

PS I used Safari Infinity and would recommend them.

I also hate small planes! In Tanzania, I took a Xanax and kept my eyes closed the whole time, lol. Be prepared that the plane might make a few stops with you on it: like a bus with wings. I watched the plane that left before mine have three aborted take offs because zebras kept wandering onto the air field. Thank goodness that wasn't my plane.

A pretty common Northern Circuit route has you drive one way, stopping at multiple places along the way, and then fly back to Arusha or Kilimanjaro. I did this to minimize the number of flights I took. I did Tarangire (don't miss this park), Ngonongoro, central Serengeti, and Grumeti (in Serengeti). There was one day of long driving on roads, but otherwise the drive times were OK because I was seeing wildlife most of the time. The roads are rough, it's true.

If going from point A to point B requires 6 hours of non-safari driving I'd fly because the roads can be rough and dusty. The airports are nothing but dirt fields often with animals on them which need to be shooed away by someone on the ground. Our safari was organized by a group called Kensington and they were excellent.

PP at 15:55 here. I'll add that we loved staying at Arusha Coffee Lodge after our long flight from the US and before heading out to the bush. It is out of the city and very, very relaxing.

We traveled in Tanzania recently and took several flights on small planes. We took them from Arusha to our camp on the Mara, from that camp to Ngorongoro, and from Ngorongoro to another small airport where we transferred to a small jet to go to Zanzibar. The flights were quite short.

Technically ... flying is not completely necessary. You could drive or be driven from one camp to another. You could have your TA, or, potentially the lodges themselves, arrange for ground transfers between lodges. But I would not do that -- the roads are very rough, and you will be driving around in jeeps getting bounced around all day while on safari ... you are not going to want more of it to get around Tanzania.

Re: agents... Go2Africa is fantastic. I used Mary Keet after finding her on one of the "best of" TA lists (I think it was Travel and Leisure's?) and I highly recommend her. She could advise you well on this. Inter-camp ground transfers may be easier than I realize.

OP I saw you asked above about agents - we used Iconic Africa and were super impressed at the connections they have + their discounts. We worked specifically with Terri and Jess. They were able to get us into our preferred lodge 3 months before our travel date when other agents couldn't make it work and told us there was no availability. Another one I know who has really good connections - larger shop so more hands off than Iconic but still good - is Rhino Africa.

We flew in small planes in Tanzania in 2000s. We lived and it was much better than driving million hours to here or there.

I hate them and lived in Tanzania and took many of them. Fortunately the flights are short. The worst part is the cabin is non pressurized so you are quite lightheaded!

Anonymous wrote:Are you only going to Tanzania? If so, and if you are doing a typical route (basing out of Arusha and maybe visiting Ngorongoro, Tarangire Park, etc), you need never set foot on a small plane. Safaris require a lot of driving so you will be traveling a lot, but by car.

If you want to be more adventurous and try to go to Lake Victoria or something, you may need to do a small plane. If you want to see Zanzibar, it will be a smaller plane but by no means a tiny/prop plane.

OP here, thanks for this. We are planning on Arusha, Tarangire, Central Serengeti, and then Zanzibar, so good to hear it isn't a prop plane.

Did you use a company to plan the safari? I've looked at Oddessey Safari, and they came recommended and seem reasonable, but want to do some comparison too.

I did a couple of these this past September between the Serengeti and Masai Mara and then on to Nairobi.

It didn't really bother me (other than getting on and off . . .low ceilings - ouch!). Others though were more than a bit nervous.

Be forewarned, though, that for some reason they had not removed the plane carcasses from the side of the runway where other planes had not successfully taken off or landed. There isn't a field of crashed planes, just one at each of two airports. Those who were nervous before hand and saw these wrecks were disturbed.

Are you only going to Tanzania? If so, and if you are doing a typical route (basing out of Arusha and maybe visiting Ngorongoro, Tarangire Park, etc), you need never set foot on a small plane. Safaris require a lot of driving so you will be traveling a lot, but by car.

If you want to be more adventurous and try to go to Lake Victoria or something, you may need to do a small plane. If you want to see Zanzibar, it will be a smaller plane but by no means a tiny/prop plane.

Seems unnecessary tbh. I also fear small planes and we did a safari in Tanzania with no flying. Didn’t even cross my mind to consider it as an option. Where are you hoping to go?

Anonymous wrote:I am planning a safari trip for my family (me and my spouse, kids ages 14 and 12) and wanted to know if anyone could share their experiences with the small plane trips within Tanzania? It seems like they are the best way to get around to travel decent distances, but we have some bervous flyers in the family, and I don't want to ruin anyone's experience. Are the small plane flights necessary?

*nervous flyers

I am planning a safari trip for my family (me and my spouse, kids ages 14 and 12) and wanted to know if anyone could share their experiences with the small plane trips within Tanzania? It seems like they are the best way to get around to travel decent distances, but we have some bervous flyers in the family, and I don't want to ruin anyone's experience. Are the small plane flights necessary?