Five Things that we loved about the Albatros Tanzania FAM

Tanzania’s northern circuit is one of the most popular safari routes in East Africa. Most travelers will end up with the same routing in a rush to see as much wildlife as possible. We often bypass spending time with the villages and the northern circuit often allows very little interactions with the local community.

In some cases, we, as sellers of safaris are often exposed to the popular and big name camps and lodges and we’re often fighting for the same availability. When Kusini and Albatros were planning this FAM trip, we wanted to showcase amazing properties beyond what we all know. Some of the properties that are featured on this FAM trip have only been around in the last 2-3 years and have not seen much exposure in North America.

With that said, here are 5 things we loved about the Albatros Tanzania FAM that can help differentiate your product offerings.

1. Visiting the Mto Wa Mbu Village on Tuk Tuks.

An easy pit stop from either Tarangire or Arusha to Karatu or Ngorongoro Crater, there is no better way to learn about people that live in this tourism hot spot. On board your Tuk Tuk, your guests can chat with the villagers and learn about their rice plantation, see the local market, visit local painters and woodcarvers and most importantly, learn about the importance of banana in this community by visiting a local banana plantation. Not to mention, you can even try out banana beer and banana wine!

2. Hadzabe Tribe on Lake Eyasi.

With a slightly longer detour from the main Northern Circuit (an extra 1.5 hours each way  from the main road going to Karatu), the Hadzabe experience is a great way to get more cultural experience on this often safari heavy circuit. We recommend staying at Entara’s Kisima Ngeda, a beautiful property set on the shores of Lake Eyasi. For bird lovers, this is a great place to spot waders and shorebirds, especially on their viewing platform. It also has incredibly epic sunsets where you can watch the silhouette of local fishing boats pass by the sun paints the background with its golden hue. From here, you’ll depart early morning to catch the Hadzabe tribe go on an early morning hunt for small game. We trekked for about an hour and half and it turned that we were very lucky as they were able to catch a guinea fowl. This interaction is quite raw. Most of your conversations with the tribe are through your local guide / translator and unlike some of the other cultural village experience in the area, the Hadzabe are not performing a dance for your guests or selling you crafts at the end of your experience. This experience is a glimpse of how the Hadzabe tribe live their lives – a hunter-gatherer culture that’s been preserve for thousands of years and have stood against pressures of encroaching pastoralists and agriculture from their neighbouring communities.

 

3. New Lodges that we loved – Crater’s Edge, Envi Sisini and Laba Laba

One of our objectives for this FAM trip is to see some new product in the Northern Circuit. Some of favorites include:

Crater’s Edge, Ngorongoro

Situated on the eastern Rim of the Crater (towards Sopa Lodge), this new luxury property has all the bells and whistles that you need without the high price tag. Copper bath, check, Dyson hair dryer, check. Amazing gourmet meals, check. And most importantly, a great team that takes special care of all your needs. The views here are also amazing, albeit with some natural obstruction due to their location. Nevertheless, you can still see the crater floor at just about every angle while you are still surrounded by the forest. This is a great high-end property without the high price tag!

Envi Sisini, Eastern Serengeti

A crowd favourite on this FAM trip, we can’t tell you enough good things about Envi Sisini. This is a great luxury option on the Eastern side of the Serengeti. They have two different room categories, Sanctuary Suites and Nature Tents. The Sanctuary Suites are very spacious with indoor and outdoor baths, plunge pool, separate seating area inside and a massive bedroom. The Nature Tents are slightly smaller, but very well designed to give you all the comfort that you need while still getting the canvas experience. But what we loved most about the property is the team at Envi Sisini that made our stay so joyous starting with Neema, the camp manager, John our amazing butler that kept our wine glasses filled, Florence, who took care of us at every meal time and Shabani, our great guide who found us 5 massive male lions and 1 female that was ready to mate! To cap it off, we had the most amazing cotton candy skies during an epic sundowner!

 

Laba Laba Migration Camp

For many of us safari aficionados, there’s nothing better than staying at a mobile tented camp and hearing all the wildlife at night. Laba Laba gave us that amazing, tented experience with an elevated experience – the rooms still had traditional bucket showers, but at the same time, had all the comforts that you need from charging ports, electricity, a fan, and even an outdoor bath! The décor of the camp gave you a feeling of being an explorer, with curious memorabilia from around the world, paired with incredibly comfortable couches and seating areas, which the team at Laba Laba made you feel right at home. The magic of this place happens especially at night when you’re out by the fire sharing stories of the wildlife that you saw during the day and then followed by delicious meals served with a great wine selection.

 

4. Traveling during the off-season

We know that most travelers go to the Northern Circuit between June-September for a chance to see the migration and river crossings, especially in the Northern Serengeti. But make sure you don’t forget about recommending the green season. If you strategically put your guests in the Southern Serengeti or Central Serengeti, you are guaranteed to still see amazing wildlife without having to pay a premium! On this FAM trip alone, we saw 53 lions, countless elephants, a rhino from a distance and 3 cheetah brothers in the Ndutu Plains. And this was all seen while doing game drives in between camps and site inspections, so imagine what your guests can see if they are not on a FAM! Throughout our stay in the Serengeti, we also managed to see the migration of wildebeest. At one point, we positioned our vehicle in one spot for nearly an hour to see an endless number of wildebeest passing in front of our vehicle and I’m pretty sure collectively, we took as many pictures as the number of wildebeest that we saw. And the best part is – there were no crowds. There had been times where I had to wait in a queue to get in the Serengeti gate as well as the Ngorongoro gate. During the off-season, there is no queue and your guide can process your park fees within minutes. There were about 2 sightings where we could see over 5 vehicles but in most of our prolific sightings, it was just our vehicle and maybe one or two others. So during the off season, the Serengeti could be your own playground!

 

5. Hot Air Balloon on the Ndutu Plains

This is a must have add-on if your guests are staying in the Serengeti. What I love most about doing it on the Ndutu Plains is that the wide-open terrain makes it much easier to spot wildlife. We saw a massive pride of lions on a kill with hyenas chasing them away and there’s no better way to see this action than from a bird’s eye view. I’ll let these pictures do the talking.

BONUS:

We stayed 2 nights at Nimali Mara situated in the Kogatende area of the Serengeti and our stay here was quite lovely.  The game viewing wasn’t as prolific during this time of the year since the big herd is in Sereonera / Ndutu area. BUT, our favourite part about Nimali Mara was the food. The group agrees that we’ve had some of our best meals at Nimali Mara including one of the best cooked steaks on this trip and the most delicious lamb curry for lunch! Thanks to the young chef Calvin for the amazing food.