Tanzania small group safari

Environment

We’re all for zero contact, zero interaction experiences with wildlife. This trip offers travellers the opportunity to see wildlife in their natural habitat at the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater. Our leaders are trained to ensure travellers follow a few simple guidelines; don’t call out to animals, whistle or try to get their attention – noise disturbs them and stresses them out – just let them do their thing. Our drivers and guides also know never to use their vehicles to get an animal to move or drive off-road to get closer to the action.

In an effort to reduce single-use plastics on this trip we provide reusable cloth bags to all our travellers. It’s easy to use plastic excessively, especially in the hot months, and so we encourage our travellers to buy large 5-10 litre bottles rather than multiple small water bottles. There are also large vessels onboard our overland vehicles that dispense water for those in need.

Water is a precious commodity in this part of the world. Our trained tour leaders are well versed in advising travellers on initiatives to manage their water consumption. We also ask that our travellers treat this scarce resource with the utmost respect.

Unfortunately, on the vast majority of this itinerary, using local transport is not reliable or feasible and so we use private, locally owned transport instead. We ensure our vehicles/fleets are well maintained and fuel-efficient. We also endeavour to include a range of other local transport options such as canoe where possible.

This trip is run by our own local East African operator who shares our commitment to responsible travel, from waste and water management to ensuring we leave as minimal a footprint as possible. Our local team are trained on our global responsible travel policies and practices. We also use a range of other local suppliers for different activities throughout this two-country itinerary.

As a company we are committed to carbon offsetting. The main sources of carbon emission from our trips (transport, accommodation and waste) are assessed and offset into renewable energy projects. We’ve offset over 250,000 tonnes of carbon emissions from our trips and offices worldwide, including over 40,000 tonnes of carbon in 2016. Plus, part of the cost of your trip is dedicated to carbon offsetting.

Community

An important part of travel is mixing with the locals and experiencing “real life” in your chosen destination. On this trip we stay only in locally owned hotels or guesthouses that are locally staffed, enabling the money you spend to stay within that community. We source local activities which we believe are sustainable to the economy in that they allow the flow of income from visitors to be distributed to a greater audience, rather than remain concentrated with tourism providers. This could be as simple as a meal in a small local restaurant, a home-cooked dinner or staying in a small, boutique hotel. Where truck meals are provided we try to source ingredients from a local market wherever we can.

All aspects of this trip (on the ground) are operated by East Africans (most of whom live locally) including all our leaders, vehicle drivers, local site guides and accommodation providers.

Our philosophy is to act local and that means respecting the local traditions by ensuring both men and women are conservatively dressed, with legs and arms covered when entering villages and other small communities. We also take care to form genuine and mutually beneficial relationships with local people. Excellent examples of this include the Lushoto hike and local lunch and the Mto Wa Mbu Village walk and market visit.