Access 2 Tanzania

"We cannot express enough gratitude and give my wholehearted recommendation for Access 2 Tanzania!! They are an amazing, caring, personable team who love their clients as much as they do Tanzania! First, Casey is absolutely the best and made sure every detail of our trip was perfectly adjusted to our needs. He was constantly in contact with us throughout the trip even with a huge time difference, making sure everyone was doing well. We traveled with our two daughters (ages 11 & 14) so this was no easy task. We started in Arusha, then went on to Tarangire, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, and Zanzibar. Two of our duffle bags were missing from Kilimanjaro airport so this made things even more difficult from the onset. Fear not, our tour guide, Danny E., calmed us down and took care of everything. One of the nice ladies at the Access 2 Tanzania Arusha office brought us some cool logo gear and kept checking with the airline. A few days later, Danny drove two hours roundtrip to pick up our bags at the Tarangire park entrance during his “down time.” Next, Danny is personable, funny, and extremely knowledgeable. He was especially adept at handling our daughters’ different needs and personalities. We ALL loved being with Danny and could not have been more thrilled to have him as our guide. He made sure we got up very early to see animals that are difficult to spot as the crowds and heat picked up each day. I am sure all A2T guides are terrific, but we absolutely adored Danny. It is clear he loves people, his job, and his beautiful country. In all, we had an incredible trip. Six months later and we are still raving about this trip of a lifetime. We cannot thank you and recommend you enough, Access 2 Tanzania."

"We can't say enough good things about our experience with Access 2 Tanzania. We met Casey, Safari Consultant, and Brian, Owner, at a Chicago Travel Show in 2021. The company seemed to offer exactly what we wanted in a safari. Private, custom tailored trips with unlimited mileage during game drives. Over the next year or so, Casey worked with us to design a trip that perfectly met our desires. Now that we have recently completed the trip, I can say that we know for certain that we chose the right company. Our trip included a total of 10 days in and around the Tanzanian National Parks and Conservation Area. We were picked up by our guide Fulgence Kennedy in Arusha (Kilimanjaro International Airport) and we immediately hit it off with him. Fulgence is a wealth of local knowledge in addition to being an awesome game guide. He speaks loudly and clearly and has quite a good sense of humor. He tried his hardest to help us learn some Kiswahili, but, alas, we only learned a few words. He was friendly even with our lack of language skills and spoke english very well and we had no problems understanding him. The vehicle was a Toyota Land Cruiser and was very well cared for. I think we drove almost 2,000 km over the next 10 days. It didn't have air conditioning, but there was only a couple times that we may have needed it anyway. We started with two nights in Arusha to prepare for our adventure. Fulgence lead us on a city tour of Arusha, one of his hometowns, which was very informative. We then flew to Kuro Airstrip in the central part of Tarangire National Park for 2 days. Fulgence had driven the night before to the park to be ready to pick us up at 8:30 to immediately start our game drive. Tarangire is known for a large number of elephants and it did not disappoint. Fulgence got us so close to so many animals and seemed to have a sixth sense about where animals would be or where they would move after we spotted them. We then transferred to Ngorongoro Conservation Area for two nights after a quick stop at for a village walking tour and lunch. Ngorongoro is world famous and Fulgence seemed to know all the great places to see the animals up close. Just check out some of our pictures attached. At times, we could almost reach out and touch elephants, lions, etc (but we didn't.) We spent our last 4 nights in the Serengeti. We saw the Great Wildebeest Migration one day in the central part of the park and spent the other days searching for big cats and other large animals. Fulgence was amazing at explaining all the species, including birds, and knew so much about their behavior. We ended out trip with 2 days in Shinyanga, which is a region just west of the Serengeti, touring water projects I have been working on for the last few years. Fulgence was our driver during this visit, even though it was not safari related, and he was genuinely interested in the work and people of that area. We could tell he really cares for Tanzania and its people. We ended our trip with 5 nights in Zanzibar. Casey coordinated the flight to Zanzibar and the airport pickup to the hotel that we had privately booked. It was certainly sad to say goodbye to our friend, Fulgence after almost two weeks spent with him. He even waited a couple hours at the airport until he knew for certain we were checked in for our flight to Zanzibar even though he had a 2 day drive back home to Arusha. This type of trip one of the more expensive ones we have ever taken, but with the guidance of Access 2 Tanzania from start to finish made it a trip of a lifetime. If you have any plans for a Tanzanian safari, you can't go wrong with this company."

"Access 2 Tanzania are experts at planning unique safaris. We have had the pleasure of using A2T twice, in 2019, 2022, and we are in the process of planning our next safari (our third) for summer, 2024. We have seen a tremendous variety of animals and a breathtaking number of animals, always in the safe and respectful hands of our extraordinary guide, Noel. Casey, our consultant, was friendly and thorough, tailoring our experience according to our wishes. From choosing locations of our safari camps to bush walks to hot air balloon rides to dinner under the stars to Maasai boma visits to village tours, he did an amazing job planning our experiences. I also was comforted with the access I had to the people in the office--both in the US and the office in Tanzania. Some safari companies have a charity project that they support but A2T does not just give money to projects, but through Project Zawadi, they plan and implement a wide variety educational projects benefiting several schools and communities."

"We used A2T to plan our honeymoon safari in Tanzania early Jan 2023 and are so glad we used this company! We are already looking forward to using them again in the future. Our guide, Wilfred, was absolutely outstanding and easily made our trip. His peaceful and friendly demeanor was easy to get along with, which is important when you consider the fact that you will be with your guide for very long days while on game drives! He was always accommodating to our wishes but also provided guidance about the timing of our days when needed. For example, enter Ngorongoro Crater early in the day and finish by early afternoon to avoid crowds or go to certain parts of the Serengeti to search for the big cats and the black rhino, which were our favorite. He is clearly an expert in understanding the habits of these animals. We are lucky to have had Wilfred as a guide and now a friend for life. The planning process with Casey was also very easy and enjoyable. Spending so much money and flying across the world on a big trip can be scary but planning with Casey/A2T took away any fears. He was very responsive via email and text and is very good at his job. His understanding of the area is spot on. He even helped to make a same-day change to our final hotel while we were ON our trip due to an oversight on our end. Having someone that we could count on to arrange safe and beautiful lodges and transfers made our honeymoon stress-free. Finally, we highly recommend A2T as they have a genuine interest in helping Tanzania and its citizens progress. Part of your safari fee goes towards their project to teach English to local Tanzanians. They also arrange a part of the safari to tour local tribes, which helps you understand Tanzania rather than just having a canned tourist experience. There is also no limit to the miles your guide can drive you in a day, which is HUGE. We saw most safari vehicles stay in the same small radius around camps, meanwhile, we could drive 2-3 hours from camp and get away from any crowds."

"My mom, sister and I did a two week trip in August 2021 with time spent both in Tanzania and Rwanda. This review will be for the Tanzania portion of the trip, which was planned with Access2Tanzania. Visiting Tanzania was truly the trip of a lifetime and we hope to make it back there sooner than later! We saw everything from wildebeest crossing the river twice, a leopard with two cubs, hyenas trying to ambush a lion for her food, plus so much more. We were supposed to go in 2020, but due to COVID we had to reschedule and make alterations to our itinerary due to travel requirements with Rwanda. We worked with Casey and Karen, who are very passionate and knowledgeable about Tanzania. It was very evident they have visited the parks and lodges they work with numerous times plus know all of the guides personally. They were able to create an ideal itinerary for us focused on wildlife and answer our million questions. In our opinion, the biggest perk about Access2Tanzania is your group is 1-on-1 with your guide so you can create your own daily schedules and really see what you want to see (for example if your group wants to watch a pride of lions sleep for 2 hours you can). Casey also helped coordinate a last minute hot air balloon ride and scheduled our COVID test needed to re-enter the USA, which was very helpful. Our guide was Noel was absolutely WONDERFUL!! He was very knowledgeable about the parks and all the wildlife – and if he didn’t know the answer to one of our million questions he had available resources and would immediately search and find the answer. He worked incredibly hard to find us all the sights we wanted to see by being in constant communication with other guides in the parks. For example, his determination and persistence led to him finding the leopard and her two cubs, which ended up being a highlight of the trip! Every day he was more than willing to be up early and eat a quick breakfast so we could get going on the safari. He is also a truly nice person and we enjoyed spending time with him both on safari and during meals. We recommend requesting Noel as your guide. I took one star off of the review because I felt sometimes during the planning or lead-up to our trip communication was a challenge where it would take multiple days or sending of follow-up emails before getting a response. Also, their webpage did not always have the most up-to-date information, such as for the e-visa process guide and current COVID processes, which I understand are constantly changing. Overall, the trip to Tanzania was absolutely amazing, especially our visits to the Serengeti and Tarangire National Parks. We truly appreciate all of Access2Tanzania’s guidance and their coordination of our trip! Some useful tips: our visit in mid-August had perfect weather and we saw millions of wildebeest in the Northern Serengeti; the vehicles were equipped with multiple outlets for charging which was very useful, American USD was accepted everywhere; our stay in a bungalow at the Tarangire Safari Lodge was one of the best places we have ever stayed (the views were incredible and they offer a night-game drive that was truly great!); and having an East Africa wildlife and an African birds pocket guides (both about $8) were extremely helpful."