Hotels:

African Tulip: Boutique hotel in Arusha. Arusha is 1400m high so not warm. Pool was cold for kids to swim in.

Maramboi Tented Camp: Fabulous tented camp. Each family has there own individual cottage with balcony. You are walked to and from your lodge to the main area between dusk and dawn. Animals all around. Staff very good. Happy hour 6-7pm with snacks and beer/wine included. Soft drinks were included which was great for kids/sparkling water/water. Staff very friendly, the food was good. There is a water fountain and coffee/tea in the room

Lake Manyara Serena Lodge: lodges with 4 units in each building in Chinese style. Happy hour with snacks but no drinks included. Food was good. They served a birthday cake with bubbly unfortunately I’d gone to bed so we have it at breakfast the next day. Tea/coffee and 2 small bottles of water in room

Ngorongoro Farm House: each family family had there own unit. We had interconnecting. Very comfortable. Happy hour 6-7pm with one specialty drink free and snacks. Served water during meals, coffee at breakfast. All other drinks had to be paid for. There is a water fountain and coffee/tea in the room. Food was good.

Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge: excellent tented camp. Each family has there own individual cottage with balcony. You are walked to and from your lodge by Maasai folks to the main area between dusk and dawn. Animals all around. Staff extremely good. Happy hour 6-7pm with snacks and beer/wine included. All drinks except for top shelf were included which was great. Staff very friendly, the food was good. There is a water fountain and NO coffee/tea in room. This was by far our best experience. The children were so sad to leave.

The only note I would say is that the food got monotonous because it was the same family of hotels (except for African Tulip) so the most of meals were the same at each lodge/farm house. Grilled lamb and chicken each night with a variety of hot dishes as well

 

General tour: We packed in a lot and we’re sometimes exhausted at the end of the day but it so well worth it. 

Arusha National Park: great as a first stop and the walking tour with a ranger was great

Snake farm on the way to Tarangire National Park: kids loved it but I didn’t venture in 

Tarangire National Park: we were staying at the Maramboi so the lodge and park together made the trip. Our first introduction to lions and cheetahs, nursing giraffes. Excellent.

Lake Manyara National Park: our introduction to the hippos and hot springs 

Canopy Walk: excellent at the end of the day. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and the guides were very good.

Bicycle trip: excellent although finding a bike for ladies bottoms is a challenge. Great tour through rice paddies, banana plantations to the lakeshore to see fishermen and flamingos. We visited a local market on the way back

Ngorongoro Crater: came down through the mist to the crater. Excellent tour. Beautiful to watch 2 males meet each other on the plain and their interaction

Elephant walk: absolutely brilliant because we were lucky to see an elephant in the cave. The rangers were very informative. This was a 12 hour day for us but we’ll worth being tired at the end. You do have to be fit for the end of the walk down to the falls. Tom and I let the family go on ahead.

Flight to Serengeti: good no issues

Serengeti: talk about leaving the best for last. There is nothing to compare with the vastness of this park and the amount of animals you see. I however think we were very lucky as we managed to see, 3 cheetahs and 2 cubs on 3 separate occasions, 8 leopards and several 10s of lions and lionesses plus the myriad of other animals

Hot Air Balloon by Miracle Experience was excellent and worth every $. The company owned by a 30 yr old and only in existence 4 years but you could tell there was a vitality about the crew. Excellent balloon ride, champagne on landing and great breakfast. I will say at this point I started to be ill at breakfast. The Miracle Experience crew were great and escorted me back to the lodge for the day while the rest of the family continue. It was just a 12 hour bug and I was fine the next day but it was ice to know they were responsive to my needs.

 

Guides: Naul was absolutely brilliant. He fit into our pack so well we were so sad to say goodbye. His knowledge at each of the parks was extremely good. He joined in our activities and even ate with us a couple of times. The fact we went to 4 parks with him and he knew everything about everyone. We loved him being our guide

Emmanuel in the Serengeti had magic. These cats seemed to appear from nowhere. He always seemed to know where to go. We met other folks that had been there and hadn’t seen one leopard. He even tried to work his magic for the rhinos but the rhino rangers felt it was too late to go in the day and be safe.

I hope this summary helps you all in planning for other folks.