Lake Manyara National Park Full-Day Tour

Customer Reviews

• Dallas

  · November 17th, 2024
  My adult son and I are just back from an amazing week with Adventure Makers Tanzania guided by the wonderful and knowledgeable owner Stephen. This was my second trip to Tanzania - the first trip being a luxury wildlife safari. For this trip, my son and I sought something much more distinct and special, with a locally owned company that could give us a customized, flexible, and intimate visit to Tanzania with knowledgeable local insight. We wanted to experience in depth the cultures of Tanzania - and not limit ourselves to the amazing wildlife - which we saw in great abundance! We could not have done better than spend a week with the very personable Stephen - a kind, warm, humorous, knowledgeable, flexible guide - deeply local but with perfect English and a very keen knowledge of Tanzania, its wonderful peoples and cultures, as well as all manner of wildlife - plants, birds, wild game. We spent amazing days with the Maasai, Datoga, Hadzabe and other tribespeople - days that were truly experiences of a lifetime. We also visited local villages showing us an insight into local Tanzanian life with its great diversity of cultures, foods, beers and peoples. This was definitely not a "Disney" tour - but an honest visit with truly authentic local people and lives. For each experience Stephen paired us with a specialized guide who spoke the local tribal languages of these very traditional cultures which enabled us to see unvarnished life as it happens. Special appreciation to Andrew who showed us in-depth daily life in the village of Mto Wa Mbu and to Faustin - a Datoga tribesman who was our lifeline to both the Datoga and Hadzabe peoples. We danced with the beautiful Maasai, tried our skills with handmade bows and arrows with the resourceful Hadzabe people on their daily hunt, and experienced the Datoga who skillfully turned crude charcoal into blazingly hot fires using goat skin bellows to melt, forge and hammer metals into fine arrow tips and jewelry. What amazement to experience the resourceful Hadzabe create fire in remarkable speed from skillfully twirling dry wood, as well as experience them living a hunter-gatherer life as they have for at least the last 10,000 years. Trying to track with them through the very wild bush including towering ancient Baobob trees will never be forgotten. Every step put our daily lives in very real perspective, and gave us an appreciation of the talent and abilities of these people to maintain their traditional ways in the face of overwhelming change all around. In addition to the cultural aspect, Stephen treated us to a memorable day in the amazing Ngorongoro Crater. In our one day there we saw a staggering array of all the wildlife that Tanzania is famous for. Our day in Ngorongoro with Stephen was filled with steady wildlife viewing across the caldera floor. We spotted several wildebeest herds moving through the grasslands, and a couple of warthogs trotting along with their characteristic bouncy gait. Near the hippo pool, where we stopped for our packed lunch, we watched the resident hippos surface occasionally with loud snorts. The day's highlight was finding a black rhino - though quite far off, it was still clear enough to observe. A pride of lions rested in the grass, sleeping, and we came across a small group of hyenas moving purposefully across the plain. The Cape buffalo were perhaps the most numerous of the large animals we encountered, scattered in groups across the crater floor, among many different species of antelope - large and small. It was quite a day. Many thanks to Stephen who was knowledgeable, ever-resourceful and happily willing to be flexible at each turn to give us the wonderful experience we enjoyed. If you want an authentic experience with an outstanding local company - we highly recommend Adventure Makers Tanzania and Stephen. You will enjoy the experience of a lifetime.
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• Joe

  · September 25th, 2024
  The day trip to Tarangire was a wonderful experience and Stephen and Peter made the entire experience easy, affordable, and incredible fun. We saw lions, elephant, cape buffalo, giraffe, zebra, eland, cheetah, warthog, ostrich, and many others. Adventure Makers were very flexible and set this up as a private tour for my colleague and myself. I highly recommend booking a tour with them and have already personally recommended them to several people I know.
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• Craig

  · September 13th, 2024
  Spending 7 weeks in Tanzania at the moment, including 4 days/3 nights in Arusha National Park climbing Mt Meru. Stephen took me to me the Hadzabe People who still hunt with bows and arrows, then visited the Black Rhinos and African Wild Dogs in Mkomazi National Park. If you want to see the real Tanzania with or without the pre-packaged tourist trimmings, then Stephen and Adventure Makers are the guys for you.
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