The Importance of Selecting the Right Guides for an African Safari

On August 25, 2021August 25, 2021 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Africa, Kenya, TanzaniaLeave a comment

The guide company that you select for an African safari will most likely determine your overall experience. They can’t guarantee what animals you will see or what the weather will be like, but they make all of the arrangements for the places where you stay, ensure safe travel between the various parks and reserves, as well as take you on game drives and provide expert information on the animals that you see. For our trip, we started by researching individual guide companies that were recommended to us or we found on TripAdvisor. We were finding the process overwhelming, so we went to Safari Bookings where you can provide details on the type of safari you’d like to take and they will have guide companies reach out to you and provide quotes. This worked out much better as they only work with verified experts and ensure that the companies are reliable.

Picture of David with Us at the Maasai Village

We received several different quotes and even created a spreadsheet to compare the different tours, the parks that were included, the places where we would stay, and the overall cost of the safari. After narrowing it down to a few choices, we reached out with questions and considered how responsive each company was and how willing they were to work with us to potentially make changes to the itinerary. We also went out and looked at each of the camps and lodges that were included in the safari package to help us determine if it was right for us. We decided on what is considered a mid-tier safari, which made the price more reasonable, but it also meant that we would spend more time driving through the country versus flying from location to location. Actually seeing the country in addition to the parks was something that was important to us.

Shabani Set Up a Twilight Toast for Us on Our Last Night in Tanzania

We ended up choosing Africa Marvel Tours for our safari and we couldn’t have been happier with our decision. Before our trip even started, we chatted via WhatsApp as well as email and added a couple of nights to the original package, a decision that would provide us the opportunity to get close to white and black rhinos at Lake Nakuru as well as a tour of Nairobi. They also provided guidance on getting the COVID tests that we would need and checked with the different places that we would stay as to specific amenities that they offered. Then, when our flights got delayed, they made arrangements to pick us up at the airport instead of the hotel as originally planned. From the moment they met us at the airport and gave us Maasai blankets as a gift to our arrival back in the United States they stayed in touch with us to ensure that we had a safe trip home, everyone at Africa Marvel Tours were amazing.

We had two specific guides during our safari, David for our time in Kenya and Shabani for our time in Tanzania. Each of them were extremely knowledgeable about the parks and knew where we were likely to find some of the most fascinating animals. Not only did we see the big five, elephants, lions, water buffaloes, rhinos, and leopards, but we had many other incredible experiences, including getting close enough to pet a lion (which we definitely did not) with Shabani and having a cheetah jump on the hood of our Land Cruiser with David in Maasai Mara. They both took excellent care of us and we appreciated all of their help and guidance.

Clearly we had an absolutely amazing experience during our safari adventure and that was in large part due to the selection of Africa Marvel Tours. There are a lot of other factors that will make the experience better including patience to wait and watch for the wildlife, just having a relaxed attitude and not getting stressed, and not putting too many expectations in advance as to what you will see. It is also important to remember that the guides are their to ensure your safety and use their expertise to guide you, but it is your safari and you can request changes as well. It was certainly an experience of a lifetime and we will remember all of the various wildlife encounters for the rest of our lives.

How Do You Like to Tour a Location?

On April 4, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Travel Tips1 Comment

There are usually options on how you can tour a location such as self-guided walking tours, group tours, or hiring a private guide. Even if you just read a guide book and walk the streets on your own, you are actually touring a location, it is just very casual. We have tried a variety of styles of touring and have probably done a combination of several styles on every trip. We don’t like being on a schedule, so we lean towards self-guiding ourselves through an area, but there are times when it requires a guide of some sort to really understand the history of a place.

Self-Guided Tours – Whether you get a map and highlight the path that you want to follow or just pick a starting point and wander, self-guided touring is a very relaxing way to see a place. You can see what you want to see, decide how long you want to spend at a certain site, and stop for a bite to eat at a place that fits your style and budget. One of the downsides is that it is up to you to make sure that you have read all of the information to truly understand the history and interesting facts about a location. Also, there are often times when informational signs are only in the local language and if you are not fluent, you might miss out on some interesting facts.
Group Tour in Amsterdam
Group Tours – These can take on a variety of types of tours from hop-on, hop-off buses, river boat cruises, or group walking tours. These tours can be interesting depending upon the personality of the guide. It is often look this way, get a couple of sentences about it, and then you are off to the next site. If you are with a group of people who are truly interested in the place and have read a certain amount of information in advance, you can often learn interesting things based on the questions that are asked in addition to whatever information was on the guide’s script. The schedule is not your own, though, and you can sometimes end up spending more time in places that don’t interest you as much as perhaps it does others. Also, on walking tours, if you have people who decide to wander off to take pictures, you can find yourself standing around waiting for the group to regather.
Private Tour in Bolivia
Private Tours – Although you definitely pay a little bit more for private attention, there a many benefits to having a private tour guide. We have found them to be highly knowledgeable about the locations that you want to see and you have their complete attention to ask them questions that are of interest to you. Since the tour is private, the guides are usually willing to cater to your tastes, physical capabilities, and even potentially add things to the tour that might not have been in the original schedule. Obviously, the experience is completely dependent on the personality of the guide. If you are going to spend several hours with only yourselves and the guide, they better have a good personality or it will be the longest few ours of your trip.
Learning from an Egyptologist in Luxor

There is no one-size fits all solution when it comes to touring a location and we have found that it often takes a mix to see a place from all of the different angles. If you are going to do a guided tour, be sure to negotiate the price in advance, especially if you are hiring a guide right at a specific site. You should also consider a tip and it should be reflective of the information that you received and the quality of the tour and the guide.

The Un-Luck of the Irish

On July 24, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn IrelandLeave a comment

The one trip that we knew we had to make during our six months in Europe was to Ireland. Both of our families have strong Irish ancestry, so we definitely wanted to visit the land of our heritage. We also flew our mother over from the United States to join us for our trip since she had never been to Ireland. Instead of renting a car, we hired a local tour guide from a company called ToursByLocals and chose the tour that would take us to Kilkenny and the Southeastern coast. We augmented the tour to add the city of Waterford so that we could visit the crystal factory and purchase something special to bring home with us.

Our tour started out perfectly as our driver took us through the countryside where we saw quaint little farms with fields filled with sheep. We even had sheep crossing the road in front of us, it was exactly what we had imagined a trip into the Irish countryside to be. Our first stop was to one of the many historic churches of Ireland, however we weren’t able to enter the church as they were having services at the time. We have seen plenty of churches in Europe, so that was not a big deal for us, but it was a little disappointing. Hoping to make it up to us, our guide took us to a historic monastery where we could walk the grounds. Upon our arrival, the gates were closed and the ticket office was closed and there was no one at the site. Luck was not on our side, but the day was early and we were optimistic that our luck would change.

We then went to Kilkenny Castle, which was absolutely spectacular and was again exactly what we expected to see in Ireland. From there, we traveled to Waterford where we hoped to purchase something special to remember our time in Ireland. Upon our arrival, we found the Waterford Crystal Factory closed. Not only was the factory closed and no tours available, but even the store was closed. Our guide pulled up their website and there was nothing indicating that it should be closed and our guide had never seen the store closed. We visited a viking museum and while we were there, we asked if they knew why the factory was closed and they were just as surprised as us to hear that it was closed.

We were obviously frustrated that we weren’t able to visit the factory or even purchase something in the store, but there wasn’t anything that anyone could do. So we put a smile on our faces and continued on to have lunch at a seaside town. Our tour guide felt extremely bad as now he had taken us to three places that we weren’t able to actually see, but we didn’t blame him. Our last stop was to another historic church that had a tower that you could climb for a couple of Euros that had wonderful views of the countryside. By now you can guess what we found when we arrived. It too was closed for no apparent reason and there was a sign that it would be open to the public an hour later, but that would have gotten us back to Dublin far too late, so we chose not to wait.

Despite all of these things, we truly enjoyed our tour as well as our time in Ireland. We couldn’t help but joke with each other that for once, we didn’t have the luck of the Irish. These things happen sometimes and we certainly could have gotten angry with our guide, but it wouldn’t have changed anything. There was no doubt that he felt bad, but other than perhaps the first church that we visited, there was no way for him to have known that these other places would be closed as their websites all indicated that they were open.