We plan to spend 3 weeks (dec to Jan) with our 3 kids aged
5, 7 & 9 in Tanzania and Kenya.Does anybody else have
experience of how easy is it to travel around these
countries using public transport and can anybody offer
advice on the unmissables please?
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Can't you get more than three weeks? If you can't I suggest
you think seriously about picking one country and sticking
with it. My wife and I spent three months backpacking
through Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi last year with out
kids, aged 11, 9 and 6. They loved it and so did we. You
MUST take them to the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater
and you miss go to Zanzibar if you visit Tanzania. The kids
will love the animals and the beaches. I'm afriad they're
too young for Kili, which is quite expensive. It's hard to
do the safari afor a family of five in Tanzania for musch
less than 250 quid a day. Ouch! We paid a little less with
Sunny Safaris and it was excellent. If you start going much
cheaper they cut corners and the driver/guides aren't as
good. Dar is an awful place that you should avoid at all
costs. Unfortunately you will have to settle for minimizing
your time there. You could fly to Dar, catch a 'luxury' bus
to Arusha the next day. Arrange with a reputable company for
a 4 or 5 day safari. Then head back to Dar and over to
Zanzibar, one of the world's most wonderful places.
I have been to Kenya twice but before the kids were born. If
you go there then you must visit Mara, a fantastic park.
Amboselli is also nice as are the lakes with millions of
flamingoes. The birds move around, but Nakuru is usually the
best bet. You can find out where they are when you arrive.
It's a hell of a lot cheaper to make arrangements when you
arrive then from England through a company by the way. If
you do Kenya only then the train to Mombassa is nice, but
none of the beach places are nearly as nice as Zanzibar. The
only exception is Lamu, but it takes time to get there and
unless you can afford the flight it's become rather
dangerous because of Somali bandits who shoot up the buses.
Most of the advice in the Lonely Planet guides on these two
countries is actually pretty reliable. If you have any
questions, send an e-mail. I'm sure you and your kids will
have a great time.
Don't know if you read the papers, or maybe you're in the
States where there isn't any international news, but Uganda
is having real problems lately and Tanzania is brewing. I'd
pick another continent.
I heard this cute little song about zanzibar on the radio
about 7 years ago and have not heard or seen anything about
it since.. It kinda went like this... zanzibar, zanzibar,
there are no cars in zanzibar, can't get far in
zanzibar...or something like that and then it went on to
rhyme all the imports and exports and geography etc. about
zanzibar. It was a really cute kinda kid's song. You'd be
singin' it all the way to there and back... If you've
heard this song or know where I can get the lyrics or
songwriter, please e-mail me details.
Hi...hope this isn't too late. I spent a few months in
Africa backpacking around and can offer a bit of advice on
the transport situation. The big buses that go from major
city to major city (e.g. Nairobi to Kampala) are pretty
good...i.e. safe and reliable. I also took a lot of those
little oversized station wagon/van things to get around to
smaller towns. Please be very careful about them. Do
stupid things like checking the fuel gauge, tires,
headlights, etc. before putting your kids life on the
lines. I was coming down a very steep, curvey mountain
road in Kenya when a tire just "fell off" the vehicle. The
bolt had rusted out and I'm sure it would have been obvious
had I bothered to look before getting in. Thank God we
were going slow (which was in itself a miracle). On
another occasion, also ran out of petrol in the middle of
nowhere and waited a good six hours to get refueled. Also
found myself at night with no headlights...didn't seem to
bother or suprise anybody else but gave me the jitters.
One other point...you'll have to really fight about it but
make sure you and your family don't get crammed into the
back seats where there is absolutely no exit. Stake out
your front seats and fight to the death to keep them.
Mirroring a previous post...are you sure you want to go to
Uganda? Things really are pretty dicey there. Also, I
personally found Uganda to be much less interesting than
some of the other East African countries. Good luck...Bye