Group Joining vs Private Safaris in Tanzania
What is a private safari?
In Private safaris, our safari vehicle and guide will be reserved exclusively for your party. So you will have the entire safari vehicle all to yourself along with the guide’s undivided attention which will ensure a more informative & personalized experience. With a private vehicle and hide can customise your itinerary, accommodations and daily safari timings to a reasonable extent according to your party’s needs.
What is a group-joining safari?
In Group joining safaris, you will be sharing the safari vehicle and guide's services with a maximum of 6 (in case of budget camping) or 7 clients (in case of ensuite accommodations) with window seats for all. Itineraries cannot be customized and daily timings are fixed throughout the tour.
Accommodations can be customised to certain extent for some of the nights. Group joining safaris are cheaper than the corresponding private safaris.
At Monkey Adventures, we offer private safaris throughout the year while group joining safaris are available on select dates between June to October and December to February in Tanzania.
Below we have highlighted the differences between these tours to help with you decide upon the one that is best for you.
Client Profile:
Group joining safari
Group joining safaris are primarily geared for backpackers, solo travelers and couples who are on a tight budget. Majority of clients on group joining safaris are generally young adults in 20s and 30s.
Private safari
Private safaris are best suited for travelers who are looking for a more comfortable tour, for travelers with a preference for specific parks/wildlife/accommodations, for clients with special requests and for those who are simply looking for a more personalised or relaxed experience.
Itinerary Customisation
Group joining safari
Group joining safaris have fixed itineraires and they can't be customized. Currently we are offering group joining safari tours in Tanzania for 2 to 8 days duration. You can find full list of group joining safari tours we offer in Tanzania here
Private safari
Private safaris can be offered for any duration (from 1 to 30+ days) and we can create a custom itinerary based on your preferences. You can find a list of safari tours in Tanzania here
Tour Availability:
Group joining safari
Group joining safaris are offered on select dates between December to February and June to October. They are not offered in November and between March to May. Since each vehicle can carry a maximum of 7 clients (with window seats for all), group joining safari tours can get fully booked out closer to departure dates.
Private safari
We can start a private tour on any date of the year for any number of clients. However some accommodations often get fully booked out in advance. In such cases, we will offer alternative accommodations.
Safari Vehicle & guide:
Group joining safari
The vehicle used for Safaris is a 4×4 Toyota Land Cruiser with a pop-up roof top and with a maximum seating capacity of up to 7 clients plus the driver. For smaller groups (1-3 travelers), sometimes a truncated land cruiser that can seat up to 5 clients and a driver might be provided.
Guide would be an english speaking professionally trained wildlife guide. We do not arrange European language guides in group joining tours.
In Group joining safaris, your vehicle and guide might change in the middle of tour depending on itinerary (But all vehicles/guides will be arranged directly by Monkey Adventures and will not be outsourced to third parties).
Private safari
There is no difference in Safari vehicles whether you opt for group joining or private safari. In private safaris, there is usually no requirement to change vehicle/guide in the middle of a tour. If you need, we can arrange a European language speaking guide at extra cost.
Pick-up on Day 1:
Group joining safari
Pickup will be offered from any location in Arusha between 6:00 – 8:30 AM (depends on itinerary and this can NOT be altered). Estimated pickup time is mentioned in the itinerary. Exact pickup time might change based on the plans for day 1 and the Arusha hotel where the client needs to be picked up from. We advise customers to arrive a day earlier in Arusha as this would provide sufficient time for resting.
Pickup from Arusha will be either in a safari landcruiser or a transport vehicle which is like a regular cab. In case pickup from Arusha is arranged in a cab, clients will be shifted into a landcruiser before entering the national park.
Private safari
Pickup is usually done at 8:00 AM from any Arusha hotel but the timings can be altered. Pickup can take place between 5:00 – 10:00 AM based on the client’s preference. Pickup is done in a safari landcruiser which will be used by the clients for the entire duration of the safari, and the guide is provided during pickup as well.
Delays in pickup:
Group joining safari
Since we collect clients from different pickup points, delay on the part of one client will most likely impact the schedule of every other client in the group joining tour. So we request everyone to strictly maintain the timings shared with you by your briefing manager.
Pickup vehicle (Landcruiser or transfer vehicle) can wait for a maximum of 20 minutes. Post that, the pickup vehicle might depart based on the call of our operations manager. In such cases, clients might be given an option of paying for separate transfer costs or for converting their group joining safari into private safari by paying additional fees or rescheduling their group joining safari to the next available date. Rescheduling fees will apply in such cases.
While we try our best to stick to schedule, clients on group joining safari should be prepared for some delay in the arrival of our vehicle as often it has to pick clients from different locations in the town before arriving at yours.
Private safari
Since the landcruiser is reserved exclusively for clients from the day of safari, we can wait for a few hours if there is a delay in clients arrival. But extreme delay could also result in customers not being able to do any game drives on Day 1 of the itinerary. (Game drives are only allowed between 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM in all parks/reserves)
Safari/Game Drive Duration:
Group joining safari
Total travel time for group joining safaris will be about 7-9 hours per day. This will be inclusive of pick ups, game drives, and dropping back of clients at their hotel(s). This cannot be customised. In some group joining safaris, clients sharing the same vehicle might be staying at more than one accommodation in or around the national parks. But they will all be close by. So on some group joining tours, clients will be spending an additional time of about 20 minutes driving around in the land cruiser before and after the game drives.
Private safari
Game drive timings for private safaris are flexible and as per customer's interest. However, note that game drives are allowed only between 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM in all the parks and reserves. Every evening, your guide will discuss the next day's plan with you and will follow accordingly.
Accommodations:
Group joining safari
Group joining safaris are offered with fixed set of accommodations for the entire tour. We call them as default accommodations and they usually low priced (but good standard) accommodations. Names of these accommodations will be mentioned in our quotation.
At some locations, you can choose to pay extra and upgrade to higher tier accommodation that is located within 20 min drive time from default accommodation in group joining tours. The choice of accommodations is quite limited compared to private safaris. Accommodation upgrade needs to be planned/confirmed at booking stage.
When a default accommodation is not available for a client, we might book similar tier accommodation that is located close to default accommodation. This will be usually communicated before we take the booking.
Private safari
We provide a wide choice in accommodations ranging from budget camping to high-end luxury hotels in private safaris.
Add-on Activities:
Group joining safari
In group joining itineraries, while some activities like Balloon safari, Maasai village visit are possible, some other Add-on activities like hiking may not be feasible as the entire group needs to stick to the same schedule.
Private safari
Customers in private safaris can opt for Add-on activities at an extra cost while they are visiting locations such as a Maasai village, or the Olduvai Gorge. They can go for a hot air balloon tour, canoeing (at Lake Manyara and Arusha National Park), hiking, cycling and much more.
Meeting New people:
Group joining safari
In group joining safaris, since you share the land cruiser with strangers, you have a great opportunity to make new friends. You get the chance to socialize with people from diverse backgrounds and learn about each other’s culture along with learning about the African wilderness.
In a group joining safari, composition of the group may change over time. This can happen because some clients may choose a shorter tour and leave the group in the middle of tour, while others from different group tour itineraries might join for overlapping days, leading to a dynamic composition of clients during the course of the trip.
Private safari
You can interact with other travelers in the evenings at accommodation over campfire and drinks. But the window of opportunity to interact with other guests is limited as compared to a group joining safari.
Luggage:
Group joining safari
Customers opting for group safaris are requested to bring only one bag or backpack per client. Having more luggages will cause inconvenience to fellow travelers and if the entire luggage doesn’t fit in the boot, we might have to shift some bags around the seating area, congesting the vehicle.
Private safari
Luggage will only be a problem when there are bush flights involved or when the landcruiser is filled with seven clients. Luggage won't be a problem in private safaris as such.
Safari Decorum:
Group joining safari
Customers in group joining safaris are requested to maintain group decorum. They are expected to maintain timings, not misbehave or be rude towards fellow travelers or the guide, and not monopolize the guides' time or attention, depriving other clients of the opportunity to interact with the guide.
While all clients get window seats, they are still expected to rotate between the front and back rows during the safari with mutual understanding. Any and all disputes regarding seating will be decided by the guide.
Private safari
Issues mentioned under group joining safaris will not exist in a private safari but it is expected of our clients to respect the views, opinions and cultures of the people they come across on safari and abide by the local laws and regulations.
Bottom-line:
Group joining safaris provide a good value for money for those who are on a tight budget such as solo travelers. It is also good for couples who are trying to save costs, but it might not give them the privacy they might require.
If you are looking for a little extra comfort, convenience and your own schedule, Private safaris are the way to go. For customers traveling with children, family, elderly or wildlife photographers we recommend a private safari, as it would give you a greater degree of flexibility.