Our Safari, whale shark and beach adventure.
We travelled with Turkish Airlines for the first time and I found them pretty good. The layover was only short in Istanbul and there is so many shops at the airport its a massive airport so you have a lot of shops and restaurants and bars should you have longer layovers.
We started our adventure with 3 nights in the Serengeti at the Seronera Serena Lodge. Great accommodation, amazing views over the Serengeti, good food and the safari guides were exceptional with their knowledge and friendliness. We see everything we were hoping for, such as Elephants, Lions, Cheethah, Leopard, Zebra so many Hippo's and lots of safari life. The tours were for 8 hours and we were out most of the day it was so amazing and I would definitely recommend to my clients without hesitation.
Next we flew to Mafia Island for the main purpose of achieving our dream of swimming with Whale Sharks. We stayed at the Kivulini Lodge which was great. There isn't much to do on Mafia but as scuba divers we found it amazing. The lodge staff were so friendly and couldn't do enough for us. The food was great and they even made their own crisps for us as snacks which were lovely. They would drive us to local places if we wanted to go. The managers also took time to talk to us and ask about our day. The diving at Mafia Island diving was great they really looked after us well and we did some great dives with them. Very friendly and professionally run dive school.
Our next stop was Zanzibar where we stayed at the Indigo Beach Hotel at Bwejuu. We had a beachfront 2 storey room with amazing views over the ocean. There isn't much around the area but you can walk to a few other hotel bars along the beach or take a taxi into town ($20 return which the hotel will arrange). It was perfect for us as we like it peaceful. We did scuba diving here with a local dive school who were also a great team. We visited Stone town one night which is worth a visit. We had dinner at the Rock restaurant which is built on a rock (funny that) over the Indian Ocean. I wanted to go at high tide so we got to take the boat across to it or you can go at low tide and walk to it. Food was good, nothing amazing but worth a visit as its pretty unique. $30 per meal wine about the same for a bottle.
The Indigo beach hotel we stayed B&B which had a few options to choose from on the hot buffet and then you got to choose your eggs and bacon cooked as required. Salad, fruits, cheeses and pastries. It had a lovely pool to sit around and it was always very quiet or you were steps away from the Indian Ocean if you fancied a dip in there. It is tidal on most of Zanzibar so only when tide permits.
Dinners were good with a choice of 3 or 4 from the A La carte menu, starters $6 and mains $12 , desserts $6. Drinks approx $8 so not as cheap as I was expecting for Zanzibar. Some hotels did offer happy hours or you could go into Paje to the bars and restaurants. We ate at a very popular BBQ place one night which was dirt cheap.
I was blown away by the friendliness of the Tanzanian people wherever we went and can honestly say I felt save at all times.
Tops tips.
You can use US$ most places and hotels usually charge in $ but for small amounts in shops if its in Tanzanian schillings there are plenty of bureau's to exchange currency. Take strong insect repellent spray along with your Malaria tablets as I clearly have sweet blood with the bites I got when I forgot to apply or didn't apply properly. You can apply for your visa's before travel, they are the same price as getting when you arrive but after a long flight you don't want to be queueing. You will hear all the time - Hakuna Matata - no worries - Jambo - Hello. The internal safari link flights are an experience on small 12 seater planes which can often make unscheduled stops to pick up or drop off passengers but soon you are off again. Be aware of your luggage allowance on the smaller aircraft and plan before you travel.
Such an amazing trip of a lifetime I could talk about it all day!!