African safari

 My simple response is "Go, if you can!"   My husband and I took the Ultimate Africa: Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe Safari with Overseas Adventure Travel in 2009.   It still ranks among my top three travel experiences, with Antarctica and a trek in Nepal.   I wrote up our experience as a feature for ITN published in the October 2010 issue, page 44+.    That portion of the trip was quite easy and luxurious.   Yes, we stayed in tented camps, but each had toilet and shower en suite.   Food, game drives, and activities were all superb.    A friend recently returned from either Out of Africa or a combination of Ultimate Africa and Safari Serengeti.   From her comments, the first portion was similar to our Ultimate Africa experience -- and comfortable accommodations.   But the Serengeti portion was more primitive.  Quoting her email:   "Was not expecting this type of camping after the luxurious camps we had for 17 days in Southern Africa.  These are real camp tents with bed in front, a separate dressing area that you unzip an entrance into; and behind the dressing area is a flushing toilet compartment and shower compartment, both of which you unzip entries into.  Tents are pitched right on the ground.  No sink, only a canvas bowl outside in front of the tent that they put some water in in the morning at wakeup time.  You tell the staff when you want to take a shower and they put 5 gallons of warm water in a bucket above the showerhead and you get wet, stop water, soap up, rinse, and that's it!    She was astounded at the number of animals she saw.   Her final comment was "Other than the rugged camping accommodations, it has been awesome here in Tanzania and I am happy I did both trips."  I'd go again in a hearbeat!   If the 33 day trip fit your budget in $$$ and time, you'd create amazing memories!        ------------------------------------Moderator note:  Wanda's article is available at:     https://www.intltravelnews.com/2010/10/ultimate-africa-–-going-beyond-...

We have taken three game viewing trips to Africa.  One of the trips, arranged by Rothschild Safaris put us in very nice and luxurious accomodations in Namibia, Botswana and Zambia.  Another one was the Serengeti Safari with Overseas Adventure Travel.  While I thoroughtly enjoyed the pampered life with very gourmet meals on the first trip (my husband did not enjoy it as much as I) I found the OAT trip more interesting and enjoyable. We saw far more animals on that trip than either of the other two trips we had taken.  We saw lions, leopards and cheetahs on that trip and had never seen all three on one trip before.  We also saw, among others, rhinos, hippos and the wildebeast migration.  You only spend 4 nights at the tented camp in the Serengeti and we felt comfortable with the tented accomodations.  We had a sunset "happy hour" with wine and nibbles every night around the fire pit before dinner.  Great camaraderie. Before and after the Serengeti, the rest of the  trip was in very nice lodging, particularly at the "Farmhouse hotel". 

Hi. I have been to Africa a number of times, although I have not taken the OAT trip you mentioned.However, I have taken a couple of OAT trips and am a regular reader of the OAT Travel Forum.Recently there have been a number of threads about accommodation dissatisfaction, especially regarding so-called "Circuit 3" of the UA trip. I suggest that you read the postings on the OAT Travel Forum for more information which could be useful in making your trip plans.Cheers,Karyn