Zara Tanzania AdventuresReviews of zaratours.com

Zara tour did a fantastic job making the once in a life time Kili experience stress free. Also used their service for a safari and other tours in Tanzania!

As advertised, I was greeted with a card with my name on it at the airport, and transferred to Moshi. The check in was smooth, and the staff were warm, smiling, friendly. The hotel was quiet (although I found the doors to be a bit thin). The hotel has a massive swimming pool, I learned later. There was free wifi. The breakfast was filling, great coffee. There was beer available. I was transported to Marangu entrance, and my guide, Faustine Bura, took care of all of the logistics. He was an amazing guide. He knew intuitively how fit I was, how to keep me hydrated, how to keep me eating, how to force me to rest. We made the second camp by the end of the day, and the lodgings were very accommodating. Food was prepared for me. I was a solo climber, but I had Faustine, 2 porters, and a cook. I didn't need all of that support, but it came with the package. We woke up early, and Faustine and I summited that day, so just 2 days of climbing, actually a total of 31 hours to the summit. Again, Faustine understood my progress, kept a close eye on me, and if he felt I was in a bad way, he would have turned us back. He knew how to navigate well. We topped out, and then literally ran back down the mountain. He was as fit a man as I have ever known. I learned a bit of Swahili interacting with him, and learned about his family. We returned to the bus shuttle, and returned to Moshi, the following day. The next day, I went out with Faustine as my chaparone, and he took me to the Blue Zebra. This was a wonderful experience, and I would never have found it without his help. They had locally made hand crafted items, of the highest quality, in the shop. Faustine and I had a beer together, which was also fantastic. The next day, I took a safari to Arusha National Park, with Peter. He was a well informed tour guide. He took his time with me and I learned a lot about Arusha, Moshi, and Tanzania, and its politics. He really took the time to do things for me, like getting me coffee and other items. We had a beer afterwards. The next day, I flew home. I highly recommend Zara.

We had a great experience with Zara tours and we believe this was made possible by our guides and porters. Freddy was our guide along with Dustan and Juma. The only recommendation I would make is that Zara tours provides all of their guides with small bags to get out to hikers each day along with a talk at the beginning of the tour and reinforced every morning about litter. Guests can use the bags to put any toilet paper or wrappers that they have in the small bag and it can be put in the trash at the end of the day there should be zero tolerance of litter in the park and there should be signs posted and a fine . It can all start with the guides talking to the clients . Thanks again

Starting with professional and on time communication, nice package and customized, through the payment process (online) - all was ok. Then the reality on the ground - that was good as well. Some details: 1- Zara has its own hotel for the expeditions - Springlands - so security was not an issue. Family environment from everybody there - that is great! 2- mountain staff: oh the guides we had were amazing - actually 50% of success depends on the guides 3- auxiliary staff: porters, cook etc. - all were on time with all we wanted - simply very OK 4- office staff: helpful and understanding the customer needs 5- shuttle buss to/from airport and to/from Moshi - that is there and mandatory for all visitors who flied in to Tanzania 6- the entire trip was excellent and we even succeeded with our 12y kids to the top of Kili Disadvantages? Two small ones: 1- food in the hotel is way below the expectation (completely opposite to the food in the mountains - this one was great) 2- mosquito nets were not really protective in the rooms - maybe this could have been solved if we talked to the staff but we were too excited after the trip to care about it. Overall: 9/10 and once food in hotel is better it will be 10/10.

Yes, the whole experience starting from getting information, getting quotes, making the reservations and booking the trip, to making last minute changes was excellent. And once on the ground in Moshi, hiking and making the summit of Kilimanjaro, and then a few days of Safari were all a great experience.

Zara does and excellent job of coordinating the many moving parts of their operation--it is worth some time to just sit in the courtyard and marvel at the almost seamless activity that is required! The guides were great, and the experience was fantastic. I love the fact that we felt that we were directly impacting the local economy rather than a big corporate entity without a face.

We had a very good experience, professional and well educated guide.

Zara is a great budget travel option both for the Kilimanjaro Hike & Safari tours. I had a great time!