Licensed Arusha operator · 100% Tanzanian owned and staffed
A tailor-made safari, your own private 4x4, a guide our guests thank by name for the sightings, and a price with no overseas broker’s markup. Stay with the leopard as long as you like.
Our founder Godfrey personally replies within 2 hours.
🌳 1.5% of your trip funds tree planting in Moshi, Kilimanjaro, donated to One Trip One Tree.
Find out moreWhat we do
We build private safaris all across Tanzania. We take guests to experience the incredible Northern Circuit, the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Lake Manyara among other places. We also do the southern parks if you want somewhere quieter. Then of course Zanzibar, if you want the beach afterwards.
Every trip is created from scratch around your dates and what you most want to see. No fixed departures, no groups, and no copy and paste itineraries.
Tell us roughly when, and roughly who’s coming. You don’t need fixed dates, a budget worked out or a route in mind. Our founder Godfrey will read it himself and reply within two hours.
Wet season, Tanzania & Serengeti
We build private safaris in Tanzania, created from scratch around your dates and what you most want to see. No fixed departures, no groups, and no copy and paste itineraries. And the green season is the one we’d pick ourselves.
From November to May the plains are green, full of wildlife, and the tracks are empty. Time it for late January into February and thousands of wildebeest calves are being born a day, with every predator on the plains awake to it.
Ndutu is one of the only places licensed vehicles can leave the track, so when it happens near you, you’re not watching from a distance.
Camp rates are lower outside the July peak too, and that difference goes into your camp.
The catch is longer grass and thicker bush, so sightings take patience. Which is when the guide matters most.
Tell us roughly when, and roughly who’s coming. You don’t need fixed dates, a budget worked out or a route in mind. Our founder Godfrey will read it himself and reply within two hours.
Who we are
Are you the operator, or a middleman?
If they’re a middleman, their margin is already inside your quote and you’ll never see it, which is why the same itinerary comes back thirty percent apart from two companies.
Ask for a registration number. Ours is BRELA 153223580, TALA licence 033097, Arusha. We’re the people who’ll actually be driving you.
Will a real person reply?
Try sending four enquiries on a Sunday. By Wednesday you’ll have two PDF brochures, one auto-reply and silence.
Not with us. Godfrey replies personally within two hours, and writes your itinerary himself, from scratch, with as many amendments as you like.
Is the sustainability real, and can you back it up?
Almost every site you’ve opened says it supports local communities, but almost none of them will give you a number.
Ours is 1.5% of your trip, to One Trip One Tree, run by Rau Eco in the Rau Forest near Moshi. They’ve planted over 100,000 trees and collected over 10,000kg of plastic bottles during their operations. Plant one yourself while you’re there with us, or just let the money do it.
Will I be one of ten vehicles at the leopard?
In a shared vehicle you leave when everyone else has had enough and the driver decides it’s time before you’re ready, following in the trail of other trucks.
With us, your vehicle is private and you decide your game drives, where you want to go and what you want to see in the parks, and our guides do everything they can to make sure you see everything you’ve dreamt of. As our guest Alex said: “driving on the less obvious tracks or against the current were great strategies to see and observe hidden animals in peace.”
Our founder Godfrey personally replies within 2 hours.
Our guides
Gabriel was one of the first, and there are more than ten now.
“Gabriel has laser eyes and picked out things no-one else has seen... the find of the cheetah and her 5 cubs at a kopje was a real joy. No other safari trucks to be seen, so we had that experience to ourselves.”
Jim F · TripAdvisor“With a background in zoology, he has an incredible understanding of animal behavior... he could predict the presence of predators by analyzing the movement patterns of wildebeests or anticipate a lion hunt based on the dynamics within a pride.”
Julia, Hong Kong · SafariGo“While other vehicles were rushing around aimlessly, Peter remained calm and patient. He told us, ‘Just wait, patience is key.’... The wildebeests crossed and came ashore just five meters away from us.”
Xu, Shanghai · SafariGo“Foolishly I forgot to bring my camera batteries and George lent me his camera completely for five days!”
Yiqing, Shanghai · SafariGoEvery guide holds the operating licence the law requires and has been trained through a tour guiding association in first aid, customer care and how to run a trip. We don’t hire anyone with less than five years in the field, and most have more than ten. Between them they speak English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Chinese.
The numbers
A seven-day private safari runs $6,500 to $8,000 per person for a mid to luxury trip, and shorter trips are proportionally cheaper.
Everything on the ground is in it. All accommodation and all meals, park and concession fees, your 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser with its driver guide, and Flying Doctors cover while you’re out there.
The vehicle is yours alone. A pop-up roof, charging points for camera gear, a cool box, a radio, a first aid kit, and six seats, every one a window seat.
What isn’t included. Flights aren’t included, and nor is travel insurance, which you’ll want.
You don’t need a budget worked out to ask. Send what you’re thinking and Godfrey will tell you honestly whether it’s the trip you’re imagining.
Our founder Godfrey personally replies within 2 hours.
If you’re coming for a reason
Honeymoon, anniversary, a big birthday, or you’ve been before and you’re coming back. Godfrey emails every camp on your route in advance to decorate the room and put something on, usually a cake and often singing. He brings cake or wine himself, and something to take home. Your vehicle gets a wheel cover printed with the occasion if you choose, so it’s in the background of every photograph that week.
No request is too strange. Somebody once asked for three surprise birthday parties in one trip.
What we aren’t
We’re not the cheapest and we’re not trying to be. If price is the deciding factor, someone will undercut us.
We’re not a fit if you want a fixed group departure with a set route and a set price. Everything we run is built one trip at a time.
And finally, if you’d rather deal with an office in London than the people actually driving you, we’re the wrong shape.
Conservation and community
Tecomate is Tanzanian-owned and indigenous-founded, based in Arusha. Every job goes to a Tanzanian, so the margin stays in the country instead of in a head office overseas.
One Trip One Tree. 1.5% of your trip funds One Trip One Tree, run by Rau Eco, a youth-led organisation in the Rau Forest near Moshi, founded in 2013. Whilst we don’t have a dedicated Tecomate tree count, Rau Eco have planted over 100,000 trees and cleared over 10,000kg of plastic bottles, and local schoolchildren run the nurseries day to day, and they’ve involved over 50,000 local students and community members in their operations. We’ll make sure you get to plant one yourself if you choose, which we highly recommend.
Southern circuit rerouting. We also route some guests to Ruaha and Nyerere in the south rather than concentrating everybody on the Serengeti, so tourism money reaches villages the northern circuit never does.
Send your enquiry
A few things to start: roughly when, roughly who’s coming, and where you’d like to go, and your personal details to get back to you. Nothing has to be fixed. Our founder Godfrey replies personally, within two hours.
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Some networks block it. Send your dates straight to Godfrey instead and he will reply within two hours, the same as he would to the form.
Godfrey usually replies on WhatsApp, because it is faster than email, but we'll let you know we received your enquiry either way.
For your peace of mind before sending
A 30% deposit with the balance 40 days before you travel. Written itinerary and invoice before anything is paid.
Visa, Mastercard or Amex, so your own bank’s chargeback cover applies (a 3.5% surcharge applies), or bank transfer if you’d rather.
Payments go to the company name on the certificate above. If anyone in this industry ever asks you to send money to a personal account, that’s your answer about them.
Godfrey reads every enquiry himself and replies within two hours. However, we’re a real team of people, so if you send it late at night for us, you might hear back in the morning instead.
You don’t need them. Roughly when and roughly who’s coming is enough to get a route and a price.
We don’t know who’ll be free in your week, and we’d rather say that now than disappoint you in eight months. However, every guide has to clear the same bar to work with us.
Godfrey is contactable for your whole trip, not just office hours. “During our tour in the rough roads in and outside the parks we had small problems with the electricity of the car. Godfrey answered within minutes and organized a mechanic at our next lodge. The car was repaired during we had dinner.” Markus & Anna, Germany · SafariBookings
Malaria in northern Tanzania is real, seasonal and manageable, and we’ll tell you exactly what your GP will ask. Every vehicle carries a first aid kit and every guide has first aid training. You’re put on the Flying Doctors service automatically. You’ll still want your own travel insurance covering medical treatment and evacuation.
We route you to real local communities if it’s something you’d like to do, not to tourist villages. “To get in contact with local communities and learn about their daily live and get even integrated in, it was a really nice experience and absolutely not like the normal tourist experience!” Elitumaini Rindano · Google
Depends what you want. July to October for the river crossings, late January into February for calving on the southern plains. Tell Godfrey your dates and he’ll tell you what you’d see.
1.5% of your trip, to One Trip One Tree, run by Rau Eco in the Rau Forest near Moshi. When we have donation receipts, we’ll put them up for you to see.