On safari with us you have your own guide, and he stays with you for the whole trip. He meets you when you land, drives you from park to park and drops you off again at the end. After a few days he knows what you want to see, how long you like to stay with a sighting and whether you are a morning person.
We know everyone who drives for us personally, and we chose each of them ourselves. We work only with well-trained, senior guides. In high season trusted freelancers drive with us too, people we have worked with for years.
Out in the bush, your guide is the one constant, the person who represents Makasa from the first morning to the last.
Ngomi, my husband, is a zoologist and a guide. He was born and raised in Tanzania, started guiding at seventeen and went on to study zoology in Texas, and he has more than twenty years in the safari industry behind him. He still drives regularly himself and knows our guides and their work up close.
This is not a detail. A guide who picks you up on day one knows on day five that you want to find the cheetah you only just missed on day two. He knows you like the left-hand seat at the back and that you are ready at six. With a different guide in every park, you start again from scratch each time.
On a group tour you share the guide with everyone in the vehicle. With us he is yours alone, and so is the vehicle. If you want to stay put for an hour, you stay put.
Our guides speak English and Swahili. Teach him a few words of your language, and he will teach you a few words of Swahili.
In Tanzania a tip is a set part of a guide's income. Allow 25 to 50 dollars a day, for the whole group together, not per person. You give it to him yourself at the end of your safari. More on money in Tanzania.
You know who your guide will be before you leave home. Our itineraries show how a trip with him unfolds, day by day.