u/catsandcurls-

Looks like all seven people on board have died

Looking for some honest opinions.

Husband and I are going on a delayed honeymoon safari trip to the Masai Mara in September, and I’m trying to decide whether we need to buy a camera or not.

We definitely both take lots of photos on our phones when we’re away and would plan to do so on this trip especially, but neither of us are in any way into photography or would have any knowledge of how to use a higher-end camera. We don’t currently own any camera.

It’s hard to justify spending the money to get one that we’d almost certainly not use again (unless we do another safari, which is probably not on the cards any time soon), and we’re not exactly awash with cash after paying for the wedding and this honeymoon, but seeing how much discussion there is on this sub around photography is making me worried we’d regret not having one.

Has anyone done a safari with just their phone camera and regretted it??

Renting doesn’t seem to be an option where we are unfortunately

This has to be the most frustrating website I’ve ever encountered.

I tried apply for visas for Tanzania myself & my husband over the weekend ahead of our Safari trip in August.

It took me four attempts to even get to the payment stage because it kept crashing and kicking me back out to the “new application” page.

When you get to the payment stage, you’re prompted to visit a separate third-party payment provider website separately by entering a URL, and that does work to allow you to make the payment. However, there’s no way to progress the application to the final completion & submission stage from there, and if you choose the continue & make payment option it just throws you right back out to the “start application” page.

So now we’ve paid for two visa applications which we couldn’t actually submit.

There’s supposed to be an option to “continue application” by entering your application ID, but it doesn’t work, and you’re told to email visa support@immigration.go.tz instead. We emailed on Sunday, and no response so far.

Any suggestions? I could live with not getting a refund, but struggling to see how it could even be possible to successfully apply for the visa online

We’re finalising our honeymoon trip to Kenya & Zanzibar for this September, and am looking for feedback on our itinerary

It’ll be our first time on safari, so we chose to focus on one location to be able to really immerse ourselves rather than loads of travel time.

Is this the right choice, are we missing out by not seeing more? Is Masai Mara a good choice for that time of year or will it be extremely crowded? We won’t be specifically tracking the great migration or trying to see a river crossing, but obviously it would be great to see some of it.

Any feedback on the lodge and it’s location?

Thanks in advance!

Day 1

- Transfer from Nairobi to Masai Mara by plane, via Wilson airport

- Arrive at Mara Engai Wilderness Lodge at lunchtime. Afternoon game drive (shared) in 4x4.

Days 2-5

- Stay in Mara Engai Wilderness Lodge for 4 nights

- Morning and afternoon game drives

- Including walking safari and hot air balloon safari (timings tbc)

Day 5

- Transfer back to Nairobi by plane

- Stay in Nairobi overnight

- Visit Elephant sanctuary in morning

- Afternoon transfer to airport and fly to Zanzibar

Days 5-10

Stay in Zanzibar