Safety, honestly.

Every safari is escorted from the moment you land at Kilimanjaro until you board your flight home. You travel in a private vehicle with a Tanzanian driver-guide we’ve worked with for years — not a stranger from a roster. You are never handed off to a sub-contractor or pooled with another group.

Our office sits in Usa-River, in the foothills of Mount Meru, fifteen minutes from the airport. That means when you call in transit, you reach someone who knows your itinerary, your lodge, and the road conditions today — not a customer-service desk on another continent.

Tanzania has been peacefully and democratically governed since independence in 1961. More than 120 tribes share the country, with Swahili as the unifying language and a long-standing culture of tolerance. It consistently ranks among the safest tourist destinations on the African continent.

The U.S. State Department, the U.K. Foreign Office, and the Canadian Government currently issue no travel warnings for the Northern Circuit (where every one of our safaris operates). Border tensions in neighbouring regions do not extend here. You can check the current advisory level at any time before flying.

Most of the bush camps and tented lodges we use are not fenced. This is intentional: it’s how the animals stay wild and how you hear hyena calls across the dark from inside your tent. It also means hippos, buffalo, and elephants pass through camp during the night. The rules are simple:

Never walk to or from your tent after dark without a camp escort. Use the lantern, the air-horn, or the radio your tent provides — staff will walk you over. Don’t leave food, snacks, or scented toiletries in the open — baboons and vervet monkeys are clever, persistent, and will tear through a tent for crackers. Listen to the arrival briefing on day one at every camp; the specifics differ slightly by property.

If you are travelling with children, this applies double. Kids should never be out of an adult’s sight in camp, and we’ll request adjoining tents or a family suite wherever possible.

You will travel in a privately reserved 4WD Toyota Land Cruiser with a pop-up roof, fitted out for game-viewing. These vehicles are serviced between every itinerary and are equipped with two-way radio, satellite phone where coverage drops, first-aid kit, and recovery gear. The driver-guide carries spares for the issues most likely to come up on the road — flat tyre, blown bulb, loose hose.

If something happens that can’t be fixed on the spot, our standby fleet rotates a replacement vehicle to your location, typically within 4 to 6 hours. You are never left stranded. We’ve been doing this in the Northern Circuit long enough that the standby pattern is rehearsed; it is not improvisation.

Tanzania is overwhelmingly safe and you’ll be met with extraordinary warmth. Petty theft of the kind that exists everywhere — markets, transit areas, large hotels — can still happen. A few habits that keep it simple:

Leave the watch and the jewellery at home. A safari is the wrong moment for them anyway. Keep passport, primary cash, and credit cards in a money belt worn under your shirt; only your daily “pocket money” should be reachable in public. Carry a digital and a paper copy of your passport and itinerary, stored separately from the originals. Take your wallet with you into the vehicle on game drives — don’t leave it in your tent or room.

Every lodge provides a safe in the room or at reception; use it for anything you’re not actively carrying.

The bush is a physical environment with low thorns, uneven rock, and the occasional wait-a-bit bush — an acacia whose hooks earn their nickname. Most of the small injuries we see are perfectly avoidable:

Watch where you step — especially when walking between tents at dusk or descending into camp paths. Be careful of your fingers on the heavy Land Cruiser doors when they’re being opened or closed by someone else. Wear closed-toe shoes in camp after dark, even on the deck. Apply sun block frequently on any exposed skin — the equatorial sun at altitude is far stronger than it feels.

On organised walking safaris you’ll be accompanied by an armed park ranger and a Maasai naturalist guide. They’ll cover the specific protocols for that walk in a brief at the start. Follow them; the brief is short for a reason.

The animals you’ll see have grown up around safari vehicles; they read the vehicle as a single, harmless shape rather than as a collection of separate people. That contract only holds if everyone inside the vehicle stays inside the vehicle.

Never stand while the vehicle is moving. Wait until it has come to a complete stop before rising for a better view through the roof. Watch for low branches when the roof is popped — acacia thorns at face height are the most common preventable injury on safari. Don’t lean out of the vehicle or call to the animals. Keep voices low when a sighting is close; predators in particular are sensitive to noise, and a stressed cheetah will abandon a kill or even its cubs.

No matter how calm an animal looks, it is wild. The respectful distance your guide maintains is not theatrical — it’s the line between an extraordinary encounter and a dangerous one.

Comprehensive travel insurance is a condition of booking and not optional. It must cover trip cancellation, medical care, and — critically — emergency medical evacuation. A flying-doctor evacuation from a remote bush camp to Nairobi or Dar es Salaam can cost USD 20,000+ uninsured. You arrange the policy yourself in advance; we do not sell insurance.

Bring the policy number and the insurer’s 24-hour assistance line with you, and share both with your driver-guide on day one. If anything happens that needs a higher level of care, that’s the number we’ll be calling first.

Your driver-guide is the first point of contact for anything that happens on the ground. Behind them sits the Arusha office, which is staffed seven days a week and is reachable by phone, WhatsApp, and email throughout the duration of your safari.

Africa Wild By Nature Safaris Limited
P.O. Box 746, Usa-River, Arusha, Tanzania
Email: info@africawildbynaturesafaris.com
Phone & WhatsApp: +255 700 000 000

For questions about these guidelines specifically, the same address reaches us. For the broader contractual side of your booking, see our Terms & Conditions.