I think we found someone to cart us around Tanzania

Angela and I pretty much decided to leave the specifics of planning and executing our safari to a pro. Having said that, we needed to decide on who we're going to let cart us around Tanzania.

One of the things that we really wanted was to get as close to the animals as possible. There are lots of really nice fixed lodges in all of the areas which we want to visit, but neither of us feel like that's anywhere near an "authentic" safari experience.

During my initial research in that weekend where all I did was look up safari stuff, I came across one called "Thomson Safaris" who only operate in Tanzania and have been there for almost 30 years; have a U.S. based office and an Arusha office; who operate their own semi-permanent tented camps where each tent has a private bathroom, pump-flush toilet, gravity feed shower, and solar powered lighting; and they use their own customized Land Rover Defenders with only 5 people per rover so everyone has a window seat and room to spread out.

Most importantly, they have an itinerary that matches exactly what I want to do and see.

I think we have a winner. I've been exchanging emails with one of their consultants over the past several days and have a very good feeling about these guys. They're still working on their dates and prices for the 2014/2015 season, so we'll have to wait a little bit before we can actually commit to something, but I think we're going to pull the trigger.

The Dark Continent is calling

And so it goes. We're not back from Italy for 2 weeks and we're already deep in planning our next big trip. I will confess, though, that the initial contacts were made way back in January when I was perusing in my Groupon iPhone app that they were advertising a "Getaway" for a Kenyan safari. "Hmmm...," I thought, a safari. That sounded amazing to me and I spent the balance of that weekend looking at tons of sites about African safaris. So many questions: where to go? when to go? how long? how do we get there? how do we decide what to do?

Here are some initial thoughts on the matter:

Where to go?

Tons of choices. Do we go to Tanzania? South Africa? Botswana's Okavongo Delta? Zambia? Kenya? Namibia? After much thought, we've decided on Tanzania. It's kind of like deciding where to go on your first trip to Europe. I say o with the great cities like Paris or London or Rome. Tanzania seems to me like it's the "Great Cities" equivalent. Within its boundaries are the Serengeti, site of the largest land migration on the planet; the Ngorongoro Crater; the Great Rift Valley and the Olduvai Gorge, site of the Leakey's discovery of the first hominids and the cradle of humanity; and Mount Kilimanjaro; the highest free-standing mountain on earth. These factors alone make Tanzania compelling, but there are other, more practical factors. It's fairly easy to get to; has a stable government; and there is no shortage of safari operators offering trips from Arusha to the big sites. We also wanted to do something "beachy" on the tail end of our journey, and what better place to do that than the Indian Ocean paradise of Zanzibar, right off the eastern coast of Tanzania?

When do we go?

Northern Tanzania has 2 rainy seasons: November and December, called the "Short Rains;" and March through May, called the "Long Rains." September and October are the height of the dry season and predators and prey alike are struggling to find water so there are very good chances of seeing "kills" of wildebeest, zebra, etc. by lions, cheetah, hyenas, leopards, etc. That's good. I definitely want to see the big cats in all their glory. February and early March is the calving season, where there are babies of all kinds. Angela loves baby Elephants, and who doesn't love a cuddly lion or leopard cub? What time of the year isn't the only consideration. Which year is also important. These trips are not cheap. Can we swing it in 2014, or do we have to wait until 2015?

How long do we stay?

I think that 10 days in the bush is plenty. That leaves 3-4 days on Zanzibar to decompress before heading back home.

How do we get there?

Our options here are somewhat limited. Even though Atlanta (ATL) is the busiest airport in the world, the only good access we have to international routes is on Delta. There are a multitude of other International carriers that fly into ATL, but you're stuck going back to their European hubs The generally accepted route is to fly from the US to Amsterdam (AMS) and catch a KLM flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). There could be more creative ways to get there, but would they be any cheaper or easier? Coming back, we would fly out of Dar es Salaam (DAR), since all of the flights from JRO to AMS go through DAR anyway. That's the easy part. How do we get from JRO to Zanzibar (ZNZ)?

How do we decide what to do; where to go; and where to stay?

This is where all the work is, I'm figuring out. So many choices. I'm usually pretty comfortable planning my own vacations, but something tells me that planning a first-time safari might be a little more than I want to bite off. Did you see what I did there, with the "bite off" bit, and we're going to Africa to watch lions eat wildebeest? Anyway, if I don't want to plan it all myself, I'll have to find a tour operator that looks good.