Hints & Tips for climbers and safari: Arusha, Mount Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park

• Don’t do laundry at your hotel if you can avoid it; try “Virgin Dry Cleaners and Laundry” located in the “Shoprite” shopping area, hidden in the left corner near Barclay’s Bank. We paid 4,000Tsh (approx. $2.50) per kilogram of washing as opposed to the per item system that the hotels have. It saved us a ton of money and time if we were to attempt the washing ourselves
• If you need to purchase any last minute gear, try “SafariCare”, also located in the “Shoprite” shopping area, on the right side of the complex, past Woolworths. Not a huge variety but they do stock many key items
• If you are looking to hire gear cheaply for Mount Kilimanjaro and can get to Moshi, try “Glady’s Adventure”; we found this MUCH cheaper than our climb company and should have hired more through them
• For food supplies, whether for safari or climbing Kili, don’t go to Shoprtite, rather go to “Fine Food Supermarket” (I think), located in the Njiro Cinema Complex, on Njiro Road, Arusha. This supermarket had an AWESOME variety of products and while it sold a lot of foreign exported items was actually CHEAPER on many items we purchased as opposed to Shoprite
• A great campsite and place to gain valuable information is the Meserani Snake Park in Arusha. They also have a workshop (and mechanic contacts) which can be hired by the day if your vehicle needs some work

For those doing self-drive in the national parks:

The Ngorongoro Crater and Sernegeti National Park are managed separately and have different process for payment and entry. Some information on these are below. The owners of the Meserani Snake Park in Arusha may also be able to provide more up to date information if anything has changed. 

• For Ngorongoro Crater you can pay at the gate in either US dollars or via a bank deposit slip. To get the bank deposit slip you will need to make payment to the “Ngorongoro Conservation Area” at CRDB in US dollars. Basically, it’s easiest to pay at the gate, but make sure you have the right currency as they won’t accept Tanzanian Shillings from foreigners! Pricing is as follows (@July 2012) and is all valid for single entry and 24 hours only:

• USD200 vehicle entry into the crater
• USD40 foreign car entry into the conservation area
• USD50 per person for park entry
• USD30 per person for camping

• If you are doing self-drive into the crater you are expected to have a park guide accompany you in your vehicle. If you wish to avoid this because you don’t have space (like we didn’t), or for some other reason J, you will need to obtain permission from the Conservation Area’s Head Park Ranger, located at the Park Head Office (check T4A for location). You will need to convince the Head Ranger that you don’t require a guide (think being in the school principal’s office) and received a note to show at the crater entry. Without this note you can expect hassles.

• For Serengeti the process is different as it is managed by Tanzanian parks. You have two options for payment for Serengeti, either via Visa card at the gate or by purchasing a “Tembo Card” from CRDB (you will need US Dollars to load the Tembo card with credit). Again, if you have a Visa card, just use that. No cash is accepted at the Serengeti entry gate! Pricing for the park is as follows (@July 2012) and is all valid for single entry and 24 hours only:

• USD40 foreign car entry
• USD50 per person for park entry
• USD30 per person for camping