Meet ZARA at New York Adventures in Travel Expo 2009

ZARA will exhibit at the New York Adventures in Travel Expo October 10-11, 2009. If you want to meet us, please contact us in advance and we will provide you with complimentary guest tickets, valued at up to 15 USD! Just email to zara@zaratours.com.

Ngorongoro Half Marathon April 18th – register now!

ZARA wants to remind everyone interested in finding out his or her personal limit taking part in a sports event in one of Africa’s most beautiful regions that the 2nd Ngorongoro half marathon (21 km) will take place on April 18th, 2009. It is still possible to register as a participant, which is free of charge. Everyone participating will get a 50 US$ discount on any ZARA safari or climb. Even if you’re not into participating yourself, it will be a lot of fun to cheer on the many local and foreign runners!

Please have a look at our original posting about this sports event which is arranged by Minnesota International Health Volunteers (MIHV):

http://zaratours.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/2nd-ngorongoro-run-to-be-held-on-april-18th-2009/

If you would like to support the work of MIHV, you can find more information about their work in the documents that you can download here as a ZIP file.

AMREF Flying Doctors

ZARA wishes to recommend to travellers to East Africa to consider a membership with the AMREF Flying Doctors.

Short term tourist memberships with a duration of 14 days or two months are inexpensive and in case of medical emergency, there will be one free air ambulance evacuation service from all Tanzanian wilderness areas to Nairobi hospital in case of serious medical emergency. There is also a free 24 hours Flying Doctor’s Emergency Response telephone for medical advice.

AMREF, the African Medical and Research Foundation has been in existence for over 35 years as a non-profit making foundation. Headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya, and there are Tanzania offices in Arusha and Dar-es-Salaam.

Unutilised membership subscription fees go towards funding the work of AMREF Outreach and charity evacuations. In Tanzania, AMREF funds The AMREF Muhimbili Outreach programme which flies out specialist doctors to rural areas to treat the less fortunate and train medical staff in those areas. You can download the 2009 membership price list, conditions and coverage map as a ZIP-file here.

Website: http://www.amref.org.

The beauty side of Tanzania

“The beauty side of Tanzania” is our new range of itineraries focussing on cultural encounters, the close-up discovery of natural wonders, and doing activities “other” than just the typical National Park game drive safari. The itineraries are ideal for those travellers who want to see Tanzania in a multifaceted way and learn more about the country than the average tourist. Led by local guides, they are also perfect for repeat visitors to Africa.

However, our 8 days package, besides visiting a Chagga village on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, an “authentic” Massai village which is not set up for tourism purposes, and the farming areas of Mtu Wa Mbu, includes some game drives in Tanzania’s most stunning National Parks, because it would simply be a real pity if you would leave the country without having visited them.

The two 5 days itineraries, with one including hiking in the Usambara Mountains, and the other one including activities of historical visits and natural exploration along the Dar-es-Salaam/Bagamoyo coast area, are perfect if you are short in time or can be added to any other safari itinerary or mountain climb.

See the full itineraries here.

Getting to the top

“I have a story – it is about ‘good’ people, overcoming adversity, staying focused and getting to the top. This is part of what mountaineering is all about.”

Singer and songwriter Mary Clare Reinhardt has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with ZARA Tanzania Adventures. You can read her full story here.

Mary Clare has also uploaded some pictures of her trek.

Climb Kilimanjaro with Macon Dunnagan 2008

You can now join two very special Kilimanjaro climbs with Kilimanjaro specialist and book author Macon Dunnagan. Macon, 47, is author of the novel “Sons of Kilimanjaro”, a captivating tale of four men who climb Kilimanjaro, an endeavour which helps them to overcome their personal struggles. Without being moralising or preaching, in his book, Macon gives inspiration to those who want to learn about unusal experiences and life beyond the limited knowledge. He has climbed Kilimanjaro 9 times and is one of the few individuals who have ever climbed Kilimanjaro twice within one month.

As his wife Michelle battled ovarian cancer, it is Macon’s aim to raise awareness for this disease. From the August climb, 250 US$ of the fees paid by each fellow climber will be given to the American National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC).

Macon wants to share his mountain and life experiences with everyone and invites you to join him to the top of his favourite mountain. The dates for 2008 are 4th to 9th of February 2008, and the NOCC fundraising climb will be from 29th of August to 6th of September 2008. You can see the itinerary and book this climb here.

From beautiful to ugly…

Everything from beautiful to ugly can be encountered at the Highview Hotel Karatu: The picture on the left does not show some scary African witchcraft ceremony, but last week’s Halloween party at Highview Hotel. The picture on the left shows Highview’s new female staff dresses which have been designed by Leila Ansell, the hotel manager herself. Leila likes to see her stuff in stylish yet practical garment and was obviously inspired by Indian fashion when doing the new designs. Can anyone name a hotel in Tanzania with more attractive employees?

ZARA Forum as a meeting point

Yesterday, we have launched our new ZARA Forum. Not only can travellers use this new platform to exchange all kind of information which is related to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and doing safaris with ZARA in Tanzania (and we will do our best to answer all questions asked), we also thought that the forum should be a place where people interested in doing a group safari or a group Kilimanjaro/safari package can get to know each other BEFORE their arrival to Tanzania. Meet like-minded travellers and plan your perfect Tanzania adventure with them!

President Kikwete visits Highview Hotel

 

Jakaya Kikwete, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania (middle) on his visit to the Highview Hotel in March 2007. On the picture he can be seen in front of the Highview Hotel with Zainab Ansell (left), owner of ZARA Tours, Laila Ansell (right), the hotel manager and other hotel staff.

One year anniversary of Highview Hotel with fundraising surprise lunch for orphans and Bongo Flavor stars

The one year anniversary of the Highview Hotel on the 18th of November 2006 held a big surprise for the 33 orphans living at the town’s “Shalom” orphanage: They were invited to a big dinner with special guests such as Tanzania’s Bongo Flavor (Tanzanian Hip Hop) superstar Juma Nature and Laural Barnett, the current Miss New Zealand! There were many other guests and the purpose of the dinner was not only to celebrate the hotel’s one year anniversary, but also to raise funds for the construction of a new building for the Karatu orphanage. Juma Nature and his fellow Bongo Flavor singers were performing live and at the end of the night, Zainab Ansell could hand over a nice paycheque to Mama Nnko who runs the orphanage.