Hi, Aniqa.

My bf and I went to Tanzania in January. We went with Zara Tours ( zaratours.com/ ). Another Tribe pal had gone with them 2 years prior and recommended them. The staff were always pleasant and we appreciated that they supported their local communities. The hotel in Moshi, for ex., uses food that is locally grown using sustainable farming practices. The website also says they support an organization that looks out for porters on Kilimanjaro.**

Our experience was not quite as advertised, though we still feel we got a good value for our money, as they are (or were) one of the lowest cost safari and Kili-climbing outfits we found. The food was not very good. I saw other safari groups at rest points and their boxed lunches looked much more appetizing. The buffets in the hotels didn't vary much, either. Also, they pressured us into taking a lone traveler on our safari, which was not appreciated and detracted from the experience greatly. Didn't help that this traveler insisted he wanted to eat African food one night, which they served to all of us, and then we got food poisoning. If we'd just stuck with the boring mzungu food we probably would have been all right.

They did help with the overall logistics of the trip and made several flight and schedule adjustments for us, never forgetting that we'd need transportation to the airports. They had a fellow meet us at the Kili airport with a handwritten sign that had our names on it. For some reason we got a ridiculous amount of enjoyment out of that. ;) One of the two main nat'l airlines in Tanzania had just been grounded, but they still managed to find us flights and accommodations as we hopped around the country in 2 different groups.

So, on a budget, Zara gives good value, but don't expect consistency of comfort or quality. And again, the people are very friendly.

Cheers,
SW

**They support an organization, but they do NOT insist that their porters be properly outfitted before climbing. I didn't end up attempting the climb (due to the aforementioned food poisoning), though one of our group did. Had I known in advance about the failures of most tour companies to protect their porters -- I had heard a little, but didn't realize how blatant it was -- I would have refused to leave Moshi without seeing that the porters were properly outfitted. It is frankly horrifying what most of the Kili climbing companies do to their porters. More than one porter died in the few weeks we were there, due to altitude sickness and/or lack of proper clothing. *Caveat*: I don't believe the porters who died were from Zara, but I am not sure. If you ever climb Kilimanjaro, refuse to climb if your porters do not have proper winter clothing. You could save a life.