We had a great time! Omary is awesome! - We booked a 9 day budget group safari (for 6 people). 4 days in hotels, 5 days in camping tents. We are a family of 4 with 2 kids of 16 and 12. So 2 more travelers were supposed to join the trip. We had a truly great time. Omary, our guide/driver, was excellent. Knowledgeable, happy, great humored, flexible, great problem solver and a good guy. Unavoidably, problems will rise in such rough environments. Omary and the team raised to the occasion when the car spring broke down! We saw many many animals. The big 5. The ugly 5. Their babies. And several lion hunting scenes. Zebra calling out a hunting attempt by lion. We saw the impressive river migration in the Mara river. There, we also witnessed a wildebeest rescue scene, National Geographic style. Patience pays off sometimes and 9 days give you the time to observe. Osman was our cook. We had warm meals 3 time a day. Breakfast (pancakes, etc), lunch (main and 3 sides, and fruit), dinner (soup and main, and fruit). All very good. The planning before our trip was via email through Jackline (although she signs as Mohamed). She came to meet us and brief us on day 1 and debrief us on the last day. She is excellent and very nice. Mohamed oversees all and also met us before and after the trip. He also was available to answer to any concerns during the trip (sometimes at odd hours). Thank you guys. Few things to keep in mind: - we did not have a fixed 2 people that joined our 9 day trip. The agency explained no travelers wanted to join a family for 9 days. Fair enough, but that mean we had several people join parts of the trip, and we only found that out along the trip. Day 2, 1 person. Day 2-4, 1 person (lovely guy that actually wanted to stay with our family longer). Day 7, a couple that slightly delayed our start of the day as their transfer came later than promised. On the plus side we were alone for 5 days! - If you want to go to the Mara river, I suggest you sleep there the night before so you can start early (seronera to Mara is about 3h drive) - Seronera camp, toilets/showers are very basic. Bring toilet paper/flip flops. The rest of camps/hotels were fine. - The lake Eyre was a cultural day visiting two tribes and seeing the lake during sunset. - Lake Manyara was not the most exciting this time of the year, or we were not very lucky that day. All in all, we had a fantastic time! Once in a lifetime kind of trip! Thank you Omary and the rest of the TASA team!