What if a safari company could combine strong tourism knowledge with a deeper sense of responsibility?
Proudly Tanzanian. Based in Arusha.
Our Story.
A family-owned Tanzania safari company built from local knowledge, personal service and a belief that a journey should be cared for from the first conversation to the final goodbye.
More than a company
A story built here.
Arusha
Our home
2022
The beginning
Nihapa
“It's here”
Before There Was Nihapa
The idea came before the company.
Long before Nihapa Tours had a name or its first safari vehicle, there were two people whose journeys would eventually come together in a shared dream.
For Kelvin, it began in Rombo, on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Growing up with a father who worked as a professional tour guide, tourism was part of his childhood. But a school trip to Ngorongoro Crater sparked a deeper love for Tanzania's wildlife and a desire to one day share its beauty with others.
That dream later took him to Makerere University in Uganda, where he met Hawa, a fellow Tanzanian student studying tourism. What began as friendship, far from home, gradually grew into love and eventually marriage.
After university, Kelvin and Hawa settled in Arusha and Started their family. Regarding their career; Kelvin built his expertise in safari planning and operations, while Hawa pursued finance, conservation, and community development. Their experiences were different, but their conversations often returned to the same idea: creating a safari company that genuinely cared for its guests, its people, and the places they visited.
In 2022, that shared dream became Nihapa Tours, founded in Arusha.
For Kelvin and Hawa, Nihapa is more than a business. It is a reflection of where they came from, the journey they have shared, and their desire to welcome travellers to Tanzania with the same care and warmth that inspired it all.
What if guests could deal with people who lived here and understood the roads, seasons, parks, camps and operational realities behind the itinerary?
And what if the relationship with a traveller did not become less personal once the payment had been made?
Those questions eventually became more than conversations. They became the beginnings of Nihapa.
Why Another Safari Company?
We did not want to build another company that simply sold itineraries.
Tanzania already had safari companies. The reason to create Nihapa therefore had to be more meaningful than simply adding another operator to the market.
Planning close to operations
We wanted the people designing a safari to remain close to the people actually operating it.
Recommendations that work on the ground
Routes should be based on season, distance, location and what actually makes sense once the vehicle leaves Arusha.
Guides at the centre
The person sharing the safari with the guest every day should never be treated as an afterthought.
Responsibility after booking
If something needs attention while a guest is travelling, there should be people in Tanzania taking responsibility for it.
The foundation
Not simply selling Tanzania. Operating Tanzania well.
Nihapa Begins
Arusha became our base.
In 2022, those ideas took a formal shape and Nihapa Tours began operating from Arusha.
Arusha is not simply the city where our office is located. It is one of the principal gateways to Tanzania's northern safari circuit — connecting travellers to Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and many of the communities and landscapes that make this part of Tanzania extraordinary.
Being based here keeps us close to the product we sell. We can speak directly with guides and operations staff, follow conditions on the ground, inspect accommodation and respond when plans change.
Being local is not a marketing description.
It is an operational advantage — and a responsibility.
The Name
Nihapa. “It's here.”
Choosing the name mattered.
Over time, those two words have come to represent more than a company name.
01
The wildlife travellers cross the world hoping to see — it's here.
02
The Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and Tanzania's extraordinary landscapes — they are here.
03
The people who know these places, guide through them and call them home — they are here too.
You are no longer looking at photographs. You are here.
From The Beginning
Some principles were there before the first booking.
Nihapa has grown since 2022, but several ideas have remained remarkably simple. The challenge is not saying them. It is doing them consistently.
01
Listen before designing.
The right safari cannot be created properly until we understand the traveller — their dates, interests, pace, expectations, budget and the people travelling with them.
02
Design for the journey, not the quotation.
Driving times, wildlife seasonality, camp location and the rhythm of the trip matter more than how impressive an itinerary looks on paper.
03
Location matters.
Especially in places such as Serengeti and Ndutu, where you stay can fundamentally affect how much of the day is spent experiencing wildlife.
04
Guides matter enormously.
A good vehicle and a beautiful lodge cannot replace an experienced, attentive safari guide.
05
Stay involved.
Our responsibility does not end when the booking is confirmed. The safari must still be operated properly once the traveller arrives.
Growing The Company
From two founders to a team.
Nihapa was never meant to remain a two-person company.
As the business grew, so did the number of people responsible for delivering each journey.
Reservations became stronger. Operations expanded. Guides joined the team. Travel planning became more specialised. Support extended beyond Tanzania through people who could remain close to travellers before they arrived.
Today, a Nihapa safari is the result of many people doing different jobs well — often long before the safari vehicle leaves Arusha.
Confirming accommodation
Checking flights
Preparing vehicles
Following wildlife conditions
Meet Our Team
Growing Without Losing The Point
Growth should improve the experience, not make it less personal.
As Nihapa developed, the company naturally became more structured.
There were more enquiries to manage, more accommodation partners, more departures, more guides, more operational detail and a wider variety of travellers.
Technology became more important. Systems became more important. Processes became more important.
But we never wanted professionalism to become impersonality.
Behind The Scenes
Structure
Accurate records, responsible payments, maintained vehicles, clear supplier coordination and knowing what is happening with every journey.
In The Relationship
Humanity
Clear conversation, personal attention and remembering that every itinerary represents somebody's time, expectations and trust.
Structure behind the scenes.
Humanity in the relationship.
Tanzania First
This is home.
Tanzania is not simply the destination at the centre of our business. It is the place from which Nihapa understands safari.
There are extraordinary destinations across East Africa, and where a journey extends beyond Tanzania we can work with trusted partners to help connect the experience.
But Tanzania remains the centre of Nihapa.
It is where the company was built. It is where our core operation is based. It is where our safari knowledge is deepest. And it is where most of the people responsible for a Nihapa journey live and work.
From the northern safari circuit to the southern and western parks, from Kilimanjaro to the Indian Ocean, Tanzania gives us an extraordinary breadth of experiences to work with.
Tourism & Stewardship
The story became bigger than safari.
From the beginning, there was another conversation running alongside the growth of Nihapa:
What should tourism contribute to the places on which it depends?
Wildlife tourism cannot exist without functioning ecosystems. Conservation cannot succeed in isolation from people. And communities living around important natural areas need meaningful reasons to see value in protecting those landscapes.
Hawa's background in conservation, community development and sustainable livelihoods brought this perspective naturally into the company.
It also connects with her work through Nature Steward and Partners, a separate organisation focused on the relationship between people, nature and sustainable livelihoods.
For Nihapa, responsible tourism is therefore not about attaching fashionable language to a safari.
The question we keep asking
Explore Responsible Travel
As tourism grows, what value stays behind?
The Journey So Far
What has changed. What has not.
Nihapa today is not the same company it was at the beginning. Growth matters. But some things should not change.
What Has Changed
01
The team is larger.
02
The operational capacity is stronger.
03
The range of journeys has expanded.
04
The systems behind the business have improved.
05
More guests now arrive through recommendations, reviews, travel platforms and previous travellers.
What Has Not
01
We still believe a traveller deserves an honest answer when an itinerary does not make sense.
02
We still believe the person planning a safari should understand what happens once it reaches the road.
03
We still believe a guide can transform an ordinary safari into an extraordinary one.
04
We still believe local knowledge matters.
05
And we still believe that when somebody chooses Nihapa, the responsibility becomes personal.
On a Quest for Magical Moments
The story is still being written.
The phrase beside the Nihapa name is more than a slogan. It describes what we continue trying to create around every journey.
“On a Quest for Magical Moments” has become the phrase that accompanies the Nihapa name.
For us, a magical moment does not have to mean something extravagant.
The first elephant a child sees in the wild.
Sitting quietly beside a lion after every other vehicle has left.
Watching the sun disappear behind the Serengeti.
A conversation with a guide that changes how a traveller understands Tanzania.
The moment somebody realises the journey imagined for so long is finally happening.
Those moments cannot always be planned. But the conditions around them can be prepared carefully.
That is our work.From two people discussing what a tourism company could become, to a growing Tanzanian team welcoming travellers from around the world, Nihapa has come a long way.
Still based here.
Still learning here.
Still building here.
And still on the same quest. For magical moments.
Your Journey
Now that you know where we came from, tell us where you want to go.
Whether you already have a detailed Tanzania itinerary in mind or are only beginning to explore the possibilities, start with a conversation.
Tell us when you hope to travel, who is coming and what matters most to you. We will help you build the journey from there.