Karen Zulauf

“We attract smart inquisitive travelers who often bring us ideas of their own creation—then we make it happen.”

Regions of operation: Africa and the Middle East

Countries of expertise: Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana

Special categories: Safari, Wildlife viewing, Adventures

What kind of traveler absolutely loves your trips?

Travelers who are adventurous, curious, love knowledge and care deeply about the environment love Deeper Africa. Our travelers can go anywhere and stay in any luxury hotel. They don't want to just travel, they want to fully engage the environment they're in. They need excellence in guiding, so most of our travelers are with Deeper Africa guides and our own Land Cruisers. Deeper Africa guides allow our travelers to enjoy rustic camps, as well as four and five star safari camps. Our travelers want to be where the wildlife viewing is best.

Africa is still a place that runs on personal relationships. So, travelers who enjoy getting special access and meeting unique people rate their travel with Deeper Africa among their best adventures traveling. Your Travel Matters is a big part of Deeper Africa, so travelers who want to give back in small ways and large, enjoy being a part of what were doing on the continent. Some of our travelers have invested in community programs, whether building wells, putting together microfinance loans, or building schools.

What is one of your all-time favorite experiences you've been able to pull off for guests?

A Deeper Africa traveler wanted to collect rocks and minerals while on safari in Tanzania. Although Tanzania is famous for its gemstones, especially Tanzanite, the concept of amateur rockhounding is virtually unknown. Cut and polished jewelry is easy to buy in Tanzania, but my traveler wanted none of that. He wanted uncut, unpolished, natural stones. I was having a hard time communicating this to our Tanzania operations manager until finally it was explained, “he likes rocks the way most tourists like leopards and elephants.” That worked and the search began. Following the method of I-know-a-guy-who knows-a guy, we connected with a local rock enthusiast in Karatu who helped locate several collectable stones. Also, this traveler was keen to visit the Tanzanite mines outside of Arusha. Not just visit, he wanted to don a headlamp and explore underground. As a rule, the mines are off-limits, heavily guarded and outsiders are met with suspicion-to say the least.

Asking around, I learned that while the international mining companies allow no visitors, there are a few local miners who are more hospitable. One of our Tanzania safari guides introduced us to a friend who knew a local miner who was willing to introduce my traveler to local Tanzanite miners. After getting it organized, I made sure one of my most trusted safari guides supervised this one-off adventure. A few days later my traveler sent a happy email from Arusha. “The Tanzanite mines were fantastic, quite an adventure. The mines are pretty secure and took us 3+ hours to get through the tunnels; we went into two of them.”

Do you think the events of recent years have permanently changed the role of the specialist/agent? Any forever pivots that you've made?

In African safari travel the needle has moved back to travelers relying on experienced professionals. Prior to COVID we were beginning to see advances toward the travel search engine models for safari travel. That model does not work well in the safari world, but people were trying it. Since COVID that has really changed. 2022 and 2023 travelers want someone they can rely on both in getting their safari planned, but even more they want help in execution. Cancellation of flights by airlines also make for an instability that travelers look to Deeper Africa to remedy.