Archive | November, 2008

Reizen naar Tanzania in Belgische media

De afgelopen jaren werden safaris naar Tanzania, de beklimming van de Kilimanjaro en/of een strandverblijf op Zanzibar slechts héél sporadisch vermeld in de Belgische media. Daar komt gelukkig verandering in.

Tanzania voert campagne om de Ngorongoro Crater, de Serengeti en andere Nationale Parken en natuurlijke attracties bekender te maken. Ook België draagt (onbewust?) zijn steentje bij. Onsea House in Arusha, dat reeds ontdekt werd door reisbureaus en reizigers van Engeland tot Amerika, wordt sinds kort ook in België niet vergeten.

Na de aandacht voor Tanzania in Stanley’s Route I (VT4, 2005), was het de afgelopen jaren stil in de Belgische media. Reis-specials over Afrika vermeldden Tanzania amper als bestemming. Zo hoorden we regelmatig Belgen die dachten dat de Kilimanjaro in Kenya lag. Is het de negatieve manier waarop Kenya recent in het nieuws is gekomen, die de plotse interesse in Tanzania verklaart?

Midden dit jaar kregen de Vlamingen van Onsea House Arusha 1 uur zendtijd tijdens het (franstalige) Les Belges Du Bout Du Monde (RTBF – La Première), waarvan nu ook het boek met de 101 mooiste ontmoetingen (waaronder Onsea House) te verkrijgen is.
Ook het in België bekeken programma Schrijvers op de veranda (NCRV) waarin Nederlandse auteurs hun hart luchten op de veranda van Rik Felderhof in Arusha (en daarna in het Onsea House Arusha Restaurant dineerden), heeft de nodige impact.

Vanaf donderdag 27 november loopt Wildcard: Tanzania (VRT – Canvas). In deze vijfdelige reeks krijgt schrijver en acteur Ramsey Nasr een Wildcard om samen met een groep studenten biologie van de Universiteit Antwerpen op expeditie te trekken naar Tanzania.

Dé doorbraak voor Onsea House Arusha in de Belgische media volgt wellicht in 2009.
Van 10 tot en met 17 november 2008 filmden Annick Ruyts en haar ploeg in totaal meer dan 800 minuten het leven van Inneke, Dirk, dochter Ella en neef Axel in Tanzania. Een 30 minuten durende reportage zal in de loop van 2009 uitgezonden worden als aflevering in de tweede reeks van We Are From Belgium (VRT – één)

Het tijdschrift Genieten met “elke maand het beste uit de wereld” is bekend om zijn artikels over de mooiste droombestemmingen, authentieke hotels, gezellige weekendtrips en sfeervolle restaurants. Ook zij wijden graag een artikel aan Onsea House Arusha in Genieten van Februari 2009, met een B&B Special over “Logeren bij Belgen in het buitenland”.

Van harte welkom!
Voor verdere informatie, contacteer info@onseahouse.com.

Today Show struggling up Kilimanjaro

The Today Show‘s Ann Curry has been sent on assignment to climb Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro.

The 52-year-old only got that assignment three weeks ago, leaving her little time to train. She describes it as “climbing a Stairmaster for six hours a day with 20 pounds on your back.”

Her stunt is for the NBC morning show’s “Ends of the Earth” feature, which begins Monday. It’s plotted out so if she does make it to the summit of the 19,000-plus-foot mountain, it’ll be shown during Friday’s edition of “Today.”

Kilimanjaro Education Foundation, (KEF), founded by Todd Grossmann, will be featured on the Today show today Tuesday between 7:00 – 9:00 a.m.
Todd and the KEF board of directors had dinner at the Onsea House restaurant.

Learn more about the foundation and contribute via their website.
Contact info@onseahouse.com for more info on climbing the Kilimanjaro and/or booking Onsea House accommodation or dinner before or afther the climb.

Reviews of luxury retreat in Arusha

Many honeymooners, romantic couples or small families still do not find Onsea House in Arusha yet when they want to book an intimate luxury honeymoon safari, spa, villa or lodge retreat in Arusha or Tanzania in general.

Onsea House has however received excellent reviews in Lonely Planet, Rough Guide and on several websites. With 20 million reviews and opinions of properties around the world, TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel community, is the source travellers trust most. Due to the extreme small size of our operations, we however get only few reviews compared to bigger hotels and are also listed in the B&B category instead of the more obvious hotel category. Taking all this into account, Onsea House is in fact the best reviewed place in Arusha.

Karibuni sana – you are most welcome to visit the www.onseahouse.com website or check our TripAdvisor reviews. Please contact info@onseahouse.com for any further information.

&BEYOND new name for luxury lodges CC Africa

Luxury lodge and adventure travel company CC Africa (Conservation Corporation Africa) currently owns and operates numerous lodges in Africa and in India, and is soon to welcome guests to another corner of the globe – Latin America. As such the company has changed its name to &BEYOND to more appropriately reflect where and how it operates.

The new name was launched on the 1st of November and our new agent Dorien Onsea was witness of the launch, while staying at &BEYOND Grumeti Serengeti Safari Camp. A new website www.andbeyond.com to encompass both the lodge and travel components of the business has been one of the major projects of the renaming.

Exporting their successful luxury responsible tourism model out of Africa has provided the company with the perfect opportunity to reassess their brand needs and to change their current name to one that evokes the notion of luxury adventure travel to many more beautiful wilderness places on the planet.

&BEYOND’s commitment to responsible sustainable travel, a practice that has enabled them to make small but meaningful differences to their world and to that of their guests, will remain at the core of &BEYOND’s rollout to exciting new regions and countries.

In other developments the company opened two new lodges in Botswana in August: &BEYOND Xudum Okavango Delta Lodge and &BEYOND Xaranna Okavango Tented Camp. Two additional lodges, Banjaar Tola and Pashan Garh, both in the central Madhya Pradesh province in India, are to open later this year.

Over and above opportunities in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Costa Rica, the group has further exciting developments in the pipeline for Africa, too, including Tanzania, Kenya and Madagascar.

Contact info@onseahouse.com for recommendations if you want to include a stay at &BEYOND properties into your safari to Tanzania, before or after a stay at Onsea House in Arusha.