Reviews of Oliver's Camp
(91%) From 28 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Oliver's Camp review
This was a great start to our trip, stunning accommodation, friendly people, great food
Read more about the whole safariOliver's Camp review
Lovely, informal atmosphere, but you need to make it clear in advance that the walking activity is an additional charge (currently $50 pp)
Read more about the whole safariOliver's Camp review
Our guides, Erasto and Benson, were excellent as was Alex (the senior guide) who took us on a walk and looked after us in the fly-camp.
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Oliver's Camp review
Robbery at 4.30am on 8th Feb!
Read more about the whole safariExpert Africa comments
These travellers experienced a serious theft here, which got their trip off to a terrible start. Although the clients were not physically harmed in any way, it was still very distressing for them.
Crimes happen everywhere, but are thankfully very rare on our African trips. After 18 years and thousands of travellers, we have only had 3-4 such incidents. We are completely satisfied that this was purely the work of a criminal, and dont believe that it reflects badly on the camp itself.
Although of little consolation to these travellers the camp responded very speedily. The same day, police and two car-loads of national park rangers were scrambled to the camp to investigate, and went to great lengths to try to catch the culprit including putting up a very substantial reward was put up for information.
Oliver's Camp review
I loved the Tarangrira, our guide was Masenga and was excellent. The Game viewing was amazing. We were surrounded by wild life in abundance. I am also interested in birds and this was also responded to, so that i was able to delight in seeing so many different species. ```````we had a great walk in the bush with Marcus, and saw a lion on his kill, and a little chameleon! large and small, some fascinating info talks and of course too many other animal experiences to mention individually
The lunches and sundowners and evening meals were great again with great company. A picnic one day was not good but otherwise everyhting was super on the food front. I had a wonderful time!
Great to come back to after fly camping
Our first tent, number 6 was excellent with good running water. Our second tent, number 9 was not as good. The location was not as nice, and the water flow was not as good. Same accommodations, but not as memorable as tent number 6.
Overall, four days and nights in the Tarangire was too long. Three days and three nights with one night of fly camping is sufficient.
Oliver's Camp review
Amazing location, with views out onto a river valley. Elephants and giraffes visible in the distance while having morning coffee, occasionally game wandering through camp (saw hyena, dik-dik, and lots of birds), running water inside the tents, plenty of hot water from the solar heater, excellent comfortable beds.
Food was tasty and plentiful, wonderful campfire and drinks every night before dinner, small number of guests and relaxing atmosphere was really nice. Short drive to excellent game viewing.
Common dining table was a nice way to chat with other guests and share the day's experiences. Staff seemed genuinely friendly and helpful and were very pleasant to deal with.
High quality camp and excellent guiding
Very high quality accommodation - we gathered that the 'tents' had been upgraded earlier in the year. Now each one is a very elegant thatched structure with the canvas tent underneath it - but with wooden floors and doors it felt quite solid. En-suite loo but outdoor shower which looked like a bucket but was actually piped water and easy to use. Also had a very nice deck area at front of tent with two loungers. Animals were around - we had a hyena outside our tent the first evening and I mistakenly left some socks hanging outside the first night - they were appropriated and half buried in the ground by the morning but luckily not damaged and easily washed!
We were fortunate to have Mesenga as our guide - he spoke really good English and had eagle eyes - he could spot things miles away! We saw more elephants and zebras than we had ever seen before, but also leopard, a big pride of lions, and small things like bat-eared fox, fish eagles, genet and porcupine (on a night drive). We also did a short 2 hour walk with Alex which was excellent - it was really good to get up close to plants and see signs of the animals such as dik-dik scent marks on the grasses.
The food was very good - barbecue on the first night was excellent.
One thing to note - if you want to do the night drive you have to pay extra for it ($60 per person). We decided to do it because there was an opportunity to use night vision binoculars which we haven't done before. However, in the event we found them hard to use and reverted to the standard spotlight method, so that was a bit disappointing although we did enjoy the drive. Actually, in the event, we didn't pay for the drive as there was a slight problem the next morning and we didn't get a wake up tea tray or proper breakfast so Barbara the manager waived the fee.
As others have said, the only slight disadvantage of the location is that you have to drive for about 20 mins before you actually see much in the way of animals...and if you go there do be aware of the tsetse flies - take Expert Africa's advice and take something that will repel them - we only had mosquito repellent with us which wasn't very effective against them and I wished I'd taken my Avon Skin So Soft!
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
