Travel reviews by Dr N - Virginia

My May 2012 trip

On this trip, I visited Tanzania between 31-May-2012 and 14-Jun-2012 and I travelled alone.

My experience with Expert Africa was completely positive. Everything on the trip happened on-time and as-promised. The camps and hotels that I used were likewise accurately represented in every way, so there were again no surprises. The communication in planning the trip was really excellent and extremely helpful. I would recommend Expert Africa to any traveller to Tanzania.

I chose to make my trip early in the season (arriving around June1). I knew that the game viewing would potentially be better later in the season when more of the water sources had dried up, but wanted to travel before the dry season became too advanced and everything really dried out. My assessment proved correct, but I have no real regrets about the timing of my trip.

However, most of the camps were just opening, with various "start-up" issues (changing staff, finding where the animals were hanging out, etc.) and animals would likely have been better acclimated to the vehicles in another week or so. A week later might thus have been better timing for the trip, but hardly a major issue.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Onsea House, Tanzania 31-May-2012 review: Great place to recover from jet lag!	Excellent
Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge, Tanzania 2-Jun-2012 review: Comfortable lodging on the crater rim	Good
Ruaha River Lodge, Tanzania 4-Jun-2012 review: Beautiful site on Ruaha river	Excellent
Mdonya Old River Camp, Tanzania 6-Jun-2012 review: Secluded tented camp provides great experienc	Excellent
Lake Manze Adventure Camp, Tanzania 9-Jun-2012 review: Good, not great	Excellent
Selous Impala Camp, Tanzania 11-Jun-2012 review: Up market, with all that implies	Excellent
Southern Sun Dar, Tanzania 13-Jun-2012 review: A well-run business-oriented hotel	Excellent