Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs C - North Yorkshire

My Jun 2009 trip

On this trip, I visited Tanzania between 22-Jun-2009 and 5-Jul-2009 and I travelled with 4 other people.

A big 'thank you' to Expert Africa and Ellie in particular, for all the help and advice given during the planning stage of our first, but hopefully not our last, trip to Africa. The experience surpassed all our expectations and ticked every box and more!

The choice of camps, Impala, Manze and Mdonya met our criteria exactly and, for us, choosing them in that order was perfect. Impala was a great introduction to the 'safari experience' and by the time we reached Mdonya we felt like seasoned travellers. In our opinion three or four days in each camp is a must if you are to get the most out of the activities and you get the opportunity to develop a relationship with the guides and drivers.

All the travel arrangements went like clockwork, with the only exception being when we returned to Heathrow Terminal 5. Having landed, the planes navigational system failed within sight of the buildings and we sat for 20 mins, forty yards from the stand! Welcome home! We had to smile.

Undeterred by that, I'm already leafing through the new brochure - we are definately hooked and have some amazing photos of lions, leopards, cheetah, elephants, giraffe, cape buffalo, crocs, hippos, wild dogs, dik diks etc, etc but no other tourists! They were rarely sighted and we felt as if we had the Selous and Ruaha to ourselves.

We didn't go with any preconsieved ideas or a check list of 'must sees'. Every sighting was a bonus and special. I was just as excited at seeing my last giraffe as I was seeing my first, and we saw hundreds!

There will always be people like us wanting something that bit different and off the main tourist trail. Your expertise really pays dividends and we will have no hesitation in recommending your services to our friends.

Well done Expert Africa. Asante sana.

Suggestions for improvements:

I'm sure you're always on the look out for another 'special' camp. Keep up the good work.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Selous Impala Camp, Tanzania 23-Jun-2009 review: Off roading at Impala	Excellent
Lake Manze Adventure Camp, Tanzania 27-Jun-2009 review: Hippos by the score at Lake Manze	Excellent
Mdonya Old River Camp, Tanzania 30-Jun-2009 review: An amazing experience at Mdonya	Excellent
Southern Sun Dar, Tanzania 4-Jul-2009 review: Transit at the Southern Sun	Good