Travel reviews by Ms J & Ms B from Canada

My Feb 2013 trip

On this trip, I visited Tanzania between 11-Feb-2013 and 25-Feb-2013 and I travelled with 1 other person.

There is no place to comment on Kevin, our guide/driver so I will do so here. Generally Kevin is a very competent and knowledgeable guide and we would recommend him to others. We were pleased to have him again as he was our guide the last time in tanzania. His attitude towards women? tourists? seems to have mellowed.

There are some comments I would like to make on the trip from Kili airport to Manyara.

First it was long and arduous and a flight might have been better. The roads were in terrible condition esp from Arusha to Manyara mainly due to a lot of construction. This delayed us quite a lot. In Arusha Kevin stopped to have his tires balanced which took almost an hour. This he should have had done when he bought the tires recently. Also we had asked that boxes be put in the jeep for us to stand on and take photos-these were not there so we had to remind Kevin which meant an additional delay as he went to HQ to pick them up. We had also asked for diet drinks to be provided which were not, so again, time was spent looking for a shop that might have some.

All this meant that we only had 2 hours in Lake Manyara-a big disappointment as we saw very little and it was a waste of our park fee money.

The other major comment here is about the head injury and the lack of first aid supplies in the jeep. (See previous comments).

I also think that when lunches are provided they should be kept cold as there is a risk of getting a gastrointestinal infection from the mayonnaise that is liberally used in the sandwiches. (from Ubuntu camp). Or perhaps mayo should not be used at all.

Feedback response

We were pleased to read that these travellers enjoyed their time with their guide! However, we were a little concerned about their comments regarding the delays. We sent the feedback off to our team in Tanzania who commented that unfortunately, the problems with the tyres on the vehicle were only discovered once Kevin had left the workshop. He didn't want to delay collecting the travellers, so continued on to the airport, and had to fix the problem after, before continuing on safari.

The construction which these travellers mention on the road from Arusha to Manyara is very recent, and unfortunately we were not aware of it. We're now advising travellers that to speed things up they might want to consider flying between Arusha and Manyara.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Rhino Lodge, Tanzania 12-Feb-2013 review: Rhino Lodge review	Good
Ubuntu Camp, Tanzania 15-Feb-2013 review: Ubuntu Camp review	Excellent
Lake Manze Adventure Camp, Tanzania 18-Feb-2013 review: Lake Manze Adventure Camp review	Good
Selous Impala Camp, Tanzania 20-Feb-2013 review: Selous Impala Camp review	Excellent
Mwagusi Safari Camp, Tanzania 22-Feb-2013 review: Mwagusi Safari Camp review	Excellent

General comments

On this trip, I visited Tanzania between 11-Sep-2011 and 24-Sep-2011 and I travelled with 1 other person.

Fantastic. Well organized. There were no logistical problems.

Kevin, our guide and driver for the first 6 days was excellent in his knowledge of the country, the parks and the wild creatures and expert in bird identification. Overall, he was well organized, courteous and looked after us well. He was attentive to our requests in relation to photography opportunities and positioning of the vehicle. On occasion he seemed to get a bit "fed up" with our requests to stop and our asking for information on, for e.g., the names of birds. We also detected at times he was catering to his own interests and was bored with what we wanted to do and see. We did ask him if he was "bored" with our agenda but he denied this. On a couple of occasions he returned us to camp sooner than we needed to be.

The washrooms in the Crater itself were in a terribly filthy state. With this much traffic and money going into the area surely some more resources can be put aside for better ongoing cleaning/maintenance of the toilets.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None. Enjoyed working with Claire (again!). Very efficient.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Oliver's Camp, Tanzania 11-Sep-2011 review: Oliver's Camp review	Excellent
Kirurumu Manyara Lodge, Tanzania 14-Sep-2011 review: Kirurumu Manyara Lodge review	Good
Rhino Lodge, Tanzania 15-Sep-2011 review: Rhino Lodge review	Excellent
Dunia Camp, Tanzania 17-Sep-2011 review: Dunia Camp review	Excellent
Olakira Mara - Ndutu Camp, Tanzania 19-Sep-2011 review: Olakira Camp review	Excellent