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Tafika
Tafika
Tafika
Tafika
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Tafika
Tafika
Tafika
Tafika

Reviews of Tafika

Wildlife sightings and reviews

318 independent comments and wildlife information from our travellers who have visited Tafika and kindly agreed to share their thoughts. They do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa

Wildlife sightings by our travellers
Starting in May-2018, 78 of our travellers have recorded their wildlife sightings at Tafika.
Lion

87% success

Leopard

92% success

Wild dog

45% success

Hippo

100% success

Giraffe

99% success

Zebra

99% success

Elephant

97% success

Buffalo

92% success

Spotted Hyena

91% success

Wildebeest

49% success

Eland

11% success

Roan antelope

3% success

Sable antelope

2% success

Aardvark

0% success

Pangolin

0% success

Showing 181-190 of 318
Duration
Arrival date
Dr & Mrs S
Cheshire

"Tafika review"

8 nights Arrived 21 Sep 2013
"Another most enjoyable stay at Tafika. Very welcoming, good guiding and excellent food.

Thanks again to the Coppingers (all three of you!), Bryan, Heather, Rhona and all the staff." See all these reviews: 14n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Dr & Mrs C
Henley

"Tafika 6th visit and as good as ever"

4 nights Arrived 21 Sep 2013
"they continue to make small improvements without changing the bushcamp atmosphere" See all these reviews: 14n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs B
Dersingham

"Our second wonderful stay at Tafika"

3 nights Arrived 19 Sep 2013
"It was great to be welcomed back like old friends, and soon settled into the routine of the camp. The meals are superb with such a rich variety of dishes. There is no way you can remain hungry at Tafika! We had excellent game viewing, though just missed out on seeing wild dogs and lions - just the luck of the draw as they had been around both before and after our stay. The highlight for us was to sit and watch the hundreds of crowned cranes arriving at the salt springs area from their overnight roost.

This time we had asked to visit the local village and school which is supported by the Tafika Fund. We were guests of honour at the school, where we were entertained by children of all ages singing, dancing and reciting poems they had written. Wherever we went in the village we were surrounded by crowds of young children, all wanting to have their photo taken - and then to see the results on our cameras. A really worthwhile experience, and highly recommended." See all these reviews: 11n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Prof V & Mr T
Oxford

"Great start of our safari"

2 nights Arrived 15 Sep 2013
"Absolutely wonderful - a really stylish, friendly, well-run camp. The staff were all great and the Coppingers were extremely hospitable. Everything felt very relaxed. Fantastic food and lots of close encounters with elephants!

The microlight flight was an amazing experience!" See all these reviews: 10n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr P & Ms F
Stirling

"Tafika - Extraordinary"

3 nights Arrived 15 Sep 2013
"Located on the high bank of the Luangwa, with our open sided grass hut built around a living tree.

Elephants and hippos who wandered in and out of the camp. Walking safaris which begin with a canoe crossing of the river. Evening game drives had sunsets along the banks of the river amongst large flocks of Red-billed Quelea.

On our first night drive here we witnessed a face-off between two Leopards and a Hyena over the remains of an old kill. On one morning walking trip our guide (the long suffering [we did ask lots of questions!] but always courteous Brent Harris), along with scout Levy and tea-bearer Justin found the recent tracks of a Lion. We (they!) tracked her for two hours to a successful sighting along with two males. An amazing Birthday present for Mary, which the camp staff continued when she was treated to an african chorus of Happy Birthday and a specially decorated cake. I hadn't even mentioned this to anyone, which illustrates the care they take of their guests at Tafika." See all these reviews: 9n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs T
Victoria

"Good camp but it was not what we expected"

5 nights Arrived 12 Sep 2013
"We thought because it was on a river that there would be water activities eg canoeing. But in reality the river is largely dried up at this time of the year, Also because there are now no bridges/pontoons across the river the vehicle activities were restricted to the teensy bit of NP that is on the south side of the river and that became a bit repetitive as we constantly revisited the same ground.

The 'walking' activities were on the north side o fthe river (canoes to get across) and we enjoyed those trips.
In hindsight we should have chosen a camp on a 'full' river eg: Lower Zambezi NP.

There was a microlite flight available and you had to pay extra which we thought was a bit rich given the nightly tariff.
Rooms were nice but had no power and therefore no fan, & therefore in the middle of the day between drives/walks you just had to lie on your bed with a wet towel over you and suffer! (since there was rarely any breeze and at that time of the year it was very hot ay midday.

They own/lease there own light aircraft which proved handy as at the end of our stay they flew us over the NP to Mpika (organised via Expert Afrika .. thanks great suggestion)

Staff were excellent." See all these reviews: 12n in Zambia; 3n in Zanzibar; 1n in Tanzania
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location:
Poor
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Average
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Good
Facilities:
Good
Ms M
North London

"Special"

1 night Arrived 10 Sep 2013
"We only had one night here and would have loved to stay longer. It's a little bit of luxury in the wild.

The setting is beautiful on the banks of the river and the chalets are spaced out, very large and comfortable. The guests were treated like part of the extended family and it was easy to see why many guests return. The food was excellent, plentiful and varied; the service, personal, and the game drives a very high standard.

It's imposssible to say anything other than brilliant all round. Thank you for a wonderful experience." See all these reviews: 9n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Good
Mr & Mrs C
E Sussex

"Tafika"

3 nights Arrived 8 Sep 2013
"see earlier comments [Ed: see below!]" See all these reviews: 13n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Ms W
Austria

"Fantastic camp"

3 nights Arrived 1 Sep 2013
"Tafika was definitely one of the best camps I have ever been in Africa. Its name means: We have arrived, which fits perfectly. The is expertly managed by the owners Carol and John together with their team. I particularly liked the reed and straw-structure of the huts, which are built and decorated with a lot of attention to details. Unsurprisingly, most of the guests were repeating guests, some of them had even been returning for years.

My mom particularly liked the joint dinners under the stars, the game walks and, of course, the morning microlight flight with John, which was fantastic.

Wildlife was amazing, especially the birding (including hundreds of crowned cranes and a purple crested turaco), leopards, lions and huge herds of buffalo coming to the river to drink.

The guides at Tafika deserve a special appreciation. Especially Alex. It was fascinating to see how - thanks to his great passion, experience and intuition - he managed to position us perfectly each time to watch the most amazing wildlife spectacles unfold right before our eyes. This included a huge buffalo herd appearing on the horizon in a cloud of dust and directly approaching is in our car, watching a lions' hunt and kill at night, a cloud of thousands of red billed queleas dancing in the sunset while we were having sundowners on the river bank and witnessing a very interesting baboon interaction involving a baby baboon left behind on a tree and finally being "saved" by his heroic father.

One thing that could be improved is that we would have preferred being assigned one guide for our entire stay at Tafika. It would make the experience even more personal and informative, as the guide would know exactly, which places we had already been to, what we had seen and which stories and information we already knew.

I hope that we will have the opportunity to come back to Tafika or its sister camp im North Luangwa NP, Mwaleshi Camp!" See all these reviews: 11n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs C
E Sussex

"Tafika is Tafika (We have arrived!)"

4 nights Arrived 1 Sep 2013
"Second visit to Tafika and how marvellous to see so many familiar faces, old hands as well as those who, three years ago, were studying hard for their Guide exams and have now passed.

There are many great camps in South Luangwa but none has the "family warmth" of Tafika - John, Carol and Jenny with old hands Bryan, Heather and Rhona together with all their most excellent staff generate a fantastic feeling of welcome, warmth and well being. We should love to be able to mention all the staff by name but are happy to claim old age and to say - Thank you to all." See all these reviews: 13n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Showing 181-190 of 318
98%
318 reviews of Tafika by travellers since August 2007
Overall rating by our travellers
294
21
2
1
0
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Kakuli Bushcamp

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Mfuwe Lodge

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