Reviews of safaris to Katavi National Park

"It was absolutely a fabulous trip. We are seasoned off-the-beaten-track travellers and I absolutely marvel that everything, everything, worked exactly as it was supposed to. Here we were, in the middle of central Tanzania, waiting for a 10:05 flight. Guess what? At 10:03, there was the plane, buzzing animals off the grass runway, then touching down to pick us up. It happened every time.

How do they manage to have tonic, gin, lime, glasses, ice, and potato chips in Katavi? It must be a logistical nightmare--but there was my gin and tonic, always perfectly served. Dazzling!

We felt safe, treated so well by enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and genuinely caring staff throughout..... And then there were the animals. We never saw a rhine, because they have been poached to virtual extinction in East Africa, but we saw most everything else, and up close and personal. Having a leopard on your tent porch is not something I will soon forget.

A word of caution: Mother Nature can be entirely unsentimental. We watched two lionesses kill a baby giraffe as the helpless adult giraffes watched. This was not easy...... but it is what happens out there. This is not Disneyland." Read full review: 31 nights in Africa; 25 on a Tanzania safari

"Many thanks for organising yet another great holiday for us. The camp recommendations were spot on.

In general we preferred the Asilia camps to those of Nomad because they had Tanzanian managers rather than expats - this gave a more comfortable atmosphere." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 13 on a Tanzania safari

"Brilliant trip which we thoroughly enjoyed. We wanted to see wild Africa and that is what we did.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Give me a discount on my next trip!!!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 16 on a Tanzania safari

"A great trip. The plan to work westwards from the beach to Lake Tanganyika worked out really well.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Nothing to add; we are very happy with everything you have done for us." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 18 on a Tanzania safari

"This holiday ( planned over almost 2 years - to celebrate a 'special' birthday) proved to be be all we hoped for and more. It was fantastic

Throughout the long planning period Eleanor was wonderful. She gave us a great insight into the places we wished to visit, her advice was perfect e.g. It was definitely better to visit Katavi before Mahale. Thank you Ellie you were great !

We have used Expert Africa on many occasions and have always been delighted with our trips. Chris and his team are efficient and very knowledgeable - Chris ensures that any place that clients wish to visit have been vetted by him or one of his team.

We look forward to our next Expert Africa trip though it will not be somewhat different as we are hoping to take our young grandchildren to introduce them to the wonders of this great country.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep up the good work!" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 17 on a Tanzania safari

"Our trip was absolutely wonderful, especially as I was visiting completely new areas in Tanzania to those I had been to as a child. All the transfers and flights were well co-ordinated and our welcome at each camp made us feel very special.

We were fortunate in having guides who were delighted to point out and identify some of the smaller animals and many of the birds. This made the safaris really enjoyable and fulfilling." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 13 on a Tanzania safari

"There is no feedback form for the day room at Onsea House. We felt this place was superior to Rivertrees Country Inn and the food is pretty good. We would rather have stayed here for our initial day and rest night as the precursor lodge at the beginning of the holiday.

An excellent trip overall with good quality guiding and a high standard of food and service. The walking availability at Chada could have been limited due to shortage of qualified staff when other clients were involved in fly camping, however, the camp manager made the effort to bring in a ranger to enable us to take part in the walking activities, which we very much appreciated. Similarly, it appeared that the Camp manager at Little Oliver's was the only qualified walking guide. We were fortunated to enjoy his expert guiding on two consecutive days, but if he had been otherwise occupied we would not have been so lucky and the enjoyment of our time there would have been affected. I feel it is important to make sure that if walking is advertised as an option at a particular lodge/camp then it is vital that qualified staff are available at all times so that guests are able to enjoy this. We did enjoy the walking option at 3 out of 4 camps, but our impression was that the camps rather expect that most clients wish to be in the vehicle most/all of the time. Perhaps the walking safari idea is less well developed in Tanzania compared to other countries such as Zambia.

Tanzania does seem an American destination so it is sometimes a lttle pertinent for the staff at the camp, or the guides, to ensure they manage the groups of guests accordingly (particularly when children are involved).

Also we were encouraged to confirm our holiday registration as parts of it were getting booked up (particularly Greystoke Mahale) only for us to find out when we got there that this was because a group of 9 (Americans) has a block booking which made the ambience of this lodge as little imbalanced for us and the other couple staying there as the maximum it could take is only 12 or so persons.

Also, given the amount of flying and some of the distances between destinations we were finding this did eat into our time on safari. Between Serengeti and Little Oliver's camp we flew Serengeti - Arusha - Little Oliver's for some reason. Thus with this itinerary the travel distance & thus time does add up compared to other safaris we have been on and slightly ditracted from the safari.

With ref to the above comment about a large block booking at a small lodge we'd have liked a little bit more checking on these issues as we booked our trip, as this did distract a little bit from the select nature of the trip. Especially considering the amount we had paid for the holiday each." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 15 on a Tanzania safari

"This was our first experience with Expert Africa and we would happily use them again and recommend to others !

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Can' think of any comments at the moment, so you must be doing things pretty well. Thank you." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"This was, perhaps, the most tricky of our seven (to date) trips with Expert Africa in that for the first eight days we were travelling with family who hadn't been to Africa before and we therefore needed to accommodate "first time" expectations while, within the same trip, looking to cater for our own somewhat different objectives.

Expert Africa was able to come up with a 15-day programme which fully met these two sets of objectives." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 15 on a Tanzania safari

"The trip was fantastic with only a few minor quibbles - see previous pages. It was very expensive but definitely worth it.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

not really" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari