Reviews of holidays to Mafia Island

"We had an amazing time, and have wonderful memories to keep, We loved every place we visited and found Tanzania to be a beautiful country with friendly people who want to make your holiday special.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I just wanted to say that Eleanor was fantastic on helping us with this trip. From the first phone call she understood exactly what i was looking for and came up with suggestions that were just right for us. ( I had contacted one other Safari company previous who did not get where i was coming from at all! )
Also I did not feel pressurized from yourself's, so thank you for that.

It was also nice to be able to visit Eleanor and put some of our worries to rest!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"An amazing trip, made memorable by staying at Chole Mjini.

Very impressed by Expert Africa, without whom we'd never have discovered Chole Mjini - such a magical place.

Diving was great and as the non-diver I was very well entertained at both Chole and Pole Pole by their daily dhow trips.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Very impressed by Expert Africa and will definitely recommend and use again when possible." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"Another really excellent Tanzania safari.

Thanks to Liz for helping us plan and putting everything in place.

Just one thing to point out - not a complaint just for your information!

On the return journey from Dar to Nairobi we had to wait one and a half hours before we could check in our baggage. This was not an ideal place to wait. Other travellers from Mafia were catching an earlier flight to Nairobi with Kenya Airways. If we could have caught that we could have spent the transfer time in the Business Lounge in Nairobi. However, our Mafia Dar flight could have been late if a diversion to Songa Songa had taken place as it did on the outward flight so maybe better to be safe than sorry!!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 13 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.

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

"Very satisfactory" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"We loved Africa!

We had an unforgettable time as a family, saw and experienced wildlife, nature and African living, talked to many people, met incredibly knowledgable guides and hosts and will always treasure our two weeks in Tansania.

As it was our first safari, we now know what we like and how we 'work' on such a trip. Thus we would do things slightly differently in the future. The trip was well organised, we never waited anywhere. The transitions from one site to the next were meticulously planned and it was small details in our schedules that we learned to value and that showed us your knowledge and experience of the places we visited.

Well done, Liz!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"We did 3 days in Selous, 3 days in Ruaha, 3 days on Mafia island and 3 days on Chole Mjini. A really good balance with some great game viewing and 'Indian Ocean' activities and a chance to wind down.

The country, the people , the climate, the places we stayed and food and other facilities outstanding - would recommend Tanzania as a holiday destination

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

You might want to warn people who go to Mafia that their Marine Park payment receipt will need to be available when they leave" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"A fantastic experience. I'm glad we had two days of gorilla safari and would love to do it again." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 11 on a Rwanda safari

"Thanks to Ellie for making us a really nice trip that we would not forget." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"We had a fabulous trip. Everything went to plan. The wildlife in the Selous was fabulous and we'd love to go back. Ruaha was beautiful and we would return but would either stay at a different camp in February or go back to Mdonya but at a different time of year.

The guides were probably not as well trained as we expected for camps of this quality - they were enthusiastic and friendly, but were not so good at communicating what the plans were for each day, or to establish what we knew, what we wanted to see, what we had seen before etc. Emanuel/Zahor (Manze) and Gerhard (Impala) were the best at communication.

The trip certainly whetted our appetitie for seeing more of Tanzania!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really. You are very good at what you do so keep doing it! The camp managers were all very complimentary about Expert Africa - Barbara (Impala) said that you are the best tour operator she deals with - so keep doing what you are doing!

On feedback, it might make it easier to complete if you had a narrative box against each question to comment on, for example, food, activities etc, rather than one large box at the end. It has certainly taken us rather longer than we had intended to get this completed!

With regard to Mafia it would be helpful to highlight on your website that snorkeling is very much tide dependent, so that anyone who is keen to snorkel might want to check tides and dates to make the most of their time there.

And finally - we would like to thank Angela for organising a very special trip. Some of our feedback might sound a bit negative but we would like to strees that we had a really fabulous time. It's easy with feedback to focus on the things that were not perfect and our comments are intended to highlight those areas where things could be even better. Please don't think that we are 'having a moan' in any way." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 18 on a Tanzania safari