Reviews of safaris to Ngorongoro Crater

"This was our second safari with Expert Africa and this company delivers a first class service.

From initial enquiry through to travel we have received nothing but excellent advice, help and information.

Tanzania is a worthy safari experience, luxury camps that still retain an authentic bush experience. Staff at all the Lemala camps we stayed at were so welcoming, attentive and couldn’t do enough for you.

Game viewing was superb, plenty to see including rhino, lions, cheetahs and one leopard! All with the assistance of two very able guides, Victor and Mary. Clearly trained to a very high standard, with knowledge and experience a plenty. At the same time they have the ability to engage with you, make you laugh and just add to the whole experience.

A unique holiday that we thoroughly enjoyed - thank you.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service
None - a very good company." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"We thoroughly enjoyed it. While we loved Mara Mara as a camp, we probably had a day or two too many. That's probably the only part of the trip we would have changed." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"Everything that Maruska organized for us went brilliantly well.

Her help and conversations that led to the ultimate itinerary were right on our wishes - she listened and delivered the ultimately memorable experience of a lifetime; one we will be talking about forever.

All our camps and lodges were brilliant - and Kae Kae absolutely made our daily experience wonderful.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, I think that if anything is asked of Maruska she can deliver!" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"A few thoughts I had: I think it would be better to have a minimum of 3 nights at each camp or lodge as I found 2 nights was not enough especially as I lost a day due to a flight cancellation/postponement. If I'd had 3 nights at Plantation Lodge I could have still done the Ngorongoro crater safari. I know there are cost implications but in hindsight it is worth it for a better experience. And Plantation Lodge was my favourite accommodation and I only got one night there!

I would also prefer to stay in camps that are not too long a drive from the airstrips. I found more than one hour quite difficult as you just want to get there and it can also be a long drive back to camp after a safari. I would consider this if I was doing another trip.

Needless to say I preferred the luxury camps in Botswana which had a pool and included drinks and laundry, although I realise they cost more, and I did enjoy the other camps which felt closer to the wildlife etc. as a contrast. Paying for drinks and laundry was not expensive so that did not put me off.

The support and help from my Expert Africa agents with the few challenges I encountered was wonderful and
I can't speak highly enough of the quality of your company. Of course I don't know how you compare with others but having met agents from other companies and having feedback from other guests at the camps I felt very glad that I had chosen EA.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Perhaps to warn travellers about the potential for things to go wrong such as flight cancellations and injuries and talk through what to do in these situations. i know this in included in your written material but it is a lot to take in especially when having to get visas and vaccinations in preparation for the trip. I had read the information but still felt stressed when things happened. However your responses were so helpful and reassuring which helped me to calm down. Big thank you to Chris in this regard - I could only nominate one agent above but it is the sign of a good manager/owner to be prepared to step in out of hours to help a client." Read full review: 36 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"The trip was fantastic and without criticism. The planning and detailed instructions first class. The guides terrific and Maruska Adye Row just so very helpful.
Had a small query at one stage and accessed the emergency email and was answered immediately and the appropriate information supplied.
Expert Africa is just simply the best." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"This was the first time in five visits where we got our timing wrong regarding the location of the migrating animals (the start of the migration). The weather pattern was slightly different from normal years in that this year there had been a second "short rains season". However, there were enough animals to provide adequate sightings and so the overall experience was good albeit somewhat different from being surrounded by vast numbers of the migrating animals as we have been on previous visits at the same time.

We were pleased to find that you are still able to traverse "off-road" in the Ngorongoro Conservation area (round the Ndutu area) and this enables you to get closer to some of the sightings and to get optimum camera angles. You are not allowed to go off-road in the Crater itself nor indeed in the Serengeti so with somewhat fewer animals in the Serengeti at this time this year we did not get as many photo opportunities as on previous occasions. The number of animals in the Crater does not vary much from year to year as they tend to remain within the crater.

On a personal note we were very pleased with the way in which my wife was assisted as she is partially disabled and the assistance provided at all locations and by our guide ensured she was able to participate fully in all viewings." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"One of our top holidays, brilliant planning by the Expert Africa team who managed to achieve two accommodation upgrades!

All our requirements were met and even after two cancellations over the COVID years we maintained all our original bookings dates ( 3yrs on) times and schedules.

Perfect planning seeing the migration in the southern Serengeti then fly on to the northern Serengeti to wildlife watch up there.

All our accommodation in mobile camps were high quality venues and of course Mkombe’s house was just an amazing experience.

Our final chill and relax at the Manta resort was perfect. What a place?!

I would like to thank the Expert Africa team for all their hard work planning and amending this trip through several difficult years. We were always given friendly and extremely efficient service and Jessica Plumb was totally brilliant. She was easy to contact and always available to answer questions or make adjustments to our plans. We would like to thank her so very much." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 16 on a Tanzania safari

"We (my wife Nancy and I) had an incredible experience during this trip. Everything was first rate. We saw everything that we hoped to see (captivating places, amazing wildlife and birds), stayed in wonderful lodges, gained insight into human evolution at the world-renowned Olduvai Gorge archeological site, learned an amazing amount of information about local culture, people, flora, and animal behavior, were very comfortable doing it, and most importantly, had lots of fun throughout. We are very grateful to Expert Africa, especially Maruska who helped us plan the trip, for making all of this possible.

This was our second trip organized by Expert Africa. The first was a short three-day outing in 2019 to Zanzibar planned as a side trip while we were in Kenya on a work trip. We chose Expert Africa to help us plan this longer two-week visit because we were so pleased with the quality of our trip to Zanzibar.

Needless to say, we are even more impressed by Expert Africa after this trip. Everything was outstanding: the advice that we received from Maruska during our planning of the trip, including the pros and cons of selecting either Botswana or Tanzania as our destination; the materials that we received - very detailed and helpful annotated itineraries, information to help us navigate Covid-related health requirements, a helpful guide to travelling in Tanzania; alternative choices of places to visit and camps for lodging; and high quality vendors for all of the services provided.

All five lodges/camps were located in beautiful places, were incredibly comfortable, provided outstanding service, and had plentiful, excellent, healthy food (we never left a meal wanting for more). And the guides that accompanied us in every place were very personable, likable, and knowledgeable people from whom we learned much about the countries and local flora and fauna. Finally, the ancillary activities - a visit to a local Maasai village and a long walk from our lodge to the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater - were interesting, informative, and fun, with the added benefit of providing exercise after long days of riding in safari vehicles.

We hope that we will make further trips to East Africa in the next few years before we lose the ability for long-distance travel (we are both in our 70s). One of our hopes is that we can take our two adult children and grandchild to see the incredible country-sides and wildlife in East Africa whenever we can make the schedules work for such a trip. We will definitely ask Expert Africa to help us plan any future trip whenever we are ready to do so.

We also would like to express our deep appreciation for the invaluable, outstanding assistance that Maruska Adye-Rowe provided to us during the planning of this trip. The choices that she provided for places to visit and stay and things to do, always giving us the final choice, and the vendors she selected made our incredible experience possible.

I am sure that you already know what it is like to work with Maruska. In addition to the summary feedback on Maruska's performance that the form requests below, we would like to provide a more detailed client's perspective on how easy, helpful, efficient, and effective she is to work with. I hope that you will not mind the detail of what follows:
- Maruska and I had 2 lengthy phone calls at the outset to discuss what our (my wife and I) objectives for our 10-day safari.
- Our first call focused on what we would like to see (wildlife in interesting places in either Botswana or Tanzania) and the types of places we would like to stay in (high-end luxury, middle-of-the range, etc.) She then sent us a lengthy email comparing safari options in Botswana and Tanzania and suggesting possible lodging options in each place.
- Based on this very helpful information, my wife and I chose Tanzania as our destination, with a focus on the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti and selected a few of the alternative lodges that she suggested (one on the crater rim, the other in the Serengeti)
- We then scheduled a second lengthy call to flesh out the itinerary (she suggested adding a safari in Lake Manyara on the way to the crater and suggested two other places to stay before we arrived at the crater)
- Maruska was fun to speak with. I enjoyed our conversations. She was very informative and, most importantly to me, listened carefully to what we wanted, provided very helpful answers to my questions, and made very helpful suggestions
- We then exchanged many emails (I counted at least 13 sent by me) in which I posed many questions and asked for greater detail on: the places we would visit, the lodges where we would stay, the activities that we could do, the logistics of the travel, the best time to depart and return to Kenya, etc.
- Maruska was incredibly prompt with her replies to my emails which provided very thorough answers to my seemingly endless questions (one of my unfortunate characteristics)
- She also was very adaptive when I suggested something that she had not included in the itinerary. Here are two examples:
- I indicated that we would like to add a visit Olduvai Gorge as a side activity during our stay on the Ngorongoro Crater and she adjusted the itinerary so that we could do that without having to eliminate one of the other activities that we already had planned.
- When I realized that we would have 2 extra days in Kenya before we were scheduled to join the group that we were meeting there, I asked Maruska if she could help us plan a 2-day visit to one of the soda lakes that I had last visited more than 20 years ago. She consulted with colleagues who were Kenya experts and recommended 2 options for lakes to visit. Once I chose Lake Nakuru, she identified two alternative lodges in different locations and different price ranges. We had a wonderful experience viewing land-based and aquatic wildlife at the lake and loved the lodge that we selected from her options.

- Maruska also was very helpful in other important ways:
- providing helpful resources on how to obtain reliable health and travel insurance
- notifying me that Kenya Air had changed our flight time to Tanzania without notifying me, which required some adjustment to our itinerary
- helping me navigate the Covid-related health requirements to enter Tanzania
- helping me to navigate Expert Africa's web site when it would not let me log in or accept my deposit for the trip. I had to provide my credit card information to her over the phone
- preparing and sending the detailed annotated itinerary, including all of the helpful information on visas, health information, luggage weight limits on the internal flights, the need to avoid older USD notes, and arranging the 2 internal flights

In short, Maruska helped us plan a fabulous trip and was a pleasure to work with. As noted below, I would recommend her very highly to my friends and would be delighted to work with her again in planning future trips." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"We had a great trip but the 3/4 months leading up to it were stressful and we had diffiulties getting final details sorted needing to chase for updates. We appreciate that this is in part due to recovering from the difficulties caused to the travel industry by covid. I am not sure that the situation was helped by the fact that you are not keen to do flight inclusive holidays.

Tanzania was again a great experience, Be Ho Be Ho being the highlight but it was good to see the contrast between southern and northern Tanzania. Southern Tanzania being remote africa, northern being busy, plenty of townships and easy game viewing.

Seychelles, pleased we went but a one off experience, it lacks a distinct culture and just seems to be a series of holiday resorts but the highlight was Denis Island." Read full review: 31 nights in Africa; 16 on a Tanzania safari

"Expert Africa was a great travel agency!

Maruska was a pleasure to work with and had great recommendations to create a customized itinerary. She was very knowledgeable about each camp, park, and area we would be visiting. Our trip would not have been as enjoyable without her recommendations.

The website was very easy to use and we enjoyed the animal sightings tracker to help us determine which camps and areas had the best wildlife.

Thanks Maruska and Expert Africa!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari