Reviews of safaris to Ngorongoro Crater

"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; 9 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

"It was a very good planned trip. We always felt safe and everything (each transfer, each flight and also the lodges ) worked well. The drivers were only three times a little bit too late, but there were always people around who cared about us.
The ideal length of your stay should be 4 nights in one lodge. So you have the opportunity to see a lot of different animals. On some days we only saw birds and on the last day of our stay in the lodge we saw the lepard. If your budget will allow you 4 nights, we hardly recommend that.
We also loved the different parcs we visited. Every parc is different in landscape and animals which you can spot easy." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 21 on a Tanzania safari

"I have already recommended Expert Africa (and Tanzanian ground partner) to friends. I love the bespoke approach to the planning and execution. Jessica, who organised it, was very helpful and knowledgable - and made us feel well taken care of. The whole trip was incredibly well organised every step of the way. We really enjoyed Tito's company, knowledge and driving skills in Rwanda and the same for Raj while we were in the mobile camp in the Serengeti! Even the PCR tests were handled well - hopefully they won't be necessary next time! In terms of what to bring and what to expect: not once were we asked to weigh our luggage (but do keep in mind that there's not a lot of storage room on the puddle-jumper planes); we also were not questioned re plastic bags; do minimise the clothing (pack your bag, then unpack half of what you thought you might want to bring - there are lots of laundry options - and no one really cares what you're wearing anyway!); bring a warm sweater/jacket and/or a waterproof windbreaker. Invest in really good binoculars - even if they are heavy - we didn't and regretted it.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No - it was terrific! As regards the mobile camp in the Serengeti, I was glad we stayed at the camp where we were - we visited the more "upscale" non-mobile camp nearby and were glad we were at the mobile one! Many thanks to Jessica - I've already passed her name onto friends of mine!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"Overall the trip was amazing, well organised and covered everything we could have hoped." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"Great trip.

But we should have just stayed in one Northern Serengeti camp as the two were so close. Ideally Sayara for 4-5 night, but with different staff. All guides were great." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"Fantastic.

The trip was put together over a series of calls and discussions, met all our criteria and was a great success.

We had one slight hitch with charges for a walking and night safari which Lyndsey sorted immediately, the wonders of e mail.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Maybe make it clear that you will be guided through the many flight changes by Coastal, it was a bit daunting but they made it easy" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 15 on a Tanzania safari

"This was a fabulous trip. We stayed in Arusha (pleasant overnight), and visited the Ngorongoro Crater (lots of game), Ruaha (fabulous lodge, sparser game, but still very enjoyable) and the Serengeti for the migration - awe-inspiring and spectacular river crossings.

The lodges were of very high standards, and the trip was comfortable, well-run and hugely enjoyable.

A special word must be reserved for the friendliness of the Tanzanian people - gentle, helpful, kind, considerate and well-mannered, extremely eager to do their best for you. It’s wonderful for veteran travellers like us to see how far the country has developed in so many ways since we were last here, and in particular to see how the Tanzanians themselves now occupy all the senior positions in camp management, guiding, and flying, doing so with their customary charm, efficiency and commitment to customer service." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"Amazing crossing experiences at the Mara River made this one of the best trips we have ever had." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari