Tanzania: reviews from our travellers

"OVER THE TOP SERVICE. FROM FIRST INQUIRY TO OUR GOODBYES IN ZANZIBAR, NOTHING COULD BE BETTER.

LYNDSEY, YOU DID A FABULOUS JOB AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOUR PROFESSIONAL ASSITANCE.
WE PLAN TO GO TO SOUTH AFRICA NEXT AND ONLY THINK OF EXPERT AFRICA AND LYNDSEY MARRIS AS OUR PERSON.

THANKYOU" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"I had visited the wildlife areas of both countries previously and chose parks that were on the whole less visited

I was very satisfied and thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Amboseli and Meru in Kenya, and Nyerere and Ruaha in Tanzania

Amboseli exceeded expectations and is much more than a relative haven for elephants in view of Kilimanjaro - in particular there were multiple cheetah sightings, including one where a group of 5 sub-adults were seen, whilst their mother was away, presumably hunting. They were approached by a coalition of 3 males who tried to drive them away, presumably to bring the mother back into oestrus. The sub-adults initially retreated, but then held their ground, and the coalition moved on.

There was also a rare sighting of a pair of mating puff adders

Meru was very good, but could not quite compete with the nearby Samburu, which I had previously visited, in terms of wildlife sightings and the beauty of the environment

The rhino sanctuary was excellent

The trips on The Rufiji River in Nyerere came up to my very high expectations, with excellent close encounters with hippo, crocodiles, different species of kingfishers, bee-eaters, herons and baboons, although the sightings in the park itself were not as good as the other parks visited, and the roads were the worst that I have encountered in Africa

Ruaha was excellent in terms of both the wildlife, especially multiple leopard and lion sightings

Also the scenery and topography was unique and beautiful, with vast numbers of baobabs , giant euphorbias, palms and tamarind trees" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"Overall, it was a first rate experience. This is my fifth trip with Expert Africa and I have no hesitation in recommending them to other travellers. As a solo traveller I especially enjoy the 'end to end' arrangements and close attention to detail. Being able to discuss the merits of different camps/lodges is also helpful.

Namiri Plains is very special and if you want to see cheetah and lion, then this is the prefect spot.

A flight change (by Precision) before I left was quickly dealt with and I was transferred to another flight with Kenya Airways.

Thank you again Expert Africa and especially to Lyndsey, who managed arrangements and Claire who dealt with the flight transfer from Precision to Kenya Airways." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"The overall experience was excellent! Maruska was a wonderful partner in planning the trip and was very responsive to requests or needs we had. Everything works so smoothly: drivers were on time to pick us up; the quality of the guides was superb; the accommodations were good; and, the cars were in good condition.
A few recommendations for future travelers:

• If you have heat sensitivity, make sure you mention it and ask for tents in shaded areas, if it all possible.

• Bring extra money to tip at the lodges – not just drivers, guides and housekeepers – the entire lodge staff expects to be tipped.

• Luggage size and restrictions are not quite as limited as mentioned in the itinerary. As a note: Maruska was so very helpful in tracking down information directly from the airline providers… and, that helped to relieve the stress of restricted weight/size limits, especially, for a six week long trip.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I will be contacting Maruska in the near future to plan another trip to Africa, it was a fabulous experience!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"We really enjoyed our trip overall.

We were paired with an excellent guide, very knowledgeable and who went above and beyond to ensure we had great mammal and bird sightings. Especially in the Ngorongoro crater and Ndutu area, the abundance of wildlife was mesmerizing.

We stayed mostly in the parks and we could really feel the proximity of the wildlife during our stay. Especially, one member of our party had a very close encounter with a lion one morning when going to breakfast (it was after sunrise and the night guards seemed to have finished their shift). We found out later that lions liked to use the path near our cabin very frequently.

More information on how to react and deal with this sort of encounter could have been helpful (not just saying there could be 'wildlife' passing by). Luckily, they managed to make it back to the cabin unharmed and live to tell the tale! Had something bad happened, our trip would have turned out very differently." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"We had an amazing holiday and every element went exactly to plan, this was extremely impressive given we had so many components to the trip.

Moreover, we were personally guided at every customer touch point.

We didn't carry our luggage once on a trip that had ten flights and 4 locations.

We had amazing weather, great game viewing and superb service throughout.

There was so many special moments on our trip from sunset by Kilimanjaro, to the hot air balloon over the Mara and having a personal chef in the bush for breakfast.

Parita and Expert Africa were fanatic throughout. We got amazing lodges considering our last minute booking and at great value.

Parita assisted with all aspects from plugs to vaccines and everything in-between. She really helped to make this trip a truly magical experience!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Kenya safari

"Overall great ….

Tam, from enquiry to amending the draft plan to booking to documentation as good as any (quality rather than too much quantity info)

Accommodation in Dar Sheraton (very good) both camps (wonderful!) and Pemba (palatial villa) outstanding.

Flights/transfers all punctual

Game drives/walks excellent guiding, flora, fauna, birds. Both camp teams brilliant.

Tam, your responsiveness to Elaine’s health issue was top class with help from Mollie in Kichaka and Abeid in Pemba

But….

Advance info on page 15 of the travel document on suitcase dimensions sizes is incorrect for Auric Air (a full size case is fine)

No confirmation in Dar hotel of pick up time, especially because on arrival our driver thought we were staying at the Hyatt. To ensure we’d be collected next morning at the Sheraton we repeatedly phoned (with the help of the hotel) the local agent (Kearsley?) but it just rang out. We tried again 3 hours later and confirmed.

No prior info regarding Zanzibar/Pemba ‘mandatory travel insurance’ of $88 on arrival. It’s superfluous as it duplicates our worldwide insurance, just a disguised government tax.

Africa Assist was like talking to a US hospital! First question - what’s your insurance policy number, they didn’t recognise it or listen. It took another 2 hours before they contacted us and then only after Expert Africa’s intervention. They then followed up (unnecessarily) in the following days maybe to try to make up for their initial unhelpfulness? Lucky it wasn’t an emergency." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"I honestly never use travel agents as I am in the travel industry myself and love to plan things on my own but I am converted.

Expert Africa made this sooooooo easy. We never felt like we were on the back foot.

Drivers were at the airport to pick us up on time, same with the lodges.

Thank you all! All was wonderful." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 4 on a Zanzibar holiday

"We had a wonderful holiday! I highly recommend all of the Asilia camps we visited due to their high quality of guides and staff, facilities and food. White Sands Villas was a delightful splurge.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep up the good work!" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 13 on a Tanzania safari

"These comments are very specific to us and might not be relevant to most of your clients. First and foremost, we were very happy with Expert Africa and can't find anything negative to say. Lyndsey was always helpful and responsive. The outfitters, guides and drivers were all excellent.

This was our sixth trip to East and South Africa, some of which were long and covered multiple countries. Only two were done with groups. This trip was very much a bucket list trip for us as we're 77 and 81 and finding physical limitations to our travel. (Our first trip to Africa was stopping in Nairobi on our way to India. We rented a jeep, a tent and two sleeping bags and drove all around the country.)

We had alway planned at some point to visit the Mountain Gorillas. We chose to go to the "easiest" accessible group. The trackers found the group deep in the brush and much which made getting to them difficult. The porters were a great help, always there to help us through the mud. It was a great experience but we were so exhausted by the day, we passed on the second. Realized our limitations but were really happy with the single visit.

Rwanda is an incredibly beautiful country with wonderful people, many of whom are survivors of their genocide. That realization can make a visit more complex than with other countries in the region but it was important to us. The current situation with respect to what was happening just miles away in the Congo was hard to ignore. What is presently going on in the U.S. and its worldwide implications made it even harder for us to be tourists as was the case on our other trips. So even though we were not worried about our personal safety, we just didn't feel comfortable going to the south to see the chimps. Note that we had hoped to see life along Lake Kivu but that wasn't possible in the present circumstances. One thing we were able to do with those days was to spend more time with a variety of the local people and engage in serious discussions with them.

We had spent a lot of time in the Serengeti on our Kenya trip and in 2011 on a long trip to Tanzania. Both these trips were in the dry season in the northern Serengeti. This time we decided to go the southern Serengeti to see the height of the migration. Our experience was great but not what we expected. The Nomad mobile camp was wonderful but the migration had passed a couple of days earlier. The first night in the camp there was an enormous rain storm that lasted well into the next day. The result was that the Southern Serengeti was flooded and most of the roads were impassible. We had a couple of interesting fun days going mostly overland for hours though the muck to catch up with the migration.

One thing we didn't realize is that the elephants and cape buffalo disappear into the forrest during the migration. We never saw a cape buffalo (except from the plane) and only two isolated elephants. We did see many groups of lions, a surprising number of cheetahs, a couple of leopards and many giraffes. In terms of what we enjoy the most, I'd recommend a dry season trip to the northern Serengeti. We also had similar experiences in terms of seeing a greater variety of large animals in Zambia and South Africa. But the main reason for our trip was the Mountain Gorillas so we're happy." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 8 on a Rwanda safari