Reviews of safaris to Ruaha National Park

"both James Denny (who was my initial contact and helped me to choose safari location and camps) and Lyndsey Marris (who organised our two stays in Zanzibar, and made all our reservations) were very helpful, and extremely knowledgeable. Overall the trip was amazing on every level,and incredibly well organised, thank you!

The only slight negative is that we were a little disappointed with Mwagusi Camp in terms of service and food, especially after staying at Siwandu which surpassed our expectations and was just excellent on every level. Maybe if we'd stayed at Mwagusi before Siwandu, we wouldn't have noticed so much!

We are definitely keen to explore more of Africa as a result of this trip, and will definitely return to Expert Africa to do so!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"James did a fantastic job of organizing this trip for us. His suggestion of adding Kichaka to our plans was spot on, and we never would have known about them without his advice. Arrangements were all smooth, service everywhere was great, and the plan he shared was exactly what we got. I think if I could change anything about the trip, it would have been the Pongwe part. While the resort was fine, it wasn't totally our style. I think we would have been happier at one of the places with a stronger environmental orientation and better access to good snorkeling. That's on me, not James - I didn't share that this was a priority, and I was thinking too much about the expense.

I also wasn't prepared for the aggressiveness of some of the street hustlers in Stone Town. While in most places, they would respect a polite "Hapana, Asante," in the Forodhani Gardens area, they were so aggressive it made it unpleasant to walk over there - sometimes escalating to physical contact and insults from them although we stayed polite. This isn't something that Expert Africa controls of course! It would be something that it would be helpful to add to the next Bradt guide update.

I also need to note that at the beginning of our trip, things went off track due to a problem with Turkish Air. Because of their delays, we missed our Istanbul connection, and had to stay the night in Istanbul. This was clearly not Expert Africa's fault, but it was very frustrating that I couldn't get through to anyone on the 24 hour emergency number. I called four times. Each time, a recording would tell me that someone would be with me in a minute, and then the phone would start ringing. I would let it ring 100 times before I gave up. Maybe I should have had faith and let it ring longer?

I guess I'm used to hold music playing if I'm in a queue of calls, and then the ringing starting when I'm actually being connected. Is the ringing what happens when you're in queue on your line? Because all this happened during the 36 hour stretch that no one is on your office, folks at Lake Manze camp were quite concerned that we had disappeared without a word, and we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to reconnect with our trip. We spent a scary 4 hours sitting outside the Dar airport hoping we'd be able to figure everything out at sunrise, which we did with the help of a friendly cab driver and the staff at Coastal Aviation." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Yet again Expert Africa lived up to their name by setting us up with a great trip.

We enjoyed every part of it and frequently thought the next day could not be as good as the last. However it always was. Thanks to Ellie for developing the itinerary for us and thanks to James setting it up." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 14 on a Tanzania safari

"Awesome experience
Expectations were very high...
..and they were massively exceeded

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

sadly...no :)" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"We had the most amazing experience in Tanzania & Zanzibar, thanks to the unsurpassed advice & expertise of Expert Africa. They really know their stuff & bend over backwards to make sure that the trip they help you plan is the right one for you.

Thank you so much for the trip of a lifetime." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"A wonderful trip. It was like having four different holidays as we had two contrasting safaris, two days in Stone Town, and four days at the beach in Zanzibar. All very memorable and enjoyable.

The organisation by Expert Africa was exceptional - everything happened as we had been told and there was only one glitch which our rep had sorted out in hours." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"We are very happy with the holiday and all the arrangements made for us by Expert Africa.

We were able to provide this feedback directly to Fred from your office who was visiting Mwagusi at the same time as us!

Thanks to James for listening to what we wanted and making sure that this special 70th birthday holiday matched our expectations" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"Our trip with Expert Africa was a honeymoon, and our aim when deciding what to do was to try to find a holiday which would be extra special. From start to finish Expert Africa were a pleasure to deal with, and thanks to their insight and advice we ended up with exactly what we wanted.

The clue is in the name - both Liz and Lyndsey were able to tell us exactly what we could expect from each different camp in Tanzania, and each resort in Zanzibar. Their expertise made it very easy to make decisions, when otherwise you mind spend days pouring over reviews, second guessing yourself at every turn.

What we appreciated the most was at no point did we ever felt like we were being 'sold to'. They were extremely honest about every single detail, allowing us to piece together a trip which would suit the kind of people we are.

For example, Ruaha in Tanzania is a staggeringly beautiful place, perfectly combining our desire to see a good degree of game, but without being surrounded by dozens of other vehicles viewing the same things as us at the same time. Yet once there we appreciated it wouldn't suit everyone, as some people may want a higher density of game at their fingertips every moment of every day. That's exactly how Liz described it to us in our very first conversation, even if the place itself exceeded our already lofty expectations.

I'd also add Lyndsey was extremely helpful answering each and every question we had in advance, no matter how small a detail it was. If, like us, you've never done a safari before, it's surprisingly easy to make assumptions about what you'll need, which will probably be completely wrong in reality. Therefore that level of assistance, expertise and detail was really appreciated.

Thanks guys, it was a brilliant trip." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"This was our first safari, initially there are so many options it's difficult to know where to go, for how many days and which camps to go for. Lyndsey was our travel coordinator and guided us through a twin location of Selous and Ruaha. It's hard not to have high expectations for a holiday like this but we were both blown away with the whole trip. The first camp was super friendly, we had really personal service a fabulous guide and great food, we had such a good time we were worried that the second camp wouldn't be able to match our experience. But there was no need, Ruaha was just as special. Having the two locations, one camp on a river and the other on top of hill made for a winning combination with a diverse range of terrains and animals.

We loved every aspect of our trip and have so many memories that will live with us forever I don't know if we will ever be able to top this." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"Our trip as a whole was: very well prepared and perfectly organized, the mere fact that we had not one serious problem on such a long journey, is amazing !

Thanks to the way Expert Africa helped us to choose among the various possible destinations, we could benefit from an itinerary that led us to variable parts of Tansania and we enjoyed entirely different landscapes and surroundings. Each of the camps and lodges we stayed at had their own charm and asset. Obviously James Denny was able to empathize our wishes and preferences so well that we really got what we wanted.

There is only one small critical item we would like to mention:

What we did not know beforehand (and what we could have been told when planning) was the distance from Ngorongoro Crater to Arusha, which is a car drive of about three hours, not really very much longer than the flight together with the time for waiting and transfer to and from the airport. In addition to this we flew to Kilimanjaro Airport instead of Arusha AIrport, which would have been much nearer to the hotel, although the plane did actually got to Arusha Airport." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 21 on a Tanzania safari