Reviews of Lake Manze Camp

"As we were the only 2 guests for the first few nights, we were thoroughly spoilt!

Malcolm was very accommodating and welcoming, but also incredibly knowledgable about all aspects of African life and his passion for carbon neutrality was infectious!" See all these reviews: 4n in Tanzania

"A very nice camp with good food, comfy setup and welcoming hosts who were a constant presence. General game was plentiful, especially Impala, Zebra, Kudu, Wildebeest and delightfully many Giraffe. Surprising lack of Elephants though - just one single young bull (who gave us a good show in the river).Saw a coalition of five lions and a pack of Wild Dogs three times! Also Hyena and two short but exciting leopard sightings. Really loved the boat activities, wonderful photo opportunities for Kingfishers and Bee-eaters espesically.

Our guide was just ok (had far better ones) though a nice enough guy. The driver had impressive skills, got stuck more than once in the black cotton soil. One evening we had torrential rainfall and I was unsure if we'd actually make it back to camp - every little crevice had become a stream, and we had quite a lot of hairy crossings. But Driver Abuu really was champ, and made it.

Tanzania had had unusually much rain, so much of Selous was flooded. Our camp was starting to be more and more in the lake rather than at the lake, so we were transferred to Impala Camp for our last night because they were afraid the water might reach our tent in the middle of the night. The water level was not an issue for us during our stay at Lake Manze, our tent remained a few cm above the water line, only the path started to resemble a creek more and more." See all these reviews: 14n in Tanzania

"This was our third stay at Lake Manze camp so I think that speaks for itself. This time we stayed for 4 nights and were accompanied by some friends.

When we arrived Ali our driver from our previous trips welcomed us at the airstrip and introduced us to Hamedi who would be our guide. On arrival at Lake Manze Camp, Shaun and Milli, the managers welcomed us like old friends.

We had a fantastic 4 days game viewing with Ali and Hamedi. We enjoyed their company and their combination of experience and youthful enthusiasm. They both worked really hard to show us everything including wild dogs and lions. We spent a magical morning with a group of 17 elephants watching them eat, drink, play in the water, roll in the mud and generally just interact. We spent about 2.5 hours with these wonderful creatures, the majority of the time on our own.

We also enjoyed 2 boat trips with our boat guide Ayoub, which I would highly recommend. On the second trip we arranged to do some fishing as well as watching the wildlife which was fun. We caught 4 fish which the chef then cooked for us that evening.

Shaun and Milli are excellent managers and work really hard to make sure everyone has a great time. During our stay the camp was full with a large tour group (which I think is quite unusual). During this time Milli and Shaun made sure that the large group had virtually no impact on our stay and were dealt with separately to the rest of the guests.

As previously, our stay at Lake Manze exceeded our expectations and we look forward to a return visit soon." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania; 7n in Zanzibar

"We haven´t had a good experience at Lake Manze.

Good aspects:
The 2 camp manager (Malcom and after Sean) were very nice to us, the location of the camp is great and we enjoyed the experience to be in a camp with no electricity. The game drive itself (animals, landscape) was nice, the cars that they´ve offered are great.
We reccomend Sealous as a place to visit in Tanzania, for sure.

Bad aspects:
Our guide was terrbile. First of all, we had one guide at the first day and the campus has changed or guide for the second day (it was our first time safari so we didn´t know that normally we should have the same guide every day). Nobody told us that we should expect the same guide from the day 2 (we thought that we would have one guide each day, mainly because of the situation that we will explain on next paragraph)
This change would be a minor problem, if the second guide was a good one.
We felt unsafe all the time with the second guide. To summarize the problem: in our second day of game driving, when we saw for the first time a lion in our entire life, he stopped the car and asked "Malcom has explained how the things work here?". "You asked to see Lion and Elephant, we showed the two animals. If you are happy, you should pay USD15 dollars (or more, you can choose) for me and USD15 for the driver. If you are not happy, you don´t need to pay, but if you are, you need to pay". It was almost an exthorsion (I only realize that once I have arrived to Ikuka and talked to camp manger there).
Just to try to explain how we felt bad, once we come back to the camp I was asking to someone from staff go with me to the tent to take money (I hadn´t any money with me).
We don´t remember the guide name (it was Arns or something like that) and to demonstrate how we were unhappy we haven´t done the last game drive at Lake Manze - we stayed on camp in our last day.
The food at Lake Manze is poor - the menu an lunch in only vegetarian one.
The places that the guide chose for breakfast and lunch (cold rice with pumpkin) on bushes were terrible. For the breakfast it was a 30 metres from the main road.

We would reccomend Selaous as a place to go in contrast to Ruaha, but, unfortunately, we can´t reccomend Lake Manze as a camp. We have talked during the trip and for sure the only reason for that is the guide." See all these reviews: 8n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar

"Lake Manze Adventure Camp was a brilliant place to stay in the Selous and have an authentic safari experience. The open nature of the camp, with no fences to keep out the wildlife made for amazing up close encounters with wildlife - on several occasions we were woken by the sound of hippos close by our tent and also saw elephant and buffalo from the porch of our tent.

The tented accommodation isn't high-end luxury, but we found them super comfortable with a hard floors, hot running water and mosquito netted doors to keep insects out; the open air shower and bathroom added to the immersive safari experience.

We took advantage of the possibility of going on walking and boat safari as well as the traditional game drives and recommend all of these activities to visitors.

We really enjoyed the great food each evening served in a communal dining area, as it offered an opportunity to talk with fellow holiday makers and share experiences from the days safari." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 6n in Zanzibar

"Wonderful experience in the Wilderness in such an eco friendly camp.

The owners were very attentive to our needs, our guide was really excellent in giving us all possible information about animals and plants, our driver Amazing, in particular when driving after heavy rain. A truly memorable experience with hippos grunting by our tent at night, and elephants giving us a good morning only two metres away once when we were pouring the coffee brought to us with our wake up call !

On top of everything else I loved the hot spring in the bush too. Also the boat safaris were great." See all these reviews: 10n in Tanzania

"We had a wonderful time at Lake Manze.

The camp managers, Shawn and Millie, are fantastic. They are very welcoming and accommodating and cater to your safari desires. Choices include all day or morning/late afternoon safaris, boat safaris or walking safaris. They make the logistics seem easy at this busy and fun camp.

Our guide, Imani, was wonderful. We saw many animal world dramas play out as opposed to a checklist of animal sightings. In particular, great lion sightings as well as giraffe water crossings. We also loved the dinners by the campfire and met interesting people from around the world." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania; 4n in Zanzibar

"Absolutely fantastic! We had high expectations and hopes for this holiday and somehow they were exceeded. The unfenced nature of the camp meant we were so close to nature, with elephants regularly joining us at mealtime, whilst baboons, impala and giraffe were often seen within the camp.

The drives and boat trips were amazing and we saw everything we could have hoped for - and more - leopard (very lucky), lions (at a giraffe kill - sensational), impala (100s), zebras, wildebeest, elephant, warthog, hippos, eland, buffalo, kudu and a huge number of amazing birds (rollers, heron, bee eaters, kingfishers, fish eagles, batleur eagles, ibis, stork etc. etc.).

We had the same guide (Roger) all week and he made a huge difference to the experience with the knowledge he imparted. We built up a real relationship with him and it was quite emotional when we parted.

Food and service at the camp was great, and Shaun runs a great set-up - well done. We would love to go back one day. Truly the experience of a lifetime." See all these reviews: 5n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar

"Excellent well-run camp. For us, it provided the perfect balance between being a proper camp with no electricity (except for charging) with wildlife frequently passing by, yet enough comforts such as flushing toilets and solar-powered heated showers.

On my first morning when having an early shower (a cold on at that time) two hyenas walked rights passed the tent looking up at me - welcome to the bush. Some more "up-market" camps would not enable this experience. Elephants munched on palm leaves around our tent at night. Giraffes, warthog, impala, baboons, crocodiles, hippos, bushbuck as well as countless birdlife could be seen from our tent alone which we loved.

The fact that my wife and I had a private vehicle with a guide and driver for all game drives was excellent and the guiding from Kalisti was top notch. Lake Manze Camp, from our limited experience of 4 nights in Selous, appeared to be in the best game viewing area. The boat trips on Lake Manze and the nearby waterways were wonderful and provide a different perspective, as did the the walking safari, and these give a great mix to usual game drives.

On our last night, Malcolm arranged for my wife and I to have a private honeymoon dinner outside of our (isolated) tent which was special." See all these reviews: 17n in Tanzania

"Sean and his wife were remarkable - awaiting our arrival and from then onwards, unintrusive hosts who made our time absolutely wonderful. We felt Lake Manze was incredibly special. The communal eating outside in the evenings was a highlight, and Sean and his wife carefully deciding who should sit next to whom. The staff under their supervision were superb. Delicious meals always. Incredible how the food was presented and the standard of cooking very high. Sean and his wife run a remarkable camp and they and their staff are to be applauded. Exceptional.

Our guides Sauduro (not sure of spelling, but know Saudoro was Masai as we discovered this one bush breakfast time!) and trainee Lasuro, and driver Jimmy, were so good. By the end of our stay, after three days of drives with them, we felt close to them and had enjoyed interesting conversations as well as wonderful game drives. This was a real highlight, the fact that we stayed with the same guiding team throughout our stay. Such a great way to really get to know your guides and to interact in a far more personal way, and to learn more about the lives of our guides. Never expected this and we all really appreciated this. They went out of their way to find animals for us and to share their knowledge. The same with the boat safari guide. Brilliant guides. We would love them to know how much we appreciated them.

Tent accommodation was wonderful - three of us sharing really worked well. High standard of comfort and loved the views and the shower to the stars! Liked also the fact that Masai lead you to and from your tent.

We felt that other guests were all there for similar reasons to us; to be out in the wilderness, to feel close to nature and wildlife and we had some lovely conversations with our fellow guests over dinner each night. Genuine feel to everything. The fact that no electricity was great - having a drink by paraffin lamps and candle-lit dinners was just what we loved. Elephants roaming so close to the camp plus hippos and giraffe made it very special. Had total confidence in Sean's ability to deal with any animals roaming close! He is a one off! Love the fact he wanders around barefoot too." See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 5n in Tanzania