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Traveller reviews

Travel reviews by Mr S & Ms H from Kent

Review Distribution

Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Terrible

Total number of trips

2

Countries visited

3

Lodges stayed in

11

Excursions taken

0

Great trip to southern Africa

Zimbabwe and 1 other country between 25 Sep 2015 and 14 Oct 2015

Trip rating: Excellent
"Excellent.

Interesting variety of activities and (nearly) all logistics worked to plan."

Amalinda Lodge

Amalinda Lodge

"Rock Art and Great Zimbabwe"

3 nights Arrived 26 Sep 2015
"Apart from the better than average likelihood of Rhinos, i think the rock art and Gt Zim are the highlights for Amalinda.

Doing Gt Zim as a day trip is hard, especially for the guide, but for the guests too. That said, staying overnight adds a fair amount of additional expense and (according to Paul Hubbard) in pretty average hotels. But if money isn't a problem, then having more time at Gt Zim and easier travelling over two days would be welcome.

These travellers booked a private guide here, Paul Hubbard, and they commented:

Paul Hubbard is clearly a top guide with excellent knowledge on the archaeology and culture of Zimbabwe and particularly around the Motopos. This undoubtedly enhanced our experience significantly.

Having Paul for the two full days activities was the requirement and was great. I'm not sure that having him for the airport collection and an afternoon walk added quite as much value. Please note - this is not a reflection on Paul, but on how we, and others, might structure their holiday with cost in mind."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Good
Facilities
Excellent
Camelthorn

Camelthorn

"See elephants really close at Camelthorn"

4 nights Arrived 29 Sep 2015
"Please see separate comments already given on Camelthorn - location and rooms are preferences rather than absolute (opinions on) quality - others may love them.
We had only limited experience of food :-(

Activities potentially, but not actually, limited by guide availability. The elephant hide is brilliant."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location
Good
Service
Excellent
Activities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
Facilities
Excellent
Vundu Camp

Vundu Camp

"Excellent guides at Vundu"

4 nights Arrived 3 Oct 2015
"Everything was as you would expect from a long standing lodge with experienced guides and management. The knowledge and ability of all the guides was top level.

One point, which we tried to share with the camp but not sure we succeeded was regarding the 'combining guests by arrival date rather than interest'. Other guests arrived on the same day as we did and their interests were the Wild Dogs that were around. Ours was birds and canoeing. Our guide did his absolute best, and did well, to balance this but undoubtedly both sets of guests were compromising. As those guests left we were then paired with new guests - we were quite clear about wanting to go canoeing but (i found out afterwards) the other guests had to be persuaded quite hard to do this. If they had stuck to their guns i'm not sure what would have happened.

When we mentioned this to management their view seemed to be that we should have got a personal guide. My point is that both the camp and the travel agent say that all guests have a choice of activities, without saying 'so long as other guests also want to do the same thing'.

In the end we did do the things we wanted, although maybe in a different order. It seems that there should be a better way of ensuring this can be done (I would suggest earlier planning of all activities with guests, eg soon after arrival)."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Victoria & Alfred Hotel

Victoria & Alfred Hotel

"luxury in the heart of Cape Town"

3 nights Arrived 7 Oct 2015
"I happened to be here on my 50th birthday and they went out of their way to make it even better - I really appreciated this and would equally appreciate it if you could tell them so (the only contact details I can find are for reservations...)

Paying extra for the mountain view was absolutely worth it. The 'piazza view' side also has rooms overlooking the car park and the main road."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Ocean Eleven

Ocean Eleven

"Great comfort in a great location"

3 nights Arrived 10 Oct 2015
"Overlooking the South Atlantic in very comfortable rooms with great service."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent

My Sep 2011 trip

Tanzania between 17 Sep 2011 and 2 Oct 2011

Trip rating: Excellent
"We always knew that we might have to compromise a bit due to the short notice to arrange this trip. However, Liz was extremely helpful and worked hard to match our requirements with the locations and camps. She did flag up the dinning arrangements at Impala and her reservations proved to be correct. Although we would not return there, we still enjoyed our stay and that arrangement obviously works well for other people.

Our itinerary was in exactly the right order, starting with the most 'authentic' camp and working up in quality to finish with Beho Beho. We would really have struggled if we'd gone there first and then moved on to the other camps.

This is our 4th or 5th holiday with Expert Africa and we will keep coming back because of the quality of service and knowledge of the locations.
Thank you all."

Mdonya Old River Camp

Mdonya Old River Camp

"Mdonya Old River Camp review"

3 nights Arrived 18 Sep 2011
"The lack of electricity gave the camp a special atmosphere and we didn't miss it at all.
We appreciated the matching of a guide to our interests (birdwatching, in particular) which meant that we learnt more and enjoyed our activities without boring other guests who weren't interested in birds.
The staff were helpful and reactive when asked, but there was a slight lack of quality control around the rooms (toilet paper not being replenished over three days) which could have been improved upon.

Overall it was a friendly camp and the open site, with animals walking through, made it one that we would recommend."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location
Good
Service
Average
Activities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
Facilities
Good
Impala Camp

Impala Camp

"Selous Impala Camp review"

1 night Arrived 21 Sep 2011
"The camp has a great location, with the tents overlooking the river.
It was good to have the option of boat trips as well as rides.
The surprise sundowner was a lovely touch.
Our main reservation about this camp was the dining arrangements, which we felt then affected the atmosphere and dynamics for the rest of the time. The tables were always set up separately, unless requests were made by guests to sit together. This meant that there was far less interaction between guests and rarely did anyone stay at the bar after dinner. The waiters were extremely helpful and friendly, but it ended up feeling more like a hotel. When compared to the other camps, and the conversation that arose over group dinners and subsequently, we found this camp less personable."
Average
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Average

Location
Good
Service
Good
Activities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
Facilities
Good
Impala fly-camp

Impala fly-camp

"Selous Impala fly-camp review"

2 nights Arrived 22 Sep 2011
"We felt thoroughly spoilt when we arrived to find that we had five staff to look after the two of us!
We were glad that we booked to stay for two nights because this gave us a full day there, without having to unpack and then pack up to leave the next day.
The staff looked after us wonderfully, with the chef even cooking our eggs for breakfast over the fire under a table because it was raining."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
Facilities
Good
Impala Camp

Impala Camp

"Selous Impala Camp review"

2 nights Arrived 24 Sep 2011
"See previous sheet"
Average
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Average

Location
Good
Service
Good
Activities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
Facilities
Good
Beho Beho

Beho Beho

"Beho Beho review"

5 nights Arrived 26 Sep 2011
"We loved it!

The outstanding thing for us was the quality of the guiding. We felt that we had moved up to another level, with all guides extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic. We also really liked having different guides for different activities. This enabled us to experience their different interests and characters. Why don't other camps do this?

The rooms were large with period furniture and the views were amazing.

The range of activities was excellent, with wonderful walking as well as drives and a great day trip to the lake and hot springs."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Good
Facilities
Excellent
Southern Sun Dar

Southern Sun Dar

"Southern Sun (formerly the Holiday Inn) review"

1 night Arrived 1 Oct 2011
"It was fine for the one night stop over."
Average
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Average

Location
Average
Service
Average
Activities
Average
Rooms
Average
Food
Average
Facilities
Average

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