Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs D from Vanbrugh
Review Distribution
Total number of trips
1
Countries visited
2
Lodges stayed in
4
Excursions taken
0
whole trip feedback
Tanzania and 1 other country between 29 Sep 2009 and 13 Oct 2009
Very well organised trip and good advice about where to stay and length of time etc.
Would like to note that our transfer from zanzibar airport to shooting star never arrived, so we waited a while, and then had to take a taxi to the eco and culture tours office in stonetown, they check and stated they has us down to be picked up a month later, and didnt really appear very apologetic. We also then had to continue in the taxi ( with no air conditioning) - wasnt sure why they could not have taken us from there. Howevere they did turn up promptly for our other transfers. This was the only thing that went wromg, and meant we arrived at the back about 2 hours after we would have got there."
Feedback response
We’re delighted that these travellers had such a great honeymoon – but very sorry indeed that one of the transfers on this trip didn’t work.
We choose the partners that we work with in Africa very carefully, so errors by our colleagues in Zanzibar (or elsewhere in Africa) are thankfully very rare. However – they’ll all human and mistakes do happen: this was one. The transfer from the airport to Shooting Star was booked for the wrong month! We sincerely apologise for this error, and the inconvenience caused.
Because they’d made this booking mistake, there wasn’t a free car or driver that morning. So rather than keep our travellers waiting, the Stone Town manager paid all the costs for the taxi, and told the driver to continue to Shooting Star. He has reassured us that they have done their best to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
Impala Camp
"Selous Impala Camp"
Mdonya Old River Camp
"Mdonya Old River Camp review"
Very well organised camp, lovely food every night and we enjoyed drinks by the fire and communal meals. Nicole was a brilliant host, and very knowledgable and obliging. Tents were good and spaced out nicely. Guides brilliant and very enthusiastic and professional.
Lovely having lunch out in the bush . . an amazing 'packed lunch' - the most delicious selection of hot food. We loved it here."
Shooting Star Lodge
"Shooting star lodge review"
Beautiful setting, lovely room. Unfortunately we felt our introduction was slightly rushed and vague, and despite wanting morning coffee the next day it never arrived. We raised this and they promised it would be there the next day - it never came, it was a shame it took them 3 days to sort this out.
Shower was cold - but they fixed this as soon as we raised it - however it seemed to take 4-5 hours so we were still waiting to have a shower at 6.30pm that evening. We also put laundry in the basket and it was not collected for 2 days, which lead to toby having to wear dirty clothes.
We did then raise all this with the owner as we felt quite disappointed. He did then ensure things were remedied. And to be fair the rest of our stay was problem free. I would say that the food was excellent, although the service in the restaurant was very friendly it was sometimes quite erractic. But all the staff were very polite.
Overall we very much enjoyed our stay, the location of the lodge is brilliant, the pool and restaurant/bar area are lovely, the beach & bar staff were brilliant and very obliging. The problems we had were recognised by the owner and he did give us complimentary food/drinks etc. which was nice.
The snorkelling was excellent."
Zanzibar Palace Hotel
"Zanzibar palace hotel review"
Couldnt have been better"
Safaris were so well organised, brilliant having breakfast in the bush. Guides were very knowledgable and keen for us to have a great time and see as much as possible, the drivers were brilliant at avoiding the bumps!.
The food was fabulous - which surprised us. Lovely romantic meal by the pool on the last night. Couldn't have been better. Would love to go back sometime."