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Traveller reviews

Travel reviews by C family from Shrewsbury

Review Distribution

Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Terrible

Total number of trips

1

Countries visited

4

Lodges stayed in

9

Excursions taken

0

Fascinating friendly Rwanda - sunny Zanziba

Rwanda and 3 other countries between 23 Jul 2009 and 13 Aug 2009

Trip rating: Excellent
"Rwanda was brilliant - fascinating, scrupulously clean, would recommend the country to anyone who is bitten by the Africa bug. Communication was in a mixture of English, Swahili and French. It was good to start our trip with a visit to the Kigali genocide memorial. Our driver/guide Jackson was fantastic - and added hugely to our experience of Rwanda, even though he was an Arsenal supporter!

However were we to go again, we would adjust some of the timings. The routine seems to be to go and see primates early in the morning, which leaves the rest of the to explore, and so in many ways we would have been better doing 2 (rather than 3) nights in Nungwe, only one night in Moriah Hill, and possibly add one night (or more) in Gisenyi. (It would have been great to go over the border into Goma.) Volcanoes NP was good, though again one night less would have been fine and we would still have time for three primate expeditions. (We were rather extravagant and saw two diffierent goriila groups, which was great but very expensive!) We were also quite sad a not staying in Kigali again.

We had one medical emergency - our daughter got huge boils on her back, luckily on the night before we were due to return to Kigali, so the following morning we drove to a private hospital in Kigali for treatment. This was relatively efficient - after we had paid some money - but did mean that she missed out on swimming in Zanzibar.

Dar was a lovely surprise for one night - we wished we had stayed an additional night here. Zanzibar was as expected, though Stone Town was more chaotic and smellier than I remember (from 35 and 7 years ago).

The whole trip was very expensive - which of course we knew about beforehand! - but tips etc menat that we spent another 500 US dollars per person duing the three weeks, without being extravagant. For example, tipping of guides was $10 per person per excursion, and sometimes we chose to give trackers etc. tips. This is not a complaint, just for information."

Macushla House

Macushla House

"Comfortable stay"

1 night Arrived 24 Jul 2009
"Comfortable over-night stay here, between flying in from London and flying out to Kigali.
Location graded relatively poorly as a hotel closer to the airport would have been more convenient."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location
Average
Service
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
Image alt

Umubano Kigali Hotel, Rwanda (this camp has since closed)

"Novotel Kigali Umubano review"

1 night Arrived 25 Jul 2009
"Really liked the hotel - comforttable with a Rwandan twist!"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Good
Image alt

ORTPN Resthouse, Rwanda (this camp has since closed)

"Very friendly and slightly quirky resthouse"

3 nights Arrived 26 Jul 2009
"Spotlessly clean and very friendly staff.
Food was wholesome and very plentiful, though sometimes came in a surprising order!
Could have been improved by having some comfortable chairs to sit in."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good
Facilities
Average
Moriah Hill Resort

Moriah Hill Resort

"Empty and rather characterless, but perfectly"

2 nights Arrived 29 Jul 2009
"Very comfortable though very empty hotel, lovely swimming in Lake Kivu.
Quite a distance from the very spread out town.
One night here would have been sufficient."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location
Good
Service
Good
Facilities
Good
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Good
Mountain Gorilla View Lodge

Mountain Gorilla View Lodge

"Comfortable and friendly hotel"

4 nights Arrived 31 Jul 2009
"Friendly staff - as everywhere in Rwanda.

Rooms are huge, if a little characterless, but fires, hot water bottles and tea/coffee in rooms was much appreciated. Hotel will be much improved when the central bar/restaurant is finished. Relatively close to the park headquarters. Beautiful situation.

Food was delicious - best we had in Rwanda, and the chef deserves to be able to do his work in a permanent kitechen and dining room."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

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

Southern Sun Dar

"Smart and confortable hotel with character"

1 night Arrived 4 Aug 2009
"Really liked this smart hotel in the middle of Dar.
Staff were very friendly and helpful and we would have liked to stay longer!"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Image alt

Zanzibar Retreat Hotel (Not currently featured by Expert Africa)

"Lovely location"

4 nights Arrived 5 Aug 2009
"Beautiful situation and friendly and helpful (Finnish) owner was always around.
Three in a room was very cramped, but showers were excellent!

Lovely large pool and could swim from the beach at high tide - lots of sea urchins at low tide!"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Good
Facilities
Excellent
Rooms
Average
Food
Good
Unguja Lodge

Unguja Lodge

"Beautiful villas amongst baobabs"

3 nights Arrived 9 Aug 2009
"Beautiful villas. We certainly didn't need two villas between the three of us! One person in a villa with five beds, four wash-basins oodles of seats and seating areas was a bit excessive - but this isn't a complaint!

Situation was superb - lovely sea views, staff friendly and helpful, food good, baobabs beautiful, monkeys and other animals around (elephant shrew) an added bonus. Snorkelling from the beach wasn't really an option, though we had been led to believe that it was. (This may have been because of the tides.)

Nice pool, and good walks along the bach in both directions."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Zanzibar Coffee House

Zanzibar Coffee House

"Atmospheric, clean and helpful"

1 night Arrived 12 Aug 2009
"It was a bit of a shock to be parachuted in to a crowded and busy Stone Town after days by the beach, andf so it took a few hours for us to get our heads around the fact that the hotel was a very clean and comfortable oasis in Stone Town.

The roof-top seating area is lovely - though we didn't find it until relatively late in the day.
As everywhere, friendly and helpf ul staff."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location
Good
Service
Good
Rooms
Good

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