Travel reviews by Mr T & Ms W from USA

"The Tribe Hotel was an excellent choice for our lay over in Nairobi. Great services, helpful staff and wonderful arch/décor for a modern African flavor. The hotel's artwork displays were possibly second only to their nat'l museum. We enjoyed the meals and some wonderful birding behind the property.

The US embassy compound was not amused by our birding. We would recommend a second day stay prior to departure for Rwanda or other adventures, as you never know when flight delays can cause grief and a second day can ease the pain."

"Gorilla Mountain View Lodge was comfortable, clean with great surroundings for birding. Victor the kitchen manager was a great birding resource and was a great bird guide our last morning there.

Rwanda

Extremely friendly people, very clean country and quite frankly felt as safe as I do at home. Primate Safaris and Eric our guide was prompt, professional and provided us a wonderful drive from Kigali to our lodge and return.

Two days of gorilla trekking more than made up for this missed golden monkey day. Visited Umubano and Sabyinyo groups with relatively easy hikes and good weather. Very inspiring event that had Pam in tears as she has wanted to have this experience since middle school and thought extinction due to man's conflicts would eliminate any chance. Saw 9 of the first goup and 7 of the latter including Guhonda the largest of Rwanda's silverbacks and a baby in each group."

"Great lunch/dinner buffet. The kitchen staff was very helpful with providing coffee and a box snack for our early (5:00 am) departure for Tanzania.

For the most part the facilities were very similar to an average hotel in the states and was surprised that internet access was not free."

"Emmanuel our guide was very professional and great resource for the wildlife including our birding interests.

The camp was far more than we expected and wished we could have stayed longer. Mark and his staff were very helpful and always checking on us. Tents were unbelievable, very comfortable with solid ensuite toilet and hot showers. Felt guilty when we wanted to have hot shower, but was a wonderful pleasure after being out in the bush all day. Would recommend longer stay to anyone and wondered if other camps were as opulent.

Our open sided vehicle was a treat during our game drives. Two full days of game drives gave us all we could possibly see, Africa's big five and more; large male leopard, honey badger, Eland, Marsh Owls, Secretary Bird, Lake Masek and its vistas of migration and entrance to gorge.

Fabulous sunrises with breakfast (box meal to go were very good and the coffee was even better away from camp) out on the Serengeti, storms at night, visits to tent at night by Hyennas, and those scary Zebras. Noises at 2:00 am seem loud enough to be in your tent and are not the scary animals you think. Will miss early morning coffee and vistas of migration and late night campfires with a blanket of stars above.

A dream come true."

"Rhino Lodge was comfortable, clean with hot showers with great surroundings. Food was warm, good and plentiful. Our first lunch there was one of the best meals we had during our entire trip, may have been we were starving or the effort the kitchen went to to provide us a late lunch due to our arrival time. Heavy storms on a metal roof can intensify a storms effect especially if you do not secure your back door. What a scare when the wind blew the door open and thoughts of what has entered the room??

Ngorongoro Crater

Wonderful bush flight from Ndutu to Lake Manyara airstrip including buzz of crater on arrival to Lake Manyara. Jackson our
guide was prompt, professional and a valuable resource for game and bird identification.

Our game drive in the crater was fantastic, had great viewing including (15) of the (22) or so Black Rhinos with sightings of (4) babies with their moms. Once again bringing the right optical equip has paid off, using our scope we were able to view many things that would be disappointing to others with binos only. Our guide Jackson got a kick out of sharing some of the viewing through our scope. Got to see an Egyptian Mongoose coming out of the crater, they are very small and all black."

"E Unuto Retreat was a real surprise and reminded us of some of our high end bungalows used in central America or SE asia. Our Maasai butler Ndari was a great individual who assisted us with meals and made our stay very comfortable. Their property and location requires a longer visit than the (2) nights we stayed. The Massai are truly beautiful people and we hope they are able to maintain their culture during these evolving times. I enjoyed a leisure breakfast and the pool our last morning there. Did not want to leave so my last Cuban cigar and Serengeti beer will be a lasting thought of my trip to Africa.

Lake Manyara Nat'l Park was a very special place to view many things that were seen elsewhere. Our elephant experience at Lake Manyara was again like a dream. Jackson, Pam and I were viewing a particular bird in its nest, when out of nowhere and without a sound we were surrounded by a pack of paciderms. As many as 70 or more elephants had come upon us and continued with their foraging. Viewing of the baby elephants nursing with their mothers, observing their grazing and the use of their trunks (shred, hold with a suction, insert into mouth) was mesmerizing, we probably sat there for 20 minutes or more.

The lake area is a serious birding location and should be recommended to anyone interested in birding. Our total trip species count is 187 with the bulk coming at Lake Manyara. One disappointment and I am certain that this is probably not published or discussed, is there were no predators at Lake Manyara, no lions, no hyenas, no jackals, no cheetahs. We suspect that the proximity to man, villages, cultivation and confined park boundary has allowed the removal of these animals. But the viewing of Hippos, elephants, baboons, black faced monkey, blue monkey, hornbills, Nile monitor and many other bird/mammal species made up for it as we have had the luck to see all the predators on Serengeti and in the crater.

Our final road trip from E Unutu to Kilimangaro Airport was a great ride which identified how the land transforms from the wild to domestication and city life in Tanzania. We saw our last wildlife a lone huge bull giraffe along side the motor way (2 lane paved road), he seemed to know to check each way before crossing?? We had hoped to see Mt Kilimangaro during our departure flight but it was dark and stormyL"