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Reviews of Tafika

Wildlife sightings and reviews

318 independent comments and wildlife information from our travellers who have visited Tafika and kindly agreed to share their thoughts. They do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa

Wildlife sightings by our travellers
Starting in May-2018, 78 of our travellers have recorded their wildlife sightings at Tafika.
Lion

87% success

Leopard

92% success

Wild dog

45% success

Hippo

100% success

Giraffe

99% success

Zebra

99% success

Elephant

97% success

Buffalo

92% success

Spotted Hyena

91% success

Wildebeest

49% success

Eland

11% success

Roan antelope

3% success

Sable antelope

2% success

Aardvark

0% success

Pangolin

0% success

Showing 261-270 of 318
Duration
Arrival date
Ms C & Ms M
Oxford

"Tafika review"

5 nights Arrived 2 Aug 2010
"We loved everything about Tafika.

The expertise of the guides was everything we'd hoped for; we enjoyed every single drive and walk and they contrived to make each one a different experience by rotating the guides and spotters and taking us to different areas. Because of the length of the drives, and perhaps because our stay was a bit longer than average, we really felt we got to know several of the guides well and to understand a bit about the lives of the local people from what they told us.

The accommodation was very comfortable and most attractive, the food was excellent, but most importantly the staff were uniformly friendly and helpful. Everyone was genuinely concerned when Alice was unwell for a couple of days (she had picked up a flu-type bug, probably on the plane) and found us appropriate medication, re-organised transfers to the bush-camp etc." See all these reviews: 12n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs C
E Sussex

"Tafika - Wow!"

3 nights Arrived 10 Jun 2010
"What a wonderful place - no other place has filled us with such happiness and such a desire to return! John and Carol are wonderful hosts and ALL the guides are "top notch" (Stephen, Alex and Brian) - good english (even Brian!), knowledgeable and, importantly, very helpful. Being met by Mkupa and Lloyd to canoe us across the Luangwa was a super experience.

Tafika rewarded us with the best game sightings of the holiday and also the longest drives.

The "house" staff also are great and we enjoyed our tour of the kitchen garden with Isaac!

A number of nice touches: purpose built steps to aid access to the jeeps - taken on trips when those less agile were aboard; light on in the bedroom on return from evening drives; Good electricity; super showers that really made one wet and warm.
The open grassy area gives such a wonderful feeling of space - one is instantly relaxed.

We loved the visit to the village and school - very moving." See all these reviews: 14n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs M
Hampshire

"Return to Tafika"

5 nights Arrived 8 Nov 2009
"Lovely welcome from Carol and John on our return after four years. They still run the camp in a relaxed and very efficient way with their great team. Rhona was exceptional in coping with my dietary requirements and produced a great variety of perfectly cooked meals.

The rooms are well-designed, comfortable and well-equipped with excellent showers and large mosquito nets which enclosed the whole sleeping area so there was no feeling of claustrophobia. The laundry service was superb, with clothes collected in the morning returned the same day.

The guides and spotters were all excellent. We particularly enjoyed the enthusiasm of Alex and Stephen. It was good to see Brighton again and enjoy his fire-lighting skills! It was great to be able to do guided walks, especially after crossing the river by canoe which added to the experience.

We appreciated being able to send emails and having Brian on hand to help with technical problems!

It was particularly good to have a closed vehicle to go to the airport - we saw others who didn't and they were very wet having come through a thunderstorm!

Unfortunately we were unable to take advantage of the microlight flights due to the cost of insurance investigated before we left home.

Thankyou to everyone for a memorable visit to Tafika and for the great care you took of us." See all these reviews: 9n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Dr & Mrs B
Herts

"Tafika"

3 nights Arrived 9 Oct 2009
"Fabulous camp located in extensive shaded grounds on the banks of the Luanga river. The chalets were huge (although we believe we were allocated the honeymoon suite, all the chalets looked of similar size from the outside), and open at head height at both ends which allowed for a through breeze - very helpful in the October heat. The shower / bathroom complex was excellent, and the multi-shelved wicker dresser allowed us to spread out our bag contents - it's funny how these small things make such a difference.

There is a small hide behind the camp (away from the river) overlooking a small waterhole, although we didn't see very much there while we visited. John and Carol were most welcoming, and Heather as camp manager seemed omniprescent. Irrepressible guide Alex, and superb spotter MCooper (?spelling), although we did manage to stump Alex on one question - how many kg of insects does an aardvark eat in a day (thank you John for that one), and Alex, if you read this, an aardvark grows to 50-80kg (rather than the 10-15kg we estimated), so on reflection we feel the 50g diet guessed would leave him a little on the hungry side!

The leopard sightings were awesome - multiple sightings on every drive (thanks to both Alex and Bryan for these and for locating the Land Cruisers for some superb photographs), but the real highlight must be the microlight flight - one of those 101 things to do before you die. One of us even managed to get to see two wild dog chasing a puku - not something you'd be able to do from the ground - a real David Attenborough moment.

And John, I'll be grateful to you forever for the second microlight flight to find the lions. I just wished we'd been able to stay aloft all day. We trust you've been able to sort out what was going on with the lions. The company at the camp was excellent - two other couples and a lady travelling on her own, made for an a magic mix which just heightened the pleasure of our stay. The food was outstanding, varied and beautifully presented. Excellent just seems too inadequate to describe this awesome camp." See all these reviews: 12n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs T
Glos

"Tafika review"

4 nights Arrived 6 Oct 2009
"Tafika was recommended to us as a place to see leopard, and we saw some good sightings of leopard. Out of 7 game drives, we saw leopard 5 times, so overall, this met our expectations and was a good recommendation.

The camp is excellent given its location. As it's more remote than others, it is not as luxurious. For example, there is electricity available in the central area, but not in your hut.

Overall, the food is excellent, but we did feel rather overwhelmed in the evening with yet another meal. The favourite meal of the day for us was lunch and we really didn't feel that we needed much more food that day after that." See all these reviews: 9n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Good
Ms C
Italy

"Tafika review"

2 nights Arrived 2 Oct 2009
"The location overlooking the river is just perfect!

A very nice camp, the room was spacious, very confortable and I loved the bathroom area with just the sky as a roof. Excellent game drives with great guides,.some of the best sighting ever seen.

A very relaxed and friendly atmosphere also during meals with John, Carol and the rest of the staff. The food was simply delicious." See all these reviews: 12n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs L
Leeds

"Tafica - saved the best till last!"

3 nights Arrived 18 Sep 2009
"Just Superb. All the same comments as given for Kapampa. Brilliant wilderness location, Outstanding food, Excellent guiding, Superb room, Great hosting.

Difficult to separate them on most criteria, but perhaps Tafica just has the edge given:-
- The personnal touch of the owners - John and Carol et al!
- Outstanding guiding - particularly Brian.
- The option to take the microlight flight.

We had a superb time at Tafica - the Leopards "falling" out of the trees." See all these reviews: 10n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs H
Hampshire

"Leopards at Tafika"

3 nights Arrived 18 Sep 2009
"Owned by John and Carol who were involved and available throughout our stay. Brian managed the game drives and people traffic and again was available when needed.

The game drives we went on were guided by either Brian or Alex and were superb, Brians twenty plus years of experience of guiding plus his knowledge of photography were certainly enhanced our game drives, that is not to take it away from Alex who also gave great drives.

In the last two days we saw 22 different lions and five different leopards on numerous occasions. The food was fantastic, service was excellent as was the administration, the camp that we look forward going back to in the future. The micro-light flight was one highlight in many during our stay at this camp.

The only thing missing was the leopard in the tree in day light, we did however have three in the tree at night, need to go back to get the day light shot." See all these reviews: 12n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Dr & Mrs C
Henley

"recharge battery visit"

1 night Arrived 15 Sep 2009
"the bushcamps have no 240v supply so we came for 1 night to recharge before off again.

Visitors could be reminded as some appeared to be ignorant and so had no spare.

[Ed: This was just a one-night stop; see below for the comments that these travellers made about their first 3 nights at Tafika during this long trip to the Luangwa.]" See all these reviews: 14n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Dr M
Twickenham

"Tafika adventure"

3 nights Arrived 14 Sep 2009
"very well run and efficient. friendly helpful and knowledgeable staff. comfortable with good food. excellent animal viewing. loved the microlite flight, it was a real highlight.

we asked to visit the local village and the school which tafika supports and this wa arranged. tafika really is part of the local community and plays a crucial role in education and employment." See all these reviews: 5n in Zambia; 4n in Malawi
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Showing 261-270 of 318
98%
318 reviews of Tafika by travellers since August 2007
Overall rating by our travellers
294
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