Zanzibar: reviews from our travellers

"We did most of the planning for our trip to Tanzania ourselves. Lyndsey was our agent from Expert Africa. This is our second trip with Expert Africa and we are left disappointed by the service received.

Lyndsey's main role was to assist in stitching our itinerary together, liasing with both Nomad Tanzania on the ground, with accommodation providers and with safari charter companies. On a positive note, all our transfers, accommodation and transport were seamless. We appreciate the work Lyndsey did to make this happen as we are aware logistics in Tanzania can be complex.

However we dont feel Lyndsey or Expert Africa proactively discount or negotiate on behalf of clients. We were offered discounts with various accommodation providers for booking direct but we had to push for these to be made available for booking through Expert Africa. They were never proactively offered. In addition, we had to push to stay at Hatari Lodge. Lyndsey wrongly commented that Arusha National park is closed after 6pm and we would be unable to arrive into Hatari later. We had to contact the lodge ourselves directly and paste information on email from Hatari's website to challenge this as Hatari have an agreement with the park management to allow guests arrive post 6pm.

We were disappointed we never received a paper copy of our documentation from Expert Africa. We didnt purchase a travel guide as we were expecting to receive one from our agent. With only 2-3 days before our departure date, we were finally told no paper documents, luggage tags or guide book would be sent. It left us no time to purchase one online ourselves. Its a small thing but it left a poor impression. In addition, & despite agreeing accommodation choices, it took a long time to receive confirmation of reservations, some times up to 14 days.

Finally, we are currently disputing a fee we were told we must pay in order for a safari charter to operate. We paid 4 seats and were reassured by our agent that this would be refunded if other pax were subsequently onboard. When we sent an email from Tanzania that 4 pax were in fact on board and requesting a refund, we received an email from Lyndsey offering to refund only 1 seat and would we be happy with this? There was no offer to escalate this on our behalf. We werent happy.

We have responded with copies from two emails quoting Lyndsey reassuring us of a refund if we were not the sole pax on board. We have been told twice in the last week on email that the matter has been escalated and the agent is awaiting a response. We would have preferred if this had been done promptly and efficiently. Having paid almost £20000 for this trip, it leaves a poor impression of both the agent and Expert Africa. After almost two weeks, we still are none the wiser.

We have every intention of returning to both Tanzania and exploring other parts of Africa. Based on our latest experience, we're not so sure however we'll continue use Expert Africa to facilitate these trips in the future." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"Excellent apart from unjuga" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Our whole trip went like clockwork.

We enjoyed all of the recommended accommodation and wouldn’t have made any changes to the itinerary.

Both Selous and Ruaha are remote and quiet parks to visit and point camps were small and exclusive. The short flights and transfers were all seamless.

We recommended Expert Africa to other guests that we met at Kichaka who had been unhappy with their own agent.

Good idea to give us business cards to hand out!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"Memorable in so many respects.

Quite often, we were the only people seeing the animals, and it felt incredibly intimate. So close. We could almost touch them.

Both drivers were excellent, enabling us to position ourselves and find the animals approaching us.

Every moment was an adventure.

Weird, how strangely comforting it was to have lions, rather than buffaloes roaming the Mara camp.

Fantastic to see so many babies in the flourishing conservancies.

We met other people, including a charming couple of American twins Paula and Sue who shared our view, that we were fortunate to have found you on the Internet." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 11 on a Kenya safari

"This was a return trip, and a fairly similar itinerary to 5 years ago.

Aided by Expert Africa again, we stuck to what we knew had worked. All the camps continued to be oustanding and the wildlife experience was once again wonderful yet completely different than last time.

We fell in love with Tanzania the first time, and we love it even more now.

Simply magical.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Absolutely not, its been amazing from the outset, and even through the Covid nightmare you managed to keep us up beat and informed.

The only sadness this trip was the relocation of Olakira away from the river which was enforced by local authorities apparently. A great shame because the game experience and game drives were decidely poorer for the extra driving and diversions away from some riverside areas that this relocation requires. Can't be helped and of course if we'd not been there in 2017, we'd have no comparison.

We were only disappointed by the quality of the wine offered with meals. It really was at best average.. We had been spoiled by having Stellenbosch wines in 2017! And we do appreciate that economies may be necessary after the Covid pandemic." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"It was the best. All the different things we saw and did, my absolute favourite type of holiday.

Thank you for making it so easy for us.

Just wish we could do it every year!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just continue as you are, letting clients talk to you !" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zanzibar holiday

"I planned my trip two years ago, then COVID struck and I needed to defer.

I was returning to one camp, Namiri, now a lodge - all other destinations were new. The standard of guiding was excellent and I was thrilled by the number and quality of animal sightings. Spending time on Mnemba Island was a perfect and relaxing interlude before ending in Stone Town. Overall, the experience was remarkable, wonderful.

Some of the airstrip transfers were a tad chaotic, but my luggage and I arrived as planned on each occasion. The meet and greet at Kilimanjaro was great and made for a totally stress free experience.

Thank you Expert Africa, and Lyndsey, in particular." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"We had waited so long for this holiday due to Covid postponements that we wondered if it would come up to expectations.

We need not have worried. As usual Expert Africa arrangements were spot on and we had a marvellous holiday.

Our joy at showing our daughters something that we treasured was the icing on the cake.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, you do everything right" Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"The trip was fantastic- Expert Africa made it effortless for us! Jessica Plumb (contact at Expert Africa) was very knowledgeable and tailored the trip to our interests/budget. She was very responsive, answering all our questions and providing us with a detailed itinerary.

The safari lodges and accommodation were true to the description given by Expert Africa, and were consistently of high quality.

It was great to be able to enjoy the trip without having to think about internal flights and airport transfers, all of which was taken care of by Expert Africa.

Overall we had an incredible experience on our honeymoon and wouldn't hesitate to recommend Expert Africa!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"Great trip.

But we should have just stayed in one Northern Serengeti camp as the two were so close. Ideally Sayara for 4-5 night, but with different staff. All guides were great." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari