Holiday Reviews
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same trip can have different views!
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Tanzania wildlife & beach holiday, independent reviews
 Reviewed 16 Sep 2008 by Sean Eckton |  |
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
All of it!! Although going on Safari in Selous and Ruaha were the highlights. Going on a walking Safari was excellent, especially as I came face to face (15ft) with a large male lion.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
This is tricky, we were advised to go to Selous and Ruaha for a number of reasons, one being that there are less visitors which indeed was true. In Selous we went a whole day (covering over 100 miles) without seeing one other vehicle. By recommending these areas I hope they don’t get to busy as we want to go back to them again!! Finally, don’t worry about local currency, take US Dollars (in small denomination). If you go to Zanzibar, be prepared to have people approach you trying to sell their goods, it’s a poor country, they are only trying to make a living.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes, having limited generator/solar power electricity especially. All staff were local and were very nice, friendly people. I only wish they were less humble (almost subservient) in front of us, they have no need to be, we are all equals?!
| Reviewed 19 Sep 2005 by Nick Kirby | |
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
There is nothing quite like seeing animals in the wild - going on safari is one of the most memorable experiences which we will definately be doing again. Selous is also less visited than the other parks so we were able to enjoy our own private safari & rarely saw another vehicle. Staying in the honeymoon bandas at Sable Mountain Lodge, Selous added to the whole safari experience. The lodges have fantastic views and open air showers.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Would definitely recommend a few days at Lazy Lagoon Island after getting married - it makes a fantastic start to your honeymoon before the safari which can be quite tiring. Also if your going to Zanzibar - it is well worth spending a night or two in the Emerson & Green Hotel in Stone Town - another magical hotel (we stayed in the Gallery room - which I'd recommend as some other rooms can be a bit noisy).
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Very much so - all the accomodation minimized impact on the environment through suitable building materials & solar power where possible. There were many positive schemes with the local communities both from the safari lodge and at our stay in Zanzibar.
4. Any other comments?
We had a fantastic honeymoon in Tanzania & Zanzibar! The combination of beach, safari, beach, Stone Town worked really well. Thanks very much.
| Reviewed 29 Mar 2005 by Stephen Evans | |
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Where to start? Walking safaris, fly camping, watching a feeding elephant & baby hippo on a boat safari, African hunting dogs, ... the food deserves a mention too.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
The tour company put a lot of effort into planning our trip, and I would have no hesitation in recommending them. My advice would be to talk to them, as they did a great job of working out exactly what we would most enjoy.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes.
| Reviewed 15 Sep 2008 by Judi Walton | |
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Camping in special campsites with the sound of hyenas and lions in the background, and having a huge bull elephant arriving at our camp site at breakfast time, just after the armed park ranger had left!
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be prepared for it to be very cold camping on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. Those in the know had quilted jackets and woolly hats. Ask to camp at the special camp sites and not the public ones.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Obviously anyone working in the tourist trade where we visited would have the benefit of employment. The tours on Zanzibar are good at involving local people - we had an excellent lunch in a local home, from which the women cooks would have benefitted. Our cook and guide were very good at clearing sites and not leaving rubbish behind. I don't know what sort of impact there is on wildlife made by lots of Land Cruisers and tourists continuously driving through their environment, but we felt that the National Parks were well cared for in this respect.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Brilliant!
| Reviewed 24 Aug 2008 by Brendan Godfrey | |
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Lots of wonderful experiences - hiking in the Usambara Mountains, the Serengeti, Ngorogoro, Zanzibar. All the memories of the amazing wildlife and exceptionally friendly people will stay with us for a long time.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
We did not realise quite how 'tailor made' this holiday was; as such we would have changed a few things (Perhaps adding one more day to the safari and to the beach part of Zanzibar) but when we booked the holiday we hadn't read a guide book thoroughly and so were led a little too much by the tour operator. Read a guide book before booking and be firm about what you want to see! (Our safari driver had to squeeze in Ngorogoro because the operator said we couldn't really fit in that and the Serengeti (which was plain nonsense!))
Make sure you find out how much hiking or climbing may be involved. We spent two full days, hiking long distances in the mountains, from 9a.m-5 p.m, which in our schedule was simply called a 'Cultural Tour programme'. This may not suit everybody. Thank you to the tour operator for including this though - it was a real insight into rural Tanzania! Check out the range of accommodation ,and do some research, as the quality and price range varies dramatically. Also the operator made changes to the programme - the Serengeti Serena was full so they switched us to the Sopa two days before departure, but still charged us for the Serena (a more expensive hotel!) They also switched one hotel when we arrived in Arusha, five days into the trip.
Check out your safari company carefully - they all use local companies around Arusha and standards vary wildly. We were very fortunate to have a vehicle and driver to ourselves, but some were packed to the rafters. (Ask about this!) Also, make sure your safari company knows when you are arriving and where they are meeting you. (They failed to meet us off the coach from Mombo and we were left stranded at night in Arusha-we had to get a taxi to the safari company offices and found out they weren't expecting us!)
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Partly. Tourism is vital to Tanzania's economy, but it is destabilising parts of their way of life. (Why farm, fish, teach etc... when you can carry luggage and earn more from tips in a few days than you would in a month in one of those jobs?)
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
An incredible experience. Just do your research and work out EXACTLY what you want to see before you book.
Read the operator's response here:
We would like to thank Brenden for his review of our tour and are pleased to see that he enjoyed the holiday. We agree that is very important to recognise the tailor made nature of this tour as we completely tailor our itineraries to enable clients to experience exactly what they want from a tour (within reason).If customers have read widely around the destination and know what must be included in an itinerary then this gives us an excellent starting point to prepare an itinerary. If this is not the case we start from a sample itinerary such as the one indicated here. Planning such an itinerary is then always a case of balancing activities, time and of course budget. With these constraints in mind our consultant suggested a four day safari in this itinerary visiting three national parks. It is possible to include Ngorongoro Crater as well as the other three parks but this would involve spending more time driving between parks rather than actually game driving within them. To add a fifth day of safari to incorporate the Crater would have pushed the price up further still.
To explain the situation with lodges in the busy northern circuit of Tanzania some lodges block book provisional reservations for international travel agents. When we request rooms to be released to us we are placed on a waitlist which may or may not clear. We did make this absolutely clear both in discussions regarding this holiday before it was booked and on paper on our booking form and the subsequent booking confirmation. We always highlight this in bold red on our documentation. If a room does not clear we always have a second option held in reserve in a lodge of equivalent status in the same park / location as happened here.
We use a wholly Tanzanian owned and managed company to provide our safari vehicles and guides. They provide a private vehicle for all of our guests and we NEVER include any other clients on our vehicles in northern Tanzania. It is good advice to check this with the company you book with but in this case Brendon was not ‘lucky’ to have a private vehicle because this is exactly what he booked and is exactly what we always include on this itinerary. Brendon may have observed other vehicles packed with tourists on his tour but they were clients from other companies.
We would like to apologise for the lack of a transfer on arrival in Arusha. I have discussed this with the safari company we use and they advise us that the taxi sent to meet them broke down on the way to the bus station. Before the driver could make repairs and get to the meeting place Brendon had taken an alternative taxi to the safari company office. The safari company were surprised to see him because they had expected the original taxi to take them straight to the lodge for the evening. The breakdown was unfortunate but the driver is clearly at fault for not communicating the situation with the head office. We do realise that incidents of this type can occur in Africa where mechanical standards of vehicles are not as good as in Europe. For this reason we do provide a full list of backup contact numbers in the comprehensive pre-departure pack which accompanies this tour. Our suppliers have out of office hours support who I am pleased to note were able to resolve this situation.
| Reviewed 17 Feb 2008 by Anne Dunning | |
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Seeing so many wild animals and being able to get so close to them without apparently upsetting them.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
If you have any pre-holiday panics about how it would all be, don't! The operator had everything well under control and all flights, transfers, tours etc were well organised. My only practical tip would be regarding travellers cheques as we found that not all our accommodation places would accept them these days; apparently changing them is rather a long drawn out & expensive process.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes, although this was not always obvious unless we get into discussion with people in the know.
We certainly noticed that all the lodges and hotels we stayed in were conscious of the environment, especially whilst on safari with the use of solar energy.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Fantastic - a marvellous experience. Thank you for your excellent organisation.
| Reviewed 5 Aug 2007 by Abigail Jones | |
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Zebra, Buffalo and Elephants roaming around out campsite at night (Ngorongoro Crater).
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Take something against the rain - one fleece is not enough for either the Safari camping or for the Usambara Mountains. The Safari travel is very dusty. Camping facilities are very rudimentary. Royal Coach trip Dar to Arusha in order to visit the Usambara Mountains.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Some benefits for local people. I doubt that we minimized our impact on the environment.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
4 out of 5.
| Reviewed 10 Jul 2006 by Bev Poling | |
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
All of it. It was well arranged and allowed us to enjoy every minute of it.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Remember that it really is tailor made and you can put together the different options however you want them.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
As much as tourism ever can..... in many ways it was obviously a huge benefit to the local people in terms of local economy. However there is a huge environmental impact of tourism (flying, extra water use in an already dry country) that can only be minimised.