Reviews of safaris to Lake Manyara National Park

"We had a great time overall, but as always in Africa, plans do not always go directly as you intended, so it is important to remain travel wise.

The safari section of our trip was quite tiring, with early morning game drives and moving camp every couple of days, although this is exactly what we had expected, so were prepared. This was the first time that we had visited Africa during a rainy season, so expected a different experience to our previous trips. It was lovely to save the best safari camp to last and then to relax in Zanzibar for a 3 nights - even though the heat and humidity hit us hard.

It was very helpful to have the experience and suggestions from Expert Africa to help us plan the trip as their knowledge of the individual camps and hotels is extensive.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

This was our seventh trip to Africa booked through Expert Africa, which precisely sums up our view of their expertise.

Looking forward to number eight!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"Overall, our trip was a most enjoyable and memorable experience, and we would have no hesitation in recommending Expert Africa to other travellers.

Our advisor Ellie was knowledgeable and helpful, and was mindful of the fact that we were hoping to have high quality wildlife experiences but that we did not have an unlimited budget. She made many helpful suggestions, and was very successful in meeting our aims. I spoke to Chris at one time, and he made some helpful suggestions which we later appreciated, particularly about flying from Arusha directly to Ruaha, and not taking the Dar Express to Dar first (which was our original plan so that we might visit the Usambara Mountains, but this would not have been feasible in the time available). Ellie's planning was very thorough, and everything worked smoothly.

The only thing that didn't work was that the mailed package did not arrive in time before we left. It would have been better to allow more time.

Ubuntu and Kwihala were easily the most professional people we stayed with, and we thoroughly enjoyed staying at their two tented camps. Please pass this comment on to them. Both managers, staff and guides were excellent at both camps.
The only reservation we had was about our first guide, Kevin. He was quite pleasant and was also fairly knowledgeable about wildlife and birds. However, he has been a guide for some time, and seemed to be going through the motions a fair bit, and was not particularly enthusiastic (certainly compared to other guides we have used). He did not usually proffer a lot of information on his own initiative, apart from an excellent dissertation about the Rift Valley. He would provide information when we asked, but we had specifically told him we were interested in everything, including local culture.

When we were driving along in Tarangire (in particular) and Ngorongoro, he was not constantly scanning as the best guides do.He would often just drive along, frequently listening to the CB radio which tended to be on all the time. I would often spot things he would not, and I know from using other guides that my eyes are nowhere near as good as the best guides' eyes.
I know that guides use the CB radio for communication, but we got the sense he was using it (constantly) more for his own interest, and it became very annoying on occasions. We may be wrong there, but as we were starting to descend into Ngorongo Crater in the early morning light, I asked him to turn off the radio so we could enjoy the experience but he didn't hear or notice.

He did do a more thorough job in Lake Manyara, and we were happy with our safari experience there.

We don't necessarily want to cause a problem for Kevin, as he has his good points. However, we also have a number of specific complaints.

On our first night's stay in Sopa Lodge in Tarangire, we had to ask the management for some more bottled water. We found out the next day that Kevin had a large supply of bottled water on board, but he failed to inform us of this. He claimed he did, but my wife and I are quite aware of the importance of water, and he certainly didn't inform us.

On the way to Tarangire when we arrived at the big tourist shop where everybody stops, he made a beeline for the coffee bar for his free coffee. We don't begrudge him this, but he left us to our own devices (which is fine), but he had not really informed us of what was going on, or asked whether we might like a coffee, or indicated how long we would be there. This attitude contrasted with the few other guides we have used, who would make sure you were informed and were looked after.

Lastly, on the second morning during breakfast, he picked up my Nikon camera with its telephoto lens attached and played around with it for a short while. He did this without asking. As it happens, I was surprised but I didn't take exception to it as I could see he wasn't going to do any harm. However, I thought a lot of photographers I know would take exception to it, particularly as he could inadvertently damage something.

The above are all fairly minor gripes in the overall safari experience. As I said, Kevin was quite personable and pleasant, and we generally got on well. However, we believe his performance would be improved if he was more aware of his clients' requirements and showed greater enthusiasm and a little more "gung ho" attitude to do his best for his clients." Read full review: 33 nights in Africa; 16 on a Tanzania safari

"This was yet another excellent safari/holiday created by Expert Africa, each one just gets better than the one before.

We arranged a private guide and vehicle for these travellers, they commented:

Sadiq was an excellent and professional guide, he established what our expectations were and tried throughout the trip to accommodate our wishes. He is obviously an experienced guide of many years and knew the locations we visited well. He was also knowledgeable about the needs of a photographer and manoeuvred the vehicle to obtain the best photographic positions.

We could not have wished for a better guide - Thank you Sadiq

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I cannot think of anything" Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"We had been to Selous and Ruaha before and wanted to experience some of the Northern safari parks including Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti.

Staying at Ubuntu camp and driving around the Ndutu plains and seeing zebra and wildebeest assembling at the start of the migration certainly gave us an idea of what was about to happen. We had excellent sightings of cheetah and lion.

Our trip into the Crater was absolutely wonderful - what a magnificent place. Juma - our driver did an excellent job of avoiding sightings alongside an excess of vehicles so that we were barely aware of other vehicles in the park. However, we were not short changed with what we saw.

Expert Africa organised a private guide for these travellers; they commented:

Juma was our driver guide for 7 days and accommodated our requirements very well. We had not visited this part of Tanzania before and were happy to be advised by him to ensure that we got the best out of our trip.

We have visited Africa on many trips previously, but found that his knowledge and experience and ability to locate birds and beasts was awesome! He knew the geography of the Ndutu plains very well and could navigate the featureless plains without a hitch.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Very well organised and works exactly as planned." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"Our trip advisor, Liz, was very helpful answering all our questions and pulling the entire trip together for us. She was able to troubleshoot quickly when our planned lodge had a fire and closed. Because we were enroute she made changes to our itinerary and flights which met our needs.

We were very please she booked us with ASILIA. This subcontrator was excellent. The ASIILIA lodge we stayed at was excellent and the guide throughout our trip first class. Alfred, our guide, was very knowledgeable and accommodating. We hated to say good-bye to him. Had we realized how great asilia was we would have stayed at more of their lodges.

We had an excellent trip to Tanzania thanks to Liz, Alfred and all the others behind the scenes.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We became familiar with your company through your travel books and website. We are glad we made the choice to travel with you. Continue to visit Africa and assess places thoroughly before making recommendations- this helps to ensure a quality trip.

We wish you continued success with your company and would not hesitate to recommend you to others." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"A "very satisfactory" rating does not do justice to this superb 10 night, 4 centre Northern Tanzania safari put together with suggestions from helpful Expert Africa staff.

We thoroughly enjoyed our experience which was so different to previous and equally superb Expert Africa holidays in Botswana and Namibia and our own explorations of South Africa some years ago. We would recommend this time of year for such a safari, as there were no more than a handful of vehicles around the parks within eyesight at any one time, and even in the Ngorongoro Crater we were pleasantly surprised to be able to find our way to parts where we were totally on our own.

The trip was all the better for having the consistency of our superbly professional guide, Ayoub, for 7 nights in 3 camps. On our departure, he asked us to be ambassadors for Tanzania and spread the word what delights the country has to offer as a safari destination. We could not agree more and would recommend this circuit to anybody who likes to explore Africa either for the first time or for a return visit." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"Our trip as a whole was superb, with some unbelievably fantastic animal sightings ! We saw all the things we had hoped to see, such as the jackals killing the baby impala, the tree lions and elephant encounter, the vast numbers of wildebeest plus much, much more. We had some stunning sightings of birds, e.g. a Kori Bustard displaying.

Another bonus was the glorious view of Kilimanjaro at Tortilis Camp.

All the places we visited offered something different making our trip interesting and unpredictable as regards the animals.
We also met some wonderful people at each of the Camps/Lodges and our guides were superb and extremely knowledgeable.

Our trip was superb, fulfilled everything we had wanted and has given us some fantastic memories with over a 1000 photos. This was undeniably a trip of a lifetime !" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"Overall the trip was great.

Some gliches. Lots of traffic from Zanzibar because of arriving evening last day of Ramadan. Luggage broken into and things stolen from luggage at Nairobi airport. No museum visit at Olduvai gorge and no lunch provided last day of safai as outlined in itinerary. Lots of flight delays. Last Masai village visit we felt extorted for the suggested donation of $200.

However, this was the best trip we have ever taken and we travel extensively. Thanks again to the staff of expert Africa for matching us up once again with a like minded couple whose company we enjoyed and for providing a TRIP WHOSE WONDERFUL MEMORIES WILL LAST ALL OUR LIVES. We hope to do a 3rd trip with your company." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"Thanks Expert Africa for arranging all the logistics - seamless. We didn't have to worry about a thing.

&Beyond group were the best." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"We enjoyed the diversity of the facilities, locations and animal viewing during the trip. Expert Africa was very helpful in the development of the itinerary and choose the camps to suit our interest and budget.

Coordination of our transfers went very well during the trip. We moved from one camp to the next seamlessly.

One point of communications that cause some confusing with our group as the ability to arrange trips to the crater floor from the Crater Lodge. We were told by Expert Africa that the lodge would make only one trip to the crater per day but we later found out the the Crater Lodge would accommodate any request that was made including morning, afternoon or all day trips to the crater floor. This simple clarification would have eliminated some anxiety by people in our group that wanted to maximize their time at the crater floor." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 13 on a Tanzania safari