Reviews of safaris to Mahale Mountains National Park

"Jessica did a wonderful job putting this altogether, She worked effortlessly to book me in the lodges I preffered even though this really was a near last-minute booking.

Everything went smoothly, and most importantly I never had to wait or wonder where my rides were. They were there as promised.

Thank you so much for your work and input.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Nope. As far as I can tell you nailed everything in place." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 16 on a Tanzania safari

"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

"We deferred from 2021 and it was well worth the wait.

Thank you to the team for their understanding and helping to handle the logistics during the pandemic and ever evolving red lists, etc... Always excellent service from Expert Africa!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"A fantastic and unforgettable trip - Whilst two years in the making (COVID) was well worth the wait.

Jessica has been an absolute diamond in helping get this trip sorted. We moved things around more than once and Jessica was brilliant in sorting out our needs.

Thank you Jessica :).

Thanks so much for helping us get this organised. This was an expensive trip (for us) so are really pleased it all worked perfectly.

We had such a fantastic time." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Tanzania safari

"Delayed two years but worth the wait, thanks to Jessica and Expert Africa for managing the covid chaos!

Our fourth visit to Tanzania as good as ever with two unique wilderness destinations and loved being truly off grid.

Qatar flights via Doha were the best route we’ve used." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"It was a very good planned trip. We always felt safe and everything (each transfer, each flight and also the lodges ) worked well. The drivers were only three times a little bit too late, but there were always people around who cared about us.
The ideal length of your stay should be 4 nights in one lodge. So you have the opportunity to see a lot of different animals. On some days we only saw birds and on the last day of our stay in the lodge we saw the lepard. If your budget will allow you 4 nights, we hardly recommend that.
We also loved the different parcs we visited. Every parc is different in landscape and animals which you can spot easy." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 21 on a Tanzania safari

"This was the most amazing trip of our entire life (so far at least). It made us feel special from start to finish.

We almost teared up as we left some of the places. We can't thank Olivia and Jessica enough for helping us create such unforgettable memories.

We could not hope for a better honeymoon.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We really liked the wildlife survey but it could have been more comprehensive." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"Our fourth trip to Africa with Expert Africa was another memorable adventure.

Expert Africa has always done an excellent job putting together workable itineraries that meet our (sometimes particular) travel goals. For this trip they had to deal with the vicissitudes of COVID testing requirements as well. The result was a wonderful sequence of adventures across beautiful Zimbabwe and Tanzania and was everything we hoped it would be.

Many thanks to our friends at Expert Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No suggestions" Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"In my view, the Mahale chimpanzees are one of the great wildlife experiences and Greystoke is one of Africa's very best camps - an unbeatable combination.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Olivia was excellent: I've been an Expert Africa client for many years, and she was one of the most helpful and efficient team members I've dealt with." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"A really amazing experience at Greystoke, and a fun time at Kichaka sadly hampered by the weather, but Moli and the location stood out here as making it a great place to visit." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari