Reviews of safaris to Mahale Mountains National Park

"My wife and I loved every minute of our honeymoon. It could not have been better.

Jessica Plumb listened to what we were after - I preferred more rustic places away from the crowds but close to the wildlife and my wife wanted certain comforts (eg flushing toilets!) - and the camps delivered this perfectly. We both loved it. The order that we did the trip as well was perfect as each camp got better and better along the way as we gradually went more and more remote." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 17 on a Tanzania safari

"Excellent from start to finish!" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"Our information and discourse was always with Maruska who was meticulous, knowledgeable and detailed in the planning with regard to our trip. We cannot thank her enough for the planning that was executed flawlessly, that reduced the anxiety of the multitude of transfer and connection flights that occurred within our itinerary.

The execution on the ground and air by the operators was flawless and any oddities that occurred were developments that could not be predicted by Expert Africa or their employees. Updates are required by direct observation and on site verification. We hope that we have provided them for you in this review in an objective manner that is factual without any bias or drama. Of course, there are always two sides to a story and after submission of our comments to any of the operators, if there is a discrepancy of the events that occurred, we are happy to respond or reply in kind. Our comments are also documented by photos of the elephants on the walkways and streets near the Vic Falls Hotel and in the case of the excessive call to prayer by the Imam near the Machweo hotel, we have a live, timed recording to document this annoyance.

Otherwise, it would be hard to improve upon the suggestion of camps recommended by Maruska in the Kalahari or Zambia for the quality of service and most importantly, for the wildlife that was observed.

We think we are seasoned travelers and it is not often that we would ever lavish such praise upon a an individual or company that helped us so much with the arrangements but Expert Africa and Maruska are to be commended. So please accept our sincerest thanks for an itinerary well planned and executed. If Maruska can put in the time and effort to plan this trip, we can certainly take the time and effort to evaluate in kind. Thank you.

Greg & Kathy

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service: We never looked at brochures, website or general literature etc. from Expert Africa. Perhaps we missed something. I think we have already given our suggestions in this extensive evaluation process on how to improve such trips. Fortunately, there was not much need for that." Read full review: 36 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"The trip was just as fantastic as we had hoped. Clearly one cannot control animal sightings or the weather and that is the charm, but at times the curse, of such holidays - seeing dolphins or a whale would have been the icing on an already sumptuous cake but other sightings and events more than compensated - not least of which was the magic of Fanjove." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Tanzania safari

"Wonderful experience! Everything was planned out perfectly to my fullest satisfaction. No flaws!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"The Katavi/Mahale combination really is an outstanding safari experience and offers great wildlife viewing combined with tracking chimpanzees.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

All arrangements and service by Expert Africa were of the highest quality: professional, friendly and very timely. I would not hesitate to use the company again and would certainly recommend them.

Although my KLM flight to Heathrow was cancelled, rearranged via Dublin and luggage still not recovered!, this is purely down to that airline.

EA have been terrific." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"It was a wonderful trip from start to finish. We enjoyed all the camps, which were all different in excellent locations and would happily go back to any of them." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 16 on a Tanzania safari

"One of the best if not the best trip we have ever done. Nomad were terrific, the one problem ( mobile Serengeti ) was sorted before we even knew about it by upgrading us to Lamai..........thenk you. The guides were excellent throiughout, the friendliness of staff and management superb. We just loved it all..............we want to go back !!

The assistance in researching and setting up the trip was excellent...........well done James Denny of Expert Africa. He has, we gather, subsequently left so had to select Chris M below.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

If you keep this quality up it's difficult to suggest improvements !" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 20 on a Tanzania safari

"Yet again Expert Africa lived up to their name by setting us up with a great trip.

We enjoyed every part of it and frequently thought the next day could not be as good as the last. However it always was. Thanks to Ellie for developing the itinerary for us and thanks to James setting it up." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 14 on a Tanzania safari

"Our trip as a whole was: very well prepared and perfectly organized, the mere fact that we had not one serious problem on such a long journey, is amazing !

Thanks to the way Expert Africa helped us to choose among the various possible destinations, we could benefit from an itinerary that led us to variable parts of Tansania and we enjoyed entirely different landscapes and surroundings. Each of the camps and lodges we stayed at had their own charm and asset. Obviously James Denny was able to empathize our wishes and preferences so well that we really got what we wanted.

There is only one small critical item we would like to mention:

What we did not know beforehand (and what we could have been told when planning) was the distance from Ngorongoro Crater to Arusha, which is a car drive of about three hours, not really very much longer than the flight together with the time for waiting and transfer to and from the airport. In addition to this we flew to Kilimanjaro Airport instead of Arusha AIrport, which would have been much nearer to the hotel, although the plane did actually got to Arusha Airport." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 21 on a Tanzania safari