Reviews of safaris to Mahale Mountains National Park

"This trip was on our bucket list since a few years and finally it materialised. Travelling in the wet season gives you certain benefits, green, less people and good bird viewing. The wet season is "wet" thus whenever the weather showed it sunny side, it was and added benefit.

All preparation from the initial contact with Expert Africa to the return home worked flawlessly, especially good follow up before the trip from Expert Africa reminding us about insurances, overseas flight information etc.

What we missed to arrange upfront was the long wait at our last day, from arriving in Dar to our overseas flight. This we could sort out locally with the company who organised transfers at our arrival the first day - they supported us with transfer to Slipway (beachfront Dar), looking after our luggage and then taking us back to the airport in time for our flight back home." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"Perfect trip with best game and bird viewing ever experienced" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 13 on a Tanzania safari

"We'd recommend this entire trip to everyone, despite the cost! Highlight was Mahale National Park and Greystoke. Selous we were very impressed with, regarding the amount of wildlife we saw. Location of the camp excellent but we'd choose a smaller camp in future." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"I generally plan my trips myself without a lot of input from agents. This time I relied heavily on your company and felt I was well rewarded for doing so. I never would have visited Akagera, Katavi, Mahale, Ruaha, or the Selous on my own. I likely would have confined my itinerary in Tanzania to the Serengeti and maybe Ngorongoro Crater. I'm really lucky to have taken James' advice.

In fact, one of my guides in the Serengeti was extremely impressed with my chosen itinerary, commenting that he didn't see many tourists who went that route.

Again, I'm very grateful for your help and would highly recommend your company in the future." Read full review: 27 nights in Africa; 20 on a Tanzania safari

"Overall a wonderful trip.

Excellent first week. A bit of a shame that the third camp did not reach the standards of the first two" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"We had a wonderful experience overall. Please see my individual camp reviews for more detail.

The highlight was definitely Greystoke Mahale - if you can possible find a way to go there, do it! Our other experiences had high points and low points, but it was a great adventure overall and we were very pleased with the logistics and coordination by Expert Africa." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 13 on a Tanzania safari

"We had a wonderful and unforgettable trip. We loved every part of it and we would love to come back.

We were so happy to to see such beauty: the landscapes, the wildlife, the flora.

We highly recommend Nomad Tanzania, a great safari company with outstanding safari camps with a bush feeling, amazing guides and very nice staff.

Elizabeth Wollen, from Expert Africa, did an excellent job in advising us for this trip. She managed to match and exceed our expectations, thank you." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Tanzania safari

"It was absolutely a fabulous trip. We are seasoned off-the-beaten-track travellers and I absolutely marvel that everything, everything, worked exactly as it was supposed to. Here we were, in the middle of central Tanzania, waiting for a 10:05 flight. Guess what? At 10:03, there was the plane, buzzing animals off the grass runway, then touching down to pick us up. It happened every time.

How do they manage to have tonic, gin, lime, glasses, ice, and potato chips in Katavi? It must be a logistical nightmare--but there was my gin and tonic, always perfectly served. Dazzling!

We felt safe, treated so well by enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and genuinely caring staff throughout..... And then there were the animals. We never saw a rhine, because they have been poached to virtual extinction in East Africa, but we saw most everything else, and up close and personal. Having a leopard on your tent porch is not something I will soon forget.

A word of caution: Mother Nature can be entirely unsentimental. We watched two lionesses kill a baby giraffe as the helpless adult giraffes watched. This was not easy...... but it is what happens out there. This is not Disneyland." Read full review: 31 nights in Africa; 25 on a Tanzania safari

"Many thanks for organising yet another great holiday for us. The camp recommendations were spot on.

In general we preferred the Asilia camps to those of Nomad because they had Tanzanian managers rather than expats - this gave a more comfortable atmosphere." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"I say this every time but this trip was once again amazing!!

Ellie is simply a star! She knows exactly what we like and she is always great at giving suggestions but also at listening to my endless questions and thousands of email- I know I am hard work and demanding but so far Ellie managed to match and exceed our expectations, thanks a lot!!

Everything worked well and all the connections and transfers were all perfect as always. What more can I say? Thank you once more!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just a couple of small suggestions....so not to lose my reputation of being a "pain in the neck" (self declared).

It would be good to give more emphasis on the local projects that camps run so that future guests can choose to help and perhaps bring something (I say this because we brought some supplies to the Katumbi clinic but the other two guests at greystoke were not aware of the possibility of doing so. They did not book through EA so perhaps my suggestions should be forwarded to the camps).

It would be good to add some price for each lodge/camp to give an approximate idea of prices (as some of your competitors do...without naming names...) and to give a break down in the quote for each accommodation/flight/transport etc, but maybe this would interest only myself." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Tanzania safari