Reviews of Impala Camp

"Having read the reviews of this camp prior to our visit, it transpired to be far more than we ever imagined, and worthy of those glowing reviews.
From the outset we were warmly greeted by the ever attentive Nick, Crystal and staff...enough to say it's an absolute credit to them all.
The camp has a lovely warm friendly informal ambiance....not regimented and pretentious. Consideration to your safety and well being is paramount, hence you are accompanied between your tent and the dining area, in the evenings and early morning.

The tent accommodation is well located overlooking the river, constant hot water on tap, comfortable bed, electric lighting.....all mod cons! The attention of the fine detail, to the interior tent decoration is remarkable, and the invisible "Tent Boy".....( I think I may have got a brief glimpse of him at "wake up" tea time !!) services the tent to a very high standard, turning the bed linen each night.....even your laundry is catered for !!....nothing is to much trouble or overlooked

A nice touch is that your evening meal dining table is set in a different location each night, there's even a table with it's own adjacent camp fire...how imaginative is that !... bush babies and the camp Genet are more than willing to join you for dinner !
The meals are beautifully prepared, with good ingredients, freshly cooked, and varied....and the wine's really good too !......a real fine dining experience.....Many thanks to our always attentive waiter...Evans....we had some great chats.

We were here for the wildlife, and a special thank you to Ezra....this guy is truly an exceptional guide, his polite friendly manner, knowledge, passion, all coupled with an unlimited enthusiasm in searching for wildlife....He knows no bounds when it comes to enhancing your safari experience
He would frequently search "off road" for those special sightings, and as a direct result of his persistence, we saw everything we hoped for, and so much more than we ever envisaged (too many to list here) We even realised our ambition to see Wild Dogs !

Selous Impala Camp, genuinely do go that extra mile in providing an amazing guest experience on all levels, on our last night boat safari we were surprised with "Sundowner" at an beautiful location on the river bank, sipping chilled champagne, to a breathtaking African sunset...what a memorable way to end our stay.

If after reading this review, and you're undecided where to stay in Selous, stay here, you won't be disappointed.This camp has got it so right!" See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania

"Great camp in a wonderful location. Enjoyed being next to the river and the boat trips in the evenings gave a whole different perspective.

Our guide, Omari, was very good. He worked out what we were interested in and made sure saw it. Lovely breakfast spots during our morning game drives. A great surprise sundowner by the river on our last night.

Staff were lovely and attentive. Tents clean, well appointed, and comfortable. Appreciated the eco ethos - flasks of cold filtered water provided rather than plastic bottles.

Enjoyed the pool. Overall very relaxing." See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania; 6n in Zanzibar

"This was a wonderful camp, perhaps the best we have stayed in. Crystal is a superb manger making everyone feel welcome and special.

The location on the banks of the Rufiji is brilliant and both dining and our tent took full advantage. all the Staff were friendly, helpful and provided outstanding service.

The food quality puts most city restaurants to shame. It was varied, beautifully cooked and presented with panache.

Guiding was high quality, with considerable knowledge of birds as well as mammals.

The special attention given to my 70th birthday was delightful - we even had a full moon over the table!

Thanks to everyone at the camp

Our minor criticism is nothing to do with Selous Impala. The range and number of mammals was lower than we were expecting. This was partly compensated by the brilliant boat safaris and the expensive bird life.

Personally, we would have preferred the chance to sit with other people for evening meals, although we are aware this is personal taste.

Overall, this is the best camp we have stayed at." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania

"This was our first safari so we didn't know what to expect from the camp, the whole experience was amazing. Because the camp is small the service is personal. Warmly greeted from the airstrip by your guide with a cold towel, drinks and nibbles. At the camp the management team immediately meet you. You have a dedicated waiter and Maasai for the duration of your stay so you feel like you have your own personal team taking care of you. The camp wasn't full so we had a personal guide for all our safari trips. Ezra was a lovely guy, calm, genuine and incredibly knowledgeable we learnt so much. The food was delicious, breads and cakes all homemade and tasty nibbles to accompany drinks.

The safari trips were our highlight we went out twice a day, in Selous the guides can drive off the main tracks so you get very close up with the animals. On our final safari we did a bush walk and at the end we came to a clearing where they had set up table, chairs and a bottle of bubbly to celebrate our final evening watching the sunset - gorgeous.

The Impala team have a friendly family feel, Christal delivers a great front of house, regularly checking in. The level of service and care was extremely high and made for a wonderful stay. We really struggle to find something that would have improved our stay, maybe there could have been more lighting in the tent to help get ready or unchanged but this is really a tiny point and we have to remind ourselves we were in tents after all!!!!!" See all these reviews: 7n in Tanzania

"Selous Impala Camp offered a fantastic beginning of our itinerary.

As far as our game drives are concerned, we were lucky to have such an experienced and ambitious guide as Festo is. It was, however, interesting to feel a difference concerning the behaviour of the animals in comparison to the other places we were going to see later on: obviously the wild life is still touched by the fact that the Selous was and in a big part still is a hunting area. Most of the time you could see animals on the flight.

Festo's skill to make us watch and somehow even meet a lot of fantastic animals was under these circumstances was therefore even more appreciated by us (funny that the camp manager did not join us in our enthusiasm about Festo's skills !!! )" See all these reviews: 21n in Tanzania

"We stayed at Selous Impala camp for four nights as part of our 2 week honeymoon in Tanzania. After chatting to Lyndsey at Expert Africa, we chose the Selous for our first ever safari as we wanted an experience that was as remote, personal and as special to us as possible. We were not disappointed. The whole trip was magical - bristling with the excitement, surprise, colour, charm, wonder and danger that makes a safari such a unique and treasured experience. Topped off with very good food, glamping style accommodation and staff that couldn't do more for us.

We knew the safari was beginning in earnest, when we touched down on a rutted mud runway in a tiny plane - in the middle of nowhere, and were met by our friendly and unimpeachable guide Gerard. He drove us in the LandCruiser to the camp, where on the way we spotted giraffes, warthogs, impala (of course) and lots more wildlife on the way. We were then warmly welcomed to the camp by very friendly staff - efficiently managed with unflappable Nick - who made sure we were well looked after for the whole trip.

During our time, we went on a numerous drives into more and more remote parts of the park. It's very lush in June and the foliage gives plenty of places for the wildlife to hide - but to us, that's what made it even more fun. We discovered elephants, giraffe, warthogs, impala, waterbucks, eagles, crocodiles, hippos, wildebeest, bush pigs, buffalo, zebras, baboons etc in good numbers. In terms of 'big cats', we didn't catch sight of anything more than a leopard's pawprints - or see a lion, but as daft as it sounds, when we spotted a rare African civet and a hyena, we almost jumped out of the jeep with excitement, as they came out of nowhere.

We'd definitely recommend doing a boat trip as you see a different side of the bush altogether and the river runs alongside the camp. Some very large crocodiles, hundreds of beautiful birds, hippos close up (whilst keeping a safe distance!) and other wildlife that comes down to the water. Also recommend doing a bush-walk as it really connects you with the environment and let's face it - it's a bit scary and exciting to walk through the bush with your guide, an armed masai and a gun-toting ranger when there's a dozen different ways for you to get eaten all around you.

Accommodation was just the right side of luxury for us. It was a large zip-up canvas tent/lodge which had beautiful dark-wood furniture inside. In the middle of the night, a hippo (who'll remain nameless) would brush the tent as it came back from its night feeding and plunged snorting into the river which run past the tent - which surprisingly you got used to pretty quickly.

Food was excellent. Hopefully we're not being patronising - but it was extraordinary what the chef could get conjure up and there was real flair in the fare. They even gave us a recipe at the end for a steak marinade because we said we enjoyed it so much. Service was also great - with Victor our waiter always full of smiles, laughter and creativity.

What else... stunning stars at night (discovering the Milky Way isn't just a chocolate bar.) Romantic candlelit dinner with a crocodile watching over you. Babbling bush babies burgling bread. Plunge pool to cool off in during the day and a hot shower to wash away the day's dusty endeavours in the night. Plus, all the nice little touches that would spoil the surprise if you knew them. Hopefully you can tell that we enjoyed the trip!

Funnily enough though - for all the thrills of the chase, the adrenalin rush of a charging hippo steaming towards you and the frenetic snapping of the camera shutter to get 'that shot', it was the tranquility of sitting by a beautiful lake at breakfast overlooking a group of monkeys on the beach, in the relaxing company of Gerard our guide that perhaps stays with us as much as anything else. A man, who seemed so utterly at peace with this world that it's no surprise that he'd been working at the Selous for many years, deftly steering people like us through the bush into the very heart of what makes people fall in love with an African safari." See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 4n in Tanzania

"A well run camp, managed by Nick and Crystal; as it was coming to the end of the season it was very quiet, so we had the attention of all the staff.  We had our own guide and a driver for all drives and they were endlessly knowledgeable and attentive; noticing when I was taking photos and stopping and starting appropriately.

All the tents were raised to allow the hippos to wander underneath and we were accompanied at all times by our lovely Maasai askari, Njoy....  There is a swimming pool which it was great to return to after a long, hot game drive.  The ceiling fan was essential with temperatures reaching 40C... and there was always cold drinking water in our tent.

The food was interesting and innovative; it didn't always work, but they asked for feedback and were genuinely interested in our comments....  Beer, wine and spirits were not included.

We were spoiled on our last evening with a special boat trip to see the elephants swimming across the river and a surprise sundowner of sparkling wine and nibbles, overlooking the river.

Come here to see birds, plus hippos and crocs in great numbers... and much, much more...

OTHER COMMENTS

1. There was no WiFi for guests, but they allowed us to send an email to family from the office.
2. The cold water vacuum flask in our tent was very welcome...
3.  We received a personal vacuum flask for cold drinks and a useful bag on arrival....
4. The chef also made samosas for us...
5. Tents are secured with a spring shackle to prevent access by marauding monkeys..." See all these reviews: 10n in Kenya; 8n in Tanzania

"Since our last visit, (not sure how many years ago) they have certainly spent some money on the camp. All the tents are new and luxuriously fitted out. The swimming pool has been relocated and the dining area also moved back away from the edge of the river.

Nick and Crystal manage a well run camp. The staff are friendly and we must at this point mention Simone our Masai guide who escorted us everywhere in camp, what a friendly, very likeable guy who always met us with a smile as wide as the Rufiji river! Simone, we hope all your dreams and wishes materialise.

The food was superb and we understand that both Nick and Crystal like to take a hand in this. Dennis met us at the airstrip and remained our guide for the two nights spent here, he was an extremely experienced and knowledgeable guide." See all these reviews: 11n in Tanzania; 9n in Zanzibar

"This place has honeymoon-style pampering - eucalyptus-scented wash cloths precede meals in the bush, there's a turndown service for your bed, and the very friendly staff arrives at your tent in the morning with a tray with cookies and coffee just the way you like it. The views from my tent overlooked the Rufiji river, with birds flying past and hippoes calling.

You can do boat safaris, which allow you up-close and personal encounters with many species of river birds - egrets, jacanas, weavers, herons, kingfishers and many, many beautiful bee eaters.

My expert guide was Gerard for the drives - very pleasant company, and someone very knowledgable about the bush. Very nice to be out there with someone who loves this as much as I do. I've been doing safaris for decades now, but I learn new things each time.

The food was delicious and they took great care of this vegetarian." See all these reviews: 11n in Tanzania

"An excellent guide (Festo), a very engaging waiter (Victor) who was determined that we learn some basic Swahili which we found extremely useful as well as entertaining, and a delightful Masai escort (Njowe) in the camp.

Continuity of all the above staff who looked after us throughout our stay was a major factor in our enjoyment here, as was the range of different safari options each day - river, jeep and walking. We took advantage of all of them.

The reliable laundry service helped us keep our luggage to a minimum.

The dining experience was excellent. Moving us to different locations within the camp is a nice idea and the surprise champagne at sundown on our last game drive made it very special." See all these reviews: 8n in Tanzania; 3n in Zanzibar