Reviews of Impala Camp

"The camps is great, beautiful tents and great service. Probably one of the best in the area.

When you want to see lots of elephants and lions however, you better go to a different national park. There has been a lot of poaching of elephants and lions are nomadic and therefore are difficult to find.

I've seen lions every day though and for a "first timer" it's a perfect place to go on safari. The landscape is absolutely stunning." See all these reviews: 8n in Tanzania

"We went here specifically for the boat safaris and were not disappointed. We really liked only having six rooms and four other people when we were there-this meant that we always had a boat or jeep to ourselves-essential. We had room number one, as requested, which is on it's own over a small bridge and felt like being alone in the bush.

Because out of 47 concessions in the Selous, 43 are for hunting, game is skittish and sometimes hard to find. Our fantastic guide Gerald was a godsend. Not only in finding game and in amazing situations but also in his amazing knowledge. For those like us who enjoy the birds it was fantastic.

The service was a little hit and miss and our food being attacked by birds at breakfast and bush babies at night might have been fun once, but felt the management should have been stricter with the serving staff and stopped some guests from feeding them.

Overall, excellent and would recommend. Our only small complaint was that the new managers did not really have a very good ' bedside manner'" See all these reviews: 4n in Tanzania; 3n in Zanzibar; 1n in Kenya

"Very nice position giving the opportunity for water activities as well as drives. Very good accommodation and also very good guiding with a young and fairly inexperienced guide, Andrew, but who definitely knew his stuff and was very enthusiastic.

Excellent food and very well managed and organised. Pool excellent and very welcome after drives.

The meals served 'restaurant style' did definitely detract from a camp atmosphere but we still enjoyed it." See all these reviews: 12n in Tanzania; 5n in Zanzibar

"Just so terrific. Having not been to remote Africa before we didn't know what to expect from Tanzania and Impala Lodge. Suffice to say both were extraordinary. We loved Selous, and Impala Lodge was exceptional.

The staff and service was brilliant, the game drives excellent (our first sight was giraffes a plenty, and then we saw lions, a leopard, wildebeest, with Zebras, kudu, hippos, Goliath herons, bee eaters, hippos, and 2 resident giraffes-including Brian-and many many more animals). We loved the walk, the river landscape and we were looked after so well by Evans, our waiter, Hassan, Simon any all the staff. Dennis the guide put in huge effort to ensure we saw many animals and enjoyed the landscape.

We had no great expectations about the food but it was really good: the tomato tart and crime caramel were brilliant. Go there.

The only suggestion I have is to have combined, not separate, dining." See all these reviews: 8n in Tanzania; 1n in Zanzibar

"Where do we start.......... everything about our stay was superb. Starting from the moment we flew in with a giraffe on the airstrip through the multitude of wildlife seen on our drives, the brilliant food and wonderful accommodation.

The service we received was excellent, everyone was very friendly and everything was done with a smile! In particular we want to mention our guide, Andrew, whose encyclopedic knowledge of the wildlife and vegetation made every drive a wonderful lesson.

We were amazed by the range and quantity of animals seen during our stay - from the giraffe around the camp, the hippo that visited at night and the elephants which passed only yards from our tent to herds of wildebeest, impala, zebra, lion, buffalo and more

The walking safaris were outstanding - seeing both large animals (elephants) and small animals (ants) while on foot was very special.

The range and quality of the food was stunning. We had breakfast in the bush each day, two-courses at lunch and then four-course evening meal under the stars. It was impossible to go hungry at this camp! There was almost too much food!

We would highly recommend this camp and would love to visit it again ourselves (the sooner the better)" See all these reviews: 7n in Zanzibar; 5n in Tanzania

"Excellent stay at Impala and plenty of different wildlife. It was good to have the opportunity for river trips (did two) and a bush walk, and to be able to go off road. When we went, there were not as many elephants as we expected, however, we were lucky to see one of the packs of wild dogs and to get very close to lions. The river trips were very interesting with the bank of bee-eaters' holes being a highlight. Dennis was an excellent and knowledgeable guide. The vehicle was open with a shade and comfortable. It was rare to come across other vehicles and there were a couple of occasions when we watching animals in the company of another vehicle.

The camp tented accommodation was very good and comfortable with an electric socket (UK 3 pin) - useful for charging equipment and for a hairdrier - and a powerful fan which was much appreciated. It was hot but pleasant at this time of year.

The camp was well run by Fausto and the friendly and attentive staff, inlcuding the Masai who were always around to escort us to and from our tent. On the whole the food was good, especially breakfasts and lunches, though one or two of the evening meal options were not up to the generally high standard. All meals were at separate tables and evening meals rotated between the decked areas or candle lit tables on the river edge (requiring vigilance for bread stealing bush babies) which we thought was a good idea." See all these reviews: 12n in Tanzania

"An excellent camp with great facilities and excellent service, the river trip and sundowners a must.
Gerard was a great guide." See all these reviews: 16n in Tanzania

"A magical camp , efficiently run by delightful staff who make the whole experience very personal. Our guide Ezra and his driver Kharida were superb. We had asked for a senior guide and we were not disappointed. Everyday we chose to have our breakfast in the bush so our morning drives were at least 6 hrs. This was obviously a fantastic advantage enabling us to cover large distances to see game and giving us time to sit and watch animal behaviour. We learned a tremendous amount from Ezra and he was a delightful enthusiastic person to spend 8 plus hours a day. We found being on the river a great treat and loved the two boat trips we did. They gave a different perspective and a change from the drives.

The camp staff were so attentive and made such a special effort to help us celebrate our daughters graduations ( reason for trip !) . They arranged surprise sundowners (gave us a bottle of bubbly) at a magical location that we reached by boat. At dinner one evening the waiters sang a traditional Swahili welcome song and brought a cake to the table.

That evening our table location was away from the restaurant down near the water and we were kept company by bush babies and civet cats. It's hard to describe the atmosphere on paper. It was magical." See all these reviews: 5n in Zanzibar; 4n in Tanzania

"We stayed for 3 nights in July 14. We were both impressed by everything at Impala camp - the rooms were great, food wonderful, staff exceptionally helpful and guides keen and knowledgeable. We went on walking, boat and vehicle trips - all good - saw huge variety of wildlife, the highlight being tracking down a pack of wild dogs and spending some time viewing them.

I can honestly think of no 'negatives' about this camp and would highly recommend it." See all these reviews: 12n in Tanzania

"Some background before we go into the details:

We are experienced safari travellers who have been on safari in South Africa, Tanzania, Botswana and Kenya before visiting Selous, and we have stayed at 20 different lodges and camps while travelling. Because of this we had high expectations and quite a lot to compare with. We'll divide our comments into 2 parts: The Impala camp and the safari experience.

The Impala Camp

The camp was very nice. Very friendly staff, excellent service, very comfortable tents with electricity and hot water and beautiful location by the river. Excellent view with palm trees, hippos, crocs and birds. Lunch and dinner was always very good, and nice pool area to spend the afternoon at. It was a nice surprise with a private dinner for two one of the evenings!

We would say that the Impala camp is for anyone who wants a very convenient stay while out on safari. Highly recommended for families with children, older people or anyone who enjoys a premium and effortless stay. It's probably not for people who enjoy roughing it a bit more.

The safari experience

While the camp was very nice we weren't as happy with the safari. The landscape was quite bushy and for periods of time pretty empty of wildlife, especially around the Impala Camp, and we spent a lot of time in these bushy areas going out and back to the camp. It felt that you had to just drive for at least one hour out from the camp to get to the areas with more wildlife. We knew going out there that game viewing can be more challenging in Selous compared to other reserves and parks (since the animals aren't that used to vehicles), but the wildlife was a bit more skittish and prone to running away than we had anticipated. This is important to have in mind if you have been on safari before with more relaxed wildlife.

That being said, we still saw a lot of exciting wildlife, like wild dogs, colobus monkeys, lions and elephants. These encounters were however pretty far apart, so you did have a few hours here and there where there were very little to look at. You can definitely get some nice encounters while staying at the Impala camp, but if you want to experience more wildlife we would recommend staying at the Lake Manze camp in Selous instead, since that area felt more populated and was more enjoyable to drive around in.

We had nice guide and driver, but we felt they weren't really as dedicated as some other guides and drivers we've had at other camps. The driving especially was a bit frustrating at times, since it was very slow. This may be a very good thing for families with kids or people that don't really want a single bump, but for us it felt like we were at times missing some good things because the driving was so slow. We did miss our only chance at seeing a leopard because of this. Priority for the guide and driver should be wildlife sightings first, bump free driving second.

The boat safari was really beautiful with lots of hippos, crocodiles, kingfishers, bee-eaters and other birds, highly recommended!

Important note about cheetahs

There is one major error on the Expert Africa webpage. It clearly states that there are ´huge populations of cheetah´ in Selous. There are however NONE. This is major issue for people who book safaris based on wildlife to experience and photograph. It's very important that facts about the wildlife is correct, since it at least for us is of big importance when choosing where to go." See all these reviews: 8n in Tanzania