Reviews of safaris to Nyerere National Park

"It was great. We had a fabulous time.

Loads of super memories and missing the blue skies and heat." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Tanzania safari

"I applied for a job in Tanzania some time ago so i bought the guide book and book on safaris just in case I got the job. Well i didn't get the job but the book really got me excited about Africa. When i found a travel partner, some years later, while re reading my books i was inspired by the fact that the authors had travelled to this area frequently and consequently I was drawn to contact the affiliated company regarding trip planning.

Lyndsey was excellent. She started off by asking what kind of trip we wanted and from there guided us through planning a trip that would meet our needs and expectations. She answered our questions, wasn't pushy and was open to my suggestions of things i wanted to work into our trip, like visiting fish markets and seeing some of Dar es Salem. The adventure was exactly what we wanted and more.

Travelling as two older women it was important to feel safe and at the same time experience the opportunity of adventure. Keeping the costs down and not going to high end camps was important as well as avoiding the crowds. We met other travellers who had been further north and when they showed up at an animal sighting there where 50 jeeps already there, everyone lined up. We knew we didn't want that nor travel in an enclosed vehicle so again great direction from Lyndsey.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We were not charged the $30 fee to leave Tanzania and I'm not sure if this is because we left from Zanzibar or not.

The Stone Town Airport does not open until midnight for a 2am flight so there is no point going out there early. If u do the toilet outside the airport building costs money and the one inside is free. You need TZ shillings.

The booklet is confusing on tipping in the camps and we received different information from the different camp managers. If two people are travelling together do they pay their guide as one person or do they people double the recommended amount? We paid our driver, the guide, the boat guide all separate from each of us and then half that amount at the second camp. Other people we talked to seemed confused as well.

I brought a black head net and was really glad I did as the flies at the second camp were fierce in some areas. Burning elephant dung helped somewhat. Green head nets interfere with your vision clarity but the black ones work great.

Thanks Lyndsey for all your help in planning our wonderful adventure!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"My husband and I had a truly memorable honeymoon which successfully balanced our wishes for a rustic safari experience whilst providing the creature comforts to make the trip a truly relaxing and enjoyable one. We loved the unspoilt charm of the Selous and Ruaha and that they were not overrun with tourists. The snorkelling at Mafia was some of the best we've both done with the reef, whilst noticeably damaged, still maintaining diverse life.

All transfers were pretty seemless so we really had no stress for the whole two weeks we were away." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 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

"Everything about this trip was excellent. I particularly appreciated the pre-planning attention we were paid. Very quick responses to emails with our questions and requests. Did not need to contact the staff during the trip, but I had confidence in their ability to solve any problem." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"We were very impressed with the Asilia staff at all the locations we visited. It would appear that their staff training is very good as there is a notably high standard of commonality between sites - quite a rarity these days.

Well done Expert Africa! The itinerary put together by Olivia was absolutely spot and fully met our brief for a unique safari holiday. The order in which we completed it and the places we stayed worked ever so well, to the point that the great experience built throughout and finished with a real crescendo in our final camp. Hard to beat it!" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"ORGANISATION WAS VERY GOOD THROUGH ALL PARTS OF THE HOLIDAY AND WE WERE MET AT EVERY STAGE OF THE JOURNEY RIGHT UP TO THE CAMP AND ON THE RETURN JOURNEY." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"both James Denny (who was my initial contact and helped me to choose safari location and camps) and Lyndsey Marris (who organised our two stays in Zanzibar, and made all our reservations) were very helpful, and extremely knowledgeable. Overall the trip was amazing on every level,and incredibly well organised, thank you!

The only slight negative is that we were a little disappointed with Mwagusi Camp in terms of service and food, especially after staying at Siwandu which surpassed our expectations and was just excellent on every level. Maybe if we'd stayed at Mwagusi before Siwandu, we wouldn't have noticed so much!

We are definitely keen to explore more of Africa as a result of this trip, and will definitely return to Expert Africa to do so!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"James did a fantastic job of organizing this trip for us. His suggestion of adding Kichaka to our plans was spot on, and we never would have known about them without his advice. Arrangements were all smooth, service everywhere was great, and the plan he shared was exactly what we got. I think if I could change anything about the trip, it would have been the Pongwe part. While the resort was fine, it wasn't totally our style. I think we would have been happier at one of the places with a stronger environmental orientation and better access to good snorkeling. That's on me, not James - I didn't share that this was a priority, and I was thinking too much about the expense.

I also wasn't prepared for the aggressiveness of some of the street hustlers in Stone Town. While in most places, they would respect a polite "Hapana, Asante," in the Forodhani Gardens area, they were so aggressive it made it unpleasant to walk over there - sometimes escalating to physical contact and insults from them although we stayed polite. This isn't something that Expert Africa controls of course! It would be something that it would be helpful to add to the next Bradt guide update.

I also need to note that at the beginning of our trip, things went off track due to a problem with Turkish Air. Because of their delays, we missed our Istanbul connection, and had to stay the night in Istanbul. This was clearly not Expert Africa's fault, but it was very frustrating that I couldn't get through to anyone on the 24 hour emergency number. I called four times. Each time, a recording would tell me that someone would be with me in a minute, and then the phone would start ringing. I would let it ring 100 times before I gave up. Maybe I should have had faith and let it ring longer?

I guess I'm used to hold music playing if I'm in a queue of calls, and then the ringing starting when I'm actually being connected. Is the ringing what happens when you're in queue on your line? Because all this happened during the 36 hour stretch that no one is on your office, folks at Lake Manze camp were quite concerned that we had disappeared without a word, and we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to reconnect with our trip. We spent a scary 4 hours sitting outside the Dar airport hoping we'd be able to figure everything out at sunrise, which we did with the help of a friendly cab driver and the staff at Coastal Aviation." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday