Tanzania: reviews from our travellers

"This 16-night safari was arranged at short notice after we had to defer a planned trip to Zambia. We chose Tanzania for a third visit because there were good flights available and the country has fewest (Covid-19) restrictions for visitors among African countries.

On Olivia's advice we went to Tarangire for the first time: we loved the scenery and were astounded by the numbers of elephants. The prospect of fewer visitors being around also lured us to the Serengeti and we witnessed the mind-blowing spectacle of 10,000 wildebeest galloping majestically across the Mara.

There is normal life out there beyond the Covid black hole known as the UK. In Tanzania day-to-day interactions with other human beings are, well, normal. Simple practical precautions are in place like hand sanitising and masks on the small bush planes.

The welcome we received without exception was tremendous but we were just so pleased to be there and were privileged to have magical wildlife encounters with no-one else around and see a couple of great migration river crossings with a handful of other people present. Truly a once (although it was twice!) in a lifetime experience.

All this added up to a very special adventure tempered somewhat by the fact that many camps remain closed with those still open operating on reduced staff. We only hope common sense prevails over hysteria with so many people's lives in other parts of the world so drastically affected. Not just the humans but the wildlife too.

If anyone out there wants to go on safari there has never been a better time. The people of Tanzania will really appreciate you making the effort." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 16 on a Tanzania safari

"For a long time we thought we wouldn't be able to have our holiday because of the Coronavirus and as it happens, we had to cancel our visit to Botswana. But with the help of Maruska at Expert Africa we were still able to visit Tanzania and Zanzibar. Everything was very fluid with plans changing almost daily right up until the date of departure (and beyond)! due to airline cancellations because of Covid. However, Maruska was incredibly patient and helpful in identifying solutions and alternatives and she also proactively (and mostly successfully) sought refunds for the parts of the holiday that we couldn't undertake (a couple of lodges in Botswana offered to postpone our bookings but were reluctant to give refunds but they succumbed to Maruska's charms eventually). And although I didn't book our international flights through Expert Africa, Maruska kept an eye on all of our travel arrangements, even whilst we were away, and alerted us when our return flight was cancelled.
The holiday itself was way beyond our expectations partly, I suspect, because there were so few other tourists about. In some of the lodges we visited we were the only guests which meant that we were treated like VIPs. And what lodges! The Lemala camps were excellent and Maruska negotiated a very good deal for us by using only Lemala for our safari accommodation and the deal included our own vehicle and guide throughout, which meant that we could go where we wanted to go, when we wanted to go, instead of being tied to a strict timetable for game viewing. As far as the game viewing was concerned, having been told by a couple of friends that their experiences included having to vie for a view of the animals with 100s of other vehicles, we instead found ourselves to be in splendid isolation with almost every animal we saw. The only downside was having to come home." Read full review: 41 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"Everything went very well, it was exactly the kind of experience we were looking for and the children had a blast." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Maruska put together a trip in 3 days and did an exceptional job. We had enormous fun and everything was private as there were very few tourists.....I highly recommend you plan a trip soon....can you imagine walking 80k in the Serengeti and never seeing another tourist or hearing a car.....go now and I promise an incredible experience." Read full review: 28 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"Everything worked very well. We were met and well looked after wherever we went.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No. We hope to travel with you again in the near future." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday

"In my view, the Mahale chimpanzees are one of the great wildlife experiences and Greystoke is one of Africa's very best camps - an unbeatable combination.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Olivia was excellent: I've been an Expert Africa client for many years, and she was one of the most helpful and efficient team members I've dealt with." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"Maruska was very open to plan an itinerary based on our requests and interests, and also flexible when we had to adjust our budget. Maruska has really been excellent, responsive, informative, and able to really organise exactly what we wanted. Excellent service and we highly recommend Maruska." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"A really amazing experience at Greystoke, and a fun time at Kichaka sadly hampered by the weather, but Moli and the location stood out here as making it a great place to visit." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"This trip was a joy from start to finish.
Thanks you Expert Africa and Asilia for a truly outstanding service.

While we are very much in tune with Asilia's values and the consistently excellent services they deliver we do hope the trend to build only high-end luxury camps is not at the expense of places like Ubuntu and Kwihala . It is not only the cost factor of these places ,which is increasingly out of our reach ,but the departure from the real wilderness bush experience which we crave." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"Despite some tricky conditions everything worked very well, and we had a diverse and very enjoyable trip. We´vee been very happy with the services of Expert Africa and will gladly book with them again.

Tanzania had an unusually wet season. We did have quite some rain and some very dull lighting conditions but the sun came out often enough to keep us happy. Some areas in Selous and Ruaha were inaccessible but that was no issue for us, we covered a lot of ground, doing mostly full day outings.

We loved the lush green environments, it was nice to see happy animals enjoying the abundance of food. Predators were a bit scarce, and the high grass a problem for visibility sometimes but we had expected that. Birding was really good, we recorded almost 300 species and photographed about 250. Udzungwa was a really cool place to be, loved the hiking there. Snorkeling in Mafia was a revelation - like swimming in an aquarium, really beautiful. We cannot quite join in the chorus of devoted Chole followers though.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No suggestions - really impressed with the quality of service. Thanks again!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Tanzania safari