Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs P from Wembley

"The camp and staff were very good - good service, good quality tent, good location. Our guide (Euston) was superb - very knowledgable with extremely sharp eyes. The only slight negative was the food. While it was good quality and very tasty, it was a simple buffet and wasn't as high quality or as well presented as other places.
We were made to feel very welcome and were the only people on most of the game drives.

Our trip to Udzungwe mountains was really interesting. A long bus journey, but interesting to see the scenery on the drive. Some staff came with us on the bus in order to stock up on lodge food and drinks, so we had a short stop in the local town to do this. This was fine for us, and all added to the nature of the trip, but I can imagine some people would be a bit put out."

"The food was amazing - well cooked and presented and served by our personal waiter. My wife is lactose intolerant and although the manager was told about this (by both Expert Africa and us) the message didn't make it through to the kitchen. Several times she was served food she could not eat and it had to go back. But to their credit they always knocked up a superb lactose-free alternative in double-quick time!

Our chalet was right next to the river and gave us a great view of elephants passing by. On our last night we went fly-camping which was a real experience. We had 5 private staff to cater to our every need including heating water for showers and cooking us a three-course meal in our small 'restaurant' by the edge of a lake. The other activities like boat and walking safaris were good, the key interest being that we didn't have to sit in a car for hours each day.

All in all Selous was an incredibly luxurious experience which was only slightly let down by the impression that our days were organised to fit in with the camp schedule rather than what we had planned to do. For example when asked what we wanted to do one evening we opted for a walking safari but were steered towards a game drive as one had already been arranged for another couple.

The other staff were absolutely superb - waiter, guide, tent boy and fly-camping staff."

"The location of the fly-camp was amazing - right in the bush next to the lake. Couldn't have been better! The staff were all brilliant and really looked after us. We were amazed to find that we had 5 staff there, just for us! The whole experience was superb and I'd thoroughly recommend it to any other of your customers.

On the (slight) down side, we were told (by you? and by the Selous managers when we arrived) that we would be able to do a walking safari when we were at the fly-camp (or maybe walk to the camp, or from). This sadly wasn't possible, although we could potter up and down the shore of the lake near the camp."

"as before. [Ed: see below]"

"Pole Pole was an amazing place, and just the thing for our last week on holiday. After a busy week on safari it was the perfect antidote and helped to send us back home fully relaxed.

We particularly liked:
- The massage (Robyn the manager gave us both free massages as it was our honeymoon)
- The staff were really friendly and approachable
- Our room was of a really high standard
- The food was really well prepared, fresh, and had lots of really nice fish!
- The diving (and dive guide Tiego) were excellent.

Although it was brilliant, on the whole, there are a couple of things that could be improved. The room service was slightly random: sometimes it came late, sometimes it didn't arrive (morning coffee, for example). We weren't too fussed by this, and just took it as part of the 'relaxed' approach.

Most of the diving was done within the Mafia bay. We were lucky to get a couple of dives outside the bay which were absolutely stunning. It would be nice if guests going there specifically to dive could get a little bit more information here - will it be possible to go out of the bay, are the tides OK, etc."

"We only stayed one night at this hotel but I'm glad we did. The location is superb, being right in the centre of town. They gave us a free bottle of champagne as we were on honeymoon, which was very nice, but also the chef cooked us a special meal which he made up just for us. They also wrote congratulations on our dessert plate in chocolate sauce. Little touches which made a real difference to the stay.

On the down side, the rooms are starting to look slightly tired. Not a massive problem, we found it on par with a travel lodge for example, but a refurb would make the whole place totally top-notch."