Travel reviews by Mr M& Ms S from Derby

"Very nice hotel in pleasant surroundings. It's within easy walking distance from the Falls and it's wonderful being able to hear the Falls from your room and the terrace and to see the mist rising. We walked over to the Falls to see the sunrise.

Staff were very welcoming, friendly and helpful.

Breakfast was excellent - a good variety.

Bathroom a little dated but fine for our short stay."

"Nicely located within easy reach of various heavily frequented waterholes.

There is a train track along the boundary of the Hide's concession so you don't feel quite as isolated and away from civilisation as you might do in other camps.

Our guide Nicholas was great - very knowledgeable and fun to spend time with. The night drives were a lot of fun too and gave us a chance to see some of the nocturnal creatures.
Staff were friendly, food was very good.

Tents are comfortable, with both indoor and outdoor showers.

It's lovely to watch animals come to drink at the waterhole right outside your accommodation. Being able to watch the elephants from the underground hide was an amazing experience - drinking water only a few metres away from you."

"We fell in love with the camp and its staff the minute we arrived. Everyone was extremely welcoming and friendly and always made sure we had everything we needed.

Being able to walk for long distances was a great experience. Our guides Quinn and Steven and our tracker Felix were exceptional. Great night drives too. The tents are spacious and nicely furnished.

Really friendly atmosphere - lovely sitting by the fire with the guides and the lovely hostess Ruth at night.

The food was excellent and the staff went out of their way to provide delicious vegetarian options at all meals."

"This was our first ever safari and we felt that we definitely made the right choice in opting for Lake Manze Camp. The location is perfect, on the edge of the lake and right in amongst the wildlife. We had a wonderful time here and were extremely impressed by the professional yet informal way in which the camp was run. We felt very welcome and all of the staff were cheerful and helpful.

Our guide and driver were a lot of fun and extremely knowledgeable. The game drives were amazing: we saw a fantastic variety of animals and loved sitting and watching them. Most of the time, we were the only two guests in our Land Rover and that meant we could go at our own pace and just see whatever was around.

We went on two boat safaris and a walking safari too. Both are to be recommended for gaining a different perspective and learning a huge amount more about the birds and animals and their local environment.

We saw lots of animals in the camp, including a memorable visit from a herd of elephants one morning.

Food was very good, plentiful and varied. The camp had no problems in providing vegetarian options for one of us (as requested when we made our booking). We enjoyed the bush breakfasts, and our evening meals under the canopy of stars, with the sound of animals all around, were great.

We felt in safe hands at all times and the Maasai were always on hand to guide us to and from our tent.

The tent was well-equipped and comfortable. We certainly didn’t need anything more for our stay and we enjoyed the fact that there was no electricity in the tent. We took headtorches with us and that made finding our way to the bathroom much easier. It was great to be so close to nature. We really felt that we were in the middle of it all. We heard lots of hippos close by at night. Sitting outside our tent in the daytime, we were able to watch monkeys, giraffes, impalas and lots of beautiful birds. We wondered whether we would suffer insect bites, with the camp being so close to the lake, but that turned out not to be an issue for us.

The laundry service was fast and efficient.

We were delighted with our stay and were sad to leave. Our abiding memory will be of the enormous variety of wildlife we saw."

"This was our first visit to Ruaha and made for a great second stop after the Selous. Everyone at the camp tried very hard to make us feel comfortable and we loved every minute of our stay. Our guides were excellent - extremely knowledgeable and putting in great efforts to track down animals. We set off at 6 o'clock each morning to get the most out of the day and were out until after dark on our afternoon drives. We had some great leopard and cheetah sightings and we were delighted to see big herds of elephants and countless lions. We also saw an incredible array of birds and learnt a huge amount from the guides.

Dining under the stars was great fun. The meals were delicious and our request for no red meat for one of us was accommodated without any fuss. We really enjoyed sitting out in the evenings with Sara and the guides and sharing stories. Bush breakfasts and lunches were impressive too

Our tent was great, very spacious and comfortable whilst still enabling us to feel in the heart of nature. We heard elephants and jackals right outside at night. The bucket shower works very well and adds to the charm. We used the laundry service and found that to be very good.

We were lucky to have a car to ourselves for the most part of our stay and felt that we were well looked after – drinks and blankets were in plentiful supply. We were able to spend lots of time in the park and we saw an incredible amount.

We had a fantastic time and would love to go back as soon as we can."

"A perfect venue for us after 10 days on safari – a great transition between bush and real world.

Our villa was wonderful. The design was amazing, open to the sea but private too. We loved sitting on our terrace right above the sea, watching the sun set, hearing the waves at night. We also enjoyed relaxing by the pool and taking walks on beach when the tide was out. A real piece of paradise. We were bitten by insects quite a lot despite using repellent but this was a very small price to pay.

All of the staff were very friendly and attentive and we enjoyed some great meals.

The village walk around Kizimkazi with Rashid-Ali was very informative and is well worth doing. We also had a fun trip to the spice farm before going on to Stone Town, where we did the walking tour. Again, this was very enjoyable and gave us a real insight into the history of Stone Town and Zanzibar. We also had a great time on the dhow sunset cruise.

Having so many monkeys in and around the villa was a real treat!

A very relaxing and beautiful location, one we hope to return to soon!"