Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs B from Aberdeen

"We had a wonderful 3 night stay at Siwandu that delivered exactly what we had hoped and more!

It was incredible to look up when having breakfast and see a couple of elephants who had suddenly appeared a few meters away! We had a wonderful warm welcome on arrival and were introduced to our host Emiel, our butler Mau and our lovely guide Mohammed. All the staff around the camp were very attentive and charming and we felt very well looked after. The chef proudly announced his dinner menu every night and made a lot of effort to accommodate my vegetarian daughter and on our last night there was a very entertaining procession as the staff followed chef through the tables singing and dancing as birthday cakes were delivered to two tables one of which was ours! Thank you Liz for passing on the info!

We did a walking safari one morning which was very interesting culminating in a fabulous bush breakfast that had arrived by boat and was laid out on the lake shore much to our surprise! I am very glad that we visited Siwandu first as originally I had planned to go to Ruaha first but had switched due to lack of availability. Siwandu is definitely more luxurious and although the guiding was very good, as the guide was also the driver, maybe another pair of eyes would have made the guiding even better as we were to discover in Ruaha. If I could I would award Siwandu 4.5 paws just because what we were to experience next was a notch above.

On the morning we left we had to hurry after breakfast as we were told the plane had arrived and wanted to take off half an hour early to make a second stop en route to Ruaha and so we had little time to explore the shop which is located in the main reception area (not south camp as in your notes!) and is well worth a visit with some lovely locally made items for sale. Also FYI there are hairdryers available for guest use!"

"We had a three night stay at Kwihala and it was an amazing experience. The guiding was superb and the passion of our guide Lorenzo and his trainees was infectious and their knowledge truly incredible. The camp is fairly basic but perfectly adequate and comfortable although my daughters had some issue with the bucket shower which was readily rectified. We all especially liked the friendliness around the campfire and dinner table where the all ate together, swapping drive tales!

The food was good but not to the standard of Siwandu. Again we were celebrating another birthday (mine) and also our 25th wedding anniversary and Sara the camp host very kindly had a bottle of the particular wine we had been drinking put in our room which was a lovely touch - thanks again Liz! On the subject of drinks, on arrival we were given the option to pay $15 per person per day for unlimited drinks whilst in camp. Any drinks ordered for sundowners at the end of the second drive of the day are included in the package but everything apart from water is charged and needs to be paid in cash at the end of your stay (your notes say "all inclusive" and "nothing to pay for" in one bit and drinks extra in another paragraph by the way!)

Please note I am awarding "good" instead of "excellent" for food but in no way does this take away from the overall wonderful experience we had. FYI my daughters aged 22 and 19 both preferred this camp because of the great atmosphere and felt the style of Siwandu was for "older people". Also on arrival we were asked by Sara if we had any food in our bags as it is not recommended to have food in the tents as honey badger will come after it!

I had taken the comments in your brochure on board and stocked up with snacks just in case( but never needed!) so surrendered them for safekeeping in the kitchen. Lastly, every day we opted to leave early at 6:30am for our morning game drive which meant it was very chilly, especially on the vehicle so would definitely recommend lots of layers, even a hat and possibly gloves to keep you warm until the sun had warmed up around 9:30!!"

"We all thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Unguja. Ralph and Elies our hosts were charming and very informative and helpful.

Our sea view villas were very unusual and we really enjoyed watching the black tailed monkeys and red colobus monkeys that visited the trees next to our verandah. We were warned not to leave anything in the outside areas as the monkeys liked to help themselves to iPods, sunglasses and the odd bikini bottom and also were quite happy to go and jump on the outdoor bed upstairs, especially if the mosquito net was up so they could swing on it!

We also did the tour of Kizimkazi with Raschid one of the hotel staff who is an elder of the village and he took us on a two hour walk, giving us a potted history of the village and the life of it's inhabitants, culminating at his home. It was interesting and very humbling.

My husband and I did a snorkel trip one morning with Nick who runs Unguja Divers on site and it was somewhat disappointing as visibility was fairly poor due to some bad weather earlier in the week churning up the sand and also there was quite a strong current that day. We understood that we could snorkel from the beach but Nick had advised us that it wasn't really worth it so he took us out by boat but still fairly close to shore - not really worth the $70 for the trip.

Once again we were celebrating a birthday and our anniversary which happened to be on travel days between locations and kindly acknowledged by our hosts who put a bottle of sparkling wine in a cooler on our terrace! Also enjoyed the fruit platter in our room. FYI, hairdryers available for guest use!"

"Originally we were to stay at Beyt al Chai but were told early on this was due to close so I made a reservation at Emerson Spice independently but as you feature it in your brochure I thought I would comment.

The big downside has to be that it is not accessible to cars/vans so we had to park about ten minutes walk away and carry our bags in the heat of the day which was quite uncomfortable. When we checked out 24 hours later the hotel staff accompanied us back to the van which was a relief!

We booked a table for dinner at the rooftop Tea House restaurant and it was very good. There was a slight worry when the sun went down and a cloud of flying ants rose into the air around us but thankfully didn't land on us. We also had breakfast on the roof the next morning but it was fairly windy so the food got cold very quickly which was a shame as it was very good.

Although we had to check out of our rooms in the morning, the reception staff took care of our luggage and kindly allocated us a room to shower in before we departed. The rooms are all very different and interesting and during the day the doors of the unoccupied rooms were left open, allowing us to see inside! Really enjoyed our one night but not sure we would have wanted more.

We found walking around town quite difficult as we were frequently bothered by men offering to guide us and were in constant danger of being run over by motorbike and bicycles that speed through the very narrow streets. In hindsight I think it would have been wise to organise a proper guide through Eco & Culture or maybe the hotel as the roads are like a maze with no street names so hard to follow a map. We had been advised by hotel staff to take the mobile phone which was by our bed in our room, so we could contact them if we were lost. However we managed fine but it was stressful!

One place we all enjoyed visiting was Fahari, 62 Kenyatta Road, Stone Town, a non-profit social enterprise providing a sustainable livelihood to local women who make lovely high quality bags, jewellery and accessories. We chatted at length to Julie who runs the shop and trains the women and she gave us a real insight into the hard life these women have in Zanzibari society."