Travel reviews by C Plowdog from Sydney

"Good hotel to start a trip to see the Gorillas."

"We really enjoyed the Mountain Gorilla Lodge. The rooms were spacious, food terrific by Alfred the Head Chef and his team, it was very close to the the locations from which you walk to see the Gorillas and it was nice to have an open fire in the room in the evening.

The day we left it was raining very heavily (lucky we'd been trekking the 2 days prior) and there was some leakage into our bathroom."

"see previous [Ed: see below]"

"We enjoyed Tafika. It's in a good location in South Luangwa on the river. Our guide Cooper was excellent. We were fortunate to see some excellent animals (Genet, serval, civet) at night.

Food was excellent; the room was spacious and there were other interesting guests."

"Crocodile was rustic. The chalets had a great view over a dry lagoon where warthogs and Zebra came.

However the staff there were magic: they conjured up miracles of meals from a wood fire. Cakes(!), dinner, entrees, sweets. Nothing was too much trouble.

Our guide Moffat was wonderful: knowledgeable and good company. The guys that walked with us (Zie and Paul) were good humoured and very competent. We felt very safe

We had two reservations with Crocodile: firstly there is not a very high density of wildlife; also there were a lot of biting insects. If we had seen that lion pride that we tracked on foot for an hour it would have been great."

"This is a terrific camp. Rooms were very comfortable with a great view over the river.

The food was really good and the staff, overseen by Eve, looked after us extremely well. The drives were excellent with our guide Yorum. Like Tafika the night drives were wonderful. We saw a porcupine, honey badgers, civets, and genets. And also some hunting lionesses walking around the truck, while we were trying to photograph a rare owlet."

"My husband's favourite camp. That said our one and only reservation was the limited lighting in the chalet. A bit of a challenge at night especially on the day of arrival.

Apart from that, the location was excellent as it afforded boat safaris, walking safaris and drives. Unfortunately a recent bushfire had caused some animals to be not as prolific but even so we saw a lot of animals here and no other tourists. Again the night drives were an absolute highlight.

Staff were great including Phil (one of the owners), Kolo (the manager) and James our guide. James was knowledgeable, thorough, and good company.

We saw a number of creatures here that we had not seen before: an enormous python, a terrapin, sable and both a lion and leopard immediately following kills. Also with the lion kill we were fortunate to see the behavior of other members of the pride in fighting over the dead puku. The birdlife here is beautiful."

"Old Mondoro was well located especially for the elephants. The chalets are high quality.

The staff were very friendly and the the food was really nice. Our guides there (Sebastian and Marshal) were knowledgeable friendly and committed to us having a good time. This camp unlike the others had the guides sharing the guests. It worked out well as both guides were excellent but overall our preference is one guide for a visit.

We saw some excellent bird life and again the night drives were a highlight (including the Great Eagle Owl). It was pretty good to see a leopard on our initial drive into the camp from the airport.

Old Mondoro is a pretty flash camp."

"Well located for viewing the falls.

It's a big hotel, the rooms are good and breakfast was excellent.

It is a perfectly acceptable hotel, but coming from the intimacy and wonderful experiences of the safari camps perhaps it couldn't stand out."

"Excellent hotel. Good food, nice location but for a very short time. Staff were helpful."

"Just so terrific. Having not been to remote Africa before we didn't know what to expect from Tanzania and Impala Lodge. Suffice to say both were extraordinary. We loved Selous, and Impala Lodge was exceptional.

The staff and service was brilliant, the game drives excellent (our first sight was giraffes a plenty, and then we saw lions, a leopard, wildebeest, with Zebras, kudu, hippos, Goliath herons, bee eaters, hippos, and 2 resident giraffes-including Brian-and many many more animals). We loved the walk, the river landscape and we were looked after so well by Evans, our waiter, Hassan, Simon any all the staff. Dennis the guide put in huge effort to ensure we saw many animals and enjoyed the landscape.

We had no great expectations about the food but it was really good: the tomato tart and crime caramel were brilliant. Go there.

The only suggestion I have is to have combined, not separate, dining."

"Kigelia was a great experience in the Ruaha. It was remote, hidden among the trees, and only had 6 tents for guests. It had a couple of resident elephants who joined us every so often, at one time looking closely into the mess tent.

Mollel our guide was magic. He found so many animals for us: 17 lions in one spot and a single cheetah were probably the highlight although we also saw a leopard on the amazing night drive (as well as genets, an african hare, an African fox, and many night creatures), and many elephants, buffalo, birds (the highlight being a small owl), kudu, zebra and giraffes of course, jackals, hyena, warthogs, hippo etc etc. We ate at night under the stars and were excellently looked after.

Hot water was always available and the food was great despite the remoteness. Thanks to Musa, Godfrey and the team for excellent service. Don't miss the Ruaha or Kigelia Camp."

"Looked good, beautiful building but it didn't really work."