Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs Serval from UK

"Olakira was lovely. The food and service were really good, as were the drinks, including the 'house' wine. We especially liked sitting around the camp-fire sipping our drinks before and after dinner, and the pre-dinner snacks were good too.

We were a bit apprehensive about the bucket showers, but we needn't have been. We just said when we wanted them filling and the water arrived on the dot. There was plenty of water for a reasonable shower too. At night we said what time we wanted our morning tea and hot water and that too arrived on time.

We had some excellent game drives from Olakira. When we arrived at Seronera and met our guide/driver we told him that although we had done three safaris before in Kenya and Tanzania we had never seen cheetah and had only seen leopard from a great distance. On the drive to Olakira we saw two leopards and a cheetah. The next day we saw 16 cheetahs in all, including a mum with 6 small cubs who all gradually ventured away from mum and under our vehicle - magical!

We also saw a Serval which we were told was fairly rare, a black wild cat with orange eyes - again a rarity, and an ardvakk, which our driver siad he had never seen in 20 years of guiding as they are usually nocturnal."

"We had two nights at Gibbs with a visit to the Ngongoro crater in the middle. Our room at Gibbs was fantastic - we were in one of the renovated cottages.

Overall Gibbs was good, but just missed out on being great. Little things let it down like the water in the jugs in our room not being filled up, and although we were told that we could get some things ironed and they would be picked up from the room, no-one turned up for them. The other thing about Gibbs is that after the very personal service you get in the small tented camps it feels a bit large and soulless. The food was good (but not excellent) and the scrambled eggs at breakfast had obviously been pre-cooked and were very dry. We enjoyed the walk we took around the farm.

Just one little warning about leaving your things in the vehicle. We left a pair of binoculars in the vehicle whilst we were at Gibbs. The driver took the vehicle into Karatu, a town close by, to get it washed and our binoculars went missing. The driver got them back for us by going back to the guy who washed the car and threatening him with the police, but we might not have been so lucky. I'm sure you're OK leaving things in the vehicle whilst at the mobile tented camps but it's not a good idea to leave things in it at other busier places.

We had been to Ngorongoro before and although we enjoyed our second trip there we were not as awestruck as the first time. Also it was a pretty long drive from Gibbs to the crater. Last time we stayed on the crater rim and really liked being able to view the mist over the crater early in the morning and to hear the masai cowbells as they moved their cattle.

In addition the crater was very busy - lots more vehicles than when we went last time (about 8/9 years ago). We also found out how much they charge for a vehicle, driver and passengers to get into the crater (£300) and if we had known we might not have gone."

"We really loved Olivers camp. What makes it special is that it is spread out so that once you are in your tent you can't see another tent - it feels like it's just you and the bush. As we got to our tent when we arrived there was a dikdik outside!

As with Olakira we really loved the drinks round the campfire. The food was absolutely fantastic - really excellent! The egg chef did the very best scrambled egg that I have ever tasted. As at Olakira hot water arrived on time as did the drinks we asked to be brought to our tent in the late afternoon.

The only negative comments we have are that they didn't do the 'cool flannels' when we got back from game drives as was done at Olakira and that when we arrived no-one warned us to book our 'pick up' time for dinner so we ended up using the emergency whistle - to evryone's consternation!

We were warned that the game viewing wouldn't be so good in Tarangire at that time of year (Febuary). We didn't see much in the way of predators, but the elephant viewing was terrific. We saw one enormous herd and had an exciting experience with the. A bull was in must and was very irritable and was winding the rest of the herd up. The herd split in two and started to try to surround us - the driver said 'this is serious' and we got out of there pretty quickly!

We also surpised a bull elephant by the side of the road and really jumped when we heard his trumpeting."

"Pole Pole is lovely. The rooms are lovely, as is the food and service (although don't go there if you don't like sea-food - we had sea-food for starter and main courses every day but one). The drinks delivered to your verandah in the evening is a lovely idea. Maure and her staff are very good. My husband was ill whislt we were there and they were very concerned about him and bent over backwards to do all they could to help, including providing special meals, like boiled rice, for him, and delivering it to the room.

I had a massage whilst we were there and it was very good and excellent value for money. The snorkelling trips were good, although i only managed two of them and my husband didn't manage any. One thing we regretted was that he was not well enough for us to go on a trip to see and swim with whale sharks. We talked to fellow guests who had and who said it was a super experience.

The only negative point is that there are a lot of sand flies (No-see-ums) there. My husband did not get bitten once, but I got over 100 bites, despite using 100% DEET. I guess they either like you or they don't. If anyone knows of anything that deters them I'd be gald to hear of it."