Travel reviews by Marilyn & Duane from CA

"We used Airport Planet Lodge to get through jet lag. In retrospect we should have gone directly to Rivertrees, a much nicer place with ore to see and do. No knock on Airport Planet. The room was fine, people were great, food was fine. Just nothing really to do there."

"Rivertrees is a lovely lodge with expansive grounds that attract monkeys. Simply wandering around the grounds to see monkeys was fun. We daytripped into Arusha to see the sights. The Art Museum and crafts cente are fabulous. The rest of Arusha not so much. We also booked a one day grame drive in Arusha National Park that was excellent, quite a good variety of animals and terrain, including a canoe paddle on a lake with some hippos."

"We were in one of the built cottages but thought we were to stay in a tent cottages. Our cottage was just fine, but a tent would have also been just fine. Tarangire Park is terrific, lots of animals with interesting terrain. It felt like a ore condensed and manageable Serengeti. The view from the Lodge on the rift edge overlooking a big area of the Park is great.

Food and service were fine. But here we started to miss having a communal table to meet and share the day with others. We wish all the lodges could have offered a communal table option at dinner.

I am not going to do animals by lodge, we were 11 days on safari, the details by lodge blur"

"Decent room, lodge and food. Nothing great, nothing bad. The weather was pretty chilly and foggy in the mornings, and chilly at night. The lodge had Waterbucks come right up to our room deck, fun, with a view into the forest. Based on weather there would have been no benefit to a pricier lodge overlooking the crater, nothing would have been seen.
It was nice having a fire in the wood stove each night, that helped."

"We enjoyed the Kati Kati tented camp. Hyenas in in or on the edge of camp both nights, we liked that. Being able to do fame drives from right outside your tent is great. Hot water delivered for showers was easy and adequate. Tents are big and comfortable. It took us no time to feel fine with hearing lions and hyenas close by at night.
Sitting around a big bonfire before dinner every night was very nice."

"Nomad Serengeti Safari Camp was our favorite stay. Tents were a step up from Kati Kati, no know on their’s. Dining tent was our favorite setup with a standard communal table for dinner with always interesting people to chat with about their experiences.
Service was excellent, food was fine. Food is never going to be great given the logistics of getting food into any of these camps and lodges.
But, the price was very high. When I look back at the rack rate prices for Kati Kati and Nomad I don’t think Nomad offers that much more value than Kati Kati.
Location is great. We had zebras grazing right on the edge of our tent one late afternoon, oblivious as I sat in a chair outside the tent less than 2m from them. Wildebeests at times were within sight, and smell, of the tent. Loved all that."

"The famous “Hotel Rwanda” of movie fame. This part of Kigali and the hotel feel pretty upscale. Good live music in an outside bar every night.
We were here to rest, clean up and get a city vibe after two weeks in Tanzania on safari.
Our style in cities is to walk. This clearly was not what hotel or safari companies wanted, they all wanted us to buy a city tour. We were very glad we went on our own. A big hit from our trip was walking to the Nyamirambo neighborhood and women’s center. The women there offer a fantastic local tour of he neighborhood and their work to economically empower local women. Inspirational, no hype, all local and a wonderful lunch of local foods prepared and served in the house of one of the women. We spent the better part of one day doing this and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The mandatory thing to do in Kigali is visit the Genocide Memorial. That tragedy is well documented, no holds barred, but ultimately uplifting. Rwanda has done a remarkable job of reconciliation and healing. The leadership of the country and its people have managed to accomplish something I would have never thought possible. Memorial is a fairly short cab drive, great audio guides inside, free but please leave a generous donation to help keep sending this message of forgiveness and healing."