Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs L from Utah

"It was a great way to start our journey.

The room was clean and the food was great.

A nice place to rest up after a long flight."

"Lake Manze camp was fabulous.

Very intimate, remote and wild feel about it. We had a Hyaena walk right past our tent on the first night, almost dark, and we were sitting outside on the front patio of our tent at the time. My wife and I just froze and sat very still without making a sound and only watched. He passed our tent using the path no more than 3 meters away from us. I'll never forget it.

The guiding was superb. Thank you to Zach, JJ and Abu. The boat safaris were a lot of fun. Great birding for Kingfishers and Bee Eaters. Excellent sunsets.

The staff were very attentive and made us feel very much at home. The food was fine and there was a lot of it."

"What a very special place. The entire staff came out and greeted us with a song and ice cool drinks to welcome us in the driveway as we arrived to camp on our first day. Nice touch!

The guiding was excellent. Haamza (sp?), our guide, took us on a boat safari and 2 safari walks. We learned about everything from spear grass, termites and millipedes to Hippos and Bao Bab trees and the roles they play in the ecosystem. Haamza also helped us a lot with our birding as well. Some very large crocodiles in the Rufigi. We saw a Black Mamba near the Beho Beho air strip as we were leaving Sand Rivers.

I loved this part of the Rufiji river and the camp sits right on it. It felt very wild and alive here. Some of the best pictures I took during the whole trip were from when we stayed here.

We made new friends with some of the staff and they were great. Thank you to Sara, Reggie and Good Luck for taking such good care of us. The rooms were luxurious and the food was Over the Top First Class."

"Mdonya felt the most remote and wild of all the camps to us, that we stayed at. We saw our only Leopard of the entire trip here and a Serval cat too. The night sky was the best here and at Mwagusi. Just spectacular. Got cold at night too as we were a bit higher in elevation.

We watched a pride of lions one night just before sunset for quite a while. We were the only car/jeep/lorrie there the entire time. We left them, after some great late afternoon sunlight for photos, and were back in camp after only 5 minutes. That pride was only less than 3 KM away from camp and we could hear them roaring and calling to one another all night long. What an experience for us!

The guides were great. Chabon and Godson with their super vision for spotting things. We made friends with Jonas and Joelle there and the rest of the staff.

Because this camp is so remote, it is difficult to schedule safari walks with the rangers because their headquarters near the Msembe air strip is far away. We did not do any safari walks here."

"Mwagusi was the last camp we stayed at and it was the best experience we had out of all the camps we stayed at, and it was all because of the people that worked there.

Our guide Baldon was a top notch guide. He could easily spot things far in the distance. We did a night game drive here and saw an aardwolf. His knowledge and information he had to share with us was beyond belief. Gaspar was a safe driver and had a great sense of humor. The dinners down on the river bed with everyone else at the same table was a nice experience and a great way to meet new people that all had similar interests to ours.

Since Mwagusi was our last camp before heading back to Dar, we needed to make arrangements to get a Covid 19 PCR test so we would be in that 72 hour time frame for travelling. Trudie, the manager at Mwagusi, made sure that happened for us by making the arrangements with the doctor from Iringa to meet us halfway in a little village named Tunda just down the road a ways form the main gate of Ruaha NP. It was a fun diversion from the game drives to have Baldon and Gaspar drive us to the village to have our PCR tests done. They also helped us with a little shopping too while we were in town. It was fun and I think they had fun too.

Trudie, Baldon and Gaspar put in extra effort to help us out, and for that we are grateful."

"The Hyatt was a great place to end the trip.

The breakfast was great.

Thanks to Hyatt for letting us check out late since our flight did not leave until late in the evening."