Travel reviews by Mr. I from London

"Whilst this is not an "excellent" hotel in terms of high standards of facilities, it is "excellent" in doing the job precisely it needed to for us, namely a one-night stop over in Dar to rest after the long flights and before an early start the next day for the start of the safari adventures.

The airport transfers were seamless which is the main thing, room clean and food decent. They even left us a bottle of sparkling wine for our honeymoon. Definitely recommended for a one-night stop."

"Excellent well-run camp. For us, it provided the perfect balance between being a proper camp with no electricity (except for charging) with wildlife frequently passing by, yet enough comforts such as flushing toilets and solar-powered heated showers.

On my first morning when having an early shower (a cold on at that time) two hyenas walked rights passed the tent looking up at me - welcome to the bush. Some more "up-market" camps would not enable this experience. Elephants munched on palm leaves around our tent at night. Giraffes, warthog, impala, baboons, crocodiles, hippos, bushbuck as well as countless birdlife could be seen from our tent alone which we loved.

The fact that my wife and I had a private vehicle with a guide and driver for all game drives was excellent and the guiding from Kalisti was top notch. Lake Manze Camp, from our limited experience of 4 nights in Selous, appeared to be in the best game viewing area. The boat trips on Lake Manze and the nearby waterways were wonderful and provide a different perspective, as did the the walking safari, and these give a great mix to usual game drives.

On our last night, Malcolm arranged for my wife and I to have a private honeymoon dinner outside of our (isolated) tent which was special."

"My wife and I loved this camp. It is perhaps more rustic than Lake Manze in terms of its setting but there are nicer touches around the tent and the recent introduction of hot water showers in the mornings is a welcome addition. Just watch the cheeky baboons - they made a right mess of our bathroom area one day! Like Lake Manze, we loved the lack of electricity around the camp and we encourage all camps such as this to remain without wifi. It allows folk to interact around evening camp fires without a mobile phone in sight. Instead, the starry sky provides the entertainment and backdrop. Kings and Iris were excellent hosts.

Just as with Lake Manze, we had frequent elephant visitors to our tent (indeed, there are far more elephant in Ruaha than Selous) and to hear two male lions roaring right outside of our tent at night (being shown the footprints the next day by the Masai) was a great experience. Dik-diks, impala, giraffe, warthog, baboons and vervet monkeys were also watched from our tent veranda across the dry river bed.

The location of Mdonya has many positives - I loved the fact that it is so isolated away from the other camps and there is plenty of wildlife in the vicinity of the camp. Conversely, the prime game viewing areas (certainly at the time that we visited) were some distance away and with game drives the only activity on offer, there was the odd day where you have to sit on a long journey back to camp which we did not mind given the interesting and varied scenery on offer throughout the park. Watching members of the injar pride of lion (who we had watched in a documentary a year or two back) hunt zebra was a fantastic experience and certainly made the distances traveled worthwhile. Again, my wife and I were grateful to have our own vehicle and driver/guiding team. We liked learning about the birdlife which pleased our guide Godson."

"Having been to Selous and Ruaha and had a wonderful time, enjoying the varied features and wildlife of both places, Katavi had a lot to live up to ... but it triumphed. It was both me and my wife's favourite of the three. Admittedly, it is not the place to go for a first-time safari go-er with a checklist of animals to see, but this place is more wild and therefore more rewarding as a result.

I had read in one write-up of Katavi that you could end up seeing more lion than people and I took that with a pinch of salt ... but we did in fact see more lion than other travelers. The Chada pride were spread but out in force and to see the male lion roar right next to us on a night drive was memorable. We watched elephant families play, a bull elephant shove a tamarind tree so that the fruit showered down and male giraffe mock neck-fighting. The hippos and crocs combination were always entertaining and we saw leopard on both day and night drives.

As for the camp, this is run by the cheerful Julian who was an excellent host entertaining guests with his stories. This camp was no doubt at the higher-end than our two in Selous and Ruaha but it maintains that rustic and wild feel. Again, elephant families were frequent visitors to camp, giraffe wandered by, a banded mongoose family foraged around our tent and bushbucks and vervet monkeys were also frequent visitors. The food at the camp was excellent and service impeccable.

We loved the varied activities on offer here. Yes, the game-drives were shared unlike in our previous camps, but the quality of guiding by Dismas was very high and we enjoyed the walking safari which was a decent length allowing us some much-needed exercise. The fly-camping (under a separate review) is a must-do."

"This is a wonderful experience and a "must-do" in Katavi. Some of my favourite bush experiences of the past have been sleeping in small tents as wildlife wanders by. This maintains that feel but is so much more. Lying under a mosquito net looking at the stars as lion and hyena sound out the night is one thing but the bush meal, campfire and breakfast add to the experience.

Initially I was questioning why it cost more money to add on the fly-camping but this is fly-camping with a difference - discretely accompanying you are a team consisting of your guide, a chef, a waiter, a housekeeper, a scout and the park ranger, ensuring that the same standard of service in the main base is replicated whilst being very safe.

The highlight of our safari adventures overall was seeing 6 lion up a tree as dusk was settling in shortly before arriving at our fly-camp spot."

"This being our honeymoon, we were tempted to add on a "beach section" to our trip. But rather than head to the east coast of Tanzania with the comparative crowds, we ventured to the west "coast" and it could not have been better! Arriving at Mahale is as if you are arriving on a tropical island, the difference being that this is no island.

Whilst the camp is of the highest standard, the chimpanzees are the stars of the show, brought to life by the quality and knowledge of the guiding: Mwiga was excellent. We saw 36 chimpanzees over the course of the 4 days, some more than once, such that you already started to feel like you were getting to know them. Sitting on the beach as a male chimpanzee walks passed eye-to-eye was an amazing experience. If you have the time and funds to be able to venture to Mahale, my wife and I would most definitely recommend a stay at Greystoke so that you can take away your own experiences.

The variety of other activities on offer also sets this place apart. We went on two additional nature walks, seeing another 5 monkey species and the last surviving warthog in the region, Juliette, was a regular visitor to our lodge. The boat trips are a fantastic way to spend the afternoon - swimming in the beautiful deep clear waters of the lake and having a beer looking out for hippos and crocodiles near the shore on the way back.

The hosts Fabio and Barbs were excellent, as were all of the staff. Indeed, I enjoyed playing a game of football on the beach with the staff - it was great fun played in excellent spirits."

"This was just a few-hour stopover for us between flights but the Airport Planet Lodge did everything right - they were there for the pick-up, the shower facilities were fine, the dinner that we had there was decent and the drop-off seamless."