Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs P from Worcester

"We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Impala, and have no complaints. Our guide, Ezra, was excellent and really 'made' our stay; he was knowledgable, interesting and amusing, and went out of his way to find out what we would like to see. He seemed to have binocular vision, and together with his driver Roger (?) made a great team. Abdullah, Hassan nd Gerard were also very good at driving the boat safaris. It was good to have the variety of walking, boat and car.

The accommodation was excellent, and the staff were very helpful. The little luxeries like early morning tea, eucalyptus flannels after a long day, juice befroe the afternoon safari, and always being welcomed back by Chloe and Mara were really appreciated.

Our only comments (not complaints!) were connected with food. the food was excellent - the only problem was that there was too much! Lunches could have been lighter, and it would have been friendlier if all the guests could have eaten at a long table more often. However, bush breakfasts were something never to be forgotten; coming round a promentory after 2 hours walking, and seeing breakfast laid out on a table by the lake was very momorable."

"We enjoyed or stay at Mdonya, and it gave us the experience of the African bush that I had requested. Our guide and driver - Yohanes and Mr Night - were good and very patient, spending a lot of time looking for our requests! The atmosphere in the camp was welcoming and friendly, and we enjoyed eating the excellent food together with the other guests.

However, we did find the distances a problem. The camp is situated a long way from good view points which tended to be near the airstrip, which in itself was over an hour's drive. On the day we went for a walking safari, we had to drive for 1 hour 30 mins to collect the ranger before we could start, by which time it was beginning to get hot.

The safaris tended to be whole days because of the distance, and this meant sitting for long periods in intense heat without moving. Personally, I found the lack of exercise a problem in both camps, but more so in Mdonya, and it was not something I was prepared for.

The other problem was the tsetse fly. It is particularly bad in the area of the camp, and none of the repellents worked. Consequently we had to cover ourselves up - which was rather uncomfortable in the heat. Even so, they managed to bite through clothing.

We felt that we could have managed with one less day at Mdonya"

"Our stay at Fumba was the least enjoyable of our trip; perhaps because we are not really used to staying in gated hotels. The access was an uncomfortable drive, so we only left the hotel once to visit Stone Town and the Spice farm. This was a well arranged tour by Fisherman's Tours, which we found interesting. We took your advice and ignored the attempts of one of the waiters to book us on a similar tour! We also went on a snorkelling trip organised by the hotel, which was excellent.

We found the food a bit pretentious, and the service slow, and were not too keen on the tendency to seat us in different areas of the hotel. On our last night we were kept waiting long after everyone else had been served, and then were taken back to our banda and served dinner on our balcony. Without asking us our choice of menu, they served us king prawns and lobster - hardly a sensible choice when we had to get up at 4am and sit in a plane for 10 hours!

There was very little to do apart from sitting by the pool, and swimming in the sea when the tide was in, early morning and late afternoon, as there were no activities apart from scrabble and cluedo. But perhaps we were partly to blame, as we hadn't really thought about that part of the holiday; 2 days less there would have suited us better."