Travel reviews by Ali from United Kingdom

"While the plantation room was good and the restaurant food, and service and general ambience of the place good, unfortunately our stay was marred by a nearby local disco that went on very loudly until the early hours of the morning, meaning we did not get much sleep!

It is also quite a touristy venue with many people arriving for a buffet/ bbq lunch experience here in the day time, and to visit the Shanga workshops and shop.
It was nice to see a few velvet monkeys here though.

Tip… try not to stay on a weekend as you may have a sleepless night due to local celebrations nearby!"

"Ubuntu camp is in a good location in a beautiful part of the Serengeti. Having visited last year and been unable to photograph the landscape shots I wished to, we booked again.

Unfortunately our guide at Ubuntu once again followed the same formulaic pattern as last year. Despite him asking what we’d like to do, he still basically followed the set pattern they seem to have adopted in guiding here, which seems to be track the wildebeests in the morning and “do cats” in the afternoon. While this may well suit the majority of people and often people just want the guide to take them to sightings, I wanted to also photograph and stay with the elephants for a bit, and photograph the landscape and trees.

We tried to explain that I wished to photograph the landscape and catch the evening light on the acacia trees with the mountains in the background to him, but he was at a loss to really understand this. I think I am probably unusual in wishing to photograph the landscape and scenery, and not just animals, however we had booked a private guide in order to have the flexibility to do this.

Our guide we felt became a little frustrated by not understanding about the trees, landscape and scenery I wished to photograph and kept returning for the third time to the leopard in the tree, where all the other guides and vehicles were. Until we told him that we had had enough of the leopard in the tree, at which he seemed a little upset.
Apart from the landscapes I would also have preferred to have spent more time with the elephants and not the lions! The guides seem to favour sighting of the lions etc over elephants… for some reason!

All in all I was very disappointed I did not achieve my objectives on taking the landscape shots I wished to photograph.

The rest of the staff at Ubuntu were great. A special mention goes to Erik with a K, the assistant manager, a very friendly and personable guy who will I’m sure will go far!
Also Eric with a c, and Nigrem, and Baraku, and Octavian.

The lunches were very good indeed, excellent service by Baraku and Octavian and lovely selection of salads and dishes served individually to your table laid under the shade of a tree. A special treat.

Communal Dinner was good too, good food, and interesting to all sit together and chat to the other guests. Indeed Erik hosted one night, which worked well as he was an asset to the conversation, a good idea I think.

The camp is good, however what is needed is for the guides to be aware that they may come across one or two visitors who may have unusual requests as to what they want to see, and the be able to adapt and steer away from their formulaic approach. Not everyone wants to see sleeping lions, or a leopard up a tree for the third time! They need to realise the landscape for us is different and has a beauty and value of its own which some of us may wish to photograph."

"Wonderful camp.

Very authentic, bush feel. Very friendly staff, and excellent service especially by Nico for lunch and dinner. Good luck, the stand in manager was very friendly and helpful too. All the staff were excellent. Fantastic bush breakfasts twice organised by Mel our wonderful guide.

The staff have high praise of nomad and Mike the owner, who helps local communities.

The rooms were good, and the star bed very special. We were here 3 nights and only really plucked up the courage to sleep out on the last night… but we had the best sleep of all in the star bed! The sky was beautifully clear and we could see all the stars. Indeed it’s a great camp for star gazing… on our first night around the damp fire we saw the Milky Way! Very clear skies.

Food was Amazing. We are a meat eater and non meat (just fish) eater and the chef created some truly amazing dishes… truly a la carte level..excellent.
I have only praise for Kigelia, and the staff.

Our guide was exceptional, incredibly knowledgeable and very easy to talk to, he taught us so much not only about the animals but about the flora and plants too. He also had a good knowledge of photography, so understood when I asked to stop to take random photographs of baobab trees or landscape as well as the animals. He took us to the river bed for 2 lovely breakfasts in the peace and tranquillity of the river, where we could just relax and enjoy and absorb the atmosphere of wild Africa. Truly memorable.

We saw a good variety of wildlife, especially lots of giraffe, elephants, impala, lesser kudu, eland, two cheetahs, plus several lions. Mel was able to point out lots of birds too, including the pied kingfisher, giant heron, bustards, eagles, and lilac breasted rollers. We were joined by Rafa (Raphael) for a couple of days and he was a great asset, a good spotter (saw the cheetahs in the undergrowth ) and a lovely character.

Mel’s interest in conservation came through and added to our awareness in a good way, as I am interested in conservation also.

All in all I would highly recommend Nomad and Kigelia. Ruaha is an amazing national park with lots of very ancient Baobab trees. We saw on which was over a thousand years old! Plus good wildlife."

"Ok. The staff were very nice and the service good.

The garden was simple, we had hoped to use the pool however it was full of bugs floating on the top… they do not seem to clean the surface of it, so that put us off using it.

Quite peaceful location, generally ok for a stop over."

"Wonderful camp.

Very close to the wildlife, elephants came into camp and you could hear them all making their rumbling noises all though the night!

Very good food and service. Very attentive staff.

Good location."

"Ok. The rooms were fine.

The management weren’t very helpful if you had an issue. The other staff were pleasant enough, and the food average.

The location is ok for access to the main gate for Ngorongoro crater.

The gardens weren’t as special as I had hoped. We did have a tour of the coffee production by a lovely guy.

Good for stop over but in hindsight we maybe wasted a day here as we stayed 3 nights. 2 probably better."

"Good camp.

We did get to see the migration of wildebeest over the mara. A amazing spectacle in itself. Saw leopards and lions generally sleeping in the afternoons. Some Giraffes and a few elephants. Also hyenas. Mainly huge herds of wildebeests! Landscape amazing too.

Food was good, and the people very nice.

I heard Hyenas howling through the night as well lions. The hyenas were very close, they seemed to be all around the camp."