Travel reviews by Mr&Mrs Jones from Europe

"Impala Camp's location: it looks like most of the wildlife is concentrated around the several lakes in the park. The Impala camps location is not ideal, you have to drive some distances to see as much as possible. A camp closer or nearby one of the lakes would be more convenient for game drives.

The duration of stay: we stayed 4 nights which was too long. For the park 2 or max 3 days are more than enough. The game drives are concentrated in a part of the park, which when you stay longer than 2 or 3 days, you will double routes several times.
The guide at Impala Camp was not great. He was quite poor in spotting game and he lacked obviously experience and, more important, enthusiasm and passion for his job. He didn't listen to our wishes, we became frustrated with him by the end of our stay at Impala.

As an important example we would like to mention following situation: we heard from the guide not earlier than after breakfast that there had been an kill by lions that morning. And that two groups of lions were fighting and one groupwas eating the kill. First we were astonished that the guide did not inform us before breakfast so we could make our own decision to skip breakfast and drive to the action. Secondly, as we said told him to go as quick as possible to the action, he drove first another route to try to spot a leopard with the result we didn't see the lions eating because of a cue of about 10 cars with day-trippers. And, as we almost got a god spot foor the sight he decided to give way to other cars and said we should wait for a half hour when the cars would have left the spot. Instead of leaving many other daytrip cars arrived and we decided not to join the crowds and told the guide to go away...also at other points he found it more important to try to inform his colleagues about game we ourselfs had spotted than driving right away to the location. So, we wouldn't recommend Impala camp because of our experience with this guide, the location and the feel that this camp missed passion.

The tents are okay but need renovation, the beds are not very comfortable and we missed mosquito nets because, although the managment said the tents were bug free, the high amount of bites after the first night proofed them wrong."

"The location is beautiful and great as starting point for gamedrives.

The views from the bandas is great. The bandas are very comfortable, but could use some small improvements, like cold drinking water and probably mosquito nets. The camp has a wonderful atmosphere, communal dining is great, Chris Fox is a great host, has incrdedible knowledge about tanzania and wildlife, he is joining the lunches and dinners, he is a real extra bonus you get when you stay at this camp.

The Guides you get are excellent, what really matters is that we got a separate driver. We experienced this as important, because you see so much more with a separate driver and a guide. We were very happy with our guide Baldon and our driver Mhemdi. They are passionate, full of energy and will try to make every game drive an adventure. We stayed here 5 nights but wished we had booked this camp for the full 8 nighs we stood in Ruaha.

I can recommend this camp to everyone who wants a great experience in Ruaha."

"This camp lacks atmosphere, passion and provided us with the worst guide (and no separate driver) during our stay in Tanzania. They try to act as an exclusive camp but fail big. It starts when you arrive and the whole staff is waving to you and cheering greetings. Its hilarious, ridiculous and just an poor act, you can feel and see the emberrasment among some of the staff members.

The location of the camp is nothing special, views from the tents are boring, a small dry riverbed with some bush.

The tents are very comfortable, great beds,nice bucketshower, and a plus is the starbed.

The food is nothing special though. But what this camp makes a big disapointment and a very bad experience is the guide they hooked us up with. We wanted to ask the manager for another guide but decided to let it be, because our guide got his directions for sightings from others and we saw what we wanted to see, but not because of our guides spotting and guiding abilities."