Travel reviews by Ms M & Ms M from Argyll
Review Distribution
Total number of trips
1
Countries visited
1
Lodges stayed in
2
Excursions taken
0
zanzibar overall feedback on trip
Zanzibar between 4 Feb 2010 and 14 Feb 2010
"i feel horrible putting fairly satisfactory as it was very satisfactory really, but the fact i spent 2 full nights without a bed adn on each night awake at least 3 hours as there was no fans was maybe insurmountable but the hotels should have contacted expert africa to say there was no electricity and then we couldhave either cancelled or changed to lamu or mombasa for example.
this was my first holiday for 13 years a huge expense involved in leaving 4 young children with full time care at home as well etc and I was pretty irritated about the twin room problems and generator timings. cecilia is very asthmatic, so it was a worry for her too at nights.
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
expert africa are fantastic, they understand completely africa and what notes and advice gtravellers need. it was blooming brilliant!! and the guide book is fabulous too, you should get a copy in each hotel too out there.
i would ask one thing, that in the back of your notes to tanzania you h ave a copy of the maps of stone town that you can remove and carry about. it saves taking the whole book with you and in my case i had a tiny purse so ended up tearing out the town pages so i cuold refer to them when we got lost. i am sad my book is torn, but no hotels had maps of stone town and i didn't want to take a handbag with a book in it to the festival etc etc.
we never handed over any of the vouchers you gave us, nobody asked for them. the wallet you sent was also very useful, many thanks.
i hope we can sort out the 2 nights i had to spend on the push up bed and barazzas. i feel the hotels should give me my money back in full for these nights. It is unforgiveable and I am not a student traveller. I also think there should have been something from all 3 hotels to compensate for the lack of fans during the night. A free bottle of wine or soemthing would have taken care of this at each hotel, especially since they had obviously had loads of cancellations and in need of customers, instead of feeling we had been `done' . the goodwill gesture was missing.
i wonder did expert africa know there was no electricity on Zanzibar and it was all generator run, for hours at a time?
i will recommend claire and expert africa to anyone i can. many many thanks."
this was my first holiday for 13 years a huge expense involved in leaving 4 young children with full time care at home as well etc and I was pretty irritated about the twin room problems and generator timings. cecilia is very asthmatic, so it was a worry for her too at nights.
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
expert africa are fantastic, they understand completely africa and what notes and advice gtravellers need. it was blooming brilliant!! and the guide book is fabulous too, you should get a copy in each hotel too out there.
i would ask one thing, that in the back of your notes to tanzania you h ave a copy of the maps of stone town that you can remove and carry about. it saves taking the whole book with you and in my case i had a tiny purse so ended up tearing out the town pages so i cuold refer to them when we got lost. i am sad my book is torn, but no hotels had maps of stone town and i didn't want to take a handbag with a book in it to the festival etc etc.
we never handed over any of the vouchers you gave us, nobody asked for them. the wallet you sent was also very useful, many thanks.
i hope we can sort out the 2 nights i had to spend on the push up bed and barazzas. i feel the hotels should give me my money back in full for these nights. It is unforgiveable and I am not a student traveller. I also think there should have been something from all 3 hotels to compensate for the lack of fans during the night. A free bottle of wine or soemthing would have taken care of this at each hotel, especially since they had obviously had loads of cancellations and in need of customers, instead of feeling we had been `done' . the goodwill gesture was missing.
i wonder did expert africa know there was no electricity on Zanzibar and it was all generator run, for hours at a time?
i will recommend claire and expert africa to anyone i can. many many thanks."
Arranged By Claire Scott
Fumba Beach Lodge
"fumba - great hotel great staff"
3 nights
Arrived
5 Feb 2010
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Average
Facilities
Excellent
Swahili House
"swahili house, wonderful terrace at top"
3 nights
Arrived
11 Feb 2010
"swahili house was another interesting experience. we again arrived and found we had this time a double bed and it had been pushed up to one side of the room and antoehr push up bed put in as the twin. we immediately said could we have twin beds and the manager chris (normally the chef but the manager was in europe somewhere) said no problem, the hotel is not full, so i got my own from for 2 of the 3 nights. the last night i had to spend on the extra bed, again feeling like i was in student accomodation
chris was really helpful but because he was being manager one night we ordered soup for supper (before going to the music festival) and after 45 minutes it had not arrived and we had to go to the festival without supper. soup should not take over 45 minutes
the rooftop terrace/bar/restaurant is lovely at swahili house, it has a breeze a plunge pool some sun loungers (3 of the 4 with broken slats) and very nice dining tables. the food was international, with some local dishes that were excellent. i think after 2 nights you would want a wider menu but for us it was ideal. we went to the coffee house one day, beyt al chai one lunch and the evening that dinner didn't arrive we had soemthing at the festival so all was ok
chris organised taxis to and from the festival and they all worked like clockwork. he also organised a spice tour and a city tour, both very good, although the local guides do tend to start veyr enthusiastic adn after an hour noticably get fed up of you and trail off. chris also asked on our return for our comments nad was genuinely interested and wanted us to have a great time. he also let us use his office comptuer to reconfirm our BA tickets home, he went out of hsi way to be excellent
they also turned on the generators the morning we left as we had to get up at 5, so there was electricity to see to pack etc."
chris was really helpful but because he was being manager one night we ordered soup for supper (before going to the music festival) and after 45 minutes it had not arrived and we had to go to the festival without supper. soup should not take over 45 minutes
the rooftop terrace/bar/restaurant is lovely at swahili house, it has a breeze a plunge pool some sun loungers (3 of the 4 with broken slats) and very nice dining tables. the food was international, with some local dishes that were excellent. i think after 2 nights you would want a wider menu but for us it was ideal. we went to the coffee house one day, beyt al chai one lunch and the evening that dinner didn't arrive we had soemthing at the festival so all was ok
chris organised taxis to and from the festival and they all worked like clockwork. he also organised a spice tour and a city tour, both very good, although the local guides do tend to start veyr enthusiastic adn after an hour noticably get fed up of you and trail off. chris also asked on our return for our comments nad was genuinely interested and wanted us to have a great time. he also let us use his office comptuer to reconfirm our BA tickets home, he went out of hsi way to be excellent
they also turned on the generators the morning we left as we had to get up at 5, so there was electricity to see to pack etc."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
We were given the twin room we asked for, we had the electricity problem explained to us on arrival. We did not know Zanzibr had no electricity until this moment. They explained when the generators would be on and when not.
The staff circulated unobtrusively during dinner and were friendly and open to any questions you had
the spa was fabulous, i had a pedicure and it was brilliajt
we also wanted to go snorkelling, but cecilia had not done this before, she is asthmatic and afraid of deep water.
the couple at fumba who organsed the diving, snorkelling etc had only arrived themsleves that week but they got together 3 other OAPS and gave us a special trip for only one hour to snorkel which was exactly what we and the elderly lot wanted. the trips werotherwise half or full day
there was no shop on site, so if you hadno sun cream or mozzie repellent you would have been stuck. there were some postcards behind the reception desk if you asked for them and stamps as well.
the food was very good breakfast and lunch. dinner was a curious menu with long fangled titles from the 1980s and spoilt with lack of local fresh ingredients. they had tried to make a sophisticated 3 course menu in european style but a lot of it was tinned corn etc and not good. however i asked for a salad instead one night adn the chef make me one,
the fish, tuna, kingfish prawns was consistentl excellent as was the fruit platters
just the non local food, that was pretty mediocre.
the african staff were also very good here, well trained, discreet, went out of their way to make your trip perfect
fabulous start to a holiday.
will recommend fumba to as many people as i can think of who will be going to zanzibar"