Zanzibar: reviews from our travellers

"We loved every minute of our trip. A new day a new adventure. Superb accommodation, safaris, food and wines.
Loved Africa." Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"Actually rather disappointing. The trip notes were inadequate and despite assuring me that my coeliac condition had been passed to both Chumbe Island and Kholle Hotel, this was not the case. On the island that was not a problem as the food was mainly fish and salads but at the hotel it most certainly was a problem.

The Kholle House is a lovely boutique hotel but was not the most relaxing. see me earlier comments. Not what i expected. Very disappointed.

However the Lazizi hotel was a lovely but I did feel that the charges by Expert Africa for arranging this were high to excessive when looking at the hotel website." Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 5 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Another great trip to Tanzania. This was our 6th trip to Tanzania and as always we loved it. Accomodation, transport, food, game viewing and beach were all excellent. Can't wait to return." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"I applied for a job in Tanzania some time ago so i bought the guide book and book on safaris just in case I got the job. Well i didn't get the job but the book really got me excited about Africa. When i found a travel partner, some years later, while re reading my books i was inspired by the fact that the authors had travelled to this area frequently and consequently I was drawn to contact the affiliated company regarding trip planning.

Lyndsey was excellent. She started off by asking what kind of trip we wanted and from there guided us through planning a trip that would meet our needs and expectations. She answered our questions, wasn't pushy and was open to my suggestions of things i wanted to work into our trip, like visiting fish markets and seeing some of Dar es Salem. The adventure was exactly what we wanted and more.

Travelling as two older women it was important to feel safe and at the same time experience the opportunity of adventure. Keeping the costs down and not going to high end camps was important as well as avoiding the crowds. We met other travellers who had been further north and when they showed up at an animal sighting there where 50 jeeps already there, everyone lined up. We knew we didn't want that nor travel in an enclosed vehicle so again great direction from Lyndsey.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We were not charged the $30 fee to leave Tanzania and I'm not sure if this is because we left from Zanzibar or not.

The Stone Town Airport does not open until midnight for a 2am flight so there is no point going out there early. If u do the toilet outside the airport building costs money and the one inside is free. You need TZ shillings.

The booklet is confusing on tipping in the camps and we received different information from the different camp managers. If two people are travelling together do they pay their guide as one person or do they people double the recommended amount? We paid our driver, the guide, the boat guide all separate from each of us and then half that amount at the second camp. Other people we talked to seemed confused as well.

I brought a black head net and was really glad I did as the flies at the second camp were fierce in some areas. Burning elephant dung helped somewhat. Green head nets interfere with your vision clarity but the black ones work great.

Thanks Lyndsey for all your help in planning our wonderful adventure!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"Very enjoyable trip combining a safari in two contrasting areas of Kenya (Samburu and Mara Naboisho) with a beach holiday in Zanzibar. it was a particular pleasure that we were not bothered by mosquitoes.

Expert Africa's recommendations and organisation were spot on." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Kenya safari

"We booked this holiday very late and Olivia came up with the perfect itinerary. This was an unforgettable holiday." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"Had a wonderful time.

The best part of the stay was our safari. Our safari guide, Banana, was wonderful. We saw so many animals and events with him. He was also informative and informational without overloading too much, and was very sensitive to our individual needs.

Would definitely recommend him as a safari guide for our friends and family. He definitely made me want to recommend Asilia to others who plan on traveling to Tanzania. Overall, had a wonderful time with this tour company in Tanzania." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"We were very impressed with the Asilia staff at all the locations we visited. It would appear that their staff training is very good as there is a notably high standard of commonality between sites - quite a rarity these days.

Well done Expert Africa! The itinerary put together by Olivia was absolutely spot and fully met our brief for a unique safari holiday. The order in which we completed it and the places we stayed worked ever so well, to the point that the great experience built throughout and finished with a real crescendo in our final camp. Hard to beat it!" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"both James Denny (who was my initial contact and helped me to choose safari location and camps) and Lyndsey Marris (who organised our two stays in Zanzibar, and made all our reservations) were very helpful, and extremely knowledgeable. Overall the trip was amazing on every level,and incredibly well organised, thank you!

The only slight negative is that we were a little disappointed with Mwagusi Camp in terms of service and food, especially after staying at Siwandu which surpassed our expectations and was just excellent on every level. Maybe if we'd stayed at Mwagusi before Siwandu, we wouldn't have noticed so much!

We are definitely keen to explore more of Africa as a result of this trip, and will definitely return to Expert Africa to do so!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"James did a fantastic job of organizing this trip for us. His suggestion of adding Kichaka to our plans was spot on, and we never would have known about them without his advice. Arrangements were all smooth, service everywhere was great, and the plan he shared was exactly what we got. I think if I could change anything about the trip, it would have been the Pongwe part. While the resort was fine, it wasn't totally our style. I think we would have been happier at one of the places with a stronger environmental orientation and better access to good snorkeling. That's on me, not James - I didn't share that this was a priority, and I was thinking too much about the expense.

I also wasn't prepared for the aggressiveness of some of the street hustlers in Stone Town. While in most places, they would respect a polite "Hapana, Asante," in the Forodhani Gardens area, they were so aggressive it made it unpleasant to walk over there - sometimes escalating to physical contact and insults from them although we stayed polite. This isn't something that Expert Africa controls of course! It would be something that it would be helpful to add to the next Bradt guide update.

I also need to note that at the beginning of our trip, things went off track due to a problem with Turkish Air. Because of their delays, we missed our Istanbul connection, and had to stay the night in Istanbul. This was clearly not Expert Africa's fault, but it was very frustrating that I couldn't get through to anyone on the 24 hour emergency number. I called four times. Each time, a recording would tell me that someone would be with me in a minute, and then the phone would start ringing. I would let it ring 100 times before I gave up. Maybe I should have had faith and let it ring longer?

I guess I'm used to hold music playing if I'm in a queue of calls, and then the ringing starting when I'm actually being connected. Is the ringing what happens when you're in queue on your line? Because all this happened during the 36 hour stretch that no one is on your office, folks at Lake Manze camp were quite concerned that we had disappeared without a word, and we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to reconnect with our trip. We spent a scary 4 hours sitting outside the Dar airport hoping we'd be able to figure everything out at sunrise, which we did with the help of a friendly cab driver and the staff at Coastal Aviation." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday