Zanzibar: reviews from our travellers

"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

"Yet again Expert Africa lived up to their name by setting us up with a great trip.

We enjoyed every part of it and frequently thought the next day could not be as good as the last. However it always was. Thanks to Ellie for developing the itinerary for us and thanks to James setting it up." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 14 on a Tanzania safari

"Would have liked to know my options when travelling to Zanzibar as I was unaware that Stone Town was the only big town in Zanzibar! Perhaps I should have done more research myself, but having only one choice of hotel in Zanzibar seems somewhat limiting!

Lake Manze was a delight and the highlight of our trip.

Thanks again." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 5 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Safari was wonderful.

All connections, transfers etc booked by Expert Africa went so smoothly.

Thank you for everything. Lyndsey was great." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"This was our very first safari, and it was an incredible success...We loved every bit of it...

Everything extremely well organized, no surprises, great locations, fantastic game drives, smooth transportation between the camps..

Everything was exactly as James had explained us it would be. James helped us pick locations and activities that we loved, hard to come up with anything other than glowing compliments

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

no... we loved your service. Will definitely use it again for our next safari!" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"Excellent - a memorable trip and lifetime experience." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday