Zanzibar: reviews from our travellers

"An amazing trip, made memorable by staying at Chole Mjini.

Very impressed by Expert Africa, without whom we'd never have discovered Chole Mjini - such a magical place.

Diving was great and as the non-diver I was very well entertained at both Chole and Pole Pole by their daily dhow trips.

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Very impressed by Expert Africa and will definitely recommend and use again when possible." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"A really good trip.

Very glad we spent more time at the beach than Stone Town though. Great to have visited Zanzibar and i would certainly recommend the island - but some travellers might find the poverty in Stone Town a little surprising at first.

Would certainly return - though would want to visit Pemba and get to some of the more remote beaches." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Our safari to eastern and southern Africa was absolutely stunning.

My family has an active, adventurous spirit, which Claire Scott (Expert Africa) picked up on right away as we discussed options nearly nine months prior. Accordingly, Claire recommended camps that met our desires and expectations. I cannot say enough about how easy it was to work with Expert Africa and how efficiently our holiday played out. Complex logistics were well planned and execution was seamless. Well done!" Read full review: 39 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"This was a trip we've been thinking about for 15 years, but when it finally came time to pull the trigger, I honestly didn't know where to start.

James was outstanding from the very beginning — helping me to shape the trip and offering some great suggestions on when and where to go. He was super patient with all my questions along the way, and we always felt like we were in the best hands." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"Amazing! The perfect honeymoon" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"This was yet another excellent safari/holiday created by Expert Africa, each one just gets better than the one before.

We arranged a private guide and vehicle for these travellers, they commented:

Sadiq was an excellent and professional guide, he established what our expectations were and tried throughout the trip to accommodate our wishes. He is obviously an experienced guide of many years and knew the locations we visited well. He was also knowledgeable about the needs of a photographer and manoeuvred the vehicle to obtain the best photographic positions.

We could not have wished for a better guide - Thank you Sadiq

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I cannot think of anything" Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"In February we spent 3 nights in Selous, 4 nights in Ruaha, 6 nights in Paje (Zanzibar), 2 nights on Chumbe Island, and the final night in Stone Town (Zanzibar). Our trip was full of great experiences - totally unique from any of the travelling we've done in the past. This was our first trip to Africa.

I am happy that we went to both Selous and Ruaha. We experienced the most diversity and abundance of animals in the Selous (we stayed at Azura Selous), but appreciated being able to sit and watch the interaction of the 'social' animals (lions, baboons and elephants) in the Ruaha. If I was forced to just go only to one place, I would reluctantly say Selous because of the more wilderness aspect of it. We didn't see a single 4x4 when we were out in the Selous, while in Ruaha we probably saw 6 on average per day. I understand that this is nothing compared to northern Tanzania, and is one of the main reasons we chose Selous and Ruaha.

The Tanzanians that we met were all extremely welcoming and hospitable. They all wanted us to go home as ambassadors for their country. We felt totally spoiled and were willing to overlook disappointments we had with some of the food because of this.

I'm glad that we spent some time shopping in Stone Town as it was a great place to pick up inexpensive home décor items, but I probably could have done that in a few hours and didn't need to overnight there.

Coming from Canada, we found the food and drink prices to be very inexpensive on Zanzibar. Watching the kite surfing in Paje was really interesting and made spending hours on the beach enjoyable." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"we had a fabulous return to Africa (our first visit for almost 40 years!). We were recommended to Expert Africa by friends living in Tanzania and were very impressed with the service provided. James provided us with a great deal of information and if he couldn't answer a question he said so!

We were disappointed in one lodge where we stayed but James had made clear to us before booking that he didn't have any personal knowledge of this lodge. For the lodges which were recommend by EA we found their descriptions to have been fair and reliable. EA arranged all our local connections - taxis and flights and all worked out very well without a hitch." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Everything worked smoothly" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"The trip was put together perfectly and at each juncture, the part awaiting us was exactly what we needed/ wanted to compliment the last and maintain variety. We were so impressed with the quality of the &Beyond destinations in particular- they really are a cut above- so slick. But saying that, Beho Beho was such an incredible experience, the whole Selous felt manicured it was all so perfect. Ellie has just been amazing throughout and the guidance in putting together such a trip of a lifetime was invaluable. We're not sure that we will ever top this trip. But then again, that's the sign of the most perfect honeymoon..." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari