Zanzibar: reviews from our travellers

"Excellent despite BA disappointment.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Look at your Hotel choices in Stone Town." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"Expert Africa's assistance when our flight was delayed overnight was very good and helped rescue the first part of our holiday.

All of the arrangements worked according to plan." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 2 on a Tanzania safari

"As before, excellent. We got great advice about where to stay. Efficient service, good communications. Thank you." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 3 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Fabulous! Everything that we hoped for and more - and we are very demanding clients.

Many thanks to Liz who was excellent and so helpful, especially when our flight was delayed from LHR." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 2 on a Zanzibar holiday

"We - wife, self and 9 yr. old daughter, had a great time - a very good experience. Agent recommendations were not good for Kholle house, and very good for Unguja Lodge.

Coastal aviation and local driver through in country agent were all seamless." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"The holiday was brilliant not just "very satisfactory"!

Martin Mollel, our driver really made the safari for us. He was very personable, very knowledgeable about the animals, very skilled at spotting them and a safe driver. He was very tactful and was very good chatting and playing with our children He was respectful of the animals. We felt safe and comfortable with Martin at all times.

We saw all the animals and many birds that Martin also knew about. We would fully recommend Martin for other clients.

Incidentally, on the jeep, it would have been good to have had a canvas cover that could have been put up above the roof openings to give some shade at times.

Thoughts on the parks:

Tarangire - A nice place to start, very quiet compared with the Serengeti we saw plenty of Elephants.

Lake Manyara - We only really saw baboons as animals in significant quantity. I would not recommend this park. It is more lush and so the animals are difficult to see. There are more prolific and variety of animals in other parks we went to. The lake has shrunk in size due to silting up and so the flamingo are just a pink band on the horizon many miles away. If there could be alternative access at the other side of the lake, then the flamingos would probably have been spectacular. I would miss this park out and make a more leisurely drive to Ngorongoro.

Ngorongoro - Specatcular scenery and the place to see Black Rhino. But there was much more - Lions Hyena etc etc. An early start is a must to see the animals before the crater gets busy.

Olduvai Gorge - unfortunately the compulsory local guide was quite old and difficult to hear and understand. He had a very strong accent and struggled to be heard above the wind. This was unfortunate as particularly for the children it could have been made very interesting if described and explained well Perhaps little information sheets that could be read before the visit would help understanding of what is being seen and its significance

Serengeti - we saw the migration which was excellent. There was a tendency in this park to see something and then find 9 other jeeps around. Sometimes with them edging very close to the animals. This seemed a bit circus like at times. That aside it was a good place to see lions and hippos, wilder-beast, giraffe and zebra etc etc

On arrival at Zanzibar, the baggage handlers ask you to identify your bags and then ask for tips prior to handing the bags over to you, which is not a very good introduction to Zanzibar. Also as the flight arrived 10-15 mins early, as we exited the airport, the transfer guy was not around and so we got mobbed by taxi drivers and other hawkers trying to get us to go with them and trying to take our bags. This was not very pleasant.

Eleanor Dunkels in London was always excellent always pleasant, helpful and informative. Her personal experience of the area was very useful. She was a pleasure to deal with.

Tips for other clients:

Don't wear blue. the TseTse flies really do get attracted to blue and give a nasty bite.

Make sure you do take some very good binoculars - a pair for each member of the group. Some of our pocket binoculars we took were woefully inadequate.

Wear wide brimmed hats that tie under the chin, otherwise they blow off

Long sleaved shirts are a good idea as its easy to get burnt with the open roof on the jeep." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"The planning and execution of the holiday was very well organized. We were well prepared and had very few problems that could not be solved.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No,your services were very good.

Will you be opening another similar service for Asia or South America? I would be interested!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"We had an incredible trip." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 4 on a Tanzania safari

"We had a wonderful trip and it lived up to its expectations and in many cases exceeded them. The standards of accommodation at the Sand Rivers were exceptionally high and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

We had one blip - the taxi at Dar to take us to the hotel did not turn up. A local tourist information official rang Eco Tours but they said there was a mechanical issue with the taxi and nobody would be coming! We negotiated with a local taxi driver to take us to the hotel for $50 and were told that they hotel would pay the bill. The driver had no idea where the hotel was and the hotel did NOT pay the bill but fortunately we had the cash to do so. Eco Tours did ring to apologise and the fare was re-imbursed when we left.

But overall excellent!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I found the information you sent us in advance of the trip to be very useful, especially as this was the first time we had been on a safari. However, I think it would have been good to have added just a short paragraph specifically on the places where we were actually staying, for example at Sand Rivers they provided for everything - sun cream, mosquito repellant, full set of toiletries, rain jackets. Had we known, we would have limited the amount of toiletries we took with us and fleeces which were just not required at this time of year. For Matemwe, it would have been good to have read about their work with the local community with a list of anything specific required. I also found parts of the Brandt guidebook to be out of date, referencing things that might open in 2009 and certainly a few more hotels in Matemwe (but I guess it's difficult to keep up with the pace!)." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Wonderful. Great flight fr SFO and back on Emirates, good decision and nice accomodations in Dubai Airport Hotel. Climbed Kili thru G adventure but climb actually run by Zara. Good job but it would be wise to better advise prospective climbers how gruelling it really is, not just the altitude but the trek itself. 3 out of 12 didn't summit.) We then stayed at Twiga Lodge for a week outside Arusha- very very lovely. Paul and Erika were super hosts. We were just licking our wounds after the climb, but after recuperating Paul took us on first an afternoon walk in the neighboring park then a day landrover venture into the park, excellent guide, saw a lot of animals, birds, etc. Then back with G adventure for a week trucking around the Serengetti with a group. Saw a lot- including a black mamba on a branch next to our land cruiser, hello!) and a juvenile bull elephant chase a pride of 15 (really) lions out from under a shade tree next to a water hole, amazing. Then a week on Zanzibar at Ras Ngwui- very lovely, already commented at length about.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Give Maruska a raise or she will be stolen by another firm. She was wonderful, not just in prep for the trip but also towards the end. She was amazing and unflappable when we e mailed fr zanzibar saying we wanted to cancel pole pole and stay the remainder at ras ngwui. We spent a bit more but it was worth the change and Maruska took a bit of the pain of that away by very quickly processing the resulting refunds for the decreased air costs. Maruska is the type of rep that ANY major corporation wod want to keep content." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday