Zanzibar: reviews from our travellers

"Really enjoyed our honeymoon." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"The balance between resting and activities, the Indian Ocean coast and Stone Town produced a great 4 days in Zanzibar and we managed to fit in all we had wanted and more.

Fisherman Tours the Expert Africa representatives were really helpful and helped to arrange a Spice Tour (good idea to do on the trip between the east coast and Stone Town) and also a walking tour of Stone Town. It might have been a good idea to have had a list of possible activities that they coudl arrange before leaving home as quite a lot of information was given to you on the trip from the airport to hotel.

Good idea to get a Zantel SIM and 10,000Zsh credit before leaving Stone Town area - we made loads of calls to mobiles and UK and still didn't run out of credit by end of week.

Safari Blue (www.safariblue.net) was a brilliant decision to take up - we read about it at Shooting Star and as total novices had been a bit nervous about doing a day trip with dhow sailing and snorkelling but this was a really well organised but friendly and informal activity and excellent value for money at $55 per preson for an all inclusive whole day of dolphin watching, dhow sailing, coral snorkelling, great food, chilled drinks, a trip in a traditional fishing katamaran, flooded mangrove swimming all in a friendly and helpful atmosphere. Good also to see the company using some of the profits to reinvest in local communities - definitely to be recommended.

Taking a walking tour on first afternoon in Stone Town was a good idea as it meant we enjoyed the subsequent time more as we felt confident about where things were and more happy to venture off the main routes and see more than we would have done if not." Read full review: 5 nights in Africa; 4 on a Zanzibar holiday

"The places we stayed were all we hoped they would be and more.

The Z-Hotel and its location may not be everyone preference, especially for those seeking a more isolated, santatised type "Maldives" experience. For my Wife and I it was a perfect change to the "Maldives" type experience as we travelled to the Maldives last September.

The Safari was simply amazing on all levels !!

We would not have changed anything ... although at a push knowing what I know now I may have opted for an alternate hotel in Dar es Salaam for the last night." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"This trip couldn't have gone any better, from start to finish. Both the camps were really amazing (guides, location everything), we loved every moment and really want to go back in the near future.

Zanzibar was a wonderful end to the honeymoon staying at a few different places was nice, the trips organised through the hotels were very expensive so I would in future organise them through fishermans tours before we go (in the end we organised a tour through fishermans whilst we were at the ponge)

The logistics of being picked up and dropped off at where we were suposed to be was near perfect, the only slight worry we had was on the last day when we were being taken to the airport when we didnt know when we were supposed to be picked up but after asking a few people how long it would take to get to the airport for the early morning flight we had a rough idea.

Overall Would recommend expert Africa to anyone, they gave us a perfect homeymoon

Suggestions for improvements:

Nothing. It was perfect thankyou" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"This was a great trip . We had been on safari 2 times before and I think this was the best trip. The 2 parks were both very good and Zanzibar was relaxing afterwards. All the arrangements worked like clockwork and all the people we dealt with were helpful , committed and friendly.

Suggestions for improvements:

We kept chopping and changing our plans , but Elly was very patient with us and came up with helpful suggestions to make sure our trop siuted us. We wanted good game viewing and comfortable accommodation - we are not interested in having spas and the ultimate luxuries ! Rather an experience , and that's what we had.

So I don't have any real suggestions for improvement !" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"We really loved our trip. I think we were both surprised particularly as to how much we thoroughly enjoyed the safari part of the trip, even though we thought we'd be really tired after our wedding.

The advice we received before we booked was so helpful as we really had no idea what we wanted to do and speaking to someone who had visited all the places and could answer even the smallest queries was really helpful and helped us to make a really good choice of trip. And it also meant that when we arrived, everything was as we expected and there were no nasty surprises!! The website was really helpful - we found all the reviews from people who had recently travelled to the places was really helpful as well to help us make our decision, and the descriptions about each place were very thorough.

It was the first time we had used a travel agent to book an entire trip and it was so good - everything worked so well. All the details we received before we travelled was very helpful and thorough and made it easy for us to check that everything was booked as we had discussed. During our trip all our transfers were there to pick us up on time and all the hotels expected us when we arrived - it was all very efficient.

Suggestions for improvements:

I don't think I can think of anything you could do better!

Thank you for helping us organise a wonderful honeymoon!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Amazing. Selous Impala was defo the highlight, just wish we could have stayed longer.

Suggestions for improvements:

No, just to say thanks for sorting everything out the trip was ace. I know it probably doesn't sound like it but the points raised were just the not so good bits we thought you'd like to know so the issues can be adressed.

Keep doing what your doing and we'll defo use you again just need to start saving." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday

"We had a fantastic honeymoon in Africa - although we wouldn't go back to Cape Town and Kruger in a hurry we would highly recommend Zanzibar and Pongwe Beach Hotel - a fantastic start to married life!

Suggestions for improvements:

Your service is faultless - keep doing what you're doing!" Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"I was hesitant to use a touring company for our holiday - we'd always done the booking ourselves and I wasn't sure how much value they'd really be able to add. As soon as we started working with EA we knew we'd made the right decision - and one we were in Tanzania we were REALLY happy we'd used them - our transfers were seamless and the places they recommended were all superb. We'd definitely use EA to book our next African holiday." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"Rwanda was brilliant - fascinating, scrupulously clean, would recommend the country to anyone who is bitten by the Africa bug. Communication was in a mixture of English, Swahili and French. It was good to start our trip with a visit to the Kigali genocide memorial. Our driver/guide Jackson was fantastic - and added hugely to our experience of Rwanda, even though he was an Arsenal supporter!

However were we to go again, we would adjust some of the timings. The routine seems to be to go and see primates early in the morning, which leaves the rest of the to explore, and so in many ways we would have been better doing 2 (rather than 3) nights in Nungwe, only one night in Moriah Hill, and possibly add one night (or more) in Gisenyi. (It would have been great to go over the border into Goma.) Volcanoes NP was good, though again one night less would have been fine and we would still have time for three primate expeditions. (We were rather extravagant and saw two diffierent goriila groups, which was great but very expensive!) We were also quite sad a not staying in Kigali again.

We had one medical emergency - our daughter got huge boils on her back, luckily on the night before we were due to return to Kigali, so the following morning we drove to a private hospital in Kigali for treatment. This was relatively efficient - after we had paid some money - but did mean that she missed out on swimming in Zanzibar.

Dar was a lovely surprise for one night - we wished we had stayed an additional night here. Zanzibar was as expected, though Stone Town was more chaotic and smellier than I remember (from 35 and 7 years ago).

The whole trip was very expensive - which of course we knew about beforehand! - but tips etc menat that we spent another 500 US dollars per person duing the three weeks, without being extravagant. For example, tipping of guides was $10 per person per excursion, and sometimes we chose to give trackers etc. tips. This is not a complaint, just for information." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 6 on a Rwanda safari