Zanzibar: reviews from our travellers

"We had a wonderful trip with many momentous adventures but quite a lot more tedious jeep rides than we had bargained for, especially in the Kenya portion where the distances between camps was several hours on washed out roads only to find out when we arrived that the next activity would be a jeep ride! This was disappointing as I had been quite clear that that what I was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

The biggest issue was that Olivia had not made clear to me the consequences of the rainy season. I thought it just meant that it would rain a bit during the day and we would get wet, something I don't care about. What it really meant is that the bush would be so green and thick that animals would be extremely hard to see, that water would be so readily available everywhere that animals would be widely dispersed across hundreds of thousands of acres, and therefore hard to find, that the bugs would be fierce. and that the normally rough, bumpy roads would be so deeply rutted and washed out hat driving was bone crushing. And, as I noted in my comments about Sarara, some activities such as the Singing Wells, were not possible. No one can control the weather but if I had known what the rainy season was really like I don't think I would have taken the chance of traveling in the shoulder season. Since we were the only guests at a number of places, i felt everybody else had gotten the memo except us!

Also, some of the logistics could have been worked out better. Though the three Samburu camps look equidistant on a map, in fact it made no sense to go to Saruni Rhino last instead of Sarani Samburu, which is quite close to the airstrip.By going there last, it added another 2 and a half hour jeep trip on washed out roads to get back to the airstrip we had just come from two days earlier.

Finally, we were never told that the trip from Saruni Rhino to Plantation Lodge would be over 10 hours. We were shocked to discover on arrival at Kilamijaro that our jeep ride was over 4 hours. I can't believe there was not a scheduled or even charter flight from Kili to Manyara. In any event, no one told us about the length of the trip and we had no food from 8 AM till 6:30 PM expect for the driver's small pack of Pringles. I expected better attention to logistics.

With the exception of Stone Town, all the places we stayed were great. I just wish we had done the trip a different year when we could have done it at the right time." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 7 on a Kenya safari

"Perfect holiday and thanks to expert Africa for the expert knowledge!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"An excellent, truly memorable trip. Amanda stepped in later in the planning process after another team member left and her advice and organisation were invaluable." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"We had a wonderful trip thanks to the fantastic support of Jessica Plumb. She continually went above and beyond in every aspect of our trip from negotiating upgrades to arranging for great local guides and transport. She was truly a joy to work with and we will recommend Jessica and Expert Africa to anyone who is interested in visiting this great continent.

All of our camps, guides, hotels and transport were wonderful. Thank you Jessica and Expert Africa!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"An excellent trip that lived up to expectations. It was well planned and well thought out. Our only slight reservation was the Coastal Aviation detour to get from Tarangire to Ruaha, which took a lot longer than scheduled." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 12 on a Tanzania safari

"This trip to Tanzania for a safari followed by time relaxing on Zanzibar, was a long-planned trip for my brother and I, and our wives. My wife and I had previous experience of safaris, but my brother did not, so I felt the pressure of "getting it right". We decided to plan it with Expert Africa following a previous very successful trip planned with their help, and I am delighted we made that decision. A meeting with Expert Africa's Olivia helped her to perfectly judge our requirements, and the result was a highly successful holiday that exceeded all our expectations." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"All went to clockwork, thank you.

One small comment was the times on our itinerary were different to Fisherman’s Tours. As such I thought they were late so rang the number on the itinerary for them to check someone was coming. They did arrive 5-10 minutes later, which was just before 6.30am, the time they had down. We were expecting them at 6am.

They did give us their itinerary with the times, down, but I hadn’t read it prior to the pick up.

The driver informed me I had phoned the general manager of Fisherman’s Tours, not the local office! Perhaps it would be worth checking the numbers on your itinerary which is where I got the number from.

Similarly the pick up from Qambani, was at 5am, not 5.30am as on our itinerary.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, thank you for the organisation and recommendations. The service was excellent, and everything went fine.
Our only struggle, was with tipping, who and how much ! and not having local currency when we arrived. The porters at Zanzibar are quick to strike on the poor inexperienced traveller!!

We took advice from the Siwandu manager, (who was overall excellent) re tipping the staff, but I probably hadn’t read your comments carefully enough. I think we ended up tipping $4-500 dollars over the trip, which I hadn’t really been expecting, so I guess it would help to give a ball park figure to the client initially.

Thank you Chris for spending so long on the phone with me and Lyndsey for putting it all together." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"As mentioned already, somehow the trip exceeded our expectations, even though we had been planning this for years! I am so glad we went with Expert Africa - a well named company. Having all the internal connections sorted out before we left made a big difference to our enjoyment of the trip in that we could relax, knowing everything was covered.

Lyndsey is great - we had a number of calls and countless emails. She always got back to me very quickly (within 24 hours) and provided clear and full reponses to my many questions and requests. Having the same person to work with throughout the process helped greatly and we couldn't have done better than Lyndsey - thank you." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"Glorious trip to Kenya and Tanzania, our first visit to those countries. Having travelled in Africa extensively before, the punctuality and efficiency of collections etc was impressive. We thoroughly enjoyed the insight into local culture and the safari opportunities were stunning. All guides very kind and friendly, always keen to please.

Our limited constructive feedback as follows: All camps provided toiletries and washing powder, so no need to bring. Camps advertising laundry services still did not wash underwear (male or female), nor handkerchiefs. Drive to Il Ngwesi from Wilson airport was interesting, but ended up as quite an odyssey as driver did not know the way through Lewa Conservancy to the camp. As no signs available, this ended up as an additional 2 hours of desperately trying to find the camp before dark. All good in the end, but maybe check drivers know their destination before setting off." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 13 on a Kenya safari

"Really happy with this company and the level of service they provided to us for the whole trip - from the pre planning to during and the post the trip. All very professional and if/when i am going back to Africa again i would seriously consider getting a quote off these guys and using them as i was really happy. This was our third trip to Africa and i hope it wont be my last. Keep up the good work." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 4 on a Tanzania safari