Reviews of holidays to South-west Zanzibar

"We had a fantastic holiday and all the recommendations by Expert Africa were excellent." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"Our trip was way beyond our expectations, every camp and hotel that we stayed at was unique and a lot of thought and planning went into selecting these. We 've had an unforgettable experience, the safari camps and Chumbe Island in particular were outstanding. We wouldn't change a thing!

Expert Africa, in particular Elizabeth, was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful when recommending which parks to visit and camps to stay at. Whenever I had a query, emails were responded to immediately by the staff. Our whole trip was seamless and we are so impressed with the service from Expert Africa. We will definitely use this company when travelling to Africa again and will recommend you to all our friends and family.

Thank you for an incredible trip!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None at all" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zanzibar holiday

"What a holiday - all we can say is Thank You Expert Africa and we hope we will be able to travel with you again!

Elsewhere in their review, they also commented:

We left Zanzibar the day of the Nairobi airport fire and cannot praise Expert Africa, in particular Liz Woollen, enough for her efficiency and help in getting us back to the UK via Egypt - in as painless a way as possible." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Ilikuwa ni mkubwa! Asante sana.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We don't. You provided expert advice and expert services, and we will certainly be recommending you to our friends.

Liz at Expert Africa should be paid her weight in gold and given a free holiday. She rescued us when Nairobi airport caught fire and redirected us on another flight via Cairo. We were upgraded to business class, and provided with drivers to and from the airports as if it had all been planned weeks in advance. We arrived a mere few hours later than previously scheduled. Thank you!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"A trip of a life time and it certainly measured up the everything we had hoped and more. Firstly please pass on our huge thanks to both guides. Martin of Asilia was amazing and so professional .We'll for ever be grateful for his patience for our bird watching interests and his expert knowledge. He was so good at finding the quieter places and picking up the signs before others got there!! Please note our grateful thanks to him personally through Asilia.

Also we would like special recommendation for Paulo Siololo of Nomad Tanzania...Arusha. as he was fantastic too. Think he has telescopes for eyes as he picked signs of animals at tremendous distances and had the patience to pursue and wait. We had numerous wonderful experiences just watching cheetahs and Leopards all on our own as well as so much more. He really put himself out to please us and make our experience memorable.

Fishermans tours on Zanzibar not quite so efficient as 3/4 hour late one trip and didn't turn up on last return drive to airport. Neither actually caused us problems as door man at Serens Inn got us a taxi and arranged for paymenbt between driver and F. tours.but thought you may like to know for future.

Well done Expert Africa and especially Ellie ,you judge it perfectly for us....right locations and timings ." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"Overall we had a fantastic trip and felt well looked after.

However there were a few points in the planning that could have been better explained or handled by Expert Africa;

1. On our safari we were unable to see the Wildebeest migration because it was too far away from Sopa lodge where we stayed for 3 nights. When we planned the trip we believed we were close enough to see the migration. If we had known Sopa lodge was so far away we could have spent 1 or 2 nights there and some the other nights in the Western Serengeti near the migration.

2. We booked our flights through Flight Centre but as Expert Africa had also quoted for the flights we had a double booking on our account which caused our actual flights to be cancelled and so had to be rebooked. We had hoped that this had been sorted out before we left but infact we had trouble checking in to both the outward and return flights, and were held up at check ins for 30 mins or so while the airline verified our tickets.

3. See Unguja Lodge feedback re windy season in Zanzibar." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"Trip was great, all connections and reservations were carried out seamlessly and on time. One miscommunication on a side tour was corrected to our satisfaction. Eco and Culture transfer vehicles and drivers were excellent, safe, and on time.

It's unfortunate that the local people don't take more effort to keep the trash cleaned up. Plastic bags should be banned as they are in Rwanda. Southern part of the island is cleaner, more green and tropical looking, and a little less humid." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 5 on a Zanzibar holiday

"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

"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