Reviews of trips to Stone Town

"i feel horrible putting fairly satisfactory as it was very satisfactory really, but the fact i spent 2 full nights without a bed adn on each night awake at least 3 hours as there was no fans was maybe insurmountable but the hotels should have contacted expert africa to say there was no electricity and then we couldhave either cancelled or changed to lamu or mombasa for example.

this was my first holiday for 13 years a huge expense involved in leaving 4 young children with full time care at home as well etc and I was pretty irritated about the twin room problems and generator timings. cecilia is very asthmatic, so it was a worry for her too at nights.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

expert africa are fantastic, they understand completely africa and what notes and advice gtravellers need. it was blooming brilliant!! and the guide book is fabulous too, you should get a copy in each hotel too out there.

i would ask one thing, that in the back of your notes to tanzania you h ave a copy of the maps of stone town that you can remove and carry about. it saves taking the whole book with you and in my case i had a tiny purse so ended up tearing out the town pages so i cuold refer to them when we got lost. i am sad my book is torn, but no hotels had maps of stone town and i didn't want to take a handbag with a book in it to the festival etc etc.

we never handed over any of the vouchers you gave us, nobody asked for them. the wallet you sent was also very useful, many thanks.

i hope we can sort out the 2 nights i had to spend on the push up bed and barazzas. i feel the hotels should give me my money back in full for these nights. It is unforgiveable and I am not a student traveller. I also think there should have been something from all 3 hotels to compensate for the lack of fans during the night. A free bottle of wine or soemthing would have taken care of this at each hotel, especially since they had obviously had loads of cancellations and in need of customers, instead of feeling we had been `done' . the goodwill gesture was missing.

i wonder did expert africa know there was no electricity on Zanzibar and it was all generator run, for hours at a time?

i will recommend claire and expert africa to anyone i can. many many thanks." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Our trip to Tanzania and Zanzibar was our first to the african continent and I can truly say that we have come back with some incredible memories- of friendly people, endearing culture, breathtaking scenery and amazing wildlife.

Our experience surpassed all expectations and the variety of locations and accommodation made this the trip of a lifetime. Thank you to all at Expert Africa, especially Claire, for helping to make the holiday so special. (and so easy!)

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The service was so efficient that we really can't think of anything that might improve it." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Very well put together itinery and we were impressed by the precise puntuality of those meeting us and delivering us at various places.

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We found out latterly that it is possible to go onto BA website just before 24hours before take off and purchase (if there is room) greatly reduced upgrades to Premium Class, which we would have like to have been told." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"This was the holiday of a lifetime, everything ran smoothly and the organisation of the whole trip was very good.

We are quite widely travelled and rarely return to the same place but we would certainly return to Tanzania and Zanzibar with Expert Africa.

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Everything went so smoothly I really can't add anything at all." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"This week fitted in very well indeed with our overall plan (which was centred on visit, largely arranged by ourselves, to family in Rwanda after leaving Zanzibar). Eco & Culture Tours service was confined to moving us between airport, Serena and Mbweni.

They performed all this perfectly, except perhaps the last occasion when the planned car was a little late because all the petrol stations were closed by power cuts, so quite understandable. Replacement vehicle arrived very promptly.

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No further comments.

We had heard of Expert Africa from someone who had been to Namibia with you, and you obviously knew the area very well; we did not seek any other quotations. In the event it was, for us, a good decision not ot try and squeeze in a short game park visit." Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Overall trip was excellent.

Help/advice given by Claire beforehand was also excellent and the detail on the website very accurate.

Fishermans Tours were always on time and the vehicles in good condition but we felt that they drove too fast most of the time.

We used Eco + Culture for 2 tours whilst in Zanzibar- both were very good. Guide was fantastic." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zanzibar holiday

"When on the ground everything went extremely smoothly and the itinerary was so well planned that we didn't have any gaps of time waiting for transfers. We also felt confident that everything had been taken care of because the Expert Africa team seemed to know exactly what they are doing.

We felt that Ellie had gone out of her way to make sure that the holiday was as good as it could be. When we were planning the itinerary she could provide good insights into the each of the places we were thinking of going to and appeared to know them well.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

If you had been able to handle purchase of the British Airways tickets using part air-miles then we would have preferred to book these through Expert Africa.

Otherwise, it was hard to improve upon!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"We loved it! It was a perfect honeymoon and each day just got better and better. So glad we chose Sand Rivers and Pongwe which exceeded our expectations." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Best safari we have ever had.

Suggestions for mprovements:

You probably need to put more emphasis on the point you made about ensuring that US Dollars are post 2001. I ordered mine from my bank via the internet, and although I specified that they nwere needed for Tanzania i was give two $50 Dollar bills which were not accepted. I am taking up the matter with my bank's foreign exchange department. They should know better." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"My trip was really fantastic and huge thanks to Claire for all her recommendations and ideas - it was definitely a holiday to remember!

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Truly cannot think of anything that Expert Africa could have done to improve the service and advice provided." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zanzibar holiday