Reviews of trips to Stone Town
354 holiday reviews from our travellers of holidays which include Stone Town.
"My Zanzibar break in Jan 18"
The Kholle House is a lovely boutique hotel but was not the most relaxing. see me earlier comments. Not what i expected. Very disappointed.
However the Lazizi hotel was a lovely but I did feel that the charges by Expert Africa for arranging this were high to excessive when looking at the hotel website." Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 5 on a Zanzibar holiday
"Everyone needs to experience Africa!"
Lyndsey was excellent. She started off by asking what kind of trip we wanted and from there guided us through planning a trip that would meet our needs and expectations. She answered our questions, wasn't pushy and was open to my suggestions of things i wanted to work into our trip, like visiting fish markets and seeing some of Dar es Salem. The adventure was exactly what we wanted and more.
Travelling as two older women it was important to feel safe and at the same time experience the opportunity of adventure. Keeping the costs down and not going to high end camps was important as well as avoiding the crowds. We met other travellers who had been further north and when they showed up at an animal sighting there where 50 jeeps already there, everyone lined up. We knew we didn't want that nor travel in an enclosed vehicle so again great direction from Lyndsey.
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
We were not charged the $30 fee to leave Tanzania and I'm not sure if this is because we left from Zanzibar or not.
The Stone Town Airport does not open until midnight for a 2am flight so there is no point going out there early. If u do the toilet outside the airport building costs money and the one inside is free. You need TZ shillings.
The booklet is confusing on tipping in the camps and we received different information from the different camp managers. If two people are travelling together do they pay their guide as one person or do they people double the recommended amount? We paid our driver, the guide, the boat guide all separate from each of us and then half that amount at the second camp. Other people we talked to seemed confused as well.
I brought a black head net and was really glad I did as the flies at the second camp were fierce in some areas. Burning elephant dung helped somewhat. Green head nets interfere with your vision clarity but the black ones work great.
Thanks Lyndsey for all your help in planning our wonderful adventure!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari
"My Sep 2017 trip"
The only slight negative is that we were a little disappointed with Mwagusi Camp in terms of service and food, especially after staying at Siwandu which surpassed our expectations and was just excellent on every level. Maybe if we'd stayed at Mwagusi before Siwandu, we wouldn't have noticed so much!
We are definitely keen to explore more of Africa as a result of this trip, and will definitely return to Expert Africa to do so!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari
"Tanzanian Adventures September 2017"
I also wasn't prepared for the aggressiveness of some of the street hustlers in Stone Town. While in most places, they would respect a polite "Hapana, Asante," in the Forodhani Gardens area, they were so aggressive it made it unpleasant to walk over there - sometimes escalating to physical contact and insults from them although we stayed polite. This isn't something that Expert Africa controls of course! It would be something that it would be helpful to add to the next Bradt guide update.
I also need to note that at the beginning of our trip, things went off track due to a problem with Turkish Air. Because of their delays, we missed our Istanbul connection, and had to stay the night in Istanbul. This was clearly not Expert Africa's fault, but it was very frustrating that I couldn't get through to anyone on the 24 hour emergency number. I called four times. Each time, a recording would tell me that someone would be with me in a minute, and then the phone would start ringing. I would let it ring 100 times before I gave up. Maybe I should have had faith and let it ring longer?
I guess I'm used to hold music playing if I'm in a queue of calls, and then the ringing starting when I'm actually being connected. Is the ringing what happens when you're in queue on your line? Because all this happened during the 36 hour stretch that no one is on your office, folks at Lake Manze camp were quite concerned that we had disappeared without a word, and we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to reconnect with our trip. We spent a scary 4 hours sitting outside the Dar airport hoping we'd be able to figure everything out at sunrise, which we did with the help of a friendly cab driver and the staff at Coastal Aviation." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday
"My Aug 2017 trip"
"My Aug 2017 trip"
When we required a slight detour, the team at Expert Africa organised this and ensured that our trip still ran as smoothly as it could have. Every part of our trip was extremely well organised, considered and exactly what we wanted.
We really could not have wished for better service." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday
"Holiday of a lifetime. Practically perfect."
The organisation by Expert Africa was exceptional - everything happened as we had been told and there was only one glitch which our rep had sorted out in hours." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari
"Zanzibar trip 2017"
"A truly memorable honeymoon"
The clue is in the name - both Liz and Lyndsey were able to tell us exactly what we could expect from each different camp in Tanzania, and each resort in Zanzibar. Their expertise made it very easy to make decisions, when otherwise you mind spend days pouring over reviews, second guessing yourself at every turn.
What we appreciated the most was at no point did we ever felt like we were being 'sold to'. They were extremely honest about every single detail, allowing us to piece together a trip which would suit the kind of people we are.
For example, Ruaha in Tanzania is a staggeringly beautiful place, perfectly combining our desire to see a good degree of game, but without being surrounded by dozens of other vehicles viewing the same things as us at the same time. Yet once there we appreciated it wouldn't suit everyone, as some people may want a higher density of game at their fingertips every moment of every day. That's exactly how Liz described it to us in our very first conversation, even if the place itself exceeded our already lofty expectations.
I'd also add Lyndsey was extremely helpful answering each and every question we had in advance, no matter how small a detail it was. If, like us, you've never done a safari before, it's surprisingly easy to make assumptions about what you'll need, which will probably be completely wrong in reality. Therefore that level of assistance, expertise and detail was really appreciated.
Thanks guys, it was a brilliant trip." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday
"Honeyjune"
We chose Expert Africa from two other companies for our safari and beach trip to Tanzania. All the other agents we approached were very knowledgable about Africa, but we felt that Lyndsey at EA was more down-to-earth, friendlier and open to our ideas of what we wanted.
The process of booking the holiday was actually good fun and most importantly we really did have a honeymoon that was memorable for all the right reasons.
Plus, the fact I've spent a good chunk of my day writing up all the feedback on this website must tell you that we thought it was worth telling someone about it! Just don't ask to see the photos, or you'll be here all month ;)" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday
Where to stay in Stone Town
Our suggestions for places to stay in Stone Town