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What our clients are saying about us and our trips...

With web review sites being all the rage these days, it can be a little difficult to sift through the debris to actually find out what a place or hotel is like. From our point of view, having stayed in 99% of the hotels and safari lodges we sell (and quite a few we don't), we think that these reviews can be very misleading as it is impossible to know what the reviewer likes, was looking for, paid etc. etc. In our opinion our job is to find out what you like and match the correct product to you...see how we have done. (please note that ALL of the reviews we feature are 100% real and unedited. If you would like to speak to any of our past clients please let us know)

Furthermore, we have started to gather customer reviews through Trustpilot so please take a look at our page on there to see how we are doing! Trustpilot Reviews >>

Hi Nick

We had a great time thank you. We would go back to do safari in Tanzania in a heartbeat. We enjoyed the beach in Zanzibar but probably won’t be rushing back to the island. Couple of comments (the negative ones are small issues in the overall scheme of things):

· We struggled to find someone from Coastal on our arrival as their booth/desk was not manned

· When the person returned they struggled to find our booking as we did not know the name of the airstrip in Selous – it would have been helpful to have an electronic print out of the internal flights we were booked on (when she found us she provided one for our other flights)

· There are no mosquito nets at Lake Manze or Mdonya (but they weren’t necessary as the main part of the tent is will enclosed and we actually saw very few mosquitos)

· Location at Lake Manze is perfect and we particularly enjoyed the boating safari and a full day safari to the hot springs

· Our time at Mdonya was our favourite because of how wild and rugged Ruaha is as well as the variety of animals. The location of the camp was not perfect because most of the best sightings were a long way from camp (we’d love to go back to Ruaha but would probably look for something nearer the Ruaha River). The food was incredible.

· Our room at the Z hotel was at the end of the block and it was quite noisy at night (sounded like there was a late night bar right next door). Food was very good and the beach and pool area were stunning.

Thanks for all your help.

Ben

Ben and Lauren

Hi Nick,

We had a fantastic time, wish it could have lasted longer. Lodge / hotels exceeded our expectations. Thanks for making all the arrangements, everything went according to plan. There were a few minutes of concern when checking in for the Dar to Selous flight, Their list did not show us as being on the flight, however it was soon resolved. Pat and I are still sorting all the photo’s we took and will post any we feel do the locations justice. Highs for us was breakfasting in the middle of a pride of lions after watching them stalking (failed) their prey. Also fly camping, although the 2 am downpour caught us all by surprise. A low was waking in the middle of the last night at the lodge with a bed full of ants, not much sleep that night, but we did want to experience the real Africa J.

David


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David and Patricia

Hi Nick

We returned from Tanzania this morning. We had a great trip and thought I’d give you some feedback while the memory was fresh. First of all, Nairobi airport is a pretty unpleasant place, I gather they are rebuilding it after a fire last year and the 6 hours we had to wait there was such a waste of time (due to my late booking) especially waiting to check in and there were no cafes or shops so had to go out of the airport to get coffee! Visas were easy to get but queues were long. At Nairobi we were obliged to pay for 2 more visas yesterday at another $20 each, luckily I had cash left but wasn’t expecting this – I explained we were going straight to London but the official was adamant we needed another one. Surely that can’t be right but I didn’t want to argue!

Ngorogoro Crater was good but pretty crowded; Tloma Lodge and the Farmhouse were very comfortable (pools not heated) not as rustic as I like but served their purpose very well. It was the Serengeti that we really liked - we loved Olakira, saw great game as you had promised, (including a wonderful crossing at the Mara and a sighting of a leopard) the camp was comfortable and very friendly and we met some nice people there. With hindsight I would have preferred staying 3 nights there instead of 2. Wildebeast were around every night and one evening a hippo was very close as we were escorted back to our tent and we were told to get in quickly and zip up!

Manyara Ranch was very nice, very comfortable, but unfortunately nearly empty which was a shame as we really enjoy meeting and mixing with other guests. They said it was the end of the season. It was also terribly hot (35 degrees) and dry and just seemed a bit barren after the Serengeti. They only had 5 horses, 2 of which were lame Greg, who took us out, amused himself by seeking out some very steep and narrow tracks on the river bank and I didn’t feel all that safe frankly - I believe he thought it would be fun for us until I said otherwise. Our first day, Greg was not well and Rory and I were taken out with Jumo, who only spoke very basic English which was rather alarming. I mentioned it to Alan, the Manager, and he kindly arranged for 2 further rides for us. Alan was a marvellous host and guide and looked after us very well, we saw many wonderful elephants and watched them swimming and playing in the lake. We saw a pride of lions on the last day and did 3 lovely evening drives. Lions were roaring near the camp every night!

Next time we go I’ll want to ensure we catch high (ie busy) season when the camps are likely to be full, so there are other guests to chat to and to join with on game drives. The other point to bear in mind is altitude because we are better in slightly cooler environments – I am aware that I chose to go to that part of the world and had looked at the climate but it’s hard to tell until you’re there.

Anyway, it was a lovely trip all round, great destinations, lovely food, helpful people and well organised – so thank you for all your help and input.

Kind regards
Carolyne

Carolyne and Rory

Hi Nick:
Just wanted to write and say thanks for arranging such a great trip. We are home again (after a 42 hour return trip). I did want to share our experience with you - particularly at Kungwe…..

First of all, the Kigoma Hilltop manager and his wife gave us a lovely personal tour of the Livingstone museum and the markets of Kigoma. We had a lovely afternoon. The staff at the Hilltop were wonderful to us…. Our only pulse quickening experience was the Air Tanzania flight which left an hour earlier than our ticket said it would.

Kungwe was spectacular! The tents had obviously just been refurbished and were quite lovely. We were a group of 4 people (served by 17 or so staff), so we all had a great deal of attention. I wanted to let you know how we experienced the Greystoke staff since you recommend it on your website. I cannot comment on their lodge since we did not go into their camp, however we did have several interactions with their guides and camp staff. I would say for those who go to Mahale to have a wonderful chimp watching experience - STAY AWAY from Greystoke! First of all, they were full - so large groups out looking for the chimps. Our guide worked hard to communicate with all the different groups out looking for the chimps (because you are only allowed to view them in groups of 6 for 1 hour - which means that the first group to get to them does not have to wait). On our fist day, the “scouts” found the chimps south of all the lodges so we headed for Kungwe to take the boat down to them (vs walking). As we were walking down the trail, I was shoved by a young man and then the guide from Greystoke out of the path so that they could make the beach first. The Greystoke guide yelled at their guests to “run” to get on and off the boat. Our guide apologized for their rude behavior and we deliberately took our time so that our experience could be relaxed. The irony is that our guides knew where the chimps were and theirs did not, so despite their running and yelling we had a wonderful experience with the chimps before they arrived. On our second day, a small group of babies and female chimps wandered into our lodge (right in front of our tent). Suddenly staff from Greystoke appeared on the Kungwe property carrying machetes and yelling at the chimps - herding them south towards Greystoke. So sad to see the lengths that their staff went to…. Even our park ranger made a complaint about the poor behavior of the Greystoke staff. I would go back to Kungwe any day - you could not pay me to stay at Greystoke. So lucky they were full as you only have them listed on your website.

(Ed's note: this is a very worrying review of Greystoke as it has always gotten very good reviews from clients. We have taken this up with them and will post the update onto this review and onto the hotel page when we can)

We’ll post some pix.

Best,
Kathy

Kathy and Preston (2nd trip!)

Hi,

Thanks for your email. The trip was great - we had a fantastic time, all the arrangements worked well and we were really impressed with the setup at Lake Manze at the Z hotel. Would happily recommend it to others.

My only comment might be that it was slightly haphazard at points regarding travel connections and I think if I hadn't been to East Africa before it might have been somewhat more stressful, but I appreciate there's not much you can do about this except forewarn travellers of what to expect.

I have a reel of about 1000 pics (!) to work through and pick out the best of. Depending on the quality once I've done so, I'll get back to you with one or two these.

Thanks again for all your help in organising the trip.

Best wishes,

Nick

Nick and Stefanie

Hi Nick,

Very well thanks - just readjusting to life back in the UK! How was your honeymoon?

Everything was brilliant thanks - ran like clockwork. All the lodges / camps were excellent and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Saw plenty of Leopards (5), including one killing a jackal. . . a cheetah hunting and catching an Impala, plenty of Lions including a pride of 18 several times, amongst many other things.

No specific property feedback aside from specific compliments to both Mark at Sand Rivers and Moosa at Kigelia who doubled as our guide and manager, and who's company we really enjoyed.

One thing I could think to say as feedback- is to perhaps advise people that on Coastal Flights they should make sure their bags are loaded. We didn't have problems, but we spoke to some people that did, and it says in their own brochure that it's the customers responsibility to make sure their bags are on the plane. . . and they only really assist with moving the bags to and from the terminal.

Many Thanks,

Karim


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Karim and Izabela

Hi Nick, 

Thanks for dropping me a line. I was going to let you know in fact that we had the most amazing time - especially in Selous. Siwandu was fantastic, I loved every single minute of it. On the third day we got to see elephants really up close (we blocked the one of one and it walked 1m close to our jeep), a family of lions devouring a freshly killed wildebeest and then met a huge herd of buffalo. The people are so nice. It was the first time I've ever been really really sad to leave a place after being there only 3 days! It was all spot on, couldn't fault anything at all. 

As for Zanzibar, I was disappointed with the Hideaway… It's not a place I'd recommend. It may be that we have high standards but there were a number of things that were just slack. On the upside, the staff were absolutely lovely I have to say, the bedrooms were nicely decorated and the beach was beautiful. We got there after lunch and had a burger on the terrace which was just inedible. If it wasn't for having to eat something to keep down the Malarone, I would have sent it all straight back. The burgers (fish & chicken) were just gross, the chips were soggy and the cheese tasted very strange. We just ate the bread and told the girl when she came to take it away why we'd left just about everything on the plate but we still had to pay 45 dollars for the experience. Towels and bathrobes were missing too - and completely randomly, one day they were there, other days we had none. One day Sebastien only had a hand towel to get dried with, we asked a maid and called guest services but nothing was changed. The air con made a right racket too, couldn't sleep with it on. We did mention it when we talked to guest services about the burger experience but nothing was done or said. Drinks too were rather inconsistent. We managed to get 4 different versions of the same cocktail. Sometimes we ordered coffee at breakfast but it never came. A night we dined in the Teppanyaki restaurant it took them 2 and a half hours to serve us 5 courses from a set menu. Some people even left half way through. I would have told them these comments had there been a space to do so but there wasn't. Management of the F&B just seemed to swan in and out of the restaurants with their walkie talkie not really seeing what was going on. These were all relatively small problems (that could be resolved with better management and a bit more training of the staff) but not something I would have expected from a hotel under the LHW umbrella (which is why we chose it). 5 star? no, rather an iffy 4…  

We met with Max who came to pick us up as the transfer back to the airport was 30 mins late, they'd had some problem with the normal driver and he'd tried to leave us a message but the girl never passed it on. He was a cool character. The only other problem we had was that the transfer from the Serena hotel took us back to the International airport - despite having asked us where we were going and we told him Selous. We then just jumped into a cab as no one from Coastal could come and pick us up. 

We took some amazing photos from the trip, I'm just sorting through them now but here are a couple I posted on my FB account already :-) 

We've got the Africa bug, now wondering where our next trip will be…. If we need any help, I'll definitely drop you a line.

Hope the wedding went well! 

Best regards, 

Faye and Sebastien 

Ed's Note: Faye has given a rather strong review of Hideaway Resort in her feedback. In keeping with our policy of posting unedited reviews and feedback from clients we have posted it as Faye sent it over to us but we would also like to note that we hadn't recommended Hideaway to Faye but that they had chosen the property themselves. The feedback has been passed on to the property and if anything comes of it we will post an update here.

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Faye and Sebastien

Thanks for arranging an amazing trip of a lifetime !
All family enjoyed and I’m sure will be remembered for a very long time.

Regards
Tim

Tim and family

Hi Nick,

Thanks a lot for reaching out to Onsea House! Hopefully Turkish will compensate me...

Mr M. has great photos that he'll definitely send through to you once he goes through and edits!

We had a fantastic trip! Singita was the best hotel stay I've ever had... They were just topnotch the entire way through and quite frankly we could have just stopped there. We even caught the great migration! We'll definitely be back! Definitely request Watson for your clients as he was an excellent server/butler. I had forgotten my allergy medication and mentioned it to him in the morning. They did a surprise bush breakfast for us and also had allergy medicine for the entire trip waiting for me just a few hours later.

As for Tarangire we could have done without it...We were constantly besieged by tse tse flies and four days was far too long to be there. The main guide who was our driver, just does the same route everyday and since they can't go off road so it's fine to just do one full day there. The accommodations were nice though and I really liked the manager, Chris, who also took us on an amazing walking safari. In hindsight perhaps we should have just done one day at the crater and moved on to the beach as we didn't realize how much driving was involved with the safari.

Zanzibar was lovely. I think if we did it again we'd stay at a hotel that is more secluded and perhaps just spring for a higher priced hotel but only do it for a few days. We really loved Stone Town and the Mashiriki Palace. It was really the perfect end to the trip and I'm so happy you recommended this.

I imagine you already know this, but both Singita and Swala think Coastal is the most unreliable airline out there. Luckily we had no real problems with them, only once was the plane significantly delayed flying out of Singita so we took a later flight to Tarangire. Also, Serene Tours in Zanzibar made a lot of mistakes...were late picking us up without a word of apology, driver didn't know we were doing the spice tour, then the whole thing with the Coastal flight being at 4:30pm but i'm pretty sure they just misread your email that our pickup was at this time. I get that it's Africa but they were just sloppy.

Ed's note - Serene Tours did mix up the timing for the pick up which is why the client had an issue. Unfortunately this sort of thing does happen on occasion!


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Mr and Mrs M

Thanks Nick. 

We had an excellent time in Tanzania (!).  My dad had some problems with the travel and change of routine, but he still enjoyed the animals and time to relax in Zanzibar.

Mwagusi camp was excellent - I highly recommend it (and Ruaha in general) to anyone who is interested in a more "remote" safari experience.  The accommodations were very comfortable and we had no problem finding diverse wildlife on drives or just sitting in our banda.

I have several great photos, so I will upload a few to the gallery ASAP.

Thanks again for your help arranging this trip.  I will pass your name along to anyone who is interested to follow our footsteps to Ruaha...

Cheers,
Mark

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Mark and Zabrina

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