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Testimonials

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,

Safari was wonderful. Lake manze was better than anything we could have imagined. The staff were great and really accommodating. I would 100% recommend it to others

Mchanga was nice to have a break from everything. Marco was a bit... Marco at times but it was still a positive experience. Other positives about mchanga were the food (delicious) and the access to the beach. Also the option to sit outdoors for dinner when requested.

There was a power cut after a storm and Marco told all the guests it was a national state of emergency and the south of the island had completely flooded. That was a complete lie and I suppose a way to make us not complain that our roof had leaked and room flooded! I wouldn't recommend anyone stays there in the rainy season as it seems their rooms leak quite a lot!

Seyyida was absolutely fine for our short 2 nights there.

Craig and Pav

Pav and Craig

Hi Nick

Some quick feedback our East Africa trip.

The visit to the tea garden was a lovely way to start the trip and ease us into the holiday. The lunch was really good. The next day was really busy but very doable and a wonderful experience especially to see the baby elephants.

All of our flights with Coastal were very good and very professional.

The Kimondo camp was out of this world. Especially the location and our guide who found all sorts of game for us. The staff went out of their way to make our stay as pleasant as possible.The only negative point here was the vegetarian meals that were served. On the final evening only rice and a veg were served.

The Highlands Camp is absolutely stunning. One of the nicest places I have ever stayed at. The rooms and the log fires were fantastic. But once again the vegetarian meals served in the evening were lacking some imagination.

The Z Hotel was lovely and the location was very nice

Hope this helps. Thanks,

Alison

Alison & Group

Hello Nick,

Just a few lines to thank you for organising a wonderful holiday - everything ran like clockwork!

Lovely camps with gentle kind staff and very knowledge guides.

The hotel Matlai - what can I say - the tide going out was quite a novelty for me - don't think I have seen it for about 30 years!

Once again many thanks,

Asante sana.

Jacqui

Rose and Jacqui

Hi Gemma,

We had a great time and we were very happy with the program you created for us!

Siwandu was perfect, ! A place we couldn't had afford if we had to pay full price and we wouldn't have found it our self.

Thank you Gemma!

Jon

Jon and Tale

Hi Gemma,

We had an absolutely amazing time. Thank you so much for organising the trip for us – everything went so smoothly!!

We managed to see all of the big 5 and the Migration Camp was a real highlight of the trip. The service was outstanding and the quality of the tented accommodation was unreal considering where we were!!

Kono Kono was an ideal location with an amazing beach however we did find the service to be a little lacklustre with some room for improvement.

We both had the best time and are now thoroughly depressed to be back in the UK and back at work. We may be in touch sooner rather than later to plan our next trip to Africa so thanks again for all of your help.

Kind regards,

Chris

Chris and Ceri

Hi Gemma,

In short, we had the most amazing time - everything was as close to perfect as you could ever want or imagine. Sorry for the delayed response, settling back into real life has been a rude awakening.

Above all else, the staff at both the Migration Camp and Matlai really made it. They were brilliant and made us feel very welcome and well looked after. Of course they were well supported by incredible accommodations that were far beyond our expectations. The wildlife on the safari was great, we only missed out on a rhino spotting and frankly after everything else - particularly the wildebeest crossings - we were already well spoiled. Matlai is in the perfect location and the fitting end to a very relaxing trip. 

It's also worth calling out how seamless the transit was as well between all the places we went. We were always met on time by a friendly face who knew more about where we were going, when etc than we did. It made the whole process very relaxing and reassuring.

We took a lot of photos so are still working our way through thinning those down to the best. 

Thanks again for everything - it really was the perfect honeymoon.

Ben

Ben and Mel

I do have to say though that, although we’ve travelled all over Southern Africa in particular, this was the most amazing holiday we have ever had. Everything worked like clockwork. The game drivers we had were knowledgable , the food was delicious and all the staff polite and courteous and extremely helpful. I would recommend The Tanzania Specialists to anyone!

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Linda and group

Morning Nick, I hope you are well.

Apologies for this email coming through rather late, after coming back from Africa we were thrown into work mayhem, back to reality with a bump! Just wanted to say thank you so much for all the help with organising our honeymoon, it was absolutely incredible.

After we landed into the Selous it took a bit of getting used to, most of the time it felt like we were on another planet! To go from waking up in a terraced house just off the A10 in London to a tent in the middle of the Tanzanian wilderness with 5 elephants sauntering past on our first morning was just unbelievable. I don’t think we could have ever dreamt that Siwandu would be that magical, I cannot fault a single thing and it would undoubtedly be top of the list of favourite places I’ve ever stayed.

The Emerson Spice in Stone Town was stunning too, a bit of a shock to the system after the Selous but a lovely place to stay. You were totally right about not spending two nights there, thanks for the advice on that one!

The Z was a tricky one, it was never going to be able to compete with Siwandu and the fact that it was a second choice to Ras Nungwi and it was nice enough but generally too much of a hotel/resort for what we wanted and the service was a bit poor. Nungwi was beautiful, I can see why it consistently appears in lists of World’s best beaches but the hassling from the tour sellers was incessant and I really didn’t like the fact that some of them had monkeys on leashes, that really bothered me. We booked the Ocean Front Cottage which was lovely but were only in there for one night when we had to move due to leaks and maintenance. They moved us to the Z Suite and although it’s pitched as the most luxurious suite in the hotel, we much preferred the Ocean Front Cottage and we were a bit gutted about having to move. I mean, maybe a bit first world problems but thought it was worth feeding back.

Let me know if you require any more feedback, happy to have a chat but otherwise thanks again, we’re already thinking about when we can go back so hopefully we’ll talk again!

Best, Sophie & Aaron

Aaron and Sophie

Hi Gemma,

We had such a wonderful time and were so fortunate in the diversity and amount of the wildlife we saw. I’ve been back for about a week, but lost your email in amongst the millions!!

Our trip to Tanzania was fantastic and we got to see over 2000 Wildebeest cross the Mara River, which was amazing. The accommodation was great at both the Crater Lodge and Sayari. The only thing we noticed at Sayari was that the food was not up to the same standard as we had experienced in South Africa and Zambia, and in particular the gluten free bread, cakes and desserts. I did pass this onto them in their feedback form. Of course, the food in general was good and the place and staff was lovely.

The small aircraft were great too, even though I was a bit dubious - all worked out well and we had very smooth flights. The only small hiccup we had was with the Palacina driver pickups from the airport. When we arrived on the 4th which was late at night, the driver was over half and hour late. He said there had been a terrible traffic jam with delays of 2 hours. I understand that can happen, but as feedback, it would have been nice if they had called our mobile to let us know. It was a bit scary outside the airport with 20 to 30 ‘drivers’ with signs, many of whom did not look very professional. The driver was also late from Palacina the second time, but this was due to the flight arrival time being incorrect on our Coastal booking.

These were only minor and the rest of our holiday was great. Hemingways was really great and I had a few massages there, but we didn’t have much luck with their butler service. Our Butler kept mucking up our bookings, but I get them sorted out in the end.

Sabi Sabi Selati in South Africa was fabulous if you ever have anyone going there. We had the best guides, trackers and food of anywhere on our whole trip. Also The River Lodge in Zambia had fabulous food and great rooms. It is a little way from the Zimbabwe border if you want to go to Victoria Falls or do any other activities there. However, we found plenty to do on the Zambian side and only spent one day in Zimbabwe which worked well. Hope you are well too.

Unfortunately now I am back into the work routine :( . We would definitely recommend you to friends for holidays to Africa. It certainly made our life easier in Tanzania with all of the flights and transfers.

Thank you very much!

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Helen and Phil

Hello Gemma,

I just wanted to let you know we had a wonderful trip! We were very glad we decided to stay at the Singita Mara River Camp – saw three crossings, one of which was incredible.

Everything worked very well and the Boma Hotel was a good recommendation. I used Nairobi airport transfers for all 4 trips between the hotel and airport and found them very reliable and reasonably priced.

Thanks again for all your help!

Best wishes,

Doug

Doug and Barbara

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