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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 >>

Dear Nick,

A big thanks for arranging our recent holiday, the whole trip ran exactly as your schedule described, everyone was ready and waiting for us at each transfer and we were made to feel that we were getting the VIP treatment throughout the whole trip. Our sons had just spent many months working hard towards and taking their GCSE’s and A levels, your brief was to plan and deliver the holiday of a lifetime that my wife and I had promised them as a reward, the trip gave us everything we asked for, a complete success. As you were aware, during our initial conversations, my wife and I had some reservations when contemplating booking such a big trip with a company that we discovered online, your advice, reassurance, references as well as the financial safeguards you offered convinced us to proceed, you delivered everything that you promised and our amazing experiences on the trip will be remembered for the rest of our lives.

Mivumo River Lodge was a taste of paradise on all fronts, to run a lodge in a remote location offering the comprehensive experiences that they do is remarkable. Nixon and his staff offer a level of service that I have rarely experienced in some very well known 5 star hotels, his chef does an amazing job, the quality and selection of food that we were offered was outstanding. Syed, our guide for the 5 days, met us at the airstrip when we arrived and was with us every time we ventured out of the lodge, he managed our daily adventures in an un-intrusive manner but made sure that we experienced all that was on offer. River, walking and all day safaris were arranged and conducted in a casual but professional manner, one of the highlights of my sons holiday was catching a large catfish from a sandbank which 20 minutes earlier had been a sunbathing spot for a number of large crocodiles. The vigilance and attention to our wellbeing by the staff and especially Syed ensured that we felt safe at all times, we were always eager to go along with his suggestions and it was difficult to say goodbye when he waved us off at the airstrip on our final day.

The Ocean Paradise resort in Zanzibar proved to be an equally good recommendation, the level of service from the staff was excellent, the food great and the ethos of the resort was calm and relaxing. The hotel offered our sons a range of facilities and activities that they enjoyed and they developed a good rapour with the staff who managed those areas. On 2 occasions we hired the hotels catamaran and it was the best sailing I had experienced in the past 20 years, the conditions were perfect and the equipment well maintained, albeit that my sailing skills were initially a little rusty. We managed to fit in 2 scuba dives on the reef face at Mnemba Island which rounded off a brilliant week. The hotel management made the effort several times during our stay to enquire if we were happy & all levels of staff were courteous and quietly determined to make our stay a positive experience, it’s a very pleasurable experience when all you encounter all day are smiling faces.

We would be more than happy to be used as a reference in the future and again a big thanks for the work that you put in to make our trip so special. I think my wife has even forgiven me for being a little economical on the information she was given on the flights to and from Mivumo, she finally asked the questions I had been avoiding for some weeks during breakfast in Dubai after the first leg of our journey, a colourful response is probably the best description of her reaction, I’m glad I was sitting out of reach, but everything tuned out just fine.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can offer any perspective customer any reassurance of your professionalism and ability to deliver on your promises, and even more importantly, please forward on my comments to Mivumo & the Ocean Paradise Resort with our grateful thanks, I just hope that one day we can do it all again.

Best regards
Steve, Rosie, Sam & Jack Bryanton

Steve and Family

Hi Nick

Thanks for your email.

We had such an amazing time, I could not fault any of the places we stayed at, the transfers were also prompt and the weather was perfect.

I would highly recommend the lake manze camp, the staff were brilliant the food was lovely, and the game was incredible. We defiantly will do safari again and are already looking at other parts of Africa.

Zanzibar was lovely, nungwi was a good choice, a little quieter than we expected but still lovely. The hotel we stayed at Langi Langi was great. We had the garden bungalow 3 nights then moved to sea view for 5 nights, to be honest we would have been happy to stay in the garden bungalow as the extra $60 a night was a bit overpriced but I know that unfortunately they were full. I would bear that in mind. We saw the z hotel and it only has a small pool so I think Langi Langi offered better value for money. There is a hotel next door called amaan bungalows which is In between Langi and Z, this has a really nice pool and is bigger. I would really recommend this hotel as a cheaper option to Langi and try and book the rooms which face the pool. The rooms here are $80 without ac and $120 with AC. The hotel also has a sports bar and local entertainment on in the evening, African dancers and snake dancer.

The slipway was also lovely although we did not leave it and see Dar, so it was perfect for us.

The internal coastal airline was great and we had no issues with delays.

Thank you so much for everything you did for us, I definitely will recommend you to my friends and my colleagues and I know I will book again with you.

Thank you
Sarah

Sarah

Dear Nick,

We had a great holiday. Thank you for all the tips and arranging it for us. The flights were reliable and Kenya airways efficient and comfortable. Crater Lodge was very attractive with superb views over the park. They gave us a very pleasant dinner on our anniversary with a very professional choral interlude by the staff. The Serengeti was a very successful stay. We saw several crossings, one of natures great spectacles. The hospitality and cuisine were excellent.

Beho Beho lodge was spectacular and I would recommend it to anyone. The game park is beautiful with excellent wild life. The lodge is comfortable and the cuisine as good as I have experienced in any restaurant. Wendy loved Mnemba island although we both were a little disappointed with the cuisine. We did have the opportunity to see turtles hatch. Overall it was a most enjoyable holiday and almost worth the cost! I cannot fault any aspect of the holiday. Once again thank you for your help.

Yours Sincerely, John

Wendy and John

Hi Nick,

I was going to email you this week to say Thank You for organising such a perfect trip!

Everywhere we stayed was fantastic and the guides were amazing. We really had the best honeymoon we could have ever imagined!

The Safari was great, we saw everything we wanted and more, including about 1million wildebeest! We were so lucky!

Kilindi was a dream, and they treated us like royalty! The food was amazing and we have definitely got some work to do after 3 weeks of eating and drinking so well!

The only comments I would have to help future travellers, and it’s not a complaint, more an observation, is that we never got any boarding passes for the Coastal flights (on your itinerary it said we would be given them on the 1st flight). It was so laid back on safari that it didn’t matter but when we left Zanzibar on the last day for the final flight to Dar Es Salam they weren’t very happy with us that we didn’t have any boarding passes. They let is through anyway, and we got the flight but it looked unlikely for a few minutes, even though our names were on their charter!

Also, the guide from Serene tours that picked us up at Zanzibar Airport wasn’t the most inspiring, we couldn’t understand him very well, and he was trying to sell us tours and boat trips, but he couldn’t give us a leaflet or a hard copy price guide, so I had to write down the information in the car, which wasn’t very helpful. He said he would come back the next day to Kilindi for us to book up what we wanted, but we asked Kilindi to ring him and tell him that we had booked trips locally. We booked all our trips via Kilindi and they were great (and cheaper than Serena). So, I just wondered whether it’s not better to just have a taxi transfer to/from resorts as opposed to a tour guide. The driver who picked us up to take us back to the Airport from Serena didn’t utter a word to us the whole way back so I’m not sure it was worth using Serena.

Anyway, none of it mattered, we had the best time, and can only hope we get to do more trips to Africa in the future!

Is there anywhere public that I could write a review for you?

Cheers,

Kate & Tom

Kate and Tom

The Tanzania Specialists went out of their way to help ensure our honeymoon was a holiday of a lifetime. They understood exactly what we were looking for from our trip and went out of their way to deliver in a professional yet personable way. Thank you!

Best,

Mark and Siew-Ling


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Mark and Siew-Ling

Nick proved to be informed, interested and above all patient as he helped us to navigate the different options open to us and to create a package that met our specific interests.

Organising a safari is not like booking a Holiday Inn for the night! Different parks, different camps and different seasons all complicate safari planning even for seasoned independent travellers. This is especially the case when you try and leave the beaten track in pursuit of a more authentic experience. Add in the variable quality of campsite information, the complexity of travel and uncertain communication, and the potential for an expensive error is very real.

Largely thanks to Nick’s advice and input, we were able to relax over the arrangements that were put in place. We enjoyed personalised and near-private safari and diving and ultimately left Tanzania rested and rewarded with a treasure trove of memories that will last us a lifetime as a result.

Pam and David

Pam and David

Nick

Just wanted to say a BIG thank you for all your help organising our trip. The whole safari and Zanzibar was beyond my expectations we all had such a brilliant time. The camps the staff and the beach lodge were perfect. The slip way was a bit far and a bit noisy but that is the only tiny negative comment I can make. I have taken over a thousand photos so i am sure i will be able to send some to you. Our 30 anniversary was celebrated with breakfast on a game drive by a watering hole and champagne on the edge of the lake watching the sun set with hippos and crocodiles!!! Perfect . We saw everything we wanted to and more , we have just got home and already I am missing all the sounds and the animals. We will definitely be doing it again, but not for a while, and I have already recommended you and your company

Again many thanks

Tracie

Tracie and Paul

Dear Nick,

Thank you for your email. Apologies for not replying to you sooner. I'd just like to say thank you for the wonderful safari you arranged through the Serengeti and Ngorongoro for our honeymoon. I have attached a copy of our thank you letter and some pictures to give an idea of our overall honeymoon experience (I had to use a different email to fit the pictures on). The safari was a particularly luxurious part though which I could expand on.

First the flight from Mwanza turn out to be just us on the plane so that was an unexpected romantic part. Our guide Teto from Multi-Choice Safaris was brilliant with his friendly manner and his endless energy. He worked tirelessly to show us everything he could in the 5 days, including getting up to his waist in mud to dig us out of a hole he slightly misjudged and working when he had a huge fever. (There was a lot of flu going around Tanzania which we also got for a few days). Sopa lodge was very luxurious (the quality of accommodation has completely changed since I was there in the early 90s) and Ngorongoro was spectacular. Overall we had a great time, I think the only thing we missed out on was seeing a Cheetah but maybe next time

May is a great time of year to go on Safari. It may have been harder to find animals in the vegetation but everything was green and animals so healthy. Also by coming just before peak season fewer tourists meant much better haggling deals when shopping, everyone's just pleased to have a customer again. Though we were lucky not to get disrupted by the rains.

I think that just about all I can think of. I’ll end with a couple of reviews which I think you might want to bear in mind. When we were staying in Jambiani we had a house inbetween the Red Colobus Hotel and Coral Reef Hotel. I can’t speak for the Red Colobus because they were closed for renovations but Coral Reef restaurant was easily the best eating place on the whole beach. Its location, its view, amazing food and great music at night made it the best in Jambiani. We also fell deeply in love with Stone Town and our stay in the Pyramid Hotel was by far the most comfortable and pleasant (and cheap, only $40) . Neither places were on any travel books that we had so they are worth promoting.

Again many thanks for all your help, if you have any more questions just ask. I hope when we have the time and the money to treat ourselves again, we can arrange another trip through you guys (I’m thinking a blue safari next time is definitely the way to go) .

All the best,

James and Anne-Marie

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James and Anne-Marie

Quick thoughts, somewhat pressed, was in Norway earlier this week, trying to think of any useful points rather than just platitudes.

It was generally good, pretty much what we'd hoped for, kids enjoyed it, reasonable balance.

We might have considered going to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro instead for more wildlife but suspect drive would have been more.

Driver friendly, organisation worked.

First hotel had excellent food.

If you have any questions on specifics where you have had concerns or mixed feedback, feel free to ask and it may prompt me to recall more.
Thanks
Ilya

Ilya

Hi Nick,

We just came back from Tanzania and it was really absolutely great. Everything! I cant wait to go back there. We really had a very good time and everything was perfect. I travel a lot and a had seen a lot o places, but this was or sure one of the best. Thank you so much or all the organisation and your patient.

I'm also thinking about going to Mozambique and if you can give as other advices there, I will contact you for sure.

Have a nice day,

Kind regards,
Kristine

Kristine

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