Cordina, UK. 2004.
Dear Marc,
3 months have passed and I have just realised that we have not given you the feedback about our honeymoon in Tanzania and Zanzibar. Fear not, it was brilliant.
I must admit that we were greatly impressed with the level of timeliness and efficiency of the people who picked us up etc. at airports, hotels etc. That was a major positive and we were never left worrying about travel details.
The holiday itself was a dream come true. We saw some of the most beautiful wildlife in the world and words or pictures can never describe what one feels when a pride of 17 lions crosses your safari vehicle’s path in the Serengeti, or the sight of a Thompson’s Gazelle giving birth in the Ngorongoro Crater. Add to that the spectacular scenery, lovely weather and great people and you have the makings of a great holiday. Our safari guide Richard Urio (Roy’s) was excellent. Always patient and always ready to explain fine details. A dedicated person. Lodge accommodation was also fantastic and the food was delicious.
In Zanzibar we had a great time too. The 3 days in Ras Nungwi were three of the most relaxing ever and the perfect opportunity to unwind after one sitting down in a safari vehicle for one week! Stonetown was great too. The Tembo Hotel may not have a service of the level of the other places we stayed at, but it is clean, nicely decorated and also in an excellent location. Maya Tours gave us an excellent walking tour of Stone Town and a great spice tour.
We will recommend your company to any friends interested in travelling to Africa and look forward to returning one day!
Jurkowski, UK. 2004.
Well, we have returned home safe from our honeymoon in Africa. The trip was so amazing, it’s hard 0to put into words. Everyone was unbelievably friendly and all of the transfers went smoothly. The drivers and representatives were always on time and helpful. Everything was perfect.
Regarding Roy Safaris, i was extremely pleased with their operation. Having multiple vehicles in each of the parks made game spotting much easier as the drivers were able to communicate sightings with each other. The vehicle was first class and our guide, Klamian, made our trip that much more special. I met some of the other guides, and while they were all very nice, they weren’t as good as Klamian. If you any very special clients, i would strongly recommend that you reserve Klamian for them. He is wonderful.
I would also like to express special gratitude to you for assisting with our last minute request to transfer to Stone Town for our last night. We are really happy we got to see Stone Town and the Serena was great! We really enjoyed the shoppping and restaurants. As far as the credit i am owed (for the difference between the price of the Serena and Ras Nungwi), please feel free to credit my Mastercard or send me a check in the mail, whichever is easiest for you.
Thanks again for the most wonderful honeymoon imaginable!
Kay, UK. 2004.
James,
Many thanks for a wonderful, exhilarating holiday – we had the best possible honeymoon.
Everything ran smoothly and we loved all the lodges. Thanks for all your advice to make ours a most memorable trip.
Warm regards.
B, Jones. UK. 2004.
Dear Marc
Just returned from a wonderful honeymoon.
I have to thank you and all your colleagues for your great organisational skills.
All the connections worked perfectly.
Managed to get upgraded to Club on the way out- Great start.
Safari was wonderful- Highlight was the staying at crater lodge- stunning !
Zanzibar was just the tonic after 6 days on the dusty roads, with early starts – worth it though. The wildlife was simply increadible.
Thankyou once again.
I would not hesitate to recommend you and your colleagues.
McElhinney, UK. 2004.
Hi Marc,
This is just a quick note to thank you for organising a fantastic trip.
The whole thing went perfectly and we felt that we were in very capable hands the whole time.
All the camps were very impressive and we particularly loved Grumeti (though Manyara was a close second!). Ngorongoro was, of course, stunning…..
Anyway, we will certainly recommend you to others and will be in touch soon to organise our next safari!
Faquharson, USA. 2004.
Marc
Back after a wonderful time away after the initial KLM balls up at the start
All accommodation was wonderful in particular Crater Lodge and Ras Nungwi. Serena had a few too many Americans but there we go. The wedding went off perfectly and they forgot to charge us for the champagne which is always good!
Game viewing was excellent and Roy Safaris were excellent (Clem and Raphael, the drivers in particular). We got picked up successfully at Kili after our late arrival and driven to Lake Manyara.
Thanks for organising
Vermeer, UK. 2004.
Hi Marc:
It has been a while already that we are back from our trip. So I am a little slow, but I wanted to let you know we had a great trip. The country and wildlife are outstanding and we saw everything we expected and more. The drivers were excellent. Joshua was our Tanzanian driver and he was very informative, a good driver, very accommodating. We had a great time. We would have no hesitation recommending this (and you) to our friends. Thanks for all the help in making this a great trip.
Mutimer, UK. 2004.
Dear James,
Just a quick note to say we had a marvellous honeymoon and thankyou for your help in organising everything. There were no hitches to speak of and both Ras Nungwi and the Selous were great. If you do speak to Natasha at the Sand Rivers Lodge please pass on our thanks.
J. Green, USA. 2004.
No problem James – as I said, we still enjoyed ourselves at Ras Nungwi but felt that had we not have been so spoilt by the previous places we would have been even more satisfied. A hotel will always be a hotel after all and you cannot get the same level of service, privacy and exclusivity as you can at a resort consisting of individual bungalows.
We have been advised that the Mahale Mountains National Park is an amazing place and we are especially interested in chimpanzees etc. Do you organise trips here too? What would be ideal is to either combine with a couple of days at the Norongoro Crater to see the scenery more that anything, or with a trip into Ruanda to see the silverbacks. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts – this would be something that we would like to do perhaps next year when we have finished paying off our wedding and honeymoon debts………should have married in a registry office and had the honeymoon in Blackpool instead…….apparantly the wildlife is very interesting there!!
Again, thank you for all your effort and we will definately recommend you to our friends.
Linton, USA. 2004.
Hello Marc,
Just to let you know that we’re back safely and that we had a fantastic holiday. The itinerary worked very well and the accommodation was excellent.
Africa is an extraordinary place and some of the many wonderful memories will, I’m sure, stay with us for ever…
Both Roy safaris (we all thought our driver/guide was excellent) and Coastal looked after us well…
Thanks for sorting it all out for us (Jess got to SA without any problems, in fact she was able to get earlier flights which was helpful…)
Baldini, UK. 2004.
Dear James
We are back, unfortunately, and would like to thank you for your suggestions for what has been a wonderful trip.
Ras Kutani is a beautiful place, despite lack of diving, the ocean is a bit rough. The beach, the accommodation, the food and the people working there are absolutely amazing. We loved it.
Jongomero is a great place, very remote, very good taste (without pretending to be on conde nast!) and Stewart and Karen are great hosts.
They are doing a very good job there. The food is great and the way the place is organised is excellent. Game view is great as well. we manage to see some rare animals (sable antelope, honey badgers, black mamba…)
Selous Safari is great game viewing (we saw lions killing an impala on our first day!) and it is great to do walks, boat trips and fly camps (we did for one night). The ambience and the food are not as good as Jongomero but overall it is a great safari camp.
In the end we enjoyed Stone Town and it was good to stay at Emerson & Green. It has to be said that after ten days in the bush, a town is a bit of a shock. But worth it.
Thank you again and if you pass by Ras Kutani or Jongomero gives our regards to the people there. We enjoyed their company very much.
McClenahan, USA. 2004.
Dear Marc and James:
I wanted to thank you both for arranging my and Cheryl Bailey’s trip to Zambia. It was simply wonderful and everything went smoothly. We were meet and greeted at every point and the transfers were seamless. We were so glad that we chose (with your encouragement) Zambia. It seemed that everywhere we went we ran into repeat Zambia visitors who had “discovered” it after several trips to Africa. In Livingstone we encountered people who had been to Botswana, but had not encountered the diversity or density of game (or interesting experiences) that we had. Lower Zambezi and a unique environment with close encounters with elephants and Chiawa made us feel at home in Africa. Nsefu was “rugged Africa” with lots of game including leopards. Following stampeding buffalo that were being hunted by lions at night was an adventure. Kafue –Lunga and especially Busanga was a special place. The plains were just beginning to be populated with game and we were able to follow a pride of lions for our entire three days there. It boggles the mind that the American agent we almost commissioned tried to talk us out of Kafue! Victoria Falls was a wonderful end to a great trip.
We will recommend your firm to anyone planning a trip to east/southern Africa. For your information we had interesting experiences with Air France –maybe because we paid more for the routing (with a stop in Paris). They upgraded us to business CDG-JNB and CDG to Washington on the return.
Zubkus, UK. 2004.
Dear Tanzanian Odyssey!
I am writing to tell you that we had a WONDERFUL trip to Tanzania and Zanzibar. All accomodations and services were excellent.
Thank you so much for all your help.
A St. John, USA. 2005.
Dear Marc
I just thought I should let you know that we had a superb time in Tanzania and everything worked out fine with a couple of exceptions.
Flight to Dar went well and met by Coastal Travel and Freya
SeaCliff Hotelexcellent – once they had found us on their list (we have a silly surname)
5 nights in the Selous were brilliant and could have stayed for longer – The Fly Camp was the best and I might be tempted to do more of that.
4 nights in Ras Nungwi – food not as good as the Selous and probably stayed 1 night too long – I am not much for lying/sitting about.
2 nights on Chumbe – once again brilliant – should have been here longer. You need to warn people that they will almost certainly get wet getting to and from the island and they need strong sandals when wading out to the boats to avoid the sea urchin spines – I still have mine in my foot!
2 nights in Serena – they had difficulty finding us and for some reason we were helped by Fisherman Travels who had a help desk in the hotel – I don’t remember them coming into the conversation when we were planning the trip. The time in Stone Town was excellent and we managed a trip to a spice farm. Missed a trip to the forest. Could have done with another day or so.
All the links worked. Everyone was very caring and efficient and on time!
If I could go back tomorrow I would.
Heather, Freya and I would like to thank you for your help and advice – well done
Iqbal, UK. 2004.
Just a quick note to say thank you very much for helping with the honeymoon – we had an amazing time and Sand Rivers is totally unforgettable.
Really appreciate your help and for tailor-making our holiday and being so thorough – I have already recommended you to several engaged friends of mine.
You could have told me that Amani was next door to Ras Kutani though!!!!!!!!
Baldini, UK. 2004.
Dear James
We are back, unfortunately, and would like to thank you for your suggestions for what has been a wonderful trip.
Ras Kutani is a beautiful place, despite lack of diving, the ocean is a bit rough. The beach, the accommodation, the food and the people working there are absolutely amazing. We loved it.
Jongomero is a great place, very remote, very good taste (without pretending to be on conde nast!) and Stewart and Karen are great hosts.
They are doing a very good job there. The food is great and the way the place is organised is excellent. Game view is great as well. we manage to see some rare animals (sable antelope, honey badgers, black mamba…)
Selous Safari is great game viewing (we saw lions killing an impala on our first day!) and it is great to do walks, boat trips and fly camps (we did for one night). The ambience and the food are not as good as Jongomero but overall it is a great safari camp.
In the end we enjoyed Stone Town and it was good to stay at Emerson & Green. It has to be said that after ten days in the bush, a town is a bit of a shock. But worth it.
Thank you again and if you pass by Ras Kutani or Jongomero gives our regards to the people there. We enjoyed their company very much.
Swinfen, USA. 2004.
Dear Marc / James – all at Tanzania Odyssey,
Thank you so much for booking / organising our truly wonderful honeymoon – the memories of which will last with us forever!!!!
Every aspect of our honeymoon – the flights, connections, transfers, accomodation, food and drink, the staff and general hospitality has been amazing. This was our first trip to Africa and it certainly hope that it won’t be the last!!!
At the Selous – as our plane landed in the game reserve the Land Rover was hurtling along beside us with two beaming faces smiling at us to welcome us in, from there on in we were treated like kings, everybody and everything was fantastic, so helpful, so cheerful and so wanting us to have an amazing time. Our guide for the five days ‘Apollo’ was brilliant he took us over terrain that we never dreamt we would cross – came much much closer to animals than we ever thought we would and his knowledge of the animals and birds was fantastic!!
We have many many unforgettable moments – to name a few, we saw Lions mating, Mrs Warthog and her four tiny babies, 3 baby hippos which were approx 5 metres from our tent at 2am in the morning.
Breezes – was the perfect relax after our safari – again everything was lovely we were thoroughly relaxed after being there for about 2 hours!! We felt completely like we were at home and the whole experience far exceeded our expectations.
So I just wanted to express my thanks – and will hopefully be speaking to you again the future to organise another amazing trip for us. Do you produce a brochure? I have noticed that you are updating your website – do you ever send email updates or newsletters out – if so please include me!!
Many Thanks
