J. Linehan USA. 2020
Dear George
Thank you & apologies for not replying sooner
We very much enjoyed our Tanzania holiday.
Beho Beho was excellent experience. Great guides (interesting and different not to have same guide for every drive). Food very good (in fact a bit too much if anything). Quite a lot of bugs at night (pretty much the most we have ever had). Lovely park and we very much enjoyed the fact that we were pretty much on our own
Ikuka. Lovely camp. Great staff. really enjoyed slightly less formal dining eg relaxed small light lunch. Our guide was excellent. Bit busier park. elephants and lions seem to have been at other end of the park but that didnt matter
Namirhi plains
fantastic experience , cheetah sightings amazing. Two cheetah hunts witnessed- fantastic.
great time of year to visit with the migration going through. amazing camp. lovely staff
zanzibar
Great hotel. didnt leave it. pick up at airport slightly didnt work as pick up contact was waiting outside terminal. rememdied easily after a phone call.
Best wishes
M. Molina, Qatar. 2020
Hi Kitty,
Hope you are doing well. Thank you for your email and your interest.
We had the best time, it exceeded our expectations. Everything went as planned, you did an amazing job!
When we landed, George our driver/guide was waiting for us and we headed to Rivertrees. Beautiful place and the room was very nice. I would rate them 4/5. Following day the adventure began. We had a really nice time at Manyara National Park. We saw many animals that day and a very interesting encounter between a pack of elephants and a pride of lions…..some drama there.
Plantation Lodge was an incredible place, I could have easily spent a week there. The surroundings were magnificent, the room was big and beautiful, the bed super comfortable and the bathroom very nice and clean. The staff were very nice and really made an effort to make us feel welcome; plus the food was excellent (both dinners and take away). Last night they even had an anniversary cake for us to celebrate along with a beautiful song. They deserve a 5/5.
Ngorongoro crater was a magical place. With the exception of leopards, we say every animal there. But you were right, one day was enough.
For Chaka Camp my rating is 6/5. AMAZING! It’s incredible that is a mobile camp because every detail is looked after. The tent is confortable and spacious. The bathroom was always spotless. My goodness even the wifi was good considering we were in the middle of nowhere. The best part of that camp though was the staff. From the camp manager to the gentleman who took care of our tent deserve 10/5, so welcoming and always trying to make our stay as perfect as posible. The food was excellent every single day, I can not fault anything. We also had a delicious anniversary cake and some bubbly along with a beautiful performance by the staff.
Now George our driver, was excellent. He was very patient, polite and what an eye to spot animals. In a way he could predict what the animals were going to do and we always ended up in a perfect place. Very important: without harassing the animals. He was always on time and every morning the car was spotless; I don’t know how he did it. He knew a lot about the animals and shared that with us, always answering our questions. And boy we had some good laughs with him, very important considering how many hours we spent together. I will rate George with a 5/5.
The Ngorongoro conservation area/Ndutu was an extraordinary place. We saw beautiful scenery and the animals took my breath away. I’m not a fan of a zoo, but I can tell you now I will never ever visit another zoo in my life. I was sad to leave the last day and even thought if I should have extended the safari a couple more days in Serengeti. But my husband told me it would have been too much and that your advice of staying in one camp proved to be the best choice.
Now Zanzibar and Pongwe Hotel. The flight left on time and once we landed there was a driver waiting for us outside. He was very nice and a safe driver so the trip to the hotel was a relaxing one.You were absolutely right, the hotel and the beach are gorgeous. The room with the private pool was amazing, we enjoyed it very much. I liked the relaxed vibe after all the safari madness. It gave me time to reflect on the prior days. We had a bottle of champagne waiting for us in room, which was very much appreciated. The only thing in my opinion the room lacks are more fans. Even though there was a nice breeze outside, it some how didn’t make it inside the room. The ceiling fans helped but some standing fans would have made a big differance. The food was amazing every single day! The staff were ok, but not as welcoming as the places before; maybe we were very spoiled by the time we arrived at Pongwe. Now mangagment was a different story, sorry but not a fan. They need to work on their customer service skills. So I will rate Pongwe 3/5.
Now finally my rating for Africa Odyssey is 6/5. Thank you Kitty for all your work. You planned a beautiful trip for us. Everything went smoothly and all your advice proved to be spot on. We found very helpful all the information provided by the app you sent us. I can’t believe it is over now, specially after a year of planning. But my heart is filled with beautiful memories and stories to tell. Asante sana! …..also thanks for the amazon voucher. I was planning on reviewing Africa Odyssey on TripAdvisor, but let me know if your preference.
We are thinking of planning a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia, so you can definitely count on hearing from us soon. We will recommend Africa Odyssey, and specially you Kitty, to our friends and family.
Kind regards,
Heather Cleland, Canada. 2020
Hi Sam,
We had an absolutely wonderful time at Kwandwe. Our guide was a very knowledgeable soft spoken Xhosa man, mid thirties. I won’t attempt to spell his name but it started with M if you want to figure out who he was. What I really liked was how he seemed to truly love and respect the animals and the environment.
The lodge itself is beautiful and I cannot think of one detail that was overlooked. We had lovely meals. Our accomodation was cleaned it seemed several times during the day by seemingly invisible staff as we never encountered anyone in our room no matter what time of day.
We saw all the big 5 except the leopard. So exciting!
