The Africa Specialists Reviews 

Having previously spent time in Namibia, Tanzania and South Africa we were looking for someone able to deliver an extraordinary experience. Nick at The Africa Specialists was recommended to us both for service and price. Nick's passion for travel and Africa shone through as did his detailed knowledge gained from spending so long there. He spent literally weeks fine tuning a wonderful trip only to have it cancelled as a consequence of Covid19. He then recovered and refunded our deposit and flight costs. Simply amazing service. I will be rebooking with The Africa Specialists!

Absolutely incredible trip and wonderful organisation / communications etc with The Africa Specialists. I'd heartily recommend.

(As well as old school hard copies, they introduced us to Vamoos, where they'd uploaded all our travel docs. This was a revelation as a travel app - so useful.)

Thanks very much Nick and team - everything was fabulous!

Gemma at The Africa Specialists has been outstanding; we have been in contact for several years planning the perfect first trip to Tanzania for my partner which has now (finally) taken place. We had a fantastic time and totally appreciated her honest advice about itinerary, locations etc. Highly recommend her services!

The Africa Specialists provided some excellent advice and guidance on our holiday to Tanzania and Zanzibar including our Safari in the Selous Game reserve. Gemma our adviser was also very attentive and helpful.
We will be using the Africa Specialists again.

Despite arranging it incredibly last minute, it was the perfect holiday, eactly what we wanted and so much more. We especially appreciated how smoothly it all ran, from the moment we left the uk until the we arrived home, everything linked up perfectly and was zero stress for us. Thanks Gemma!

Great suggestion in places to visit.
Rapid feedback.
Flawless organization

Gemma was so accommodating and an excellent source of information for our trip to Tanzania. She did a great job selecting the right places that we wanted to stay. We actually met another couple in Ruaha whom used the same travel agent and loved her too! We had an amazing time at both our places of stay in Ruaha (Mwagusi) and Selous (Roho ya Selous). We highly recommend Asilia properties as it definitely has more of family feel. We got to see two leopards in Ruaha, a pride of lions eating a buffalo, and plenty of animals. In Selous we did flycamping, which is an amazing experience. Selous is very beautiful as far as landscapes, has a hot spring, and we got to see a rare sighting of a honey badger. My wife and I cannot day enough great things about Gemma and our places of stay.

The agency was very responsive and tailored the package to our requests nicely. Not cheap arrangements but excellent proposals that were submitted.

The Africa Specialists were a brilliant choice to help plan our honeymoon in Tanzania and Zanzibar. After muddling through some rather over priced and confusing itineraries from other agents it was a relief to speak to Gemma who was clearly an expert in the area and gave clear and excellent advice based on our budget and what we wanted to get out of our trip. We felt we were in competent and safe hands from start to finish, down to phoning from the airport to ask about plug adaptors! Gemma was very patient, friendly and quick to respond to all our questions and requests with a very personalised service.

The places we stayed were exceptional (Roho ya Selous and The Palms) and we felt it was all excellent value for money, without any hassles. It was the perfect honeymoon, thanks Gemma!

The bottom line of this review is that The Africa Specialists [TAS} and, in particular, Gemma D'Souza delivered an unbelievable level of personal service from first contact, throughout our holiday, and after our return to the UK.

This was not a simple holiday or itinerary and evolved over 18 months. The end result was a 6 centre holiday in:

1. Jambiani - Zanzibar - 7 nights
2. Siwandu Camp - Selous Game Reserve - Tanzania - 4 nights
3 Mwagusi Camp - Ruaha National Park - Tanzania - 4 nights.
4 Nungwi - Zanzibar - 4 nights.
5. Pongwe - Zanzibar - 4 nights
6. Fanjove Private Island - Tanzania - 4 nights.

Gemma arranged 12 flights (international & domestic), all transportation to & from airports (including assistance when transferring between terminals in airports), all transfers to and from our hotels, and all hotel bookings. Everything was flawless - not a single problem, delay, or misunderstanding at any point. The service even included the safe storage of our non-safari luggage in Zanzibar during our safaris.

We have never experienced a level of service like this before, where we literally felt as if Gemma was holding our hands every step of our journey.

When we first contacted TAS we had never been on safari before and needed advice and guidance. Gemma took time to understand exactly what we wanted and needed, and shared her personal & first-hand experience with us. Gemma has visited and has stayed at every location/ accomodation and was even able to recommend specific rooms in each accommodation - which she then secured for us.

Every contact with Gemma was actioned immediately and professionally - including a flight booking that needed changing whilst we were on holiday (due to an oversight on our part, not Gemma's).

Gemma's enthusiasm for Africa is contagious, she has considerable knowledge of Tanzania, Zanzibar, and Fanjove, and delivers exceptional customer service at all times.

Gemma is a credit and an asset to TAS. Recommended 100% without hesitation.

Five stars is not enough. Gemma deserves ten stars

Thank you

David & Lorraine

Highly professional team with excellent customer service and great attention to detail throughout the process.

I had some specific requests to visit the further reaches of Tanzania and Nick and Gemma came up with an excellent itinerary which gave us the opportunity to stay in Dar es Salaam, stay in three campsites in the South and visit Lake Tanganyika and Kigoma.

Through no fault of The Africa Specialist I had a small issue with an Air Tanzania flight. One WhatsApp message to Nick and he was on it in five minutes and sorted it out. Customer service I needed for my first trip to Africa, I couldn’t have asked for more.

I would recommend The Africa Specialist team to anyone visiting Africa.

I was beyond thrilled with the service I received from the Africa Specialists. When I looked around and compared what other people undertaking similar activities, I always felt I had the best situations: the best guides, the best vehicles, the best accommodations, the best circumstances overall. I would absolutely recommend the Africa Specialists, and I expect to be a repeat customer.

From the very start, Gemma was enthusiastic about planning my trip, honest, professional, and responsive. I contacted 4 companies for quotes and info before choosing to work with The Africa Specialists, and Gemma was by far the most knowledgeable, patient, and informative. She was clearly interested in ensuring we embarked on the life changing adventure we were yearning for versus just making sale. Thanks to her, I had THE BEST 40th birthday! :) I would highly recommend Gemma and the Africa Specialists to anyone interested in adventure with ease!

My wife and I booked our honeymoon with "The Africa Specialist" and we are so happy that we did. Absolutely fantastic service, really professional and great communications. We were really well informed from first contact and we never ran into any problems thanks to the detailed documentation we received in the planning process. We 100% recommend The Africa Specialist.

Gemma booked our Honeymoon in 2017 and it was so good we came back to her for our next safari! The communication is great, the organisation is exceptional (we were always met at airports so never felt alone), the destinations are unforgettable and the app was a really useful addition (we had all tickets, documents, flight info, etc. on our phones). I wouldn't go to Africa without the Africa Specialists!

We travel a lot using many different tour operators but Gemma at The Africa Specialists exceeded those we have used previously. She recommended a resort to us which we had no knowledge of (I spend a lot of time researching the hotels before we book) and it was everything and more we wanted. She was always there at the end of the telephone to help with my many visa and travel health queries in her friendly manner and has been in communication now we are home. I would definitely recommend using them for their knowledge, professionalism and helpfulness and they will be the first I call for any future African travel plans we might make.

We were looking for a tailor-made trip to Tanzania, in less travelled southern parks, and The Africa Specialists were the only one to propose something personalised for us - out of the ordinary touristy paths.
Gemma, who took care of us, asked the right questions to understand our needs, offered different options, took care of all our bookings and even went the extra mile to get us « surprises ». Organization of the trip was flawless, everything was smooth, safe, above expectations !
Thank you millions Gemma.

Gemma was very helpful and knew a lot about the safari options and made some good suggestions. All the transfers and hotels went like clockwork, no issues with the organisation and recommendations.

Information pack provided was thorough and all our questions answered in full so we were well prepared for the holiday.

We travelled with our two children 18/19 who had a great time, stayed 3 nights in two tented lodges which was exactly the right amount of time, and finished the holiday with 3 nights in Zanzibar

Very happy to recommend the Africa Specialists if you are all uncertain as to who to use to organise your holiday

Gemma was very kind and incredibly helpful in finding the perfect trip for what I could and wanted to do. She was quick to reply and attentive to all of the many questions I had for her. It was a wonderful trip and I am very grateful for her assistance in making it such a smooth process for me.

Nick from The Africa Specialist was perfect in arranging our Safari combined with Zanzibar. He understood our wishes and made it all happen - even though it was also a combination of our own bookings. Highly recommended.

Jan & Anette, Denmark