Andrew was recommended to us by a friend. (Always a very good sign!)
(Honeymoon in Tanzania September 2013)
When we started planning for our wedding we started planning for our honeymoon. We love to travel and wanted to do one of those ‘once in a lifetime trips’ to a place where neither of us had ventured before.
We ordered a load of brochures from mainstream luxury travel agents and assessed our options but found it very difficult to chose something from a brochure, we wanted to sit down and have a chat with someone who really knew what they were talking about. That’s exactly what we got when we met up with Andrew after he was recommended to us by a friend. (Always a very good sign!)
We had a great meeting with Andrew who talked through some of the ideas we had, gave helpful advice and guided us with his expertise in travel throughout Africa. We took some time to think the options over which was great as we didn’t feel pressured to make any choices or sign up to anything there and then.
We considered our options and finally decided on our Honeymoon destination of Lake Manze in the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania followed by 7 nights relaxation at the Pongwe Beach Hotel in Zanzibar. We were very excited!
The wedding all went without a hitch and we had the most amazing day (see photos attached). We had delayed our honeymoon for a couple of months following the wedding to keep something to look forward to, so our attention soon turned to finalising arrangements and getting things ready.
We met with Andrew shortly before our departure date at a mutually agreeable location (a lovely waterside pub on a sunny day), to go through the final arrangements and were presented with a full itinerary, printed travel vouchers and a booklet full of useful information all within a very helpful folder – so we were all set!
The journey itself was fairly seamless despite having to be housed in the waiting tent at Nairobi airport because of the massive fire that had occurred there about a few weeks prior to our departure!
As we got aboard a small Cessna plane for the last leg of our outward journey to Selous we definitely had the feeling that we were heading into a whole new environment and our game vehicle was ready and waiting to pick us up as soon as we landed in the middle of Selous Game Reserve. All the weariness of the travel disappeared as we took a 2 hour game drive en route to our camp seeing so many different species on the way! On arrival at Lake Manze we were met by the resident Massai security and the lovely Tricia who manages the camp. We were given a full brief on camp life, what to expect and also importantly camp safety.
If you want to be pushed slightly out of your comfort zone but still maintain a few of the luxuries of home (e.g. flushing toilet and private shower) then Lake Manze is just the place. The food there was amazing as was the service at the camp – they even did us special dinner on our veranda one evening, we had our own Massai guard keeping watch and we heard some noise in the woodland in front of us, he shone his torch and we saw a herd of elephant making their way through the trees – magical!
We honestly, truly did not want to leave but we made our way to Zanzibar where we were met by a very different but equally beautiful landscape.
The beach at Pongwe is amazing (see pictures). A great place to get some real rest and relaxation, the rooms were lovely and the food was particularly superb! While we were there we also did a couple of trips: spice tour, boat to prison island, a Safari Blue all day snorkelling trip and a day spent wandering around Stone Town. We would strongly recommend a spice tour. Safari Blue was also a great day out and we got a real treat seeing a mother and infant humpback whale!, sailing back under the wind of the traditional Dhow boat was also a lovely touch (note: this is a large operation and there were 75 tourists out on boats the day we went so may not be everyone’s cup of tea)
We would strongly recommend anyone to consider speaking to Andrew before making travel plans. Not only did he take the time to get to know us and get to grips with what we were looking for, his expertise shone through and we felt very confident in taking his advice. The arrangements were seamless as was our holiday, thank you so much, it is a trip that we will never forget and will be speaking to Andrew when we next adventure somewhere special.
Jaime and Lindsey Roue
p.s.
Before we started speaking with Andrew, we were keen on having some form to gift list to help with our honeymoon costs. We wanted to strive away from the typical ones from major retailers for electrical goods and also other mainstream travel agents as these were a bit impersonal. We were delighted when we met with Andrew that his gift list had been designed with the personal touch where guests could buy you something personal whether it be a seat upgrade or candlelit diner, we thought that this was by far the best way to go about it, plus guests can leave some personal comments which meant afterwards we can show them evidence of what they contributed towards.
Andrew was very good at putting together a list that made sense to us and the guests to use and broke it down in ways we didn’t think of before. Andrew also kept us up to date throughout and gave good advice as to what we should include and at reasonable prices, the good thing being is that you know your guests and what people can afford which is completely customisable.
We would thoroughly recommend anyone thinking of using a gift list to use Andrew’s as you will not be disappointed
