Here are some references, letters and comments from some of our previous clients. This page will be added to periodically, as new letters come in. Contact details of the letter writers can be provided on request.

Ethiopia:

Madagascar:

Mozambique:

Reunion Island:

Rodrigues:

Seychelles:

Tanzania:

Zanzibar:

From: Keri Harvey [mailto:kerih@icon.co.za]
Sent: 19 April 2005 10:19
To: Rita Bachmann

Subject: Back from Ethiopia

Hi Rita

We are back home after a fantastic trip to Ethiopia. We saw and did sooooo much, including seeing 6 Ethiopian wolves, and we had the pleasure of meeting Fikre too. Thank you so much for all your kindness, assistance and generosity that made the trip possible - I have plenty to write about and already have commissions for 4 stories - Sawubona, Business in Africa, Discovery and Style! But there will be more in the future too.

Best regards and thanks again for your support with the trip. It's all hugely appreciated.

Keri

From: Marion and Reinoud Boers [mailto:boers@iafrica.com]
Sent: 20 March 2005 03:26 PM

It gives me great pleasure to thank you for the superb tour arrangements made for 26 members of the South African Archaeological Society who visited your wonderful country from 18 February to 4 and 9 March respectively.

Your attention to detail, the friendliness of your staff, the trouble taken by you to respond to our numerous pre-tour questions, your willingness to investigate conditions in person to the extent of reconnoitring the Hadar and Gona palaeo-anthropological and archaeological sites in the Rift Valley can only be lauded highly. The extra little touches, such as paying for the coffee ceremony in Bahir Dar and the drinks for the farewell dinner, and the birthday wishes and cakes organised for those who had their birthdays during the trip, were unexpected gestures that were greatly appreciated.

Without fail participants were delighted with the incredible variety of the tour and the arrangements. Our guide, Daniel Tesfaye, was universally liked and appreciated for his wide-ranging knowledge, while the drivers were most pleasant and those on the longer tour, Mesfin, Henock and Solomon, became friends of the party.

As a tour operator myself in years gone by, I can honestly say that your service compares to the best I have experienced in the world. To successfully take a group of 26 persons in a convoy of six 4x4s through a country as varied and, in part, touristically undeveloped as Ethiopia takes some doing and we must compliment you highly. I will recommend you without reservation to any travellers planning to tour Ethiopia.

We wish you deserved success in the future.

With kind regards
REINOUD BOERS
South African Archaeological Society, Trans-Vaal Branch

Liz Cotton
Somerset Tours & Travel (Pty) Ltd
08 March 2005

Hi Helen & Rita (and Janet etc etc)

Ethiopia was just such a magic destination which has left indelible memories on the group. Its a really powerful place ~ the impact of which, only hits one when one gets back! So nice to deal with Fikre and his lovely guide, Mohammed who escorted us all the way round Ethiopia, and the drivers who took us in 4x4s through the Rift Valley down south and out east to Harar! Ethiopia Airlines is dreadful to fly with locally ~ they never take off on time ~ they overbook the flights and then load all the luggage ~ and then when the time comes to take off, there is always a huge argument on the tarmac with the tour leaders as to who is going to leave their luggage behind because its not safe to fly ~ something to do with heat and altitude! Not on your nelly! Nobody is going to leave any luggage behind because they are going to have exactly the same problem the next day and then the luggage sits around in a dusty old airport and it never catches up with you!! Then all the luggage comes off ~ then it all goes back on again..... typical Africa, I guess ~ and 3 hours later ....... !!! Oh well, its a laugh ..... afterwards!! You just gotta go with the flo, hey!!

Hope to take another group out to Ethiopia sometime! Would do the same routing ~ very important to get the whole country in perspective ~

Bestest

Liz

Mrs Mac Rober November 2002

Dear Rita

This is just a short note to tell you how much we enjoyed our trip to Ethiopia. It is a stunning country and we were there at the very best time of the year. The weather was pleasant and cool, and we had very little rain. Needless to say, the Simien mountains were absolutely spectacular and proved to be one of the absolute highlights. Your agent was extremely helpful and friendly and really tried their very best to make our trip wonderful.

A few comments about the trip:

we would have liked to have had an extra day in Axum - without making the trip any longer, Lalibela could have taken one day out.

The Blue Nile Falls currently is hardly worth a trip - particularly for those who have been to Vic Falls as a large part of the falls (75%) is being diverted. We could have spent more time birding.

We would have liked to have had an extra day in the Simiens - staying at Geech and doing walks in the area - it was so beautiful.

Generally the rooms in the hotels were absolutely fine, beautifully clean and often in lovely positions. However, the bathrooms, plumbing were generally sub-standard i.e. often no hot water (or sometimes - no water), only one towel per room (although they always produced extra towels), toilets that did not flush or overflowed so we became extremely fussy and made poor Gobese (our travelling companion) inspect all bathrooms before we took occupation. Dinsho however, was completely uninhabitable and consequently we decided to spend two nights in the hotel near the Bale Mountains which were beautiful.

With these few comments, I must reiterate that it was the most wonderful trip and we will certainly recommend you and Ethop Travel to all who are interested. Thank you so much for all your help.

We will contact you soon about Madagascar.

Thanks

Marianne MacRobert

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From: Deepak Baruthwaj
Sent: 12 December 2006 11:31 AM
To: info@unusualdestinations.com
Subject: Madagascar - Brief Trip report

To Elize and Rita

Madagascar was the best family holiday we ever had. Beautiful places and warm-hearted people.

The flight and the hotel transfer was very pleasant. The reception with garlands and a re-freshing drink was great. Vanila hotel is lovely place to hideout. Rooms were good. Staff were very nice. Had lots of fun trying to communicate.

Did some excursions to: Nosy Komba, Nosy Tanikely, Nosy Sakatia, Hell-ville, Andilana

Kids loved the snorkelling and seeing the lemurs and lizards and chameleons and other creatures.

Being vegetarian was quite a challenge everywhere. The hotel had a very good waiter called Bruno, who got to know how to arrange for the unusual vegetarian requests. The food was great and the breakfast with mangos, papayas,pineapples and bananas was excellent.

The flight back to Tana was on time and pleasant. Got all our luggage. Since we had a 4-hour wait, we loaded all the luggage into a taxi and went to the Croc Farm nearby. It was worth the quick trip to this zoo.


Many Thanks

Deepak Baruthwaj

From Mr Walter Bohle
02 November 2006

Dear Judy,

Please find below the feedback from our Madagascar holidays.
Bottom line
We enjoyed it very much! Almost everything worked out as scheduled. Beautiful nature (will it still exist in 10 years time due to ongoing deforestation?), on average good to very good accommodation, very nice (unfortunately still very poor) people.

Flight JHB-Tana
Mid-flight we were informed that the suitcases of about 20 passengers were left behind at JHB airport, due to “too heavy plane”, which is of course rubbish. A plane can only be overloaded if they took extra freight on board. In Tana we found out that included our suitcases. They surfaced again two days later in Sunny Hotel (Mahajanga). In spite of some financial support from Air Madagascar (thanks to ZA Tours) to buy some stuff (which we did; ever tried to buy an XL T-shirt in Mahajanga?), we were severely handicapped during these first days in Ampijoroa.
Other flights: no problems with luggage. All on time as well.

ZA Tours Service
Good, all according to expectations, apart from Tulear (see below).

Tana- Relais des Plateaux Hotel (2x)
Good hotel and restaurant.

Tana- Royal Pallisandre Hotel (1x)
Good hotel and restaurant.

Mahajanga/Ampijoroa

Very beautiful reserve.
Three very beautiful excursions (night walk, forest walk to the canyon, boat excursion on the lake), at no extra costs. Seen lot of lemurs, birds and chameleons.
Our female guide Hary was superb. We gave her a well deserved generous tip.
Bosco (ZA Tours) was a nice and attentative driver.
Accommodation not superb. Bungalows were all booked up. Standard room was small, very basic and with a bit too many cockroaches. Good restaurant.
Sunny Hotel in Mahajanga was very good (room and restaurant).

Perinet

Very beautiful, although a bit more touristic than Ampirojoa.
Three very interesting excursions, at no extra costs. Night walk close to the hotel (organised by the hotel), followed by day excursions to the Ambodimandresy Reserve and the Mantadia National Park. Seen a lot of lemurs, birds, big tropical trees and chameleons
Good guide (Nestor).
Abel (ZA Tours) was a good driver. However, expected to lunch on our costs (3x) - contrary to Bosco in Ampijoroa- and did not really limit himself a bit in that respect.
Eulophiella: very good and nice accommodation with good kitchen in a very beautiful and above all very quiet environment. Maybe a better choice than the other busier options close to the reserves.

Tulear

Savage and barren environment- another kind of beauty.
Transport by the hotel staff- 25 KM/1.5 hrs.
Not seen any ZA Tours representative.
Nice hotel bungalows (La Saline) with good kitchen. Very friendly staff and hotel owners (Paul and his wife Yvette).
Spiny Forest (charged extra) was nice, but more an arboretum (transport by car by Yvette).
Next day see/beach excursion guided by Patrick (at extra costs). Snorkling is not much. Village excursion was very nice (people are very, very poor). Splendid lunch on the beach- fresh barbecued fish and lobster.
Not been to the ornate burial tombs. Nothing organised by ZA Tours. Very pity.
In retrospective: was nice, but worth the costs of flights?

Nosy Be

Again another kind of beauty. We enjoyed it very much.
Beautiful excursions. Lokobe Reserve & Nosy Komba (€38 pp; perfect guide Philippe), Nosy Tanikely (€38 pp; fantastic snorkling- beautiful coral, fish and see-turtles) and Nosy Iranja (€48 pp; tropical paradise, not good for snorkling and for swimming at low tide). Sumptuous lunches- 2nd and 3rd excursion prepared on the beach). NOTE: no excursions to Nosy Fanihy for the time being (still too damaged after the cyclone).
Vanila Hotel: superb! We had room no. 1 with see-view. Buffet-restaurant: average. A la carte restaurant: very good (and not really much more expensive).

Extra costs information
€ 800 is sufficient. We changed €400 into Ariary's at the airport (in two batches), which was enough to pay for extra costs in Ariary's, including part of the extra costs in the Vanila Hotel. The other €400 were used for the Nosy Be excursions, which can be paid in Euros, and the remainder of the extra costs in the Vanila Hotel.

Like I said: all in all very good, apart from a few minor issues.
Thanks once again for all your preparations!

Kind regards,
Walter

From: Tiaan Wasserman
Sent: 20 November 2006 08:31 AM

Hi Helen

Sorry only getting back to you now, but it has been really hectic. The honeymoon was great and amazing. Thanks for all your effort!

There are a few things that I want to give feedback on, but I will have to find that list somewhere in our honeymoon memorabilia and then send it to you.
I will do one better than send you some photos, I will send you 3 discs, 2 discs of the wedding pics and 1 with the trillion honeymoon photos. Maybe you can use some on your website!

We are planning our next trip, and of course I will contact you first. I must say,you have great destinations.

We almost ended up not eating for 2 days as Vakona did not have credit card facilities,but all the other hotels did,so after all our shopping on Isle Sante Marie,our cash was quite depleted and we did not think to get more forex as the other Hotels had facilities and of course Vakona will have as it is a more classy place. Well,were we surprised! Luckily I am not a group financial manager for nothing and we came out with enough money to buy crap at the airport as well.

I have many more stories,but I will spare you.Thanks again to you for making this honeymoon a holiday that we will remember forever for all the good reasons and making it what we wanted.

Thanks for the memories!

Attached is a picture to wet your appetite!

Sent: 24 November 2006 11:59
Subject: FW: ford and party to madagascar

Hi Judy

Client has just come in to say he had the most amazing holiday and that the hotel and everything was perfect - thank you!

Elena de Resende

Sent: 30 October 2006 08:08

Subject: FW: THANK YOU!

Hi Helen,

We just wanted to take the opportunity to thank Unusual Destinations for putting together our recent trip to Madagascar. Despite the initial problems that we had with making the appropriate arrangements the holiday came together extremely well and we were very impressed with your contacts/agents that you use in the country. We experienced exceptionally professional, reliable and friendly service and were impressed with the standard of accomodation. In particular the Vanilla Hotel stands out.

As well seasoned and regular travellers we can only but recommmend Madagascar as a great holiday destination and would have no hesitation in recommending your company's services. Thank you once again, and we look forward to making use of Unusual Destinations in the future.

Kind regards
Jill and Andrew Wright

From: Beatrice.Jordaan

Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 1:18 PM
Subject: Madagascar Trip

Dear Helen

We are back from one of the most enjoyable holidays I have had in years! Madagascar truly is an amazing experience & the people are very friendly and helpful.

Thank you so much! I want to complement you on a job well done! Your recommendations was spot on! All your travel arrangements was extremely well done & everyone on time to collect us and take us to our destinations.

Chez Napoleon on Ile Aux Nattes can definitely be recommended - very nice setting & hotel staff helpful. The food in the restaurant - especially the huge langoustines, is well worth mentioning.

ZA-Tours in Tana must be commended on awesome service!! Especially Stephane and Jocelyn, who helped us with our connecting flight back to South Africa. They are very organized and delivers an outstanding service.

Air Madagascar (and in particular: Tojodong) really provided superior service in also assisting us to get us aboard our airlink flight back home in time.

We will definitely travel with Unusual Destinations again in future!

Best Regards & speak to you soon!
Beatrice & Marisca & Chris

From: Larcombe Jonathan
Sent: 03 August 2006 05:31 PM
To: Elise Kreusch
Subject: RE: Welcome Home!!

Hi Elise,

Yes thanks we had a great time in Madagascar, all flights and connections went well and the accommodation was great, particularly Tsara Komba. The food at Coral Noir was ok but half board was a good option so we could eat out. The food at Komba was 5* and the excursions were great. The local operator at Tana was helpful and well organised. Thanks for a great trip, we look forward to doing another one with you soon.

Regards

Jonathan and Ali

From: Lindiwe Suttle
Sent: 27 July 2006 08:01 AM
To: Elise Kreusch
Subject: Re: Welcome Home!!!!

Hi Elise,

Thanks for planning such a wonderful vacation. Tsara Komba was an excellent place. Everything was perfect from the delicious food and variety of choices to choose from on their menu that changed daily to the beautiful secluded rooms. |I've never been anywhere like it. Please send a big thank you to the owners Guy and Christian. Their attention to detail was impressive!

Regards,
Lindiwe Suttle

Dear Helen

I have 134 messages in my mailbox, many, many chores to do after my holiday, etc. so I shall e-mail you again once I have sorted myself out. BUT I cannot spend another day without telling you how EXCELLENT my holiday was - every minute detail was perfectly arranged and orchestrated, and I had a dream holiday. I compliment you on your skills and have recommended you to many people around RSA and Madagascar.

I shall talk to you/e-mail you in the next couple of days, but SINCERE THANKS in the meantime!

Pat

From: Felicity Scully

Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 2:08 PM

Subject: RE: Holiday

Janet,

Thanks so much for the email and the follow-up. We had a great holiday and the organization was right on the button. I would consider myself fairly well traveled, but with hindsight, the organization for this trip was vital. Madagascar is a 3rd world country where, if arrangements are botched, I can imagine would cause severe problems. Neither of us speak French and this was the biggest obstacle. All the people who met us at the airports etc could give us rudimentary information in broken English and we got by at the hotels, but the officials at airports etc were a challenge.

I would highly recommend Unusual destinations and I think that for the price it was good value for money. Although tourism is in its infancy, Unusual offered the better hotels for a reasonable price. The transport was fine etc.

But mostly Madagascar is a fascinating country. I am into my plants and was a little disappointed with how few Orchids were in bloom, but hello it is winter and we did see the most diverse plant life I have seen. The Lemurs are a must, we spent 8 hours trekking through the forest and saw all 6 species. Ingrid is into her photography and has taken in excess of 1000 photos. We are boring all our friends with the compulsory slide show. The beach was great and we had 3 great dives. The divemaster was excellent and restored our confidence in diving after some rather dodgy experiences in other resorts.

Communication with the operators was a challenge and we now have exceptionally good sign language. But all in all it was a good experience and will look to planning our next island trip. We are looking at doing an island off Mozambique in April and Zanzibar in winter. All this travel is really tiring so we are going to our beach cottage for a few days next week- spoiled brats! Thanks again for the follow-up and the service that you offered. We will use you in the future. Let us know if you move anywhere.

Felicity

Hello

WAAA! I had such a wonderful time! Couple of rainy days on the island but nothing that reading, sleep and lots of wine couldn't cure:-) Otherwise it was just lovely. I must admit I really didn't enjoy Antananarivo - I found it very much like the Valvellas in Rio combined with a hint of Mombasa - dirty, very polluted, extremely poor and very annoying street hawkers. But the island was absolutely fantastic. The only thing about Chez Napoleon was the fact that they switched off the electricity at 10pm every day until about 8am the next morning! That was a bit crap 'cause it's very difficult for me to go to sleep at 10, and when it's humid you can't even switch on the fan. But other than that, I had a great time.

Thank you so much for organizing my trip - I really appreciate it and will most definitely make use of you guys again. I hope you are doing well - have a wonderful weekend.

Kind Regards

Karen Kleingeld

Dear Janet,

Ruth and I are SO impressed with the trip you put together for us, thank you so much. We loved every moment, the people, the forests, the Zebu, and so much more.vPlease would you let ZA Tours know what wonderful people they employ.We started off with Zine who went out of his way for us, and really deserves a lot of praise and promotion! He drove well, told us so much about the people and the island, as well as assisted us with what ever it was we needed help with. He also joined us with our first trip into the Mantady, which was such fun! Luke was our forest guide at Perinet and Mantady, and really went out of his way to find us as much as possible, even unearthing a Mantilly frog, to my delight! He walked with us through the village, telling us all about the food on sale, the charcoal process used, and so much more.

Our next stop, Erica and Tine met us, and unfortunately for her, I was rather irritated at the lack of ability to get smaller money for tipping the porters, and coupled with the humid heat, I was rather short, so please appologise to her for me. Tine drove us to Ampijoro and his inability to speak much english, and our lack of french made it a little difficult to communicate, but what a gentle, sweet person. Our guide, Ndrema was brilliant, a wonderful source of information about Madagascar and so much more. In Morondava, we were blessed with Gerard, ( according to Hillary Bradt, the world famous birder and naturalist.) He was simply amazing! Our vehicle packed up in Kirindy forest, and he had to walk for an hour to the main road, and hope someone drove passed to help him. We managed to see a fosa while we were waiting!! What a treat!

He then still managed to take us to the Baobabs in love (the 2 trees entwined) by moonlight! Our flight to Tolier was cancelled, so an extra stay, on Air Madagascar's account, was had at Chez Maggie. The last stop was made comfortable with Narina the driver, and David the hotel receptionist, who acted as our guide in the spiny forest.

They all deserve to be rewarded for being so accomodating, so flexible to our requests, and we are so grateful for all they did for us. Our lives are enriched by knowing them.

Janet, I now am VERY keen to go to Gabon, so please put me on the list if and when you do trips there. Equatorial New

Guinea too!!

Hope you had a good holiday too.

Namaste,

Bev

From: Isabel Warren-Codrington [mailto:isabelwa@renniestravel.co.zw]
Sent: 12 January 2006 06:38 PM
To: Unusual Destinations
Subject: Passengers Covell to Madagascar

Hi Helen

Just to let you know that Mr and Mrs Covell are back safe and sound having had a wonderful holiday and asked me to let you know that they were superbly looked after and will thoroughly recommend using Unusual Destination again when applicable (that includes me!).

Thanks so much for everything - it really is appreciated!!

All best

Isabel

Isabel Warren-Codrington

Rennies Travel Zimbabwe

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From: Kim
Sent: 20 November 2006 04:30 PM
To: Helen Mann
Subject: Forte group

Hi Helen,

Well, we're back after the holiday of a lifetime! Just thought I'd let you know what an incredible time we had on the beautiful Quilalea. All 21 of us plus all the staff had a blast, I don't think they will be forgetting us in a hurry! The island is stunning, the accommodation fantastic and the staff superb so a big thank-you for all your help in organising everything, it was all brilliant, we're all soooo depressed at being home and back at work but the great memories and photos will keep us going for now.

Thanks again Helen

Regards

Kim

Bazaruto Island,Mozambique by Keith Hern

How far can you go during a week-long half-term break? Brittany? Majorca?Try Bazaruto Island, off the coast of Mozambique.
Yes, it's three flights and 18 hours travel time away, but our 10 year-old daughter took it all in her stride, befriending an assortment of aircrews on

the way.

After a two and a half hour transfer from Johannesburg to Vilanculos, the final 15 minute leg to Bazaruto was in a six-seater. Flying low over the sand dunes and bright coloured sea the captain suddenly asked if I'd like to 'have a go'. Despite not having the faintest clue what I was doing I jumped at the chance - to the horror of my wife, who had a pilot's licence before passing her driving test.

Fortunately for all of us, my brief Biggles moment didn't extend to the landing - on what seemed like an elongated bowling green The transfer to the Indigo Bay Resort was less than five minutes. One of only two hotels on a reasonable-sized island the resort catered for around 120 guests, but were running at less than 50% occupancy. Situated on a long sandy beach , the activities are excellent: water sports, swimming pool, horse riding and dune-boarding, with a beach bar to help keep cool and a restaurant/bar area for evenings. Rapidly being discovered as a diving haven, the underwater life in the waters off Mozambique is as good as anywhere, but without the congestion and commercial overload of the Great Barrier Reef or, increasingly, the Maldives. A range of diving trips are organised for all levels of ability and experience.Horse-rides can either be along the beach or up into the sand dunes, passing close - but not too close - to the crocodile lake, and seated a comfortable height above the snake population.

Having had one unsuccessful attempt at snow-boarding a few years ago, dune-boarding had to be tried. On the fourth attempt I did make it down without falling over, by which time exhaustion had set in. The difference between sand and snow is that on the dunes there are no lift systems to get you back to the top!

Whether you're after an active holiday or just a chill-out in the sun, a week at Indigo Bay is definitely worth the travel time. In spite of supposed restrictions on hotels, airports and tourism, they have now extended and concreted the runway, so mainline tourism is coming. Get there before it's too late.

Travel information:
Flights from Johannesburg and half-board at the resort were arranged via www.unusualdestinations.com,a South African-based travel company. Booking through a local agency proved a bargain - the price for three of us was £2,500, less than half we had been quoted from the UK. Hotel details are available on their website www.indigobayonline.com. Hotel prices were reasonable, our final bill of £425 covering lunch and drinks for three of us for seven days, plus four horse rides and three diving trips.

Keith Hern 15 Kings Drive, Thames Ditton, Surrey KT7 OTH.

From: Tessa
Sent: 27 March 2006 01:44 PM
To: 'Elise Kreusch (Unusual Destinations)'
Subject: RE: Welcome Home

Dear Elise,

It was Paradise. A special thank you for dropping off the tickets and in such a lovely container, it was the beginning of the holiday feeling.

The weather was glorious and the sea average about 28 , the showers helped cool things down as humidity was 84% but we never shut the doors or windows once. The snorkelling was amazing. All the staff were so helpful, friendly and sincere and we felt the island belonged to us. Nathan did wonders in the kitchen and the snacks at the bar before dinner were sooooo delicious that we couldn?t always finish our dinner. Chris and Angie made our anniversary extraordinarily special with their personaI touches. I have been recommending you and Quilalea to everyone and the booklet from our pouch is a super advertising tool. Our timing re the tides was great as you need really high tides to kayak in the mangrove swamps and really low tides to get the best of the snorkelling.

Many thanks for everything

Tessa

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03 September 2002

From : Marek.Novinsky

Dear Mr. Roussellier,

I had the great opportunity to spend one wonderful week in the hotel Les Villas du Lagon. I particularly appreciated the cordial atmosphere as well as professionalism and helpfulness of the personnel. The spirit of the hotel has been far away form the sterile and impersonal approach in the hotels I normally stay during my business trips.

Had I ever the opportunity to come to Reunion again, I would definitely stay in your hotel.Many thanks for the gorgeous week!

Best regards,

Marek Novinsky

01 June 2000

Dear Janet and Helen

I have been meaning to drop you a note for sometime now to thank you for organising our trip to Reunion. We had a wonderful time with everthing from your side running very smoothly. We did not get to see everything we wanted so it will give us an excuse to go back one day. I had mhy first experience of snorkelling and will definitely go to other islands in the future as I really loved it. The cirques and mountains were awesome. French drivers are something else though - was glad Pete did all the driving.

My only recommendation to future visitors would be to take cash instead of travelers cheques. We found non of the hotels would take our travellers cheques despite the fact that they were French Francs. Maybe that would be something to forewarn people about.

Once again thanks for all your trouble and we will be in touch with you again I am sure s Madagascar appeals to me, Regards Helen and Pete.

Mrs B. Rittey of Johannesburg writes:

4 October 2000

My husband Nigel, joins me in thanking you all most sincerely for making a dream come true. The island was exactly as Derek had described it in his article in 'Discover Africa' - beautiful and awesome. Definitely a hikers paradise. Also expensive.

You were all extremely kind and most helpful and all plans went without a hitch - what a pleasure to deal with "Unusual Destinations". The airline was superb. It was great to get VIP treatment with regard to having someone meet us at Roland Garros airport - unfamiliar place, customs and faces. The car was very comfortable, and your choice of hotels also very good. Our favourite places was the Hostelarie de la Confiance. The concierge, who was able to converse in a little English, was incredibly warm, kind and very caring. The food at her hotel was by far the best in our opinion.

We travelled all over Reunion and saw everything we possibly could - from north/west/south and back north. Unfortunately, we were unable to see Piton de la Fournaise - even after two attempts before 7.00 a.m. - due to poor weather conditions.

Once again, thank you again for making a dream come true. You may be assured we have been good ambassadors for 'Unusual Destinations' and we have already been speaking very highly of you all.

With kind regards

Sincerely, Basia Rittey

Mrs Birthe Gesink from the Netherlands, writes:

8 December 2000

Dear Rita

Ria and I came back recently from our Reunion trip we booked through you and we enjoyed it very much. I had expected an island where French is spoken but had not expected it to be "almost Frencher than French", it was like being in France ! Its a good thing I speak French, though in most hotels they do speak English too we found.

The Vieux Cep in Cilaos was definitely the best hotel with very friendly management and extremely good food, we heartily recommend it. Though we climbed a lot we actually gained weight, we ate so well.

Thanks for organising a great and problem-free week in Reunion for us.

Regards

Birthe

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From: Alex Kane
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002
Subject: Trip to Rodrigues

Dear Helen,

Just a short note to let you know that we had a fantastic honeymoon. Rodrigues is a very hospitable place!Thank you for organising such a lovely holiday for us.

Kind regards,

Alexandra Kane

06 February 2001

Dear Helen

We just wanted to thank you and Janet for organising our trip to Rodrigues and Mauritius. We had an unbelievably good time. Rodrigues was really interesting and we can recommend the Les Cocotiers Hotel. We hired a motor bike and explored the whole island - quite interesting in the contrasts in landscape! Mauritius was really great as well. You can't get a room much closer to the water! Just wanted to let you know that we were very impressed with the whole package as far as service goes. Firstly thanks to you guys the booking and confirmations etc. were probably the best service we ever had from a travel agent, and the connections and service from your agents were brilliant. Thanks once again, your goin to hear from us again sometime I'm sure. Regards,

Eric and Cheryl Stedman

Cape St Francis

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From: Sara
Sent: 01 November 2006 06:16 PM
To: Janet McCloughan
Subject: RE: Our Seychelles Trip

Dear Janet,

La Reserve was amazing. I think somehow we got an upgrade. We definitely had a wonderfu time in the Seychelles. We are just very experienced travelers and I probably notice more than the average person. I'm always trying to create the PERFECT trip for my husband, which of course is impossible. I am getting better.


Thanks again! Take care,

Sara

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From: warren
Sent: 27 December 2006 09:13 AM
Subject: RE: HONEYMOON

Hi Retha,

Thank you for your email and for organizing the trip- it was absolutely great. I have made some comments below, which I hope are constructive but I want you to know that we had brilliant time!

Good points
Savannah Tours- they were absolutely fantastic. They were always on time, the guide was superb and everything went exactly according to plan- you can always use them!
Kinassi Lodge- They were marvelous! I cannot speak highly enough of their service, food, location etc. We certainly had the best service we have ever had in Africa here. They look after you 100% and the food was stunning. I was amazed at the accommodation and snorkeling. We spent a few hours swimming with Whale Sharks which was an absolute highlight for us!

Overall organization- we were very happy and would gladly recommend this trip to anyone. There was one day that we felt was a little wasted (see below) but in the end things worked out very well. I would probably spend a little less time at the Serengeti next time and extra day at Mafia but then the island was always going to be my own highlight. Other people would probably prefer more time viewing game.

Points to consider
Tips- I think it would be a good idea to let people know that they may want to tip their guide after the Safari. We should have thought about it but we did not so this was an unexpected expense for which we had not budgeted. After asking a few people we found out that a reasonable tip is about USD10 to USD 15 per person per day. So, at the end of a 5 day trip you are in for USD100- USD 150 per couple. This is quite a bit if you have not budgeted. It was not an issue for us as we had sufficient funds but we were surprised and we noted that most of the people we met did not think about this before the trip.

A wasted day- the 18th was actually a wasted day as we left the last lodge early in the morning and spent two hours in transit before waiting at Arusha for quite a few hours and then going to Dar and leaving the following day. I would suggest that you arrange for people to travel to Dar on the 17th (in our case) as there really is no need to hang around for an entire day. There are plenty of flights and the travel time from the last lodge at the crater is quite quick.

Check the bills- tell people that they must check their bills carefully when leaving the lodges on Safari. We found errors every time we checked the bill because they are dealing in hundreds of thousands on shillings at a time. I suggest you tell people to take a small calculator as it is hard to work in such large numbers e.g. USD 150 = TSH 180,000! We often found discrepancies of TSH 40 000 (R240) at a time, which starts to add up.

Checking in at airports- the guides and transfer people like to get you to the airport very early - we sat at Dar for about two hours after getting up at 05:00 to go to Mafia at 10:00 but there is very little point in doing so. You cannot check in until 1:30 hours before the flight so you sit outside the airport until then. We had a similar experience at Arusha on our way to Dar. I think one should tell Savannah not to let the guides drop you off too early.

I hope you take these comments as constructive as we really had a wonderful time and would gladly go back again, especially to Mafia.

Thank you so much for all your help- I am sure we will be in touch again for another trip.


Regards,
Warren Ingram
Director

24 October 2006
Translated: Dear Lucia,

Many many thanks for all your (you all) excellent organization. We thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. The people cannot stop talking about how wonderful it was. Please phone me if there is any comeback from the agent in Tanzania

Message from Mr Greyling
Regards

Lucia SURE GLENWOOD TRAVEL (PTY) LTD

Beste Lucia,
Baie, baie dankie vir al jou (julle) uitstekende reelings. Ons het die naweek ongelooflik baie geniet. Die mense kan nie ophou praat oor lekker dit was nie.

Skakel my gerus indien daar enige come-backs is van die agent in Tanzanie.

Groete

André Greyling

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From: Dougal Freeman
To: 'Unusual Destinations'
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 1:07 PM
Subject: Kinasi

Hi Helen

Just got back ? stunning place.

The website does simply not do it justice. I have passed your details to various people as we were very happy with all the organisation. Everything went very smoothly.

Thanks

Dougal

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