Our Wayfairer holiday to Northern Tanzania and Zanzibar was fabulous! We loved every part of it! The flights via Dubai were good and this will become easier when Emirates move the Fly Dubai flights into their terminal at the airport. We had a short delay on the way out which made our timings a bit tight. The way back was fine, plenty of time for our transfer at Dubai. Rivertrees Country Inn at Arusha was excellent for a recovery day, we regretted not taking an extra day in Arusha and would definitely do that another time. Food was great here, we rested up for the day and it was very comfortable. Esto from Asilia met us day 2, he was wonderful throughout. Our first day at Lake Manyara was a good entry point - we got very close to elephants, monkeys and baboons. The tree walkway was interesting, and good to get out of the car. Endoro Lodge was comfortable and the service was good. We left here late morning the next day for Ngorogoro - which was spectacular. The walk on the rim with the ranger was fabulous, he really was able to help us to understand the area and to see more of the flora. We got quite close to some zebra on our walk. Ang’Ata camp was very comfortable, the tent was great. The only thing is that it is cold - you are 2400m up, we were just about ok clothes wise, but would advise people to bring some gloves and a hat - at dinner guests were wrapped in blankets. It was fabulous to get back to the tent to find a hot water bottle in the bed for each of us. Food was great again. The crater was, as promised, breathtaking. We saw our first lions here and rhinos in the distance. The fourth of the ‘big 5’ came to see us in the camp later, a large male buffalo having a laze in the grass. The camp took our security and safety very seriously which was impressive. The drive to the Serengeti was full of changing landscapes. We stopped off for an hour or so at Oldupai/Olduvai, this was a change of focus away from game drives and allowed us to see a significant paleoanthropological site and museum; it would have been a real shame to miss this and it didn’t take time out of our game viewing day, as we did a game drive on the way to Kati Kati camp. The camp was very comfortable, hot showers offered morning and evening. It was much warmer down here, but still chilly in the morning and evening. Food was great here, they ran a good system for lunches where they had a lunch buffet and packed what you wanted (good to cut out waste). We saw the last of the ‘big 5’ - lucky enough to see leopards (two leopards in two trees a male and a female). Lots of elephants, lions, giraffes, a cheetah, antelopes, gazelles, water bucks, buffaloes. We saw a pride of lions with their kill from night before. We met a rhino ranger towards the south of the park, this was interesting and brings into focus the challenges of protecting these beasts. The flight from Seronera via Arusha to Zanzibar was uneventful. We had cut down on our luggage and only had the 15kg each - nobody weighed it!! We could have afforded a bit more stuff for Ngorogoro!! I guess the point here is not to take the mickey, nobody will mind if you’re a little over, but turn up with obviously too much they might get upset!! Stonetown was a shock to the system, but fabulous. Busy, crumbling, bustling. We walked around without any problems, we almost had to have a word with ourselves to remind ourselves not to treat this place like London!! There were people trying to get us to go into their shops, but no one really put any effort into pressuring us!! There are some fabulous places to eat and these are really good value. We wandered, visited the hammam, the slave market and the fort. The House of Wonders is closed for renovation and we ran out of time and energy for the museum. Kholle House hotel is beautiful and comfortable, breakfasts were good and it was very close to everything. To be fair, in Stonetown, everything is close to everything! On the drive to the beach we did a Spice tour - this was interesting. Pongwe Beach was wonderful! We did very little for the five days we had there. Staff were fabulous (could’nt do enough for you), the room was lovely, the beach was glorious, the meals excellent. Would definitely recommend a few days here at the end of a busy itinerary. I really enjoyed seeing the bush babies in the bar - they come to get fruit every evening. All in all a great holiday, we have loads of photos which we need to sort through, had great experiences and wonderful memories. Wayfairer, Tom specifically, have been fantastic and arranged an amazing itinerary for us, and while it wasn’t cheap it was, most certainly, excellent value for money. Everything worked seamlessly. Would recommend them as providing something personal to us which worked like clockwork. What a fabulous country Tanzania is, we would definitely go back.