Botswana: reviews from our travellers

"The arrangements generally worked clockwork and all the places we stayed were well worth visiting.

Apart from the mishaps in respect of the car (see earlier) the other thing worth mentioning is the problem of the border crossing from Botswana to Zimbabwe. We apparently arrived at a peak time, but queuing for over 2 hours in the sun to pay $55 dollars for a visa was infuriating - all the more so because it was obvious that virtually every transfer agent except ours had a special arrangement with the clerks issuing the visas.

We lost count of the number of times transfer agents would go to the front of the queue with wads of passports and forms. We were, literally, the last in the queue at the point we left, even though many people arrive after us. I'm not sure of the answer - probably either they should crack down on petty corruption or you should get a different agent?" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"Fabulous trip.

Great itinerary from Expert Africa - good variety of camps and length of stays were perfect.

Our main Expert Africa contact was actually Megan, not Tracy, but she is not in the pick list.

It would have been nice to have received a phone call on returning from the trip to ask us how it had been.

Our guide Theo was excellent and negotiated two fabulous groups for our gorilla treks." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"We had a truly amazing trip.

Having done 2 safaris before, we had high expectations, but this trip really delivered.

Botswana is an amazing place and the Safari experience there is totally unspoiled and genuine, and gave us many memorable experiences.

Our choice of the 5 camps in Botswana plus the final two in Zambia worked really well, giving us a huge amount of variety. Originally we though that 17 days might be too long, but there were so many different things to see and do that we kept wanting to keep going!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Well done Sarah, your help in putting this trip together was both excellent and invaluable." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"A very memorable trip. The Caprivi Strip is so different to the rest of Namibia. Delightful lodges. Expert Africa very good, as always.
Only two small comments:

1. there was a chap from Wilderness Safaris at Windhoek airport to meet & greet us. This has never happened before, so we walked straight past him. I hope he wasn't offended, but there was nothing from Expert Africa to say that we were being met at the airport. Bit of a surprise.

2. Wild Horizons transfers. Perfect and on-time for each occasion. The problem was communication. We we not given a pick-up time for the transfer to Livingstone Airport. Our previous driver said we would be contacted and informed 24 hours before pick-up. We were not contacted, and none of the telephone numbers given in Zimbabwe was contactable either from a mobile or the hotel's phones. I even tried sending a text, but there was no reply. In the end we had to ask the Avani concierge to phone Wild Horizons local office in Zambia. If Wild Horizons has a local office, why give travellers lots of numbers in Zimbabwe ? (none of which seem to work)." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"We have been to Namibia before and it definitely did not disappoint this time, such a magical country.

It was our first time in Botswana and we loved it and would like to see more, as is always the case in Africa in my experience. The people were so friendly and the wildlife amazing.

Victoria Falls was also good and we were glad we took your advice about seeing the falls from the Zimbabwe side as there was plenty of water! It was also a nice little town to wander around with interesting history, a good end to our trip." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"Overall an excellent holiday that more than met our expectations. We both thoroughly enjoyed the whole time spent in Africa." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"It was a very enjoyable trip with good guides, good accommodation and good service.

Regarding the team member below, Tracy continued the good work of Nick Hobbs who left after arranging the trip.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Having looked forward to the trip for 18months expectations were high!

Although overall the trip was highly enjoyable, we can now say that we have been to Botswana but will not be returning as it seemed to miss the wow factor. This was mainly down to the game viewing.

We appreciate that it is nature and so cannot predict these things and are already looking forward to our next African adventure" Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"It was Megan Ingoldby that dealt with our booking - she was a pleasure to deal with and couldn't have been more helpful.
We had a wonderful holiday and any criticisms are intended to be purely constructive. These comments are in the light of us having now been on six safaris.

One of the reasons we chose Expert Africa is that we travelled to Namibia several years ago and had excellent advice from Chris McIntyre when he was at Sunvil. The book that you sent us on Botswana that Chris had written was invaluable and very much appreciated. Thank you Chris for including so much detail.

Well done Expert Africa for arranging a great holiday." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Absolute high at Chitabe, very unhappy about Lagoon, we'll stick with Wilderness camps in the future and avoid Kwando like the plague." Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari