Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs V - Surrey

Namibia Trip

On this trip, I visited Namibia between 24-May-2011 and 21-Jun-2011 and I travelled with 1 other person.

Amazing! We were lucky to have a month here but would have liked longer. There is so much to see and do.

A lovely country with great lodges and fabulous wildlife. I think we saw the best of everything thanks to the excellent advice from Sabina for whom nothing was too much trouble.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

It was really really cold, not just on game drives but also in tented camps. Windproof jackets need to be recommended at this time of year. Temperatures fell to at least -2 deg. C. We didn't feel prepared for it being quite so cold at nights. We were glad we had our thermal underwear with us! It even snowed at Solitaire two days after we left the area.

I was really glad that you recommended a 4x4 to us and think you should have pushed us in that direction earlier as it really enhanced the trip, e.g. we could fully explore Fish Canyon and the Luderitz Peninsula. Having no experience of 4x4 driving, a short course at the beginning of the holiday would have been useful and we met a woman (Rome, who is Willems neice) at the Barchan Dune Resort who was talking about doing just that in Windhoek where she lives.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Olive Grove, Namibia 25-May-2011 review: Olive Grove review	Excellent
Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch, Namibia 26-May-2011 review: Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch review	Excellent
Canyon Lodge, Namibia 28-May-2011 review: Canyon Lodge review	Excellent
Nest Hotel, Namibia 30-May-2011 review: Nest Hotel review	Excellent
Sinclair Guest Farm, Namibia 1-Jun-2011 review: Sinclair Guest Farm review	Good
Kulala Desert Lodge, Namibia 2-Jun-2011 review: Kulala Desert Lodge review	Good
Barchan Dune Retreat, Namibia 4-Jun-2011 review: Barchan Dune Retreat review	Excellent
Cornerstone Guesthouse, Namibia 5-Jun-2011 review: Cornerstone Guesthouse review	Excellent
Erongo Wilderness Lodge, Namibia 7-Jun-2011 review: Erongo Wilderness Lodge review	Excellent
Camp Kipwe, Namibia 9-Jun-2011 review: Camp Kipwe review	Excellent
Grootberg Lodge, Namibia 11-Jun-2011 review: Grootberg Lodge review	Good
Ongava Tented Camp, Namibia 13-Jun-2011 review: Ongava Tented Camp review	Excellent
Okaukuejo Camp, Namibia 15-Jun-2011 review: Okaukuejo Camp review	Excellent
Mushara Lodge, Namibia 16-Jun-2011 review: Mushara Lodge review	Excellent
Okonjima Bush Camp, Namibia 18-Jun-2011 review: Okonjima Villa Review	Excellent

Zambia trip.

On this trip, I visited Botswana & Zambia between 17-Jul-2009 and 9-Aug-2009 and I travelled with 1 other person.

This was a lovely trip, we enjoyed every minute of it. Lucy got it absolutely right in the order we did things. It was lovely to chill out at the Zambesi Sun for the first 4 days with the game drives at Chobe and Kafue following. This gave us the chance to get very close to all the animals we had hoped to see and to photograph them. The walking safari following on meant there was no pressure to see and get very close to any of the animals and we could enjoy the walks and savour Africa at a leisurely pace with animals getting close to us when we stayed still.

All the places we stayed in were very special and was just the sort of safari we had hoped for. There was a bit of pressure on animals in Chobe with 4 cars watching lions at one point but there was fantastic amounts of game there. The boat trip was particularly lovely and we watched elephants drinking from the river and 100's of birds.

It was very easy to move from one part of the holiday to the next and all links and transfers were perfect. Hard to imagine that so many links and transfers and border crossings could go without a hitch!

At the planning stage, Lucy listened carefully to me and made absolutely the right recommendations. She remained cheerful through 2 sets of reboookings caused by BA changing flight days. She and Anna are obviously well known and respected in Zambia. Lucy's service was so good that I have booked my next holiday to Equador and Galapagos through Sunvil, and hope to book Namibia in the future. Pity that Expert Africa didn't organise the weather!

Suggestions for improvements:

It was the quality of your service before booking that made us book with you, irrespective of price. We could easily have done this trip cheaper by making our own arrangements - but I wouldn't like to be in Africa without Expert Africa! Just the thought of the Zambia|Botswana border without Expert Africa makes me go cold. What other firm gives clients their consultants mobile numbers in case of emergencies?

Matchless service and nothing could have been improved.

I stayed at and have reviewed:

Place	Overall rating
Zambezi Sun, Zambia 18-Jul-2009 review: Service in the Sun	Excellent
Muchenje Safari Lodge, Botswana 22-Jul-2009 review: Muchenje Safari Lodge review	Excellent
Lufupa Bushcamp, Zambia 25-Jul-2009 review: Lufupa Bush Camp review	Excellent
Musanza Bushcamp, Zambia 27-Jul-2009 review: Musanza Bushcamp review	Excellent
Busanga Bushcamp, Zambia 29-Jul-2009 review: Busanga Bush Camp review	Excellent
Tafika, Zambia 1-Aug-2009 review: Tafika review	Excellent
Chikoko Tree Camp, Zambia 4-Aug-2009 review: Chikoko Tree Camp review	Excellent
Crocodile Bushcamp, Zambia 6-Aug-2009 review: Crocodile Bushcamp review	Excellent
Taj Pamodzi Hotel, Zambia 7-Aug-2009 review: Taj Pamodzi Hotel review	Good