Reviews of trips to Livingstone & Victoria Falls

"A magical trip combining the wonder of Victoria Falls with the splendour of the Okavango Delta.

Beautiful countries, friendly and welcoming people, amazing wildlife and superb service. What more could anyone want!

Thank you Megan for all your time spent advising, sharing, deliberating and finally, once all of our many questions had been addressed, organising such a smoothly run trip. Thank you also to Expert Africa for the copy of Bradt Botswana - essential reading before the journey, and to Nick and the team for rearranging our flights when our itinerary had to be changed due to illness.

We will certainly be recommending Expert Africa to all of our friends.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I cannot think of anything to improve your service but here's a few pieces of information that could be useful :-

At the Waterberry Lodge it's Weaver that has the bath not Swallow.

Tipping is always a difficult and personal issue but we followed and appreciated your advice . However Wilderness Safaris suggest up to three times the amount per person per day for general staff - Chitabe/Chitabe Lediba's guidelines were $10 - $15 per guest per day and Xigera recommended $10 per guest per day. This left us in a quandary! Whilst their service is indeed excellent we found their suggested amount excessive given the already high cost of the stay.

I'd asked about availability of robes in camps prior to our trip and can now happily report back that the above three Wilderness camps all supplied cosy fleece dressing gowns for those chilly winter mornings!

The price of a private vehicle with Kwando does not include a private boat whereas with Wilderness it does." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"The trip was fantastic and I will remember for the rest of my life. Good fun, good company and GREAT accommodations and service.

I would recommend anyone who ever gets a chance to go on the trip because it was fantastic." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Overall this was a fabulous safari experience for the 5 of us, three being first time safari goers and two of us being experienced safari travellers. The game viewing is stupendous. The abundance of water from the delta makes for a very different Southern Africa Experience.

Great to see so many Betswanas working in the camps.

Food - we would have like to have had more game on the menu but perhaps this is made more difficult now by the hunting ban in Botswana.

We think that the camps/safari industry in Botswana need to invest in providing WiFi in the camps

Overall we would readily recommend this trip and Expert Africa for organising it - there was not a hitch during the whole trip. Thank you Megan

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep up the good work" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"We had a great holiday and were happy with all our accommodation choices.....we made small suggestions for improvements but had no cause for complaints.

On reflection we might have changed the length of stays towards the end of the trip e.g. an extra day near Victoria Falls and one day less in Hwange N.P. in Zimbabwe. We very much appreciated the advice provided during the planning of our holiday and the information and service given during this process. The brochure and the travel documents supplied were comprehensive and helpful.

We would certainly consider planning/booking another trip with Expert Africa based on our first experience of the company." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 14 on a Zambia safari

"We had a most enjoyable safari, with high standards of accommodation and facilities, including some electricity, without losing the feeling that were were really in the wild.

2370 photos are a testament to what we have seen. Some guides seem to feel that humour is paramount - but we got a bit weary of the same jokes!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, we have had fantastic service, as on our previous trips with Expert Africa. I have said it before, and will say again that other companies can learn a lot from you." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Coming to Zambia for the 4th time : everything very much according to our rather high exspectations." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"This was the most incredible experience of my lifetime. It was a very smooth experience from camp to camp with NO GLITCHES. Everything was perfectly planned and professionally executed. We felt safe while we also were exhilarated I would highly recommend this experience to those seeking adventure and a real taste of the bush and Africa.

The one comment for change is to offer some diverse activities to break it up a little. Offer something...cooking, yoga, anything!

Thank you for this fantastic experience! It was amazing." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zambia safari

"We had a wonderful trip and hope to return to Botswana in the future." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Botswana is definitely the premier destination for wildlife safaris. Having been to Tanzania, Namibia and South Africa, I felt Botswana had the most to offer although the former holidays were great in their own right.

The camps were, on the whole, well run and the staff hospitable and friendly. The guides were passionate and knowledgeable - always keen to answer questions and reveal the secrets of their country. We not only learned a great deal about the wildlife but also the traditions of the people and how the country has benefited from the flourishing tourist industry. Other struggling African nations could learn a great deal from the shining example posed by Botswana.

We had a fantastic time and hope to return at some point in the future, Expert Africa's recommendations and organising skills were spot on. Flights, pick ups, drop offs etc etc all went like a dream, so well done to Megan and her team. These things don't happen without a lot of work going on behind the scenes.

One negative point, perhaps worth mentioning, is that we were told it would be difficult to book the holiday as late as January as the good camps would be full. As it turned out, none of the camps were anything like full, and Duba Plains, probably the best camp we stayed in, was half empty for two of the three nights we stayed there. I know that travel companies want you to book early but it did not suit us on this occasion to do so.

Another useful service Expert Africa could offer, as some other companies do, is a breakdown of the costs of each camp. This would allow the client to compare like with like and assess, at least in a cost sense, the quality of individual camps.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just keep doing what you do. I can think of nothing to criticise in the organisation of the holiday. Obviously, very expensive but a lot of the tourist cash does filter back to the people of Botswana which is vital in maintaining the passion and commitment of guides and staff.

It would help to receive some feedback from Expert Africa re my observations and comments above. We did not receive any feedback to our comments regarding a previous holiday in Tanzania. Perhaps a phone call discussion with Megan would be a useful way of showing that our feedback was valued." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 13 on a Botswana safari

"We had a wonderful trip--even better than our first visit 2 years ago. Many thanks to Nick Hobbs for interpreting our needs and producing a superbly balanced itinerary.

CHITABE camp was truly exceptional and will live long in our memories.

We will start saving for our next trip." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari