Zambia: reviews from our travellers

"My trip as very good as usual." Read full review: 4 nights in Africa; 4 on a Zambia safari

"We had a fabulous trip. it was all we had hoped for and went without a hitch.

It seems that it is standard practice in safari camps to eat 'family style', hosted by members of the camp staff. On talking with other guests at both camps we nearly all agreed that we would have preferred to eat separately. We realise that this is not something that Expert Africa can control but maybe worth passing on to the camps that you deal with.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

A little more clarity on visas would have helped. I was told that for Malawi we could get visa on arrival but your literature advises to get it in advance. In the event we went for 'on arrival' and it was no problem.

Also a little more clarity of what airport taxes we would need to pay would have saved a call or two to your office to find out." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Trip was fantastic. Freddie had really taken on board the type of trip we were looking for with small remote bush camps, and walking safaris focussing on the ecology of the bush. The variety and interest were ideal for us.

Although the parks are quite far apart, we are really glad we visited 2 different ones. South Luangwa had the highest concentration of game you can imagine, but also the highest temperatures. Kafue was refreshingly cooler, with some different species, and still plenty of the larger game.

We loved Zambia and would definitely go back again, and certainly use Expert Africa to plan our itinerary.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No - great job - MANY THANKS" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"This was an amazing vacation! The camps/food/game viewing were excellent.

Thanks again Maruska for all your help in putting this trip together.

You are always a pleasure to work with.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Passport check for Chris took three hours in Johannesburg. I'm not sure if Expert Africa arranged the representative for us in Lusaka, but it made our arrival/departure a breeze. Thank You! We checked our bags to our destination on the departure as to avoid the nightmare in Johannesburg.

I hoped to visit the shops at the main entrance to the park on the way to the airport. Unfortunately, due to our early flight they were not open. Had I known, we could have made arrangements at the start of the trip. Not a big deal --- there's always next time ... just mentioned it in case other guests had the same idea." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"A brilliant holiday.

We wanted a mix of safari and relaxation which was exactly what we got. The choice of Kaingo and Mwawba was perfect given my interest in photography and really is a top quality location. On reflection we should have spent more time there - 4 days at each would have been good but that was our fault as we only wanted 6 days on safari we will know better next time.

Pumulani was lovely but 7 nights was a bit long, 4 would have been ideal.

All the connections and transfers worked well and the level of service in both locations was really good.

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Not that I can think of." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zambia 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!

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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 enjoyed our Zambian safari, experiencing areas we hadn't visited before and seeing cheetah again! On reflection we could have done with 3 nights less, as the heat became quite debilitating but then we wouldn't have wanted to miss any of the camps as they were all so contrasting. Happily the tsetse flies in Kafue were not as bad as we had feared.

In hindsight we did seem to spend (waste) far too much time transferring between parks. The Kafue to Lusaka road transfer was a mistake and not worth the cost saving. The Jeki transfer got us to Lusaka far too early for the Emirates connection, although there wasn't a later alternative. In short, we saw far too much of Lusaka airport (a dire environment) - not the best use of time." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Zambia safari

"The trip was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. It really could not have been any better, and was without doubt the best holiday I have ever been on. Everything from the lodges, through to the scenery, wildlife, service and organisation was just fantastic. I don't think I could fault a single bit (apart from Immigration at Johannesburg airport). And the food, everywhere, was just brilliant.

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Not much to say here apart from the service we received from you was flawless, and very much the reason the trip was such a success was down to both your recommendations and hard work. So I really could not thank you enough. It was the trip of a lifetime!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 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