Zimbabwe: reviews from our travellers
Original reviews written by our most recent travellers to Zimbabwe
"Excellent trip"
"My Oct 2018 trip"
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
We have found your company to be excellent." Read full review: 4 nights in Africa; 2 on a Botswana safari
"Excellent trip to Hwange"
Expert Africa is very efficient and Tom took into account everything we wanted from the outset, spending some time to juggle things around to fit in with timings, availability and budget.
We were looking for small basic bush camps and the 4 camps we stayed in ranged from the more basic to those with slightly more comfort. Each provided their own unique experience, and even the more basic camps were extremely comfortable.
In a country that is currently experiencing a food and fuel shortage, it is unbelievable how these camps still manage to keep providing such an excellent service. And how they manage to provide such good food and in such quantities. We have both come back several pounds heavier!!
In all the camps, the staff were efficient and friendly and the guiding was exceptional. It was great to see that people living and working in that environment all the time are still so passionate about the wildlife around them. The available activities such as game drives, walks, and using the hides, gave a good variety, and made for an excellent experience with some extremely close encounters with the wildlife!
With all wildlife you can never guarantee what you will see, and it is very much dependent on time of year and weather conditions. Overall we had an abundant and excellent wildlife experience to make for a really great safari, and one we will never forget!
Apart from the wildlife survey list of species, we did see several other species that we would count as notable ‘sightings’, such as: some magnificent kudu, tortoise, honey badger, reedbuck, tsessebe, waterbuck, bat-eared fox, wild cat." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 21 on a Zimbabwe safari
"Unbeatable Itinerary Even With the Road Trips"
I'm happy I returned to Zimbabwe and Zambia – two outstanding wildlife countries with exceptionally skilled guides – and I very much enjoyed my introduction to Malawi. The Majete Wildlife Reserve is still in its infancy but holds great promise, and I found Lake Malawi breathtaking to look at and fascinating to explore.
Working with the Expert Africa team – and particularly with Freddie Sutton – to plan my month-long itinerary was great fun and very rewarding. Freddie is experienced, knowledgeable, patient and, above all, flexible. He responded quickly to all of my requests for changes and updates, and he always found an attractive alternative where one was needed. Even when a slight glitch arose during my time away, he immediately resolved it and all went well." Read full review: 38 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zimbabwe safari
"My Oct 2018 trip"
We have both had experience of safaris and Botswana is a wonderful place with absolutely delightful people well trained staff, but I would not recommend it as a first safari due to long distances and well distributed animals, that is just my view." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari
"My Oct 2018 trip"
"My Oct 2018 trip"
Great you were thinking along how to beat that challenge and giving alternatives for accommodation if we could not make it to our first stop. Thanks Tracy!
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
Inform your guests esp if they are used to safaris in other countries than Botswana, eg South Africa that the experience can be different. Im not talking about the game viewing which is obvious off course but the experience in the lodges. In South Africa you often for the same amount of money get more value (luxury, guest experience)" Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari
"Wonderful trip"
Wonderful country, lovely people, excellent guides" Read full review: 27 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip
"Our trip to Zimbabwe October 2018"
We are big fans of Zambia because of the excellent walking but we liked the combination of walk and drives we experienced in Zimbabwe.
Mana Pools was busier than Hwange, which was very quiet. In Mana Pools, it is strange to see people walking in the park without guides. In Hwange it was wonderful to be away from tsetses and mosquitos." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Zimbabwe safari
"Our Hwange safari 2018"
An added bonus was that our guide, Andrew Dalziel, was with us from start to finish and for all of our days in the park, there was just him and us - which made it a very personal trip.
His knowledge and humour was fantastic, we enjoyed our daily bush walks probably covering around 25km in the six days, and we learnt new things everyday. We got very close to elephants on a number of occasions through Andrew’s skills and he was ably assisted by Felix, one of the very long serving camp staff.
Although the animals are skittish in this park, this did not detract from our overall enjoyment. We also spotted over 135 different birds in just six days, with the most varied number of raptors we have seen in an area for a long time. There has been a lot of work undertaken on renovating water pumps in the park, with lots of new solar pumps. This means that all animals have ready access to water in most areas, which does lead to it being harder to spot the animals but certainly didn’t make our experience any less enjoyable.
The camp staff were fantastic - both in the bush camp and during the fly camping. You did not feel that anything was too much trouble at any point, whether it be breakfast in the morning, hot water for a shower or coffee after dinner. Guides and camp staff worked well together and it almost felt like being part of a family for six days.
We did not expect a guide to ourselves for the trip - as we were the only guests for the first two nights, and the only guests going fly camping, this may well have been the reason why. We felt extremely lucky to have Andrew with us - albeit that we were surprised not to have the guides mentioned on Expert Africa’s pages - very much our gain, just not what we had expected.
In many respects, this has been one of our most enjoyable safaris - we may not have seen as many mammals as in other places but the variety of birds, ability to get so close to nature and quality of guiding, alongside the friendliness of the camp staff, all made for an excellent trip. We would strongly recommend this. We feel sure any site chosen for the new camp will be as good because the people will make it so." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zimbabwe safari