Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"We've been to Kenya several times and have also visited the Mara National Reserve and the Mara Conservancies before. And we really love the Mara Conservancies: fantastic wildlife (particularly if you want to see big cats!), the possibility of offroad driving which increases the chances of good sightings dramatically, offer of night drives (now only in Kicheche Valley, not in the 2 other camps) and less vehicles than in the National Reserve.

We also loved the Kicheche Camps very much: great accommodation ("tented camp" sounds so rustic but all three were really luxurious!), tasty and varied food, all the people there, including the management, were very nice and helpful and - most important to us - outstanding guiding with all silver rated guides!

We will come back !!!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Although living in Germany, we've already had several trips to Africa planned and organized by Expert Africa! We really appreciate their high knowledge about the specific countries, areas, lodges/camps and wildlife and the nice, friendly and helpful contact we always (!!) had!
Also this time the planning, organisation and everything else with Jessica was as perfect, professional, nice, friendly, helpful... as always, and also Lara was great for the final steps and during our trip after she replaced Jessica due to private matters!

We will not only come back to Africa, Kenya, and the Mara Conservancies:
We also will come back with Expert Africa - for sure!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Kenya safari

"OVER THE TOP SERVICE. FROM FIRST INQUIRY TO OUR GOODBYES IN ZANZIBAR, NOTHING COULD BE BETTER.

LYNDSEY, YOU DID A FABULOUS JOB AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOUR PROFESSIONAL ASSITANCE.
WE PLAN TO GO TO SOUTH AFRICA NEXT AND ONLY THINK OF EXPERT AFRICA AND LYNDSEY MARRIS AS OUR PERSON.

THANKYOU" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"Parita and the staff at Expert Africa couldn't do enough for us.

Their knowledge of the safari options and resorts was very helpful for us in making our choices. I would strongly recommend them." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 7 on a Kenya safari

"We have had the most fantastic trip to Namibia , and are so pleased we used Expert Africa to organise this .

Having lived in Namibia previously and travelled extensively within the country , I was tempted to undertake the booking and organising of this holiday myself , but with 20 years since I was last there , felt we could do with some guidance . Chris Mcintyres Bradt guide to Namibia had been invaluable previously, and led us to Expert Africa.

Sabina listened to what we were looking for and came up with some great suggestions which we would never have discovered . We were particularly grateful that she guided us away from our determination to hire a two wheel car ! She was prompt and empathic in all of her replies , and all together lovely .

The pre travel pack and very clear summary sheets and directions were invaluable and reassuring .

I have already highly recommended Expert Africa , and will continue to do so. We are already dreaming of our next trip to this wonderful country !" Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"I had visited the wildlife areas of both countries previously and chose parks that were on the whole less visited

I was very satisfied and thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Amboseli and Meru in Kenya, and Nyerere and Ruaha in Tanzania

Amboseli exceeded expectations and is much more than a relative haven for elephants in view of Kilimanjaro - in particular there were multiple cheetah sightings, including one where a group of 5 sub-adults were seen, whilst their mother was away, presumably hunting. They were approached by a coalition of 3 males who tried to drive them away, presumably to bring the mother back into oestrus. The sub-adults initially retreated, but then held their ground, and the coalition moved on.

There was also a rare sighting of a pair of mating puff adders

Meru was very good, but could not quite compete with the nearby Samburu, which I had previously visited, in terms of wildlife sightings and the beauty of the environment

The rhino sanctuary was excellent

The trips on The Rufiji River in Nyerere came up to my very high expectations, with excellent close encounters with hippo, crocodiles, different species of kingfishers, bee-eaters, herons and baboons, although the sightings in the park itself were not as good as the other parks visited, and the roads were the worst that I have encountered in Africa

Ruaha was excellent in terms of both the wildlife, especially multiple leopard and lion sightings

Also the scenery and topography was unique and beautiful, with vast numbers of baobabs , giant euphorbias, palms and tamarind trees" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"My daughter and I have travelled all over the world, and this was by far my favorite trip!

We felt absolutely safe the entire time and very well cared for. Every aspect was planned perfectly.

Lewa Wilderness was our favorite camp, but we also really loved Encounter Mara." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Kenya safari

"This was a return to South Luangwa after ten years, but our first time in the Robin Pope camps. We can 100% recommend them and their staff. There may be more luxurious camps, but I doubt that you could get better service and guiding anywhere.

Safari drives are often a combination of quite long periods of "nothing special" (you can only get really excited at seeing an impala for the first hundred or so times) with occasional moments of wildlife magic ... and we were lucky enough to experience some of those moments - and not just on the game drives.

To mention a few (in no particular order): the elephant who visited us at lunch at Nkwali camp: he chomped his way through the swamp by the swimming pool for about an hour and then wandered back and forth past our tents (4 or 5 metres away?).

- A leopard unsuccessfully stalking her prey ... guinea fowl!

- The two lionesses who wandered into and back out of camp at Nsefu just across from where we were having dinner - we'd seen them with two cubs earlier.

- The leopard cub we (just our car) spent an hour with as dusk fell at Nkwali.

- Wild Dogs at River Camp, even if this wasn't a great sighting - they were very idle and it was just before sunset.

- The (very full) hippo pool we visited for sundowners - glorious scenery as well as that most African of sounds." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari

"We only did Chobe Elephant Camp with Expert Africa.

Our total trip was: Arrive at Joburg 2 nights, 4 nights Rovos rail Pretoria - Victoria Falls. Then 2 nights at Victoria Falls hotel, 3 nights Chobe, and then back to Joburg. Would definitely recommend our trip. However we did feel Victoria Falls town is a bit touristic and expensive, so a one-day trip visiting the park and doing a heli ride would be enough.

We really enjoyed the service of Expert Africa. Tracy Lederer was very helpful, providing us with valuable advice, always responding quickly and helping us with last minute arrangements. We heard the evening before we left that we would be picked up at 8:30 am, making a morning drive impossible (but which was included). Tracy made sure the pick-up was delayed, organizing this late in the evening, and we had a great morning safari drive before heading off. We really appreciated it!

Would definitely recommend booking your trip to Africa with a travel agent, and in particular Expert Africa. It can be quite difficult and overwhelming to book your own trip and organize things locally, so having some help was much appreciated to make the vacation even more relaxing :)" Read full review: 5 nights in Africa; 3 on a Botswana safari

"As always, the trip was organized perfectly by Expert Africa (Sabina).

Her insights, knowledge, and organizing skills made this a wonderful experience.

Responsiveness and willingness to help (delayed flights, emergency) was great.

With Expert Africa we get so much more out of a vacation than with a standard operator." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"This was my first time using Expert Africa and I would highly recommend them.

Anton responded to my enquiries extremely quickly, and provided great advice on which camps he thought I would (and would not) like.

I have already arranged another trip with the company next year, and will doubtless be using them for further safaris." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari