Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"This was one of our best ever family holidays - ideally for older children (in our case, young adults) - with many amazing animals to see, landscapes which were stunning, and different cultures between the highlands, the Mara and the coast.

The four legs of the trip - Borana in the Highlands, a not for profit conservancy which is helping re-establish the black rhino to the first Maasai-owned Camp in the Mara, to six days on Lamu island, a centre of Swahili culture, provided wonderful contrasts and very different experiences.

We could not have wished for a more perfect trip which exceeded all expectations. Now we would love to explore more of Kenya and see more of sub-Saharan Africa. Problem is, we also loved where we went and would like to return to these places and people too! Not the worst problem to have...asante sana, Expert Africa!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Expert Africa could offer a bit more information about activities in addition to quality of camps and lodges -- including interrogating the interests of a family group in order to get them to plan more of what they can get out of a trip. We didn't realise until the end of our first day at Borana, for example, that horse riding really offered the chance of a safari on horseback - and this then made Borana very special.

On the other hand, the flexibility of the Expert Africa team in allowing us to stay at a friend's private accommodation on Lamu was greatly appreciated. The process of building up the itinerary was a very positive experience and I trusted Richard Trillo's advice and in depth knowledge.

On the quote: It would have been nice to have had more of a breakdown of costs and options as I didn't feel able to weigh up alternatives fully. On the other hand, the itinerary was fairly fixed when it came to where we wanted to go on safari.

Finding ways of helping providers be as green as possible would be beneficial - not just conserving species (and we did donate to the Rhino International fund) but also ways of eliminating plastic in camps is important as these are visible ways of leaving less impact. After all, the Kenyan government has banned all plastic bags, so camps and airlines including safarilink should be encouraged to have refillable water canteens, etc. And camps can easily switch.

On Lamu - I would certainly explore the growing private villa/house rental options as these a fun, private and often of historic interest. Otherwise, airbnb and tripadvisor will take a share of your future business....(Our situation was coincidental and through a friend who owns a place with bandas at the end of the island...)

In summary, I rate Expert Africa highly and would recommend you to others! Many thanks." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 8 on a Kenya safari

"Enjoyable holiday but the integration of the wildlife/birds and numbers of them was significantly less spectacular than Zim,Zambia and Tanzan..Although we may visit the Caprivi strip we would not go back to Namibia.

The guiding generally although in most cases was competent was well below that v high standard experienced elsewhere as above.

We were v glad we did not drive flying was much the better option." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"Despite the inauspicious start in Harare Airport, all other aspects of the trip went very smoothly and overall it exceeded our expectations and we will undoubtedly book another trip with Expert Africa in the future.
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

"We cannot thank Expert Africa enough for helping make this trip a wonderful success. From the beginning this was the only internet site we could find that provided detailed information about each camp, including cost. We tried using a travel agent but they would not book the camps we wanted because they had relationships with specific operators. Though we felt a bit nervous about sending money to an internet operator, we forged ahead and were well rewarded. They took care of everything, including arranging flights from Joberg toMaun to each of the camps. Thank you!" Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"It was a memorable experience and we were completely satisfied with our wildlife viewing.

We did not want luxurious accommodation or fine dining and went to Africia to see the people and the animals.

We will be back!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No!" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"This trip exceeded our wildest imagination. We were up close to all the animals we wanted to see with a perfect opportunity to photograph them and to observe their behavior. It was a long flight getting to Kilimanjaro, but well worth it.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service: My wife and I were both impressed by your professionalism and your effort to make sure that my wife's CPAP was taken care of--as it was at each sight." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"6 star, 11/10 a holiday of a lifetime" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Kenya safari

"As we have come to expect, the planning, booking and reservation process with Lucy was deceptively easy - for us.

We got exactly the holiday, the places and the dates we wanted. No hiccups, no poor advice and the whole exercise worked just as we wanted. We have lost count of the holidays Expert Africa have managed for us over 16 years but the record is impressive and we would not dream of going anywhere else for our Africa bookings. Thank you all, it is always a pleasure.

Once again we were able to meet Lucy for a drink(s) on our last evening at The Cape Grace - thank you again but next time it is our shout.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, the formula works wonderfully well. Don't fix it!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a South Africa trip

"We had an amazing trip! Everything went really well. The information provided was totally reliable and our annotated map was a terrific help. Having Wilderness Safaris lounge and support from their team at the airport was great.

The accommodation was a good distance apart so no driving day was too difficult and we felt safe and confident driving ourselves around the country despite some very bumpy roads. This also gave us the opportunity to find small cafes (with excellent cakes) and helpful garages (we'll fix your slow puncture while you have coffee and cake!).

Everyone we met was friendly helpful and welcoming giving us a very positive impression of the country. People were especially helpful and supportive as we had older people travelling with us. They were also very responsive to our requests for including birdwathcing in all trips (114 species seen).

There was much greater variety than a traditional safari holiday. The game viewing was better than we had expected as we didn't include Etosha in our itinerary. However we also loved the varied landscapes such as Fish River Canyon, the dunes at Sossusvlei and Sandwich Harbour, and the bush in Damarland and Waterberg. Our tours were always in smaller groups which gave us more flexibility.

We will be recommending Namibia and Expert Africa to all our friends!" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"We are experienced safari goers. We expected a remote adventure and that is what we got in Hwange National Park.

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