Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"If you only do one trip even in a decade, do this.

The private camps in Botswana offer the best experiences to be had." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"We had a 30 day trip encompassing Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Capetown A bit of an epic adventure with lots of fantastic memories.

All the organisation worked like clockwork and I was very pleased at the helpfulness that Justin demonstrated in trying to pull this trip together to suit our needs. With such a lengthy itinerary and so many stops on the route, it could have been no easy task to get all the pieces to fit together. The first law of sales is that people buy from people (no matter what Trump says).

Justin made it easy to do business with Expert Africa and though the trip was way over budget, we still went ahead as I has trust that he had pulled an appropriate trip together for us. We weren't disappointed." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"both James Denny (who was my initial contact and helped me to choose safari location and camps) and Lyndsey Marris (who organised our two stays in Zanzibar, and made all our reservations) were very helpful, and extremely knowledgeable. Overall the trip was amazing on every level,and incredibly well organised, thank you!

The only slight negative is that we were a little disappointed with Mwagusi Camp in terms of service and food, especially after staying at Siwandu which surpassed our expectations and was just excellent on every level. Maybe if we'd stayed at Mwagusi before Siwandu, we wouldn't have noticed so much!

We are definitely keen to explore more of Africa as a result of this trip, and will definitely return to Expert Africa to do so!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"It was a great holiday and we have so many good memories.

We are contemplating a return after the rains to see South Luangwa when it is green." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Zambia safari

"Our whole trip was magnificent. Cape Town was busy with so much to see and do; we visited District Six Museum, the Planetarium, Slave Lodge, Heart of Cape Town museum [home to Dr Christian Barnard's first heart transplant]; the Cape Peninsula -Cape Point, Boulders Beach, did the Chapmans Peak Drive, V and A Waterfront and of course Robben Island, Table Mountain, Signal Hill and the stunning Kirstenbosch Gardens. We also spent a day driving to the West Coast National Park to see the wild spring flowers- truly incredible scenery.

At our time in Franschoek we visited Paarl, the motor museum and the very pretty town of Stellenbosch visiting the village museum. En route to Hermanus, we stopped at the beautiful Vergelden Winery with lovely grounds and buildings and enjoyed an incredible lunch in the sunshine. We saw whales on our walking tour in Hermanus and visited three lovely wineries each with a different character.

We saw an incredible array of wildlife in Bostwana and our stay at Muchenje was truly a dream come true.

At Victoria Falls, we did a falls tour, had a helicopter flight over the area and did a bridge history tour. On our last afternoon we took 'high tea' at the Victoria Falls Hotel and admired the stunning view and interiors of the hotel. This was coupled with bonus wildlife sightings at our hotel the Victoria Fallls Safari Lodge.

Thank you to Tracy Lederer who worked so hard to tailor the holiday to our requirements - it was truly a trip of a lifetime and one we shall always remember - along with our month long trip to Namibia [also organised by Tracy] back in 2010!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
None; everything was wonderful - thank you." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 10 on a South Africa trip

"I think my third trip with expert Africa was probably my best so far.

The South Luangwa in particular exceeded my expectations and was truly an unforgettable experience. I certainly hope to revisit this part of Zambia in the near future. All the arrangements and flight connections worked without a hitch.

On reflection I should probably have selected a stop over on my outward journey as I travelled continuously for more than 30 hours. I think it is worth mentioning that travelling between the lodges in Malawi does involve some lengthy road trips. In my case nearly 6 hours each time. This is not really a problem , but I think should be born in mind.

I learned a great deal about Malawi and the problems facing the country while I was there , and there is a programme of recovery and restocking of wildlife going on across the country in areas that suffered greatly from poaching and neglect in recent decades. African Parks are the main driving force , and are to be congratulated and supported. Therefore I encourage people to visit the parks and lodges in Malawi in support of this project , as well as to visit a very interesting country.

My thanks to Claire in particular at Expert Africa for arranging everything , and for helping me to Plan such a successful trip.

I certainly intend to use Expert Africa again in the future." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"We had a great time. We had some really good experiences, had some great views and met some lovely people. Everyone was really helpful and pleased that we were visiting their country, both in South Africa and Namibia.

We had hoped to see the spring flowers in Namaqualand, but realised before we arrived that the drought would mean it unlikely. We saw a few, which was lovely but also did more walking than we might have done and found other things to do which we really enjoyed.

Highlights of the trip were Twee Rivieren at Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Fish River Canyon, Kolmanskop (outside Luderitz), Augrabies Falls and the Eagle's Nest at Aus.

Thanks to Tracy for the original inspiration and Claire for making it happen." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 13 on a South Africa trip

"Excellent will repeat." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"Namibia is a country of striking beauty. We thoroughly enjoyed our adventure and we only wish that could have stayed longer.

The trip ran very smoothly and we thank Expert Africa, and particularly Tom Morris for his guidance.

A holiday full of memories that will last a lifetime." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"James did a fantastic job of organizing this trip for us. His suggestion of adding Kichaka to our plans was spot on, and we never would have known about them without his advice. Arrangements were all smooth, service everywhere was great, and the plan he shared was exactly what we got. I think if I could change anything about the trip, it would have been the Pongwe part. While the resort was fine, it wasn't totally our style. I think we would have been happier at one of the places with a stronger environmental orientation and better access to good snorkeling. That's on me, not James - I didn't share that this was a priority, and I was thinking too much about the expense.

I also wasn't prepared for the aggressiveness of some of the street hustlers in Stone Town. While in most places, they would respect a polite "Hapana, Asante," in the Forodhani Gardens area, they were so aggressive it made it unpleasant to walk over there - sometimes escalating to physical contact and insults from them although we stayed polite. This isn't something that Expert Africa controls of course! It would be something that it would be helpful to add to the next Bradt guide update.

I also need to note that at the beginning of our trip, things went off track due to a problem with Turkish Air. Because of their delays, we missed our Istanbul connection, and had to stay the night in Istanbul. This was clearly not Expert Africa's fault, but it was very frustrating that I couldn't get through to anyone on the 24 hour emergency number. I called four times. Each time, a recording would tell me that someone would be with me in a minute, and then the phone would start ringing. I would let it ring 100 times before I gave up. Maybe I should have had faith and let it ring longer?

I guess I'm used to hold music playing if I'm in a queue of calls, and then the ringing starting when I'm actually being connected. Is the ringing what happens when you're in queue on your line? Because all this happened during the 36 hour stretch that no one is on your office, folks at Lake Manze camp were quite concerned that we had disappeared without a word, and we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to reconnect with our trip. We spent a scary 4 hours sitting outside the Dar airport hoping we'd be able to figure everything out at sunrise, which we did with the help of a friendly cab driver and the staff at Coastal Aviation." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday