Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"This was everything we could have hoped for and more.

Namibia is a very special place - vast, deserted, so varied in landscape, full of beautiful options.

At the end of our 17 days, our family of 5 adults each ran through their own highlight. We had 5 different versions such was the richness of this holiday.

Best one ever / Tanzania had topped the list before but Namibia offers so much more!

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Very satisfied with expert Africa and have already recommended." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"This was our 9th safari and 4th trip to Zambia and we enjoyed it just as much as always. The juxtaposition of staying in luxurious accommodation and eating superb food alongside the feeling of being 'away from it all' in the remote African bush never fails to captivate us!

Although the amount of game we saw was rather less than in the South Luangwa national park, being able to do canoe, river and fishing activities as well as walking in the bush and enjoying day and night game drives made a pleasant change.

The level of guiding was, as always in Zambia, very high and enhanced our overall experience.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Excellent trip.Probably one of the best holidays you can imagine. Beautiful, safe country with well educated pleasant people.
You want to go return." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 15 on a Botswana safari

"The trip of a lifetime. No words to describe.

Again thank you Expert Africa---Freddie and Chris.

Guiding was beyond excellent. The camps were just what we wanted. We loved the camping. We loved it all.

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You guys are the best. I can't think of a thing. We LOVED our trip." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zimbabwe safari

"Amazing! Whilst we have travelled around the world, this was meant to be the trip of a lifetime and it was. It is a holiday we will long remember. We have always wanted to go on safari and see elephants, lions and other wildlife in their natural habitat, but it was also special in terms of the fantastic scenery, friendly people and some of the amazing places we stayed. A great way to mark a special birthday! Thank you." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Can't thank Richard enough for his advice and the way he set the trip up. We were really pleased with all aspects of the holiday. I can quite understand why Richard is so keen on the Conservancies and the Kicheche camps.

I can't actually think of any way in which the trip could have gone off more smoothly.

We were very impressed with Southern Cross and the Eka hotel and the transfers went like a dream. All the managers and staff at both camps were superb. Nothing was too much trouble. As for the game, and particularly cat sightings. Wow! 2500 plus photos after initial editing says it all.

In conclusion, the highest praise I can give is that if we decide to do a similar trip we'll be contacting Richard and Expert Africa to organise it with every confidence!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Kenya safari

"We were in Kenya principally because of a business visit to Nairobi and decided (as we had in December in the same circumstances) to add on a few days vacation.

As we live in Livingstone getting to Nairobi is very straightforward thanks to Kenya Airways flying Nairobi-Livingstone-Cape Town return three times per week.This is an excellent service, taking in views of arguably the three most iconic pieces of natural scenery on the continent, ie Kilimanjaro, Vic Falls and Table Mountain.

We had no hesitation in working with Expert Africa to arrange the non-work elements of our trip, our 20th with EA since we first ventured with the firm in 2006.

As always, we enjoyed a very helpful dialogue with the EA team, Richard Trillo in this case, working out what we would do. The plan worked perfectly and the trip more than lived up to our expectations." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 7 on a Kenya safari

"The difference in climate and ecology and activities between our three camps made for a very satisfactory holiday.

Your advice when discussing the trip was sound.

All arrangements were as we expected. We had a wonderful time and can`t wait to return.


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In our opinion you provide a first class specialist travel service.

We have always been delighted with the holidays you have arranged for us and no doubt we will be back for more !!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"As a whole my first long trip to Kenya was successful and everything took place as planned. The trip gave me a good insight about safaris and background knowledge of the natural world in Kenya, although my stay at Severin Safari Camp could have been better managed. I hope to revisit in the future and I certainly will want to return to Ol Pajete.

Being advised against visiting Lake Turkana was correct. Whilst in Kenya I spoke to people who had visited Turkana and they found the place unbearable because of the heat.

Lastly, thank you James for helping to sort out the trip at such short notice.

P.S. Apologies for the length of my Feedback but my memory got the better of me." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Kenya safari

"We spent 16 days in Namibia in June - July 2017. We had chosen Namibia because the £/ rand exchange rate was attractive whereas other countries quoted holidays in US $s which made them more expensive. Also the country was a good and safe one for self-driving. I found the good, straight, empty roads a pleasure to drive on compared with UK. We stayed in 10 different locations during our trip and three places stood out so far as bird and animal sighting was concerned: Okauhuejo, Nkasa Lupala and Ndhovu. Why?

The Okaukuejo water-hole provides a magnificent arena from which to view birds and animals. The floodlit night viewing of two male rhinos fighting was something I never thought to see and will treasure for the rest of my life. In comparison some years ago I took two trips to Tanzania and they produced one distant viewing of a rhino. Sadly two have been killed in Etosha recently and one day there will be none. Okaukuejo Lodge itself is rightly very popular, big and busy. Checking in was slow as there were a number of people queuing ahead of me who thought they had reserved accommodation,but who discovered too late that their internet reservations had been ineffective. I was grateful to Wilderness Safaris that I had no such problems. The key is to posses a reservation number!

Nkasa Lupala on the River Kwando was interesting for the variety of birds and animals. It was here that we finally saw some lions. The night drives are also well worth doing. One night drive produced amongst other animals two civets; one wild cat, a porcupine and some spring hares. I was glad I hired hired a 4x4 because I was able to drive straight to this Lodge & this saved time, money and hassle. The route there is fairly well signed from Sangwali to Nkasa Lupala and takes about 35 minutes to drive. The lodge itself needed some TLC - not everything was working in our tent. Ndhovu has in Michael someone with the sharpest eyes on the River Kavango. We had three boat trips with him and each one was an adventure in to wild Africa. In addition the lodge is very efficiently run by Horst, Peter and Bola. It is within a 10 minute drive of the Mahango Game Park - the best place in this area to see birds and animals.

We also stayed at River Dance Lodge where the admirable owners have put huge amounts of effort in to the design and building of the lodge and also in to staff training. The results show. However the boatman on the river trip we took knew less about birds than myself and and the Mahango Game Reserve is just under an hour's drive from here. Ndhovu therefore offered better in my view. We spent one night at Taranga Safari Lodge on the way out of the Caprivi Strip. We would not stay there again - the sole attraction was the small bird viewing. Roy's Camp would have probably offered a more evenly spaced stopping place on the way back to Windhoek.

The Frans Indongo Lodge and Okonjima Camp are both very comfortable and well managed places and we admired the design of Frans Indongo in particular. However both these places have had animals imported and one has the sense that these are 'safari parks' rather than the real Africa. This may appeal to many but the slightly canned effect was not quite what we wanted.

At the start of the trip we had stayed at the Hilltop Guest House in Windhoek. This took some finding and I was grateful I had bought a map map of Windhoek to help us do this. Once we were there we were very well cared for and the owner gave us the good advice to dine at the Social. We had an excellent meal there.Also we were grateful we did not have to drive far that first day since we had not slept much on the overnight flight from London. We stocked up on lunch type food and water at the Eros Centre below the Guest House before leaving Windhoek next morning.

We were supposed to be met by Wilderness Tours on our arrival at Windhoek Airport but found no one. However we spotted a Wilderness lounge in Arrivals and someone inside. He proved to be a great help. We were able to buy a mobile chip from the MTC rep at the airport for £3 for 150 minutes. Expert Africa had arranged for us to hire a 4x4 from Bidvest. However without the help of Wilderness tours we would have struggled to take over the vehicle as the Bidvest man did not appear to know much about the vehicle. It was a very basic Ford 4x4. Nevertheless it served us well although its gear-box was a bit like stirring porridge. Also I forgot to ask the size of the fuel tanks and the hand-book surprisingly did not not reveal this information!

Later I reckoned it was about 100 liters and the fuel gauge appeared to report the combined usage rather than just the second tank! The return of the car posed no problems and Bidvest were happy to sign Expert Africa's form at the back of their hand-book.

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No comments - but many thanks for arranging an excellent trip with no problems! Quite an achievement." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip