Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"A really extraordinary adventure. An excellent itinerary in Rwanda, capped by the priceless experience of tracking gorillas and other primates.

A beautiful week in the Quirimbas Archipelago, including a visit to a hidden gem of southeast Africa, historic Ibo Island.

Just a wonderful experience all around.

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Many thanks to Tracy Lederer for another round of assistance in arranging and assembling an African adventure (our third in three years through Expert Africa). An excellent initial recommendation for an itinerary and extremely helpful advise in refining our ideas. The arrangements came together quickly and worked almost flawlessly.

Thank you again Tracy and Expert Africa." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 12 on a Rwanda safari

"North and South Luangwa are my favourite parks in Africa, and I've been to a few. A ten-day break, with no access to email or news, felt like a month away from the messy world we live in." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"My trip as very good as usual." Read full review: 4 nights in Africa; 4 on a Zambia safari

"The arrangements generally worked clockwork and all the places we stayed were well worth visiting.

Apart from the mishaps in respect of the car (see earlier) the other thing worth mentioning is the problem of the border crossing from Botswana to Zimbabwe. We apparently arrived at a peak time, but queuing for over 2 hours in the sun to pay $55 dollars for a visa was infuriating - all the more so because it was obvious that virtually every transfer agent except ours had a special arrangement with the clerks issuing the visas.

We lost count of the number of times transfer agents would go to the front of the queue with wads of passports and forms. We were, literally, the last in the queue at the point we left, even though many people arrive after us. I'm not sure of the answer - probably either they should crack down on petty corruption or you should get a different agent?" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"This was the holiday of a lifetime - totally luxury with excellent service, way above our expectations.

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We received excellent service and would certainly recommend Expert Africa to friends." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"Our trip was truly wonderful. We had an amazing safari in Botswana a few years ago, but this beat it, both in terms of the range of game we saw and the quality of the accommodation.

Everything went like clockwork, it was very relaxing but also an intense safari experience.

Our final week on the Zanzibar beach at Pongwe Beach Hotel was the ultimate in exotic pampered chilling out - very informal and laid back with just the right mix of excellent service, great food, and wow location.

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As everything worked so well, and the advice we were given was so good, I can't think of anything to improve it - just keep it up!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"We had a fabulous trip. it was all we had hoped for and went without a hitch.

It seems that it is standard practice in safari camps to eat 'family style', hosted by members of the camp staff. On talking with other guests at both camps we nearly all agreed that we would have preferred to eat separately. We realise that this is not something that Expert Africa can control but maybe worth passing on to the camps that you deal with.

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A little more clarity on visas would have helped. I was told that for Malawi we could get visa on arrival but your literature advises to get it in advance. In the event we went for 'on arrival' and it was no problem.

Also a little more clarity of what airport taxes we would need to pay would have saved a call or two to your office to find out." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"We had been planning a comprehensive self drive tour of Namibia for a couple years and were completely frustrated by our own inability to make key reservations with the national parks. We reluctantly called in the help of Expert Africa and were pleasantly surprised at how competley helpful and indispenable Maruska was in making all our arrangements while keeping the costs lower then we had expected. Everything over the course of our month log visit, encompassing over 18 lodgings, worked out smoothly.

We had a very helpful assist from Wilderness Safaris staff who met us at the airport and helped us get a burner phone and deal with a slightly troublesome initial car rental interaction. We are ow sure that we could not have done the arrangements on our own with out significant hassles and problems and our very happy that we put our trust in Expert Africa.

We saw numerous independent travellers at the national park Lodgings who thought they had successfully made reservations to find that the parks had no record of them or places for them to stay. Not clear how these were ever resolved but it never impacted us! Maruska's printed material that she sent us had incredibly useful advice on everything form what to look for in car rentals to how to greet people in shops and restaurants. We saw many abrupt tourists getting a cold shoulder from staff that turned around and treated us very warmly because we had been told to do a full on relaxed greeting, asking about how they are and wording the questions in a more polite manner then most European and US travellers would normally use.

Namibia itself was a dream come true visit to Africa. We knew we would see all the major animals (rhinos, elephants, giraffes, ostrich, wildebeest,kudu, oryx,lions, eland, hartebeest, springbok) but we had no idea we would see as many as we did in such high concentrations. Unfortunately the drought is probably responsible for this, pushing all the animals to the waterholes just to survive. We saw 33 species of mammals and over 200 species of birds and most of them from the rental car.

Maruska's advice on several places was spot on. She had gently warned of some dropping standards at a couple places which turned out to be true, while encouraging us to do the kayaking with the seals trip and the 4X4 sand dunes drive to Sandwich Harbor. The latter was a true highlight, and it might not be as fabulous with a guide other then Bruno Nebar, but I am sure it still would be enjoyable. We were quite lucky to spend that day with two of Expert Africa's people, a complete coincidence, but they were both very interesting and helped in drawing out so much information form Bruno while having interesting stories of their own. We usually do not like travelling in guided tours but this was a fabulous day with great company.

Namibia is barely dealing with the tourist influx from Germany and the rest of Europe, and are not prepared to deal with the kind of influx Americans will contribute once Americans realize what a fabulous destination Namibia is. i am telling our friends and family to go now and to use Expert Africa to make their arrangements! We met only 2 Americans and had many more meaningful encounters with local Damara people including valiant efforts to teach us some click language words! But this will not last long." Read full review: 31 nights in Africa; 27 on a Namibia trip

"Expert Africa did a fantastic job.

Everything was flawless and I couldn't be more pleased." Read full review: 31 nights in Africa; 27 on a Namibia trip

"Trip was fantastic. Freddie had really taken on board the type of trip we were looking for with small remote bush camps, and walking safaris focussing on the ecology of the bush. The variety and interest were ideal for us.

Although the parks are quite far apart, we are really glad we visited 2 different ones. South Luangwa had the highest concentration of game you can imagine, but also the highest temperatures. Kafue was refreshingly cooler, with some different species, and still plenty of the larger game.

We loved Zambia and would definitely go back again, and certainly use Expert Africa to plan our itinerary.

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No - great job - MANY THANKS" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari