Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"Our trip as a whole was excellent. We booked our own rooms in Nairobi at each end of the trip. We stayed in the Karen area and were very comfortable. On the first night we stayed at Purdy Arms, which seems to be the happening place on Friday nights. Nice place and Great Pizza.

On the last night, we stayed at the Margarita house. Room was nice, breakfast was good and staff was very accommodating. We hired their driver to pick us up at the airport and to drive us around the last day until our flight left. He was very helpful. We asked to be taken to a place where we could buy some wood carvings and he found a place. Unfortunately, they charged us one thing, but the price on our credit card when we got home was 3 times the amount we signed for. Be sure to keep all receipts for purchases and only use cash in those places. In spite of that, our trip was Awesome!!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I think you do a great job.

Our only concern was waiting for the few weeks between payment and receiving the documents without being certain we would ever see them. But, it did in fact come just as you said it would, so that was not really a problem." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 3 on a Kenya safari

"We loved the trip. We were surprised by how well developed much of the tourist infrastructure is in Namibia, how easy and accessible travel is throughout the country, and how friendly and welcoming the locals are. The pace was quite exhausting, but we expected that going in. If we were to have a redo of the same trip, I would extend it by about a third, so we would have a better balance of driving to having time for actual activities.

Generally everything went according to plan and we got to see and do things we planned on seeing and doing. One thing we did not get to do was visit Skeleton Coast NP, because that is a full-day activity from Swakopmund, and our one full day was partly taken up by the kayaking trip. The one change I would have made to our itinerary would be to skip the last night in River Crossing and instead have 3 nights/2 full days in Swakopmund, so we would have had time to go to Skeleton Coast park and drive from there straight to the airport for our evening flight home.

We were very happy with the places we stayed in. There were a few minor hiccups, inevitably, as I describe in my detailed comments on accommodations, but overall everything was great and we were very happy with the choices." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"I had the best time of my life. Truly a trip of a lifetime.

I want to credit Nick Hobbs for recommending Little Kwara. Without that camp, I would not have seen lion - which was at the top of my list. That camp was not even on my list, but he said they were great trackers and he was dead on right.

Thank you Nick. I will be forever grateful." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"With much assistance from Expert Africa we really were able to tailor make our honeymoon and it made the world of difference. It meant we could focus on the things we were most interested in, we could move on from one location to the next at our own pace and we could adjust the budget up or down accordingly by tweaking here and there.

Our whole trip was fantastic. It had a rocky start as our flight leaving the UK was actually cancelled, however we were able to ring Expert Africa in the middle of the night explain the problem and by the time we arrived in Tanzania a new schedule had been re-arrranged for us by James that minimised any loss of activities. Having this piece of mind was invaluable.

Thanks should also go to Liz (who often assisted us if James was out of the office) and to Megan as originally we were looking into going to Botswana." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 11 on a Tanzania safari

"Wonderful trip again. Thanks to Chris was suggesting Zambia and to Megan for all her hard work planning the trip. The combination of camps was ideal for us plus the locations and we really felt that you understood exactly what we were looking for.

It was interesting hearing so many glowing comments about Expert Africa from camp staff and another travel agent we met in Zambia. This was all unprompted and really telling of what a great job you do.

Time to start saving for the next one.....

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"As a "once in a lifetime", the gorilla treks were incredible even if they were hard work. One of the things I really liked about Rwanda was driving in the countryside, seeing how Rwandans live. Normally on a safari, you fly into your destination airport and then "hop" to your National Park so don't get the opportunity to see the real country. That difference made this trip really interesting.

The Serengeti was a real pleasant surprise. Beautiful countryside and plenty of great game. After the lack of elephants in the Serengeti, it was a pleasure to see so many in Tarangire, but due to the repetitive nature of the game drives and tsetse flies, I can't imaging wanting to return.

All in all a memorable trip." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"Overall, an awesome experience. Would definitely go back to Kenya.

People were lovely. Guides were great.

The only serious glitch was right up front when the driver wasn't there to collect us. Not a great start after a long flight and we were disappointed and frustrated by this especially when he tried to pretend that he'd been there all the time. Otherwise everything went very well

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, nothing more to add" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Kenya safari

"This was an excellent holiday, and we really enjoyed exploring the diversity of places, activities and landscapes that Namibia has to offer. We really appreciated the informed advice from Tracy at Expert Africa when we were planning this trip - it made planning a lot simpler and easier.

However - and this is a big however - we object to the advice that a normal 2WD car is sufficient for the route that we took. We were assured that this would be fine, so we hired a Toyata Corolla. This was of course fine on tarmac, and meant we had good fuel efficiency. However, the gravel roads and access routes to lodges were very difficult and stressful to travel on in this car. We are not inexperienced, and we drove very carefully - and slowly - which meant that we took significantly longer than most to travel a route. Despite our care, we could not avoid damage to our car undercarriage on the access road to one lodge. We managed to avoid other damage that we needed to repair (though we incurred several dents and knocks from stones thrown up from the road) - had our car had a higher ground clearance and a more robust undercarriage we could have avoided this.

The car was extremelyuncomfortable to sit in on the gravel roads if they were not freshly regraded, including in the centre of Etosha near Halali - neither we nor the car were built for all the vibrations that ensued. Given that this is was an expensive holiday, paying a little extra for a more robust and comfortable car would have been money well-spent. This doesn't necessarily have to be a 4WD but it would be the easiest way to ensure the car is up to the job, When the roads are long and empty and you have no mobile reception, you want confidence that the car is built for the job." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"I would return to Botswana, its brilliant for animal and bird viewing. Its not a cheap destination but you are rewarded with some extraordinary sightings of both the more common and the rarer African wild animals.

I'm particularly keen on Wild Dogs and was not disappointed in the sightings of them around Lebala and Little Kwara.

The staff in all of the camps and indeed all of the people I met in Botswana were helpful and welcoming.

However, I was not impressed by Little Kwara and would not return there. If it had not been for the experience there, I would have considered my trip to be 'very satisfactory'" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Wonderfull 2nd Trip to Zambia! Great Combination within the Lower Zambezi NP (Chiawa and Old Mondoro) and the Kafue NP (Musakese Camp / Jeffery & McKeith Safaris). This trip was even far better than the South Luangwa NP last year.

The Camps and the Guiding was Top Notch! Very good Combo between the Lower Zambezi and the Kafue. The Experiance was very luxurius in the Lower Zambezi and very relaxed. The Kafue was great fund and a wonderful bush Camp with outstanding Guides and in an outstanding Area...The sightings in general were extremely good and lot of newer stuff....(Pangolin, Liechtensteins Hartebeast, Porcupine, Bushpigs, Serval, etc.) During the whole trip I encountered 8x Leopard Sightings which were unbelievable! Great!

And everything worked out as fine as usual! Thanks for your help and best Regards!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari