Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"This was our thirteenth trip with Expert Africa since 2006 (and we have two more in the pipeline), which speaks volumes in itself.

Once again, we found ourselves well-satisfied with EA's offering and the quality of service (including rapidly finding us overnight accommodation near the airport in Windhoek after a flight delay).

We enjoyed all the camps we went to and achieved most of our objectives (the pangolin, which we had hoped to see as there is research ongoing at one place we stayed, remaining unsurprisingly elusive).

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep up the good work!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We had a wonderful holiday. The whole trip ran very smoothly and had been exceptionally well organised." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"Great varied holiday.

For a month long holiday there was only one minor one hiccup so that's pretty good. The Wild Horizons road transport from Zambezi Sun to Livingstone Airport didn't turn up. They then didn't answer any of the contact numbers incl their emergency mobile so that is probably more of a concern. No problem we just got the hotel to order us a taxi. A Wild Horizons rep finally called the hotel & said their vehichle wouldn't start that morning & they had another vehicle on the way. We said that given the time we were now taking whatever turned up first (which was the taxi). To their credit Wild Horizans must have contacted the taxi driver and told him to return the fare to us.

Proably the only thing we would have changed on the holiday was to sway Tafika camp in Sth Luangwa NP for one that was on a perennial river with watersports such as canoeing (eg Lower Zambezi NP)

Maruska was extremely helpful with planning our trip and very responsive to our questions .. thanks Maruska

PS: We don't normally have our trips organised by a travel agent and only initially contacted Expert Afrika for the Busanga & Tafika bookings .. but then Maruska offered to book most of the other accn & transfers & that's what happened. Very unusual for us to have transfer cars waiting at an airport etc with our name on a card & we don't see much of an advantage over just getting a bus/taxi .. but i can see that some folks would love the certainty of transport waiting for them

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari

"Outstanding experience fully lived up to expectation. No regrets about anywhere we stayed.

Some of the travelling was tiring but we expected that. Some great roads, some pretty dire, especially western Etosha. People generally very friendly.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Excellent service.
Only (v minor) thing that didn't work out was that our pre-booked seats for the flights didn't materialise." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"We have had an excellent holiday .

There were one or two minor problems which did not detract from the overall enjoyment and we do not live in a perfect world. We were impressed that Sabina went out of her way to contact us on the first day of the holiday when she found out that there had been a mishap with our transfer from the airport. Wilderness were also very apologetic and made us comfortable while we waited to be transferred to the guest house.

Confriming our flight departure times did seem to cause some difficulties with the various lodges but wasn't an issue that really impacted us. We found all the Wilderness Air pilots very friendly and reassuring and they provided us with great views and in a couple of instances made slight detours so we were able to see the best views. We certainly thought flying between lodges was a great way to see the country and to cover long distances quickly.

We were really impressed by Nambia as a country and how everybody worked together in harmony.

we throughly enjoyed the entire trip and hope to go back in the future. We will use Expert Africa again.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The following are just suggestions they did not have a negative impact on our trip.

We were not prepared for how cold it was at times. Although this is covered in the information you provided the impact of the winds and the chill factor didn't register with us. Equally we were told that the weather had been exceptionally cold on occasions.

It might be useful to provide fuller explanations as to the exact nature of some of the activities at the lodges. In our case there were some instances where Chris , who has breathing difficutlies could not particiapte in them. Had we had more information we might have suggested that our length of stay at some lodges may have been changed." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 18 on a Namibia trip

"The whole trip was excellent. All arrangements worked like clockwork.

The camps, game vewing, quaility of guides met our expectations.

We met lots of interesting people along the way which enriched the experience and encouraged us to do even more safari travelling in the future!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"We enjoyed our trip very much. We would have preferred not to have gone to Halali, but to have had an additional day inn Swakopmund, as we did not have an opportunity to explore the town. Personally, we preferred the smaller lodges, i.e. up to 20 people. We enjoyed meeting the Namibian staff and finding our more about their country.

Our trip has inspired us to make a further visit to Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We were told that credit cards would not be accepted throughout the country, but in fact they were. This needs to be amended in your information. Also, we would have liked a detailed breakdown of the individual costs in the quotation.

We will certainly recommend Expert Africa to our friends, and will be using you again." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"First we thought Nick advised us well to start at Victoria Falls then move on to the camps. The pre-holiday information sent by Expert Africa was extremely informative and useful and Nick was always prompt in answering our queries.

The three Kwando camps were uniformly excellent but different in their own ways. The common denominator was the positive and welcoming attitude of all the staff. No exceptions. We can't praise them too highly. All were extremely helpful, worked hard and really seemed to want to contribute to the enjoyment of your holiday.

We were apprehensive when setting out as to how we would cope as vegetarians but we enjoyed every meal. We have seen negative reviews about the food but literally everything is cooked or prepared from scratch and we found it extraordinary how such delicious things are prepared in the middle of nowhere.

A small point but we think Kwando are missing an opportunity in the camp shops where there is little choice of local crafts as mementoes. Indeed no-one seemed to know what if anything had been made in Botswana.

This was our first visit to Africa and would probably be difficult to beat. Everything went smoothly from the moment we landed at Victoria Falls to our return flight to Maun. We saw everything that we wanted to see and more and returned home with more than 1600 photographs and memories that will be with us for a long time. Kwando's policy of a maximum six people per jeep makes for memorable and intimate sightings. On a couple of occasions we were the only ones in the jeep. Being so close to the wildlife with no-one else about was magical." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Overall our trip was amazing. We'd chosen five different camps to give us variety and I think we achieved this.

We hadn't realised that it would be quite so hot in September despite studying temperature charts and if we were to return we would probably choose a cooler month.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I think the only change I would have made to the holiday was to use South African Airways rather than Botswana Air.

Our flight from Dum Tau to Little Kwara was rather long despite the small distance involved. We made two stops on the way to take on and let off passengers and the journey took over an hour and a half. Due to the heat it was very uncomfortable. I imagine this though is outside your control." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"We found that the trip was well organised and most enjoyable and we would have no hestitaion in recommending your company . Our only minor problem was that we had expected lower temperature than experienced. We booked for the Sept period because from information given the average temperature was quoted at 25 C Max (ref: notes for travellers page 13). As soon as we left Windhoek
we were in the high 30's and it then it got to 40+. Are the temperatures quoted for Windhoek? At Vic Falls we saw a weather report and it was 25C in Windhoek but it was 41C in VF.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank your team for all of the support given and we would hope to travel with you again." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip