Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"A magical trip combining the wonder of Victoria Falls with the splendour of the Okavango Delta.

Beautiful countries, friendly and welcoming people, amazing wildlife and superb service. What more could anyone want!

Thank you Megan for all your time spent advising, sharing, deliberating and finally, once all of our many questions had been addressed, organising such a smoothly run trip. Thank you also to Expert Africa for the copy of Bradt Botswana - essential reading before the journey, and to Nick and the team for rearranging our flights when our itinerary had to be changed due to illness.

We will certainly be recommending Expert Africa to all of our friends.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I cannot think of anything to improve your service but here's a few pieces of information that could be useful :-

At the Waterberry Lodge it's Weaver that has the bath not Swallow.

Tipping is always a difficult and personal issue but we followed and appreciated your advice . However Wilderness Safaris suggest up to three times the amount per person per day for general staff - Chitabe/Chitabe Lediba's guidelines were $10 - $15 per guest per day and Xigera recommended $10 per guest per day. This left us in a quandary! Whilst their service is indeed excellent we found their suggested amount excessive given the already high cost of the stay.

I'd asked about availability of robes in camps prior to our trip and can now happily report back that the above three Wilderness camps all supplied cosy fleece dressing gowns for those chilly winter mornings!

The price of a private vehicle with Kwando does not include a private boat whereas with Wilderness it does." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"The walking really put even the excellent drives of day one in the shade, absolutely made by the quality of Brent's guiding - incredibly knowledgable, great communicating style, and sensitive handling of group dynamics.

Only real reservations were the following.

The lack of a direct flight made the journey far more onerous than it need have been.

The advice re the need of warm clothing missed the mark for us. The temperatures were very comfortable at all times of day (and apparently typical for the time of year). I never needed more than a shirt from 5.30am until going to bed at 10pm! What this meant was that my luggage ( we were determined to take no more than hand luggage) was quite unnecessarily bulked, and weighted up with the warm clothing recommended.

However, this was a relatively minor annoyance when set against the superb overall experience. Your recommendation absolutely reflected what we had been looking for.

An afterthought. It might be helpful for you to know that I suffered no insect bites at all (and Nigel just one)' whereas others passing through from other camps elsewhere had been badly bitten by Tsetse flys." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zambia safari

"A really enjoyable trip which was made really easy and nearly foolproof by Maruska,s attention to details , prompt replies and advice. We loved our side trip to Victoria Falls.

On the whole the trip was without any major hitches but I doubt that I will go back to Caprivi although I will undoubtably go back to Namibia.

I was shocked at the obvious poverty around the Divindu area and a little surprised at the obvious development and money being spent around Windhoek. I am not being critical as I am a visitor passing through but I do wonder at the lack of industry and therefore the lack of employment. There is a huge abundance of water in the Caprivi and wonder why it is not harvested and used. The weather was fantastic , the people are a charming gentle race keen to help and almost without exception polite. A very happy holiday.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

If I am planning another Southern Africa trip , my first stop will be Expert Africa." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Had a wonderful time, thanks for the service provided, we really enjoyed visiting Namibia and will return.overall the variety and choice of places to visit and stay was excellent and we don''t regret visiting or staying in any place and feel most people would enjoy and gain something from each. a wonderful holiday full of interest and plenty of rest. thanks

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep up the good work!" Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Went with high expectations and they were exceeded. Tracy really worked hard to find the right lodges for us - and they were great. Game viewing was amazing - friend travelled with was on first safari and certainly didn't expect to get so close to wild life and have so many adventures!!

Relaxing 6 nights in Mozambique at Azura were fantastic for rest and luxurious relaxation.
Thank you to everyone involved.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

A VERY BIG THANK YOU!!!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"The staff at expert Africa were excellent. Despite British airways losing my luggage. The staff were with me all of the way hearing my endless complaints and urgency to locate it! Customer service was open 24 hours to talk me through different scenarios! Much time was wasted trying to locate my luggage.

Extra thanks to Elizabeth Wollen, for her never ending empathy and help in tracking my bag!" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"Overall this was a fabulous safari experience for the 5 of us, three being first time safari goers and two of us being experienced safari travellers. The game viewing is stupendous. The abundance of water from the delta makes for a very different Southern Africa Experience.

Great to see so many Betswanas working in the camps.

Food - we would have like to have had more game on the menu but perhaps this is made more difficult now by the hunting ban in Botswana.

We think that the camps/safari industry in Botswana need to invest in providing WiFi in the camps

Overall we would readily recommend this trip and Expert Africa for organising it - there was not a hitch during the whole trip. Thank you Megan

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep up the good work" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"The trip was fantastic and I will remember for the rest of my life. Good fun, good company and GREAT accommodations and service.

I would recommend anyone who ever gets a chance to go on the trip because it was fantastic." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Everything worked seamlessly.

One problem:

The telephone numbers we were given in Harare to contact the air charter to check flight time were either "no incoming calls answered" or unobtainable. Our cousin knew a private lodge operator in Mana, contacted his business partner in Harare who knew the air charter person whom we contacted. She took our details and in fact contacted the lodge to ask them to convey an earlier flight time to us which they did by sending a vehicle to find us and tell us." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zimbabwe safari

"We had a wonderful honeymoon - Tanzania provided the perfect destination and we were very happy with our itinerary, which was a perfect mix of safari and beach.

All our accommodation was luxurious, but Sand Rivers stood out as exceptional." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari