Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"RPS camps are still some of our favourites and we had a great time courtesy of El Presidente Daudi, the team and our fellow travellers.

Getting to Zambia is now something of a real long-haul as the direct BA flight has gone - perhaps we will explore other options next time." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zambia safari

"This is the best time of year to visit! Many lodges are nearly empty and you benefit from personal attention.

We decided to take a risk on the rain in early March and while there were one or two thunderstorms we had absolutely no problems on the roads. I would encourage anyone who is considering it to rent a 4x4 and take the plunge. The gravel roads are very easy to drive on, very well maintained and gloriously empty most of the time.

Game drives are fun, but we went for the smaller wildlife and the wide open spaces and we weren't disappointed.

Very friendly people everywhere.

Take some time to walk around Windhoek if you can; it's worth a day at least." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"Brilliant. Everything we wanted it to be.

The week on Bird Island was the highlight, but the two stays on Mahe got us acclimatised and ready for the trip home." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 6 on a Seychelles holiday

"Given this type of holiday is nothing like our usual family holiday I think perhaps we needed more advice and more of a steer than was realised or acknowledged.

In particular, I think I was looking for something quite luxurious when spending £4k on a 10 day break. Luckily Fumba Beach Lodge met our expectations." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Apart from our five days at Kwandwe booked through Expert Africa, the remainder of our three weeks stay in the Eastern Cape involved guest farms privately booked.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Although we only used Expert Africa for a five days stay at Great Fish River Lodge, Kwandwe, we would have no hesitation in recommending or using them again.

Whilst talking to Expert Africa's MD Chris McIntyre, it was obvious that his company promotes Game Reserves /Lodges who share their ethical, sustainable and responsible approach in respect of wildlife conservation/biodiversity.

My telephone conversations with Chris McIntyre confirmed our choice of Kwandwe and he was most informative. We received excellent customer service with a wealth of helpful written information and maps.

The Expert Africa brochure is actually a 323 page book full of facts, information and photographs covering vsrious South African countries and Indian Ocean Islands. It makes an interesting read even if an actual visit in not possible! We also found their information regarding other accommodation where we have stayed during previous visits to other countries accurate and fair." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 5 on a South Africa trip

"Overall we had a great trip. Camps were well run. Staff were sensitive to our needs and preferences. They were also flexible enough to divide our group into different activities to match the preferences within our party. For example, on one occasion four of us went out on the boat fishing while two were taken on a guided walk to study the medicinal uses of the flora.

There was sometimes the sense of being over programmed and not given enough time to ourselves.

We very much enjoyed our walking safaris and could have done more of those.

In conclusion the trip was excellent and no small thanks to Expert Africa and Maruska in particular for helping to organize this trip. Maruska was extremely patient, diligent and made sure that she understood what we were looking for. Nothing was too much for her. She is also very personable and pleasant. Thank you Maruska and Expert Africa" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"An experience of a lifetime. Felt thoroughly looked after and catered to.

We saw the most amazing game and were privileged with the vast bush knowledge of our guides, and the love of the Batswana for their land and country.

Only one real downside of staying in the camps as a party of 6: we literally never had a moment of just being able to hang out or enjoy a meal on our own - because of the nature of long-tables with all guests eating together and guides playing host and conversation-partners during meals. With the strict rules around not walking about at night without a guide present, it created an awkwardness in us about staying around later into the evening and having to keep our guides up. So over the 8 days of the trip we actually had almost no time to interact with our own party on our own.

Lagoon and Kwara camps seemed to offer a reasonable balance between attentiveness and respect for guests' autonomy. Kanana, however, was a bit over-hosted and over-attentive (even though our hosts were truly wonderful) - it got a bit much to be hovered over ALL the time.

Everyone, everywhere, was so genuinely radiant and generous, and we are in love with the Batswana people!

Thanks to Expert Africa for good guidance and organising! And for the wonderful book on Botswana.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Is there any way to include more physical exercise?! It's an extremely sedentary experience with too much food :-) and an understandably restricted environment because of the wildlife.

Somehow though, we would have loved to engage in some kind of more robust activity/exercise over the 8 days." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"In a word, the trip was superb - and Maruska Adye had a lot to do with it.

It's important, we think, to compliment Maruska on every aspect of her work with us. From the time we first contacted Expert Africa by email, to the phone conversations we had, to the numerous questions we sent - Maruska's responses were quick (ridiculously quick in some cases - we couldn't believe how attentive she was) and always helpful. We felt all along - and our trip was two years in the making - that we were being treated not simply as faceless clients, but as individuals with preferences and ideas that were worthwhile and needed to be dealt with. Maruska's suggestions always seemed to relate directly to the information we'd forwarded to her. She actually seemed to be thinking about OUR TRIP, not her needs.

One of the things that was most helpful for us was that her description of each of the camps we stayed at in our email correspondence before we left was very accurate. So we had a sense both of what the accommodation and feel of the camp would be, and a good idea of what we were likely to see in each of the concessions.

The organization of flights, transfers, etc. was flawless. Every time somebody was supposed to be somewhere to pick us up they were there. Every time a plane was supposed to arrive for a flight (and there were four of those) it was there ready to go. The drivers and pilots were all friendly and helpful. The most complicated little maneuver, the drive from Kasane to Victoria Falls with the border crossing from Botswana to Zimbabwe, was handled expertly by the drivers on both sides." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"Excellent - faultless." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"We had a fabulous trip. Everything went to plan. The wildlife in the Selous was fabulous and we'd love to go back. Ruaha was beautiful and we would return but would either stay at a different camp in February or go back to Mdonya but at a different time of year.

The guides were probably not as well trained as we expected for camps of this quality - they were enthusiastic and friendly, but were not so good at communicating what the plans were for each day, or to establish what we knew, what we wanted to see, what we had seen before etc. Emanuel/Zahor (Manze) and Gerhard (Impala) were the best at communication.

The trip certainly whetted our appetitie for seeing more of Tanzania!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really. You are very good at what you do so keep doing it! The camp managers were all very complimentary about Expert Africa - Barbara (Impala) said that you are the best tour operator she deals with - so keep doing what you are doing!

On feedback, it might make it easier to complete if you had a narrative box against each question to comment on, for example, food, activities etc, rather than one large box at the end. It has certainly taken us rather longer than we had intended to get this completed!

With regard to Mafia it would be helpful to highlight on your website that snorkeling is very much tide dependent, so that anyone who is keen to snorkel might want to check tides and dates to make the most of their time there.

And finally - we would like to thank Angela for organising a very special trip. Some of our feedback might sound a bit negative but we would like to strees that we had a really fabulous time. It's easy with feedback to focus on the things that were not perfect and our comments are intended to highlight those areas where things could be even better. Please don't think that we are 'having a moan' in any way." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 18 on a Tanzania safari