Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"Our 7-night trip to Botswana over Christmas 2012 was excellent. Expert Africa recommended a very good mix of camps and locations, with good contrasts between the vast Central Kalahari and then two quite different locations in the game-rich Okavango Delta. Camps were very high quality throughout, with a few minor areas for improvement which are covered in individual camp reviews.

We definitely felt we were getting good value for our money in each of these places - not only because of the accommodation and guides, but also because of the exclusivity. We rarely saw another vehicle at any point, and never more than one.

We had some concerns about travelling in December, when Botswana is often hot and wet (and when the wetland areas of the delta can be dry with high grass). These proved unfounded - weather was fine throughout, except one grey day, and not uncomfortably hot at game drive times (apart from one very long drive in the Kalahari). Bush fires in the delta actually meant that the grass was short in many areas and game viewing was excellent. And we were able to take boat and mokoro trips in both locations in the delta.

Huge thanks to all at Expert Africa, especially Megan, for the advice and for the quick responses to endless questions!" Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"Fabulous! Everything that we hoped for and more - and we are very demanding clients.

Many thanks to Liz who was excellent and so helpful, especially when our flight was delayed from LHR." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zanzibar holiday

"I went the wrong way, should have done Lebala and Lagoon first as Little Kawara and Kanana really raised the bar. Meg was fantastic all the way through.

I would have preferred a bit more electronic stuff and less paper (same with your brochure which I prefer online as I am a greenie)" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 13 on a Botswana safari

"We - wife, self and 9 yr. old daughter, had a great time - a very good experience. Agent recommendations were not good for Kholle house, and very good for Unguja Lodge.

Coastal aviation and local driver through in country agent were all seamless." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"The holiday was brilliant not just "very satisfactory"!

Martin Mollel, our driver really made the safari for us. He was very personable, very knowledgeable about the animals, very skilled at spotting them and a safe driver. He was very tactful and was very good chatting and playing with our children He was respectful of the animals. We felt safe and comfortable with Martin at all times.

We saw all the animals and many birds that Martin also knew about. We would fully recommend Martin for other clients.

Incidentally, on the jeep, it would have been good to have had a canvas cover that could have been put up above the roof openings to give some shade at times.

Thoughts on the parks:

Tarangire - A nice place to start, very quiet compared with the Serengeti we saw plenty of Elephants.

Lake Manyara - We only really saw baboons as animals in significant quantity. I would not recommend this park. It is more lush and so the animals are difficult to see. There are more prolific and variety of animals in other parks we went to. The lake has shrunk in size due to silting up and so the flamingo are just a pink band on the horizon many miles away. If there could be alternative access at the other side of the lake, then the flamingos would probably have been spectacular. I would miss this park out and make a more leisurely drive to Ngorongoro.

Ngorongoro - Specatcular scenery and the place to see Black Rhino. But there was much more - Lions Hyena etc etc. An early start is a must to see the animals before the crater gets busy.

Olduvai Gorge - unfortunately the compulsory local guide was quite old and difficult to hear and understand. He had a very strong accent and struggled to be heard above the wind. This was unfortunate as particularly for the children it could have been made very interesting if described and explained well Perhaps little information sheets that could be read before the visit would help understanding of what is being seen and its significance

Serengeti - we saw the migration which was excellent. There was a tendency in this park to see something and then find 9 other jeeps around. Sometimes with them edging very close to the animals. This seemed a bit circus like at times. That aside it was a good place to see lions and hippos, wilder-beast, giraffe and zebra etc etc

On arrival at Zanzibar, the baggage handlers ask you to identify your bags and then ask for tips prior to handing the bags over to you, which is not a very good introduction to Zanzibar. Also as the flight arrived 10-15 mins early, as we exited the airport, the transfer guy was not around and so we got mobbed by taxi drivers and other hawkers trying to get us to go with them and trying to take our bags. This was not very pleasant.

Eleanor Dunkels in London was always excellent always pleasant, helpful and informative. Her personal experience of the area was very useful. She was a pleasure to deal with.

Tips for other clients:

Don't wear blue. the TseTse flies really do get attracted to blue and give a nasty bite.

Make sure you do take some very good binoculars - a pair for each member of the group. Some of our pocket binoculars we took were woefully inadequate.

Wear wide brimmed hats that tie under the chin, otherwise they blow off

Long sleaved shirts are a good idea as its easy to get burnt with the open roof on the jeep." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"On our return to Namibia after three years it was going to be interesting to see whether anything very much had changed and
we found the real friendlyness of people was still there ,apart from more police speed and document checks!

Overall we really enjoyed our umpteenth trip, my first time driving a 4x4 was a plus.

Well done Expert Africa once again." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We had an absolutely superb trip and our family will treasure our memories forever.

We thought it was a very well balance trip, with organised activities balanced with independent travel. Renting a car was a fabulous way to travel around Namibia with a young family and the trip was very well planned with the travel distances very manageable and clear The detailed organisation by Maruska and Saskia made for a seamless and very enjoyable holiday.

Our time with the Bushmen was one of our highlights so thanks for the suggestion and organisation of this part of our adventure.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

At times it would have been nice to know if we were going to be travelling on gravel or sealed roads and the map provided didn't seem to differentiate between the two." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"A success from start to finish.

Everything was completely seamless, everything ran according to plan, we had everything we needed and couldn't have asked for more." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"An excellent experience. I felt Angela had given me all the information and advice I needed and it meant the distances travelled weren't too far in one go, the description of all the accomodation had been accurate and we felt we had back up if needed. The emails to let us know about flight times etc made us feel someone was looking after us all through the holiday.The tyre insurance worked perfectly and it was good to have a form to be signed to check the hire car back in with.

We loved all the places you recommended, Turnstone tours were perfect, all the arrangements were in place. We would not hesitate in using Expert Africa again.

Thank you for a wonderful experience in which we feel we learnt a lot about Namibia and ourselves." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"We are very happy with most of the services and suggestions provided by Expert Africa. The lodge choices were excellent overall. We were also very happy that we decided to follow the recommendation of renting a 4x4. It made the driving much more comfortable and worry-free. Gwynn was a pleasure to work with. She is obviously very knowledgeable and passionate about her home country. The map provided was perfect! We had no problems at all driving ourselves.

I do have to mention two small bumps throughout the process. The first was a problem with the bank transfer from the US. Even though it is clearly explained in the instructions, I wish someone would have made it stand out. There are pages and pages of instructions to read and things are easily overlooked. It would be great if you could have a small list of highlights, including payment instructions. We ended spending over USD$300 to correct the bank transaction problem.

I was also disappointed about our lodging arrangements in the Kalahari. When we first discussed the lodging we were told that we were going to have to stay each one of the three nights at different places because everything was booked. To our surprise, when we arrived in Mata Mata and called !Xaus we were told that they had plenty of rooms available. They told us that they had availability when Expert Africa made our reservations. We ended up losing our entire payment for our night at Mata Mata Rest Camp which was not pleasant." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip