Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"A brilliant holiday, Namibia is a really magical place and far exceeded all our expectations.

Everything had been organised really well allowing us to just enjoy ourselves.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Make them cheaper so we can go on more !!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"A great trip!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zambia safari

"This was a great trip. We enjoyed it all. Although there was some negative observations about Impala we nevertheless enjoyed it . I do not think we would again travel to east Africa as late in the year as on this occasion. It was extremely hot and certainly in the Selous the rains came early. Rains were also expected in the Ruaha the day we left, again early for that region. Weather predictions as unstable in this region now as they are in the rest of the world.

Our itinerary was perfect and everything went like clockwork.

I believe this is our third African trip with you. Your company is very reliable with knowledgeable advisors offering trips that are competitively priced. We would not hesitate to travel with you to Africa a fourth time." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"We had a great time. Adding to the camp feedback - the trip through Dubai worked well for us/ I think it could be looked into as a possible route. Emirates were an excellent service.

The airport at Dar is a little confusing - it may be worth telling people they have a a 'pre-check'security that isn't clear if you can take your water through. Once through, there is nothing much until you get past emigration! Take a good book. After emigration most shops will take dollars.

Great trip - all worked as planned. Moments we will never forget. I think that's the point :)" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Tanzania safari

"We had a fantastic time, 2 great camps, some wonderful wildlife, good game drives, superb walks and river activities including catching Tiger fish, excellent company, good food, top quality guiding and camp staff and have some wonderful memories." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"Overall the trip was enormously enjoyable and successful.

We thought that our visits to Lilongwe and Chipata, both the SOS Children's villages and the experience of smaller towns, added considerable interest to the trip and added an extra dimension to the safaris, since we met local people and saw the country beyond the slightly false environment of the safari camps. Everyone we met was extremely friendly and welcoming. We also enjoyed our short stay in Nairobi, staying as before at the excellent but unfussy Fairview Hotel.

The safaris were very enjoyable. Lion Camp was our favourite of the two camps and could not be faulted, and we would definitely recommend it to anyone. Its location is exceptional and the game plentiful. We saw lots lions, a leopard on 3 occasions and many elephants - these three being our favourites - and the reviews of the plentiful sightings of lions and leopards were a major factor in selecting Lion Camp. We were not disappointed.

Puku Ridge was also lovely and suffered in our estimation only because of the wonderful experience we enjoyed at Lion Camp and the unfortunate fact that we were the only guests. The wildlife was not as plentiful but the guide made the drives very enjoyable nontheless.

We identified the safari camps we wished to visit and made some of the other accommodation arrangements ourselves, but Expert Africa's Claire Scott was happy to talk through our proposals and offer alternatives for our consideration, and most importantly she made the travel arrangements to fit our plans as well as booking the safari camps and our overnight stays outside Lusaka, so that everything worked seemlessly. She also held our complicated international flight bookings longer than we imagined possible while we delayed fixing our dates due to difficulties finalising when we could visit the SOS Children's Villages. All the travel arrangements and connections went smoothly." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zambia safari

"We had a great trip. With the one exception we were more than happy with each place we stayed. The guides were all excellent. We were surprised at how good the food was. As non meat eaters, we were ready to make compromises but at every lodge, the cooks prepared us excellent meals.

We were also happy that we did the trip in the order we did the trip, We had just done a game oriented trip to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, so it was good to start with the Namib and end with Etosha.

We wound up driving 3000 km. It would have been nice to have picked up the car in Swakomund and then head to Damaraland. But I would not have wanted to miss either Wolvedans or Kulala and we probably could not have afforded all the flight to go from Windhoek to the Namib and Swakomund.

We hope to come back and be able to get further up to the Skeleton Coast and the Kunene River region.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None. Expert Africa was great to deal with. Very responsive, good advice. We did not have a single problem with any of the arrangements made by Expert Africa." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Thank you Maruska for organising this trip for us. We had planned to join an organised bus tour but the one we wanted was full. Thank goodness it was. You told us that driving ourselves was ok and you were right. We would have been very frustrated on a bus tour. We like to do our own thing and sit and watch the scenery and chat to the locals.

We did not lose our baggage at Johannesburg airport. We booked it all the way through. Very pleased to see it arrive with us in Windhoek and Newcastle.

We met many people who had not gone to Fish River or Luderitz. We were really glad to have gone there. Not many people at Fish River and we enjoyed Luderitz very much. You warned us in the book about driving to Luderitz- the sand and wind- but we found it much worse appropaching Walvis Bay- I suppose it depends on the weather on the day.

We did not feel we had time to arrange a trip to the ghost town of Kolmanskop so we dropped in there on the way east to have a look from the gates. We had been told we needed to book in advance in Luderitz but the man on the gate sold us a ticket so we went in. So it's worth trying that, or maybe they have changed the rules. We did not join a group but wandered around ourselves.

We were pleased to have a 4WD. We attempted more because of that eg tracks down to the coves on the Luderitz peninsula and certainly we would not have got up back up one of them withpout it! I did worry about having a puncture in the middle of nowhere but we did not have any. But drivers seem very helpful- we stopped when we saw someone else at the side of the road and hopefully we would also have had offers of help.

We went up the Cape Cross to see the seals after leaving Swakopmund. That was certainly worhwhile.

We would thoroughly recommend the trip to see the Desert Elephants in Damaraland. We visited the other places there by ourselves. We also visited Sossusvlei ourselves from Kalala. The drive up the entrance was not too bad and the road was empty. We spent all day out and visited the Sesriem Canyon on the way out.

All the hotels/ guest houses were excellent. We thought the standard of service was superb.

Thank you again for your help and advice. I will certainly recommend Expert Africa to my friends. We would love to go back to Namibia; it is such a big country and we felt we just scratched the surface. We want to go to Botswana too so I suspect we will be back to talk to you!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Can't think of anything.

Being open at 10 pm UK time ( in NZ) was very useful to us!" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"The whole trip was everything and more than we hoped for to make our sixtieth birthday holiday memorable.

The &Beyond lodges and staff were outstanding, Rovos rail a touch of 1930's luxury and Cape Town a great city break.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

You may want to update at your yellow fever guidance in the literature you send out. US medics we spoke to during the trip had looked into it and found that Tanzania no longer had any yellow fever risk. Since they needed some sort of certificate, they had an exemption certificate. The side effects of the YF vaccination made Lawrence ill for about a week, necessitating time off work and in retrospect, with a little more information, we may have decided not to have this vaccination.

I know that Tanzania still require tourists to be vaccinated but the wheels of government move slowly and you are in a position to move somewhat faster and provide a fuller picture." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"We enjoyed our holiday even more than we expected. The two camps complemented one another very well. Meru is a splendid park to visit.

There was lots of wildlife without the pressure of other visitors and vehicles and Offbeat Meru was an excellent camp from which to explore it. Samburu was rich in wildlife, although a little busier, and the river-side setting of Elephant Bedroom was ideal.

We happily recommend our trip and combination of camps. In retrospect, our transfer arrangements from and back to Nairobi was the weak link and could hopefully be improved. We will email separately on this." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 3 on a Kenya safari