Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"We had a great time. We haven't driven ourselves in Africa for a long time and really enjoyed the experience.

Wonderful country; we were never far from beautiful mountains and the roads were excellent. People are friendly and welcoming. We felt safe wherever we went. The suggested itinerary gave a wonderful insight into the country and we intend to return.

Angela was very helpful and responded quickly to all our questions.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No. This is the second time we have booked through Expert Africa, and have been impressed both with the recommendations and the efficiency with which the booking has been handled." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Outstanding trip. We thought our last visit to Zambia couldn't be bettered, but it has been. All the camps were excellent - no negative comments or suggestions for improvement. The African bush remains as alluring as ever.

Unfortunately for our bank balance we'll be back - please wait for the call!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We really can't think of any. This is our fourth trip organised through Expert Africa, and every one has exceeded expectations. We've also recommended you to others, and they've also experienced outstanding service.

Keep it up!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Zambia safari

"As good a holiday as we have ever had.

Our thanks to all concerned

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"we have been on a good number of safaris to many locations in africa. this rates as one of the best we have experienced with very good game viewing, keen and informative guides and excellent accommodation.

based on this experience a return trip to tanzania is on our short list of places to visit

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

from this trip we found service to be good and details and travel arrangements accurate" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 16 on a Tanzania safari

"We had a wonderful time! The lodges and camps were very much as we expected - or even better. It is true that one can 'travel light' because washing really does come back on the same day. Our sightings of wildlife were beyond our expectations and have left us with some marvellous memories - and hundreds of photos. We saw leopards on no fewer that seven occasions, and lions that were within touching diistance, not to mention all the antelopes, birds and other animals.

Unfortunately there was one event that could have spoilt our holiday had we not been fairly seasoned travellers who do not easliy panic. On arrival at Lusaka we discovered that our names were not on the Proflight list for the flight to Mfuwe, and it was full. The existence of our Expert Africa voucher for the flight proved totally worthless. Fortunatey we were assisted by staff from Tours Africa, who tried to contact Expert Africa for us but it was before office hours in the UK, and Chris McIntyre's phone was on voicemail.

They then contacted Heather at Tafika, and she sorted out an eTicket for the midday flight. All this meant we lost a morning hanging around at Lusaka airport, when we were expecting to be travelling out to the Luangwa valley. When we did arrive at Mfuwe we were met by a driver who had had to make an extra round trip to pick us up when he should have been on his way to one of the Tafika bushcamps. So our arrival at Tafika was all very rushed in the end, and not at all the relaxing start to a holiday that had been planned.

We would point out that Heather also checked our return Proflight flight, and passed on an eTicket (booked by Claire Scott), as there was no booking for that either. She also checked with Shentons that they were expecting us. Considering that this holiday was booked in early February this experience was very disappointing." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"We had a wonderful trip.

If doing the trip again we might change a few things but overall we were very happy with our experience. The materials provided by Expert Africa prepared us well for the trip. The highlighted map showing our route and lodges was great.

However, more detailed driving directions would have been helpful. (Before we started our trip Steve put together a set of detailed driving directions using Google maps, lodge websites and other online information.)

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We had an excellent experience with Expert Africa and can highly recommend the company and its services to others. Our only suggestion is the one given above about detailed driving directions." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"5*.
A few special mentions for individual excursions:

Turnstone tours - did a trip down to Sandwich Bay with Wayne. This was excellent.

Francois - we had booked the kayaking trip to see the seals. Rather than the lady who normally does it (she was on holiday) we were taken out by Francois, who runs a competing tour (though they seem to share bookings). He was excellent and gave us an incredible day's kayaking. Highly recommended.

Georg Erb (Swakop Tour Company) - recommended by our guest house, this was the best tour we did all trip. Georg is superb and knows everything. He has an excellent afternoon tour itinerary and is absolutely essential if you're in Swakopmund. Please promote him - such an interesting afternoon.

Ballooning - Can't remember the name of the company but we did a balloon trip from Kulala Desert Lodge with John. He was outstanding. Definitely worth the money...loved every minute of it and an excellent breakfast too.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Push people to book things to do in Swakopmund up front. It's a dull place just to hang around...but there are excellent excursions around the town. We met some people who hated the place...but they didn't do anything. Don't let people stay there for 3 nights without booking some things to do..." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 6 on a Namibia trip

"We were pleased we took the advice of Expert Africa to visit the much less busy game reserves in Southern Tanzania - perfect for us having previously had uncrowded game viewing experiences in S. Africa.

We had very good game viewing, with excellent guides, in both Selous Game Reserve and Ruaha National Park. The landscapes and vegetation were quite different leading to varied experiences - in Selous it was great to see the crocs, hippos and huge variety of birds round the lake as well as the animals in the bush, whilst in Ruaha we saw larger herds of buffalo and elephants seeking water.

All in all we had a great holiday." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Very responsive to some late changes. Thanks.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really." Read full review: 4 nights in Africa; 3 on a Tanzania safari

"This was our second visit to Namibia, combining some new areas with revisits to previous haunts.

The new area was the Skeleton Coast, on the 4 day Schoeman's flyng safari. This was a truly spectacular journey with 4 busy days way off the beaten track in this amazingly varied wilderness - a trip brought to life by the knowjledge and enthusiasm of Andre Schoeman.

After this, we revisited Etosha, staying at Okaukuejo and The Fort at Onguma Plains. Wildlfie viewing as excellent, particularly in eastern Etosha. The heavy rains this year meant that there was still water in the Pan which made it look completely different. We finished with night a Okonjima on the way back to Windhoek.

This trip was not inexpensive and it is difficult to talk in terms of "value". However it was a superb trip and the Skeleton Coast element in particular was truly memorable and unlike anything we have ever done before. However we may do it again - we're thinking about doing it again in 2013 (probaly a new trip that the Schoeman's may start based at their new Leylandsdrift camp).

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No suggestions!!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip