Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"My trip was a full succes. All the arrangements were as I had wished and it will certainly not have been my last journey with Expert Africa.

I am especially grateful of how generous my problems were settled.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I can`t think of an improvement being necessary" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zimbabwe safari

"Fantastic. It far exceeded our expectations (was our first time in Africa).

We found all the dawn starts and long days a bit tiring, but well worth it. The amount of wildlife and how close we saw it was amazing.
I was impressed with the amount of help and knowledgable suggestions we had from Eleanor in putting together the trip.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No!" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"Highs- Has to be Etendeka, Kayaking, game viewing, Vingerklip.

Lows- Let down by River Crossing and Etosha Aoba lodge.

Car hire still needs improving, your advice booklet was useful.

This was an enjoyable and exciting adventure in a beautiful country full of contrasts." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Overall half was very satisfactory and I am grateful to Liz for recommending Kwihala, when I had originally been looking at Mwagusi. I have no hesitation in recommending this lovely camp and will be returning there myself next year! Sand Rivers was my choice because friends had stayed there previously but I would have liked a bit more of the "flavour" of the camp in my discussions with Liz as in hindsight I would have preferred to go elsewhere, plus 5 nights there was too long.

I would also have appreciated a very clear "you must get a visa" as opposed to a recommendation to get one - other African airports issue visas on arrival with no trouble and I had thought Dar es Salaam would be the same - how wrong I was. Suggest you beef up your guidance on this point even more!!" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"This trip was very expensive, and therefore not one that we would undertake on a regular basis.

We went to Tanzania to see the wildebeest crossing and to see game. We certainly achieved this and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
We had not intended such a long beach stay and would still have preferred an extended safari to the time spent on Mnemba - however we did benefit from a special offer on our stay there.

We really appreciated the fact that we had sole use of a vehicle and guide on all trips apart from the visit to Ngorongoro crater. It enabled us to see more of what we wished, spend all day game viewing if we wished and all the guides were good.

We enjoyed the & Beyond experience and the luxury they provided but would not rush to back to either place - Ngorongoro because the game viewing is necessarily limited and very crowded with other visitors, although the accomodation is wonderful. We felt Mnemba was overpriced because we were not participating in the free diving (which is obviously one of the main assets) and no other replacement such as spa treatments (which were expensive though good) were offered. We enjoyed the snorkelling but not the rough car trip or the mosquito problem.

Both Oliver's and Sayari camps were very good. We liked the accomodation in both. We were sad that, because more camps have been built, our experience in Northern Serengeti was so busy with other vehicles, whereas it is a definite plus from this point of view that Oliver's camp is in the south of the park.

The transfers were managed well on the whole (barring the 2 transfers mentioned) with no difficulty finding our onward journey

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The ratings choice on your form did create difficulty in that there was nothing between Good and Excellent.

Also it does not allow for distinguishing between rating for different flights with the same company" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"Well thought out trip - excellent recommendations based on evident local knowledge & adapted to our requirements which were wide-ranging. We were after more than a safari experience - desert, dunes, activities, culture & Victoria Falls were all on our 'list'. Kept us up to date on waiting lists which eventually got us into Sossus Dune & Nxamaseri Lodges - both excellent. Overall, the lodges, accommodation & game viewing trips were good to excellent.

Thanks to Angela & all the team who helped for a first class trip.


Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"An excellent trip - we enjoyed all the places we stayed & everything went smoothly.

We were really helped by the advice we had from Gwynneth - she was knowledgeable and pragmatic about what we could do and what would be most fun." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 5 on a Namibia trip

"It was a fantastic trip, we enjoyed every moment (apart from me feeling ill on the little planes!). Tracy suggested Susuwe Island Lodge, Tubu Tree and Baines Camp and they could not have been better suggestions, we were delighted with them. They were all a bit different to each other in style and in slightly different habitats so we saw different things, which is what we wanted.

We had a rather lengthy journey from the Royal Livingstone Hotel to Susuwe. We noticed from the map that there is what appears to be a direct road north of the Zambezi and then over a bridge but we were not taken that way, we assumed that it can't be a very good road. However, we learned when we reached Susuwe that it is a good road, a modern bridge and the journey takes 3 hours door to door. It took us 6 hours.

First, 1 hour drive to the Zambezi, checked out of Zambia, speedboat across the river, checked into Botswana, were driven 10 minutes by a woman who was on her mobile the entiire time then transferred to another vehicle and driver - why? He then drove us all the way to meet the vehicle from Susuwe, but we had to check out of Botswana and into Namibia. The journey took twice as long and presumably because of this cost us twice as much, we had to wait at the various immigration and emmigration posts and got another Botswana stamp in the passport to no useful purpose. We would still have been coming back this way of course to Kasane to fly to Tubu Tree, so going there a different way would have made a round trip which would have been more interesting as well as far more convenient. We would like your comments on this please.

When we were offered to change from San Camp to Jacks Camp because of a photo shoot at San we were told there were "a couple" of other guests at Jacks. There were in fact about 12 other guests which is considerably more than "a couple". We immediately thought we shouldn't have changed as if we had been the only proper guests at San we would have had a guide to ourselves, whereas with so many other guests that was not likely. We thought this was very misleading wording by Uncharted Africa.

However, by accident rather than design we did in fact have a - very good - guide to ourselves so were mollified! We were pleased overall that we changed to Jacks, it was quite an experience. Thank you to Megan who pointed out that I was particularly interested in the meerkats and they arranged 2 visits to them into our schedule so that was lovely, and I adored having them crawling over me!

I was amused to read in the Bradt travel guide that there are no meerkats in the Makgadikgadi park. This is plainly not the case!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Everything we could have wished for and more. The itinerary went exactly as planned, with the right people meeting us and helping us every step of the way.

The driver/guides were excellent and made sure that we were always informed of the days travel plans in advance. Nothing was too much trouble with plenty of time for viewing and taking photos etc. We saw every animal you could of wished to have seen in each area and have hundreds of photos to prove it. Camps were excellent and had to be seen to be believed.

All in all a most memorable experience never to be forgotten.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Only to advise you that Swala Camp is all inclusive. Laundry, drinks and toiletries are included." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"A great holiday, well organised, we were met at every point, our driver/guide in Rwanda, Sam was very good. The holiday met our requirements and are looking forward to next year.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Please really emphasis the damp and coldness of the mountains when going to Rwanda to see the gorillas, it is not so much as to what to wear when climbing but how to keep warm in the rooms as everything feels damp, also take a torch as the rooms can get dark as the generators are only on for certain times, can make reading difficult." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari