Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"We shall return to Botswana without any doubt! A wonderful overall experience!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Dissuade people from booking their own flights (which we did!) as this can only cause priblems synchronising dates when flight details change." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"The arrangements for our trip went very smoothly. it was great to have all the transfers organised and everything handled for us. The mixture of Zanzibar stone Town and the beach was just right, maybe an extra day at the beach would have been perfect.

Selous was magnificent, Impala really was faultless, the guides very good and the team very friendly and attentive. Lake Manze was an interesting contrsat, liked the sociability and the lack of electricity and the enthusiasm of Sarah the manager.The guides I didnt find quite so good but still fine.

The only thing I would have done differently is maybe go to a different area for the second half of the trip in Selous.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Maybe a little help with the links to possible sources of info re accomodation in Dar would have been helpful to us prior to our main trip with you but realise this may be alot to expect!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"Met all our expectations,and more!" Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 4 on a Zambia safari

"A great trip! We were on 4 rivers: the Kavango, the Okovango, the Kwando and the Zambezi and stayed in a number of island lodges (as well as Okonjima and Windhoek). The variety was remarkable. Some of the road journeys were long but by and large the travel was good and we'd recommend self-drive because you have so much more contact with people. The border posts were a world unto themselves - lovely but leave plenty of time.

Given that we were passing through three countries, and had quite precise pickup times, it would have been helpful to have been told about the time changes. We worked out the ones between countries but were caught out by the fact that the eastern end of the Caprivi Strip is not on Namibian time!

The pick up at Kasane (n Botwswana) was not straightforward. We'd been told we would be picked up by our last lodge, Islands of Siankaba. But they don't pick up outside Zambia. A firm called Bushtracks does all the pick ups (and does not have a board with your name on it). It was quite by chance that we managed to find them. That said, the water crossing (at the crossroads of Zimbabwe/Botwswana/Zambia/Nambiia) was wild!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Another great trip with Expert Africa. So thank you once again!
It would have been good to know about 'Caprivi time' and to have been given the name of the company doing the pick up at Kasane.

Thank you very much!!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 6 on a Namibia trip

"Trip as a whole lived up to expectations.

We had been a little worried about potential problems with the political situation.

At no time did we receive any thing but helpfulness and courtsey with our dealings with officials

Go now to Zimbabwe before it gets too busy! You will not regret it

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I cannot think of anything at the moment" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zimbabwe safari

"Amazing! We were lucky to have a month here but would have liked longer. There is so much to see and do.

A lovely country with great lodges and fabulous wildlife. I think we saw the best of everything thanks to the excellent advice from Sabina for whom nothing was too much trouble.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

It was really really cold, not just on game drives but also in tented camps. Windproof jackets need to be recommended at this time of year. Temperatures fell to at least -2 deg. C. We didn't feel prepared for it being quite so cold at nights. We were glad we had our thermal underwear with us! It even snowed at Solitaire two days after we left the area.

I was really glad that you recommended a 4x4 to us and think you should have pushed us in that direction earlier as it really enhanced the trip, e.g. we could fully explore Fish Canyon and the Luderitz Peninsula. Having no experience of 4x4 driving, a short course at the beginning of the holiday would have been useful and we met a woman (Rome, who is Willems neice) at the Barchan Dune Resort who was talking about doing just that in Windhoek where she lives." Read full review: 28 nights in Africa; 25 on a Namibia trip

"This ranks as one of the top vacation trips in our 49 years of marriage. We received true value in every aspect, but particularly in Botswana.

Every aspect was planned and executed by Expert Africa with its various on-site agents to give us a vacation and experience without any hiccups. My hobby is photography, and I feel I had the opportunity for some great shooting. The camps selected or suggested by Expert Africa gave us the variety to get as much "feel" for Botswana in 9 days as we could have hoped.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

You might consider having potential customers fill out a form indicating what they want or expect from a trip to Africa. many of our friends reacted to our plans with comments like "aren't you scared to be out there at night?". Many Americans are not as familiar with the potential experience as they should be." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Our trip was wonderful - we enjoyed it very much. The information Maruska provided when we were initially planning the trip helped to arrange a trip that suited our interests and desires. We believe the initial phone conversation was essential to the process, as Maruska was able to find out what we were hoping to do, and she knew the right questions to ask in order to better understand what we were looking for (both in terms of what we wanted to see and do, and what was most important to us.) Once she understood that seeing different habitats and wildlife, with good guides, were our priorities, she was able to suggest camps to fulfill these priorities.

Maruska also understood that luxury accommodation and gourmet food were not important to us; we just wanted comfortable, safe accommodation (though we found all our accommodations and food great). Our discussions with Maruska helped tremendouly, since we were not familiar with the camps in Botswana and how it all works (camps, activities, transport).

Also, her extensive knowledge of Namibia assisted us in deciding exactly what we wanted to do there and how we could do it. We really appreciated her knowlegde of both the regions and activities, and the practical knowledge of what was possible (e.g., roads, distances, driving times, etc.). Everything worked out extremely well.

I have one additional comment regarding the camps in Botswana. We really enjoyed Mapula Lodge, which was very relaxed and did not have so many guests. Our stay at Mapula was very special, even though we saw more game at the other two lodges. Although we enjoyed all three camps, the atmosphere at Mapula was most appealing to us, as we really like to take our time watching the wildlife, not rushing from one animal to another.

We realize every visit is probably different, and we were lucky to be at Mapula with only two other guests. But one thing we would definitely look for in the future (after having experienced the camps), is camps that have no more than four guests in a vehicle. It is just a much better experience to drive through the habitats and see the animals with only two or four guests in the vehicle. Luckily, we only had two game drives with six guests - but those two drives were not nearly as enjoyable as the others. With six guests, there was a lot more talking, and it was hard to appreciate the sounds of the animals and the land, sounds that enhanced the amazing things we saw.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
I only have one suggestion. We never received our final documents (including map and luggage tags) by mail. Although this did not affect our trip, since Maruska e-mailed all the necessary documents, it might help to send the final document package by special post (with some sort of tracking) rather that just by regular mail. One other idea is that the final document package could have been sent again by fast post when we still had not received the package 10 days before departure. As I mentioned, it did not affect our satisfaction with the trip, and Wilderness Safaris at Windhoek airport had a map of Namibia ready for us when we arrived.

Thank you for a great trip!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Our 2 week tour of Namibia was the best holiday ever. After fears that our plans would be scuppered by the exceptional rains in April / early May, we were blessed with no rains during our visit, and completed our planned route despite the many appalling potholes and water-filled 'dips' in both the gravel roads and also within Windhoek itself. Sabina was diligent in juggling lodge reservations to fit in with the dates we could make, and was happy to discuss and provide advice whenever necessary - many thanks. We were struck by the variety of the places we saw - Klein Windhoek & Katatura township; delightful walks amongst wild flowers and along gorges in the Naukluft mountains; the sweltering desert heat in the dunes at Deadvlei; indulgent seafood and historic architecture in sunny Swakopmund; more walking in the rocky Erongo mountains; and a wealth of animals at Etosha and Okonjima." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We both loved Botswana and the people at each camp were exceptionally friendly and helpful. What a great country." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari