Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"Our trip to Botswana and the Victoria Falls has been fantastic. We have looked to travel to Botswana for a long time - and we were not disappointed. The standard of the camps was very good; the wildlife was fabulous; and the Falls are stunning in full flood.

We (like everyone) have our favourite camps, and the places that we would love to go back to one day - and the help and advice that we received from Megan and Nick at Expert Africa has been excellent.

To anyone who is thinking about whether or not to go to Botswana, we would highly recommend it. This was our 11th Wildlife Watching holiday (our 7th trip into Africa), and we have had wildlife encounters here that we have not experienced anywhere else, and at very close quarters.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

It might be worth adding in a suggested tip allowance for the Trackers in Botswana. We had a tracker on every Game Drive in addition to our Driver/Guide - and they are not included in the general staff tips.

It would perhaps be helpful to include a suggestion within the notes that travellers make sure they pack their bags prior to going out for the morning game drive on the day they are departing the camp, as flight times change - often without much warning!

In Zimbabwe, the additional taxes are currently all included in the International Ticket Price, so we did not need to pay anything extra when we departed." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"Our fourth visit to Zambia in less than three years was built partly around 'pure' vacation and partly around one or two other interests we wanted to follow. We were able to pursue satisfactorily our non-vacation objectives and have a most enjoyable break in the process, not least thanks to the - as always first rate - advice we gleaned from Expert Africa while we were planning this, our ninth, trip with the firm.

On the vacation element, we thought that we got the balance right between the more conventional South Luangwa leg and the more exotic Bangweulu/Kasanka leg.

Overall, we are very satisfied

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

On the website, the recent evolution (on which work is ongoing) is rapidly pushing it towards the 'very good' category." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari

"We had a great trip.

In the future we think we would spend less time travelling to different places but rather spend more time in certain localities. It all goes so quickly that time spent travelling between places feels like lost time.

This trip certainly confirms for us that we much prefer being in owner led, authentic, well managed, unpretentious lodges or camps like Tafika. We would certainly want to spend more time their on our next visit, there was so much to do and it would be good to do it at a more leisurely pace.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We feel that Expert Africa is as good as it can possibly be, we have always been extremely satisfied with your service and would not wish to use any other company to help us with our trips to Africa.

The level of knowledge processed by the team is second to none and is borne out of first hand experience which is invaluable." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"Thank you for organising a great holiday which all four of us enjoyed.

Suggestion - We would have liked to stay overnight in Maun to have a little experience of a Botswana town. May I also suggest a little phonetic crib sheet for speaking a little Setswana. It may be me but I found they usually did not understand my effotrts

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I think I would have liked a little more direction about camps. It was our first time in Botswana and I did not realise that I chose three camps very close in area. If /when we go again I would chose camps in more different areas. I certainly would have liked say 2 nights on the Chobe waterfront and perhaps 2 nights to have a chance to see Rhinos. However these are quibbles becasue we saw a vast range of animals in their natural habitats including good viewing of leopard, cheetahs and wild dogs. Thank you for all the work your team did" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"The whole trip was fabulous. Despite hating cold weather I had no trouble layering up to get out every morning and afternoon to explore the bush some more. The people we met were also interesting because of this common interest to explore. I have always wanted to do this but never fully realized how magical it would be.

Maruska was a great help in setting everything up perfectly and advising that our orlginal idea to track for three weeks would be just too exhausting. We met another couple from Colorado at Little Kwara who had also been delighted with Maruska's service." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"Our whole trip was lovely - no complaints!!" Read full review: 3 nights in Africa; 3 on a Namibia trip

"This was around our seventh trip to the valley, and everything was managed the way it should be. A very enjoyable holiday.

The ground agents made our progress through immigration on the way out and check-in on the way home, quick and easy" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zambia safari

"The trip as a whole was great. Despite some issues we had a great time." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"My husband and I spent 13 days in Namibia, and it was probably the best trip of our lives. We stayed at a mix of upmarket, full service lodges, to middle market guesthouses, to self-catering camps. The trip went far above and beyond our expectations. The people are very friendly and the country is beautifully desolate. I had been to Namibia for 4 months ten years ago, but working with Expert Africa really made our recent trip significantly better than it would have been with my limited knowledge. Saskia at Expert Africa prepared everything for us; our itinerary was very well-planned out, letting us hit a number of incredible spots, while also giving us plenty of time to enjoy the drive.

We can't thank Saskia at Expert Africa enough. She created the perfect trip for us, made sure we were able to do everything we wanted, and her expertise about the area was extremely helpful. She patiently and informatively answered all of our questions, and provided critical information and options that we didn't even know we needed. Well before our trip, Expert Africa sent us a travel pack including a folio of vouchers, information on all the places we stayed, guidelines for visitors, and a map with all our locations labeled. These items were our bible while we were in Namibia, and kept everything in order and easy on our trip.

We are VERY eager to go on another trip with Expert Africa, and have been recommending them whole-heartedly to all of our friends. Thanks so much for an amazing trip!!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

It's truly hard to think of any real ways to improve upon our wonderful trip!

My only suggestion might be to reorganize some of the information in the guidelines for visitors and our specific information to follow the order of our trip. This was mostly the case, but for a couple of items, I had to flip back and forth to figure out what to do. In particular, it would be wonderful to have a list of all items we need to bring with us, since some of the items (i.e. the copies of passports, etc., we needed to rent a car, which it turned out we didn't need in advance, so it was fine) were located in separate areas. This is truly a minor point, however, since the information is mostly organized this way already, and careful reading should be sufficient for travelers." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Very happy with the itinerary as it allowed us a brief look at many different parts of the country in a relatively short period of time. We travelled 4200 kms in 3 weeks. We are used to driving on gravel and corrugated roads but other less experienced drivers may have found the length of trip tiring. It also meant that some very good camps became overnight stops instead of the destination they deserved to be. (eg. Mushara)

We purchased goods for which we could reclaim the VAT. Our claim was processed without problem other than a 70 minute queue after check-in and 15 minutes before check-in to complete the form and have Customs and Excise check that we had the goods in our possession. Some people in the queue did not get their claims processed before having to board their flight. At the time I was queuing most of the people were on a flight to Angola and had a very large number of receipts with their claims. These were being audited carefully and many rejected which added to the time being taken." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip