Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"The trip was well organised, long drives nicely broken up, acommodation at times even exceeded high expectations. We felt that Claires recommendations for alternative accomodation were particularly good.

It is our feeling that the situation in Etosha will need careful monitoring. If the prices continue to rise dramatically then Hobatere might make a more cost effective alternative. The metalled road to Hobatere once complete also makes this more accessible.

We both felt that Etosha may try to price itself at luxury prices. Game drives at night in Etosha were 450 Namibian dollars, ridiculous compared to Hobatere." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Fabulous trip and we were looked after extremely well by Expert Africa - they truly know the countries and say when they don't.

Maruska recommended exactly the type of accomodation we wanted and suggested a great mix of differing experiences. We were delighted in particular that she recommended Etendeka to us - just wish we could have stayed longer.

And the Mokoro Trail in the Okavanga is out of this world" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"We thought Namibia was a beautiful country which exceeded our expectations. A photo opportunity around each corner with the everchanging scenery. We found the various cultures and languages interesting and the click language extraordinarily difficult!

Botswana was wonderful with the luxurious camps and great gameviewing. Maun had a good feel to it as a vibrant town." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"Fantastic trip, enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and really love the country. There is some great scenery. Enjoyed every single location. We stayed at some wonderful accommodations and had some really nice hosts. We hope that some day, we will be able to go back again and would definitely use your services!

At times, we found the driving to be tiring and would have preferred to have been in a 4WD vehicle which would have ridden the bumpy bits better.

With all the travelling, we found that it would have been much better to have had at least 3 nights at each place, and perhaps this might need to be suggested to other travellers. It took most of the day to get from one place to the next, hence we only really had 1 day at any location other than Etosha to get the 'feel' of it. It would however, have given us a real dilemma as even with the benefit of experience, it would be impossible to choose somewhere to miss out of the itinerary ... and we could not afford a 3 week trip!!

We found dealing with souvenir sellers (and beggars) difficult at times. It is hard to know when you are getting ripped off - which we experienced at least once - and as we are not used to bartering, we felt uncomfortable that we might be being unfair to them by going too low. However, they do seem to be very good with their psychology in their selling. Particularly found Outjo (as described in the guide book) and Uis to be intimidating places for this." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"The combination of 1 week safari and 1 week Zanzibar worked well for us. Visiting Selous and Ruaha was worthwhile as they have very different scenery. Zanzibar was very relaxing after the early starts in the game parks.

In the Stone Town make sure you visit Archipelago at lunchtime and Livingstone Beach in the evening.

Coastal Aviation helpfully held the Dar - Selous flight to wait for the delayed BA" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"Expert Africa proved very reliable advisers on what to do and see in a country that was new and unknown to us." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip