Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"The trip was a holiday of a lifetime and the special service you organised for us made us feel very very welcome.

The places we stayed will be etched in our memories for ever, and we couldn't believe how lovely the scenery was, and how friendly and professional all the staff were. As for the food, it was fantastic and putting on weight says it all !!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep up the great work and enthusiasm. It was a joy to sit back, take 'expert' advice and leave you everything to the professionals.

Thanks again." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"An excellent trip with many exceptional highlights, kayaking with Jeanne and walking at Sandwich Harbour with Ernst being among the best!. We would like to return as there is so much yet to see.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Maintain the present enthusiasm and attention to detail." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Wonderful "once in a lifetime" trip. Sabina was spectacularly helpful and knowledgeable. I will wholeheartedly recommend Namibia and EA to friends and family! Some comments and constructive criticism:

Positives:

1. Self drive is easy, totally doable and a great experience. We did not have any punctures or mechanical problems but were glad to have the high clearance of the four wheel drive. That being said never engaged anything but two wheel drive the entire time but appreciated the security.

2. Very safe - people were friendly and approachable and we never felt concerned about security or safety in any way. What a relief and pleasure.

3. No health hazards - since Namibia is a very dry country most water comes from bores and hence, while flavor can vary it is very clean. We had no GI issues despite carrying an extensive armory of treatments. Also regarding malaria - prophylaxis is adviced by US health authorities but noone we met in Namibia considered the country to have any Malaria, at least below the caprivi strip and particularly in the winter months (June-August).

4. Great roads - seriously, for a country with only 1.5mm people it is remarkable how good the roads, signage etc are. We had no problems and found it easier to drive around Namibia than to drive from New York to Boston (although need to be comfortable driving on gravel surfaces).

5. Variety of activities - unlike some of the other destinations we considered, Namibia offers much more than "just wildlife". While we saw plenty of animals, birds and reptiles, we also saw many different landscapes, experienced the ocean and had some exposure to the local culture - much more enriching than just a traditional safari experience

6. Variety of travel and accomodation approaches - Namibia is approachable in many ways, from small tour buses, to camping, to self drive to fly in/fly out. This is different to other locations that require, for example, fly in.


Some suggestions, requests and comments:

1. Cash - EA should alert clients that gas/service stations don't take credit cards or atm cards in many parts of Namibia. Self drive clients should take at least N$2000 in cash with them at all times. It takes over N$1000 to fill the tank of one of the double tank self drive vehicles. Contrary to suggestions some ATM machines would also not recognize my ATM card from the US (provoking panic!) although in large cities (WH and SW) things were fine.

2. Tips - clearly guides on safaris make most of their money on tips. I had no idea how much to tip a guide for example for taking us on a two hour trip into the desert or driving us to an activity? EA could helpfully give more guidance on this matter.

2. Beef up offerings of "active" activities - Namibia seems well set up for the older couples tourist but seems light on offerings for actively minded travellers (Swapokmund and Mundulea notwithstanding). I would suggest adding to the offerings of such activities in some locations; even where "nature walks" are offered they are not very well described or promoted, perhaps because the lodges/camps don't make any money on those activities.

3. Do more at the coastline - Namibia has several thousand miles of coastline but the array of activities related to the coast seems thin. We enjoyed the kayaking from Walvis Bay very much and perhaps should have taken another day in Swakop to venture down to Sandwich Bay. The whole notion of the Benguela current, and the history of the coast and the islands in the south, seem underdeveloped to me and seems to offer more opportunities and activity. The surf around Swakop is better than anything i see except on the very best days in California and the water, despite all the hype, is warmer than california as well and wetsuits are easily rented in those places. Why not start a surfing school in Swakopmund? Or windsurfing or kiteboarding in the walvis bay lagoon? Maybe these things are already available but it would seem a missed opportunity. What Namibia offers most is "animals plus other things" rather than "just animals.." and the more of the "plus other things" there are the more people will come and the longer they will stay.

4. Connect with local populations - sometimes we felt as though we were just going from one Wilderness Camp to another and not having any interaction with the local population. We learned a lot from our guides and the staff at the camps but as noted below they mostly came from other parts of Namibia and had little to say about the history or culture of the area we were visiting. I would like to see EA and WA (see below) develop some program where visitors can interact with the locals in the vicinity of the camps, learn about their culture, history etc. I know this is possible in some locations but perhaps we missed them.

5. Balance Wilderness Adventures/Safaris experiences with other experiences - we stayed at three Wilderness Adventures properties (Ongava, Doro Nawas, Kulala) and enjoyed them very much. They offer consistently great locations, excellent design, high standard of service. Their guides are "good generalists" but sometimes don't have the attention to details and small things of other guides (one guide at Doro Nawas told us the Levine family arrived at Twyfelfontein in 1974 whereas they left in the 1960's). My standard on guides is whether they pick up poo - if so, they are really paying attention, otherwise they may be just driving and animal spotting.

Sometimes the W-A places have a bit of a corporate feel, and their activities are often limited to just game drives, with few individually directed or physically active activities and guides who just focus on finding specific "big five" animals. They have lots of European groups visiting which seems to be good business but can also constrain the options in terms of access to activities for individual travellers. I would have though EA could find other accomodations in the same areas as the WA properties that are more "idiosyncratic" and authentic and offer the same activities and aspect." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We have been working on this trip for years - and it lived up to every expectation. Great variety of accommodation, excellent game viewing and a bit of swimming at the end. We have already discussed the possibility of going back.

Thank you to all at Expert Africa who have had input to this over the years - Chris, Claire, Penny, Liz and Ellie.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The trips are excellent, service very good and, despite trying, we cannot better you on price." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 18 on a Tanzania safari

"Maruska and Sabina were both awesome in setting up the trip and details.

Sabina was extremely helpful and responsive when we had an issue with the vehicle. The attention to detail was very good and the process for booking, payment, confirmations, etc were very efficient and customer-friendly.

I will book another trip in the future with the Expert Africa team." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"We had a truly wonderful holiday. The advice that we received from Ellie Dunkels was exceptional. The places that she recommended to us were so "right" it was almost as if she knew us personally. Liz Wollen helped us closer to the time of departure and was very helpful and accommodating as our plans changed.

Tanzania itself was wonderful. The people we met were charming and gracious, the countryside, animals, birds, sea and fish were breathtaking and Stone Town was a fascinating place to end a memorable holiday. For all of us Chole Mjini was definitely the highlight but Lake Manze is pretty hard to fault!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Every was so good I can't think of any way in which you could improve your service!" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"An enjoyable trip with mainly good accommodation. Animals at the western end of Etosha a bit scarce as they all seemed to have gone to the middle and eastern end.

Weather was unseasonably warm which we all enjoyed and a wonderful holiday enjoyed by all especially as Ben was able to use all the swimming pools which added to his enjoyment." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"Overall a fabulous holiday.Very relaxing. A truly stunning country.

In the context of an excellent holiday - a few pieces of feedback

1. I think we should have been recommended a 4x4 car - hadn't realised what the roads were like, and would definitely have appreciated that! We were consistently the only guests at lodges who were in a small car

2. Swokupmund was not worth visiting. .The purpose of our trip was to see the country, not a seaside resort, so we had always seen this as simply a stopover. During the planning of the holiday, we'd pushed quite hard for just a one night stop over there, but Expert Africa had been quite insistent that we would need 2. This was a wasted day, which was disappointing. We should have either been allowed to take the one night, or instead, should have taken 2 separate nights out in the countryside.
Recommendation - try to understand what's important for people's holidays (for us towns were absolutely not important)

3. Palmwag was disappointing" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"The trip was to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, and it was fabulous.

We have been to Namibia and Zambia before, but this was so very different.

We loved every bit of it and all the arrangements ran like clock work." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Namibia trip

"Thank you Expert Africa for putting together an excellent itinery for this trip.

I found Lucy Copson to be very professional, listening carefully to what we wanted and organising an outstanding trip. Our trip was 18 days, included 10 flights across 4 countries, there were numerous transfers, and everything went life clock-work, for a trip to Africa that is worth every penny!

Thank You!" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 3 on a Mozambique holiday