Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"This was a holiday of a lifetime for us and it certainly lived up to expectations.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The service was fantastic I have no further comment to make." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Another excellent trip and with the exception of the minor issue at Lusaka extremely well organised. All three camps were of the highest standard and we would recommend them without reservation. Each of the camps brought its own unique slant on the vists to Zambia and we would have no hesitation in coming back to this country for another safari.

All aspects of the 10 days were excellent, the food, accomdation, game drives, activities but especially the people we met made it a very special trip.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep doing what you are doing, you are obviously very good at it. Not having been to Zambia before we relied heavily on Anna's recommendation as regards locations for the game parks, but the selection of camps was based on these feedback forms so they certainly helped to determine which camps we came to choose." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"For many years we have waited to visit Botswana & after reading the brochure & researching the comprehensive website, it was obvious that Expert Africa could fulfil the dream.

The timing of the holiday & the camps we chose with help from Chris & his knowledgeable staff would hopefully maximise our chances of realising our ambitions. Within days of our final selection all the bookings had been confirmed & helpful informative literature followed in due course.

Apart from the unnecessary holdup at Jo burg airport, where the number of manned desks was quite incapable of processing the amount of passengers in transit, all arrangements went like clockwork.

Our main ambitions for the trip were to see & hopefully take good photographs of sable antelope, cheetah, a leopard in daylight & wild dogs. Due to the expertise of our guides at all six camps we fulfilled these ambitions beyond all expectation with many magic moments, the highlights being the leopard draped along a horizontal branch in bright sunlight - the classic pose & the interaction between the wild dogs at their den.

We found the food & accommodation to be good to excellent, staff & guides friendly & ever ready to help. Apart from what we felt was undue harassment of a leopard at Kwara & the irresponsible use of fishing tackle at Lagoon, our wildlife experience was an utter delight. Our many special memories will last forever.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, as the service was excellent & trip exceeded expectations." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Botswana safari

"A wonderful trip which I will never forget." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Expert Africa organised everything very well, our taxis and middle men were very efficient and reliable.
Great advice for what we liked doing and we enjoyed our whole stay in Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, we picked you because you had extensive good and bad reviews available on your website (so an honest and exhaustive approach), and later on your staff were very good and helpful on many levels." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zanzibar holiday

"# Please also refer to our 14 June letter to Ellie and Liz, with our Expert Africa experience to that date. [Ed: See below for extract from this letter.]

# Thank you both for arranging a faultless trip which was close to perfect. We are already looking at a future trip and will keep an eye open for further news of Coastal's new KILIMATITI Camp that we understand is currently being built near the Olduvari Gorge.

Asante,
Brian and Colin

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

# tipping safasri camp staff - please see earlier comments on Mdonya page. We feel very strongly that the tip box is the best solution so that all the camp staff share in the guests tips. Not all guests had had the benefit of Expert Africa's comprehensive literature so it is important that the camp managers gently weave in the tip box solutioin into their welcome briefings.

# we were very pleased to have arranged to overnight in Dar before going on safari. Indeed several of the Manze guests (not Expert A clients) were quite envious as even though their BA flight arrived on time, they apparently found the process of changing terminals, sorting out baggage to store etc etc somewhat stressful in order to make the 8.30 flight to Selous. Clearly there are cost implications but perhaps worth considering sowing the seed of overnighting to future clients? The point was underlined as the inbound BA flight on 23 July arrived some 45 minutes late, which meant a huge challenge for Coastal if there were any clients booked on the 8.30 Selous flight?

# day in Dar - the pre-booked car proved to be a wise decision. In particular, we were very impressed that our Kearsley driver was well briefed and had a copy of the suggested itinerary that we had shared with Liz and he was a useful mentor when buying presents. We eventually found 'Wonder Workshop' and although they had just closed, we were made very welcome - thanks for the recommendation. Also, we recommend lunch on the balcony of the Karamba Cafe, Sea Cliff Hotel - G&T's and a superb seafood platter overlooking the Indian Ocean was a great scene setter for what proved to be a superb safari." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Tanzania safari

"A really good trip overall but Breezes was very disappointing

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

As stated above. The holiday was not cheap and we did not think Breezes was worth the money we paid for it - definite budget hotel. Had we known, we would not have gone for a resort style hotel but opted for something smaller without the facilities as the facilities at Breezes were less than satisfactory." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"Many thanks to Expert Africa for good advice and arranging a truly superb trip to Tanzania. A great place to bring teenage children.

We will certainly be back to Africa." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"This was a completely wonderful holiday - exceeded our very high expectations.

Was so pleased I used Expert Africa: good advice at every stage, and so we got a trip that was just what we wanted. It was obvious that all the staff members I spoke to had first-hand experience of the camps and so could really help with our choices, and were very helpful talking through what we needed to consider.

Thank you.

These travellers subsequently wrote to us:

As you see, we really did have a fantastic holiday, and are extremely pleased that we used Expert Africa to help us get the trip we wanted. We realised while we were away how good your advice had been, and that we had a more "adventurous" holiday than I would have confident booking without that advice.

Not all the other people we met while we were away felt they had such a good experience with their own agents. This was often because they had taken a package deal so had little if any choice of camp and hadn't not known what to expect, through a variety of people with small problems changing onto internal flights at Dar Es Salaam, to some people who had been routed through Johannesburg during the World Cup and found themselves with nowhere to stay!

We were happy to mention Expert Africa as we really felt that the whole trip was very well organised and just what we hoped. The two camps in particular were so welcoming especially to the children - before we left, so many people had told me how brave I was to take my kids on safari that I had started to wonder whether it really was a sensible decision, but they loved it, learnt so much and felt included in everything we did." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Fantastic trip - it was like having 3 seperate holidays as all bases and locations were so different. For a relatively short trip (10 days) we couldn't have asked for more!

My only regret is having read comments about how cold it is at this time of year we packed warmer things.....we still were very cold and could have done with winter jackets." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 5 on a Botswana safari