Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"We had a wonderful, memorable holiday with lots of interest in truly beautiful surroundings. We received a really friendly welcome wherever we went. Our holdiday was really made by our driver/guide, Johnson, from Primate Safaris, who drove safely, worked incredibly hard, was friendly, informative and always went out of his way to do things for us.

We were also very moved by the history of the place and individual stories from local people. The gorilla trekking was fantastic and the trip to the Akagera park magical.

We had such great fun as a family and with Johnson and local people we met, felt part of a bigger family for a short time. Would love to return.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Re trip - It might be useful to stress that getting money and small change was tricky (ATMs not working at all in Kigali or elsewhere and getting money from a bank took about an hour!). Also, to maybe advise people that tipping is widely expected and people need to budget for this and try to get small denominations of notes. We found dollars are far more usable where we were than euros.

maybe have a 'very good' category for this form as sometimes it was difficult to choose between good and excellent." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 6 on a Rwanda safari

"This was a memorable holiday which exceeded expectations.

Botswana is a wonderful country with charming, joyful people.The organisation of the safari experince is first rate and the abundance of wildlife..animals and birds..ensures that every day offers a great experience.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

You seem to have the right formula. Thanks and good luck" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"We had a great holiday.

We've never used an agency before. The Wilderness Safari and Sefofane linkage is, generally, so smooth it’s unbelievable. From the moment we arrived at our first stop, in Livingstone, we were whisked from point to point. Having travelled on our own for years, it was disconcertingly lovely to be told mid-afternoon that we'd be moving onto the next camp at, say, 11:30 - and just led by the hand. In itself that was a great luxury.

Having never been to southern Africa before, we were completely enchanted by the camps, wildlife and people." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"We had a truly fantastic holiday.

We were very impressed with Rob Clifford in the handling of my lost phone at Tena Tena. He came to Nsefu to talk to us about it and even offered to pay for a new one on our return. Happily, the phone was eventually found at Tena, but Rob's attitude to us as customers was wonderful.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I'm not sure anything could be improved upon!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari

"We had an excellent holiday that exceeded expectations. Saw loads of animals and birds plus wonderful scenery. Ate well, too much and too often. While this was our first visit to sub-saharan Africa and our firast safari we met manyother first-time travellers but also several seasoned safari riders who were on their tenth trip!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 11 on a Botswana safari

"Our trip to Namibia was beyond all our expectations and the way you organized it, simply marvelous" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"Expert Africa's arrangements all went perfectly. The camps we visited at their suggestion were all very good and we'd happily recommend all of them.

We would like to thank Lucy in particular. We were affected by the BA strike and though we had booked our flights independantly, Lucy was quick to assist us with reserving SAA flights as an alternative, should they be required; she also did some last minute research on camps in Maun, with the associated flight changes, in case we needed to bring our trip forward due to the strike.

Everything went smoothly, each camp knew when we were due to move on and informed us of flight times and our guides were always waiting for us at the airstrips. It was professional and reassuring.

As a holiday, it exceeded our expectations. We had limited experience of safari from a trip to Namibia two years earlier. In Botswana, we loved how we quickly felt at home at the camps and we lost track of the days. Each day was so full that something that we saw the morning before felt like days ago and by the time we left each camp (particularly the Kwando concessions) we felt like we'd been there a week and become part of the furniture.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No - everything worked well except issues with our e-mails being rejected as junk." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Had a great trip and was well organised.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Worth explaining there's no guarantee of seeing lions, leopards etc and that different camps have different resident animals - eg wild dogs at Lagoon" Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Almost flawless.

We had selected our camps with care, and were very pleased with the outcome. This was our 4th trip to Botswana, and we are quite particular in our requirements. Our comments are a realistic appraisal of our experience, and are not gushy or over the top.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really, everything went so well. All connections/arrangements went like clockwork.

One minor point would be that the request of Lucy that we be housed in tents away from noisy areas did not reach any of the camp managers.
As it turned out we had no problems in this regard," Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 13 on a Botswana safari

"It was the most wonderful holiday and a magical place. No place else like it on earth. As an Artist it has given me a lot to work from, our itinerary proved to be a good introduction to the various different aspects of Namibia and it's wildlife. Found people very friendly and always helpful, we were very sad to be leaving.

Apart from on arrival and our transfer from the airport to Olive Grove not being available as it had been booked in the wrong month. And the other issues already raised. Everything else went like clockwork and it was an excellent trip.

There is an Issue with the South African Rand which we had not been made aware of. It appears that older $200 Rand notes were no longer acceptable in Namibia after 31st May. However our cash reserve was in rands, there was some confusion over the whole issue. Some places did accept them with no quibble. Our main concern is we weren't made aware of the problem, otherwise we would have relied more on Namibian dollars.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Template letter with final documents needs more fine tuning. Might be helpful to include a checklist of documents needed,to save trawling through lengthy letters.

Otherwise will come back to Expert Africa for future trips and very many thanks to Sabina for all her help and patience, she was brilliant." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip