Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"I think we could have done with only 3 locations in Botswana as Chitabe Lediba and Selinda in many ways were quite similar. We will know for next time!

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All went extremely well and efficiently.

Afterwards we spent 2 weeks on our own in South Africa and I felt the difference straight away, in terms of organisation and things going wrong. We had to bribe a policeman to get off a speeding fine, hit a stray tyre on the road, etc etc." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 11 on a Botswana safari

"We had a wonderful time, we loved the isolation, the landscapes, the peace and quiet, the wildlife and the great lodges. We found the driving easy and enjoyable and the people were very friendly and welcoming. Namibia was a perfect destination for us and one that we will return to.

Gwynneth was very helpful making suggestions for accommodation when my preferred, researched ones, were unavailable. I had not realized in my inital dealings with Gwynneth that she was from Namibia though her knowledge and personal experiences should maybe have gven me a clue!! What I was impressed with was Gwynneths 'connection' to my trip - I didn't need to remind her of were we wanted to go or wanted to stay and felt she got a good measure of us and our needs/wants in making the recommendations she did. She also dealt with any query, no matter how minor, with ease and enthusiasm (even though I'm sure I asked some pretty basic and cautionary questions). Gwynneth also dealt with the unfortunate cancellation of Air Namibia flights from London very efficiently and calmly - which helped me not get too worked up about it either.

We would recommend Expert Africa to our friends and hope to travel with you again. One of the great pluses of your service is that you confirm the whole trip prior to any comittment being made by the customer - don't change it!! Loved the travel document wallet too (the little things count)." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"We had a wonderful trip despite a few blips, none of which were down to Expert Africa and we have recommended your services very highly to fellow travellers of all nationalities. In most of the camps visited it was lovely that they had taken note of your having informed all camps of the celebratory nature of our trip.

Bearing in mind the importance of transport to travellers in Namibia notice should be taken of our comments re Budget as one of the greatest worries on a trip of this nature is the comfort and reliability of your vehicle.

Namibia remains one of favourite destinations and we shall visit again. This is a wonderful country, totally different to all the others we have visited both in scale and emphasis and the people are wonderfully friendly and genuinely hospitable. We were met with true kindness and enthusiasm including when we travelled a scenic D route ( D2319 on our way to Uis), very much off the beaten track and were met by a steep bank and water filled river. On getting out of the vehicle to determine the water depth and whether we should proceed we were suddenly surrounded by a group of young boys herding cattle upstream who encouraged us to proceed, promising that they would push us out if needs be. It cost us all our biscuits, a little bit of money and lots of laughs. This was typical of our welcome everywhere we travelled.

This was our second trip, but was even more enjoyable as we had decided to take more time to enjoy this wonderful country. The scenery, the scale and the people make this an unparalled destination.

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Thank you as always. You make planning the holidays a pleasure and think of absolutely everything even before we do. We know we can follow your recommendations with complete confidence and recommend you to others withour reservation." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"There aren't enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe how good this holiday was. we've never done anything like it before, but sincereley hope we will again, and if we do will come straight back to Expert Africa.

Everything worked like clockwork, the people were friendly and efficient, and we were treated like royalty everywhere we went. Thank you so much.

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Not really! As close to a perfect holiday as we've ever experienced." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zambia safari

"Overall, this trip fulfilled our wishes.

We got to see a lot of leopards and we returned to one of the best places we've stayed at in Africa - Chiawa." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Best safari we have ever had.

Suggestions for mprovements:

You probably need to put more emphasis on the point you made about ensuring that US Dollars are post 2001. I ordered mine from my bank via the internet, and although I specified that they nwere needed for Tanzania i was give two $50 Dollar bills which were not accepted. I am taking up the matter with my bank's foreign exchange department. They should know better." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"We had sought to cover more than most in a 16 day trip, and the combination of road & flights worked really well, so thank you Maruska for putting together such a workable itinerary. It helped that A loves driving and so was more than happy to cover 450km in a day when needed - and the roads were quite okay. Worst bit was a patch on the C12 to Fish River canyon (very bumpy) but other than that we had some fantastic drives, particularly the C13 from Fish River canyon up to Aus - stunning!

Our route was Windhoek-Bagatelle-Fish River Canyon-Aus-Luderitz-Wolwedans-Little Kulala (by car) and then Doro Nawas-Ongava Lodge-Windhoek by plane. It was a throughly enjoyable mixture of hikes, wildlife, dunes, scenic drives and flights. We consider ourselves immensely privileged to have seen Namibia's nature when it wished to reveal itself - be it lion cub, hyena, scorpion, desert elephant, rainbow, lightening... fabulous!

Suggestions for improvements:

Only thing I would have appreciated was a simple guide to birds & wildlife - just a basic booklet of the most likely suspects. I picked up a check-list (no pictures) at Little Kulala, and bought the Etosha guide booklet - but that was our last stop so it was tricky remembering what we'd seen. Couldn't find anything suitable in any of the lodge shops en route and didn't want or need individual books on birds, mammals, reptiles etc" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Unbelievable! This trip exceeded our expectations by a long way, and we can't wait to go back.

One tiny comment: As a keen photographer making maximum use of the "sweet" light a couple of hours after sunrise, and an hour or two before sunset, is crucial to getting good photos. If there was any way in which the guides could be given basic training in this, and how to best position the vehicle for the best light angle, this would make a difference between an "excellent" and a "superb" drive.

For us, it's not so much seeing the big cats on every drive, but the opportunity to take those "once in a lifetime" photos, even if it is"just" a family of baboons doing what baboons do but in the superb early morning or late afternoon light. Some guides were superb at this - both Patrick and Freya at Kaingo and Mwamba, for example, and Alex and Bryan at Tafika, and all guides were more than willing to try to get the best position when requetsed.

We didn't quite feel that the guide at Sausage Tree had the same intrinsic sensitivity, although this is a minor comment on a truly expert and experienced guide. We appreciate it can be difficult when there are several couples on the same vehicle, and compromises may need to be made to meet the objectives and expectations of everybody involved. This feedback is given in a psotive spirit with the objective of making a superb experience even better.

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Nothing specific. Everything was extremely well organised and went superbly smoothly. Claire was incredibly helpful in arranging our preferences, with excellent communications all round." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari

"My trip was really fantastic and huge thanks to Claire for all her recommendations and ideas - it was definitely a holiday to remember!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Truly cannot think of anything that Expert Africa could have done to improve the service and advice provided." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zanzibar holiday

"Great holiday overall and we were awe struck by the landscape. There are a few things we would do differently such as:

Skip Windhoek
Stay closer to Etosha
Do Twyfelfontein from a different lodge
Do half day tour at Swakopmund

But these are details; it was a great great holiday and we hope to do Fish River Canyon and The Caprivi Strip on our next visit." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip