Reviews of safaris to Chobe National Park

"All of the arrangements worked well. I'll comment on each lodge later on but would like to say how impressed we were with MackAir, not only from the plane/info side but how helpful there were as well.

As you may have gathered, I managed to fall off my bike just four days before going. Nothing broken but a lot of bruising on my right side which, even with the max paracetamol and ibuprofen made things a bit painful. Ok when walking on the flat but turning / balancing / going upstairs required a lot of thought to be less painful. The MackAir people as well as the lodges were all very helpful and I was able to do everything ....

As you probably know, Botswana had the 'best' rains in Jan/Feb for 19 years. This was good for them but did mean that the migration of the animals from the interior to more permanent sources of water was much delayed. Chobe for instance was far greener than when we went 12 years ago even though we were there three weeks earlier in 2013. At a guess, we thought that the drying out of the waterholes away from the rivers was perhaps 6+ weeks later than on our previous visit. Curiously, the flood into the delta seemed later than before.

As a result of the changes in weather patterns, we saw far far less animals in Chobe than we were expecting and the density of animals everywhere was lower than expected. On our previous visit when we stayed at Muchenje for 3 nights and Camp Okavango for three nights we almost certainly saw a larger total number of animals than we did in 14 nights this time.

We did manage to see the wild dogs briefly in Savuti but nowhere else. At Splash we heard that the pack was in the adjacent concession at the moment. Our other target, which was cheetah we saw in three places, all lounging under trees/ bushes which we'd seen before. We'd have liked to see them walking or better, hunting.

New species that we did see: Aardwolf - very good sightings at Lagoon, Roan Antelope in Savuti (just one), Brown hyena (Savuti) several birds including a great sighting of a Martial Eagle, Barred Owlet, Pel's Fishing Owl and two bee eaters. After several trips to Africa, we have seen a lot, so less scope for a huge number of new sightings.

We saw a number of new behaviours including quite a clashing of tusks as a Matriarch forced an adolescent male elephant out of the troop; two big hippos fighting wildly, all the hippo 'chattering' at Lagoon; a leopard going up a vertical tree with it's kill (baboon) after recovering it from a hyena who had pinched it..and some new grooming behaviour in baboons. One mock charge from elephants ...

Participants in vehicles: It has been 10 years since we shared game vehicles with others. We don't have a problem sharing but none of the lodges made any attempt to match the group with previous experience of safaris or nature watching in general. Vehicles seemed to be mainly filled with people who arrived at a certain time. At two of the camps we were with people who had been to Africa which was great before but two in particular had people who were notionally interested but spent too much time talking amongst themselves and not listening to the guide. Curious given the cost and how far they had travelled but irritating all the same. Appreciate we could have requested private vehicles at a considerable cost though several camps didn't have the capacity for this. We actually like going around with like minded people, so it was a shame that camps couldn't sort that.

Overall, we found all the booking and arrangements that you dealt with to be great. It turned out that we should have gone maybe two months later - as you may remember the timing was for my birthday last year and when 2024 wasn't possible I should have gone for a later date in 2025.

The trip itself we would rate as on the better side of good rather than fantastic for the reason mentioned above." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"Our 2 week trip to the Caprivi Strip, Chobe and the Delta was absolutely wonderful and we saw so much wildlife. Some we had expected to see, some we had hoped to see and some we didn't think we would see but did!

All arrangements were excellent, all guides excellent, and all of the staff in all of the lodges friendly and very welcoming. The standard of accommodation was very good and we felt very well looked after.

We well may do a third visit to another part of Namibia in a few years time!

I would just like to say that I have already recommended Tracy to a friend!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 5 on a Namibia trip

"we were very impressed with Kwando safari. They were very professional and generally made our stay special.

we were very pleased with the activities and the proliferation of wildlife.

Booking with Expert Africa was easy and personal and the staff are very helpful.

we had a small problem paying the balance but it was soon sorted with a phone call.
Everything ran smoothly and perfectly and the overall experience exceeded out expectations. We would definitely recommend Expert Africa and Kwando Safaris." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Everything went very smoothly and everyone was vey helpful and interesting to talk to" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Lovely trip. Everything went well.

The only handicap was that the rainfall had been exceptional and, unlike the other years when we have visited in March/April the Etosha Pan was flooded, rivers had burst their banks and some of our drives were through deep water.

This impacted on the wildlife and overall we saw less of some animals than previous visits.

Giraffes for example were extremely scarce for the first 10 days as they hide in the trees to avoid lightning." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"This was our 2nd visit to Namibia as a couple and we tried to cover the areas not visited last year. This included starting in Zimbabwe and driving through the Caprivi Strip which was something my husband has always wanted to do. So it was a very different trip to 2024 when we visited the dunes and Fish River Canyon. Parts of it didn't feel like the Namibia we'd seen before, and we really enjoyed the north of the country which feels more like Botswana & Zimbabwe.

The trip was very well organised and everything worked seamlessly. We booked with very little notice and Tracy pulled it together very quickly for us. We also completely reversed our itinerary at the last minute, probably causing hair to be torn out but Tracy never showed it.

We used the Bradt guide constantly and it was always with us. I will try to email in my very small contributions/changes that we found along the way.

I especially loved the north of Namibia this time. It reminded me of my time in Zimbabwe 35 years ago and I was surprised by how little it had changed. I'm a big fan of the rainy season and love visiting in the green season. We were surprised and delighted by how much game we saw, and of course the birds were incredible. The Delta was magical and Shinde was a very good 2nd choice since Kwara didn't have availability. We loved Shinde and had some great sightings.

The lodges were very comfortable, some were luxurious, more so than I would choose on my own, but perfect for us as a couple. Hugh likes more comfort than me and would like to have known in advance which lodges didn't have air conditioning.

Overall it was another great trip. Thank you Expert Africa" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"Our trip was amazing.

Other than getting soaked through on one game drive at Shinde, it is hard to imagine how it could have gone better.

Everything happened on time and as it should. I can't think of a single person who wasn't helpful or better.

We traveled with our children and each place we stayed was great for them as well as us. We wanted a variety of experiences, but with a certain level of comfort and we were not left wanting. Really, an outstanding experience!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"All went very smoothly and was a great experience.

Standard of 2 of the camps much higher than expected . 1 slightly less so but compensated for great guiding and wildlife viewing .

One bonus of the Duba Explorers Camp is they ( Great Plains Group ) have introduced a really good lounge at Maun airport which was really helpful as we had 2 and a half hours to wait ." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"We loved our holiday.
We’d have appreciated advice on tips at the beginning as at the recommended levels they add significant cost. We only found out by chance just before departure & had to get more $ at the last minute." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Trip of a lifetime!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari