Reviews of safaris to Kwando-Linyanti area

"Four years age we went to similar camps (also at the end of March) and the wildlife was extraodinary. This year the wildlife was more touch-and-go. At all camps we could drive for several hours and see few animals, and then we would encounter many animals, similar to our 2014 experience. What we were did not realize was that the 2014 trip coincided with exceptional early water, and our 2018 trip was the normal dry period. Kanana was so dry that we could not use the boat, and were able to mokoro only in a single channel. Our 'satisfactory' ranking simply reflects picking the wrong time to visit. If this was our first visit we would have ranked the trip much higher.

Thank you for ensuring that all camps were aware of our food preferences. All camps worked to accomodate them. With the exception of Little Tubu, all camps served vegetarian rather than vegan meals. The meals at Little Tubu were incredibly delicious, and the chef is fantastic.

With the exception of Savute Safari Lodge, we enjoyed the diversity of lodges and experiences. Savute was a poor choice for us for five reasons: disregard for acceptable viewing of wildlife; excessive crowding of vehicles (we knew this was a national park, and anticipated seeing other cars, but not so many and so constantly); so-so guide (our guide sometimes made comments that indicated he was a knowledgeable guide, but he generally said little and rarely shared this knowledge); rodents in our rooms (which were otherwise very nice, and had wonderful porches); and overall a lower quality in food, service, and facilities, compared to our other camps." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"Amazing holiday and everything ran smoothly from beginning to end.

We saw magnificent wildlife, stayed in some fabulous places but the memory that will stay with us for a lifetime will be the wonderful people we met along the way.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really.

Everything was amazing and would have no hesitation in recommending your agency - in fact we already have!

Rich was great, the fact that he had worked in Southern Africa gave us information we couldn't have accessed easily anywhere else.

Extremely happy with our choice of Expert Africa x" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Botswana safari

"Apart from the two setbacks mentioned previously the trip was excellent and went smoothly throughout.

Camps were as expected with brilliant game sightings and camp staff helpful and considerate." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 15 on a Botswana safari

"Our third trip with Expert Africa and the itinerary that I put together was arranged perfectly. Not a single thing went wrong on our 18 day adventure." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 16 on a Botswana safari

"It was an amazing experience.

We loved Namibia for its variation in Landscape and friendly people.

Etosha has as much game life as Botswana.

We'd rate Wilderness Safaris as a much better, organisation than Kwando, in terms of better accommodation, better staffing, better food and wine. The airstrips always had toilets and drinks waiting. Kwando nothing.

Namibia is a must." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"This was our second trip to Botswana and we used different companies for our lodgings to compare. Overall each company has it's strengths and we were very happy with each one. We had very different experiences than our last trip (Both were great) and although we're not Safari experts we now feel well rounded and somewhat experienced with different camps/locations.

November seems to be great value we missed heavy rains (One torrential downpour on each trip) and saw most animals at nearly every camp. We met some great people both staff and guests that we will always remember fondly.

Our "once in a lifetime" trip turned into "Twice in a lifetime" and who knows................

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We chose in advance to deal with Megan as she was very helpful when we researched our first trip in 2014. We ultimately used a different company but remembered Megans advice and suggestions. Pricing was very close this time around although one thing that hurts us is the surcharge on credit cards. We're not used to that in North America. Expert Africa was higher priced by almost exactly the 2% but we really did want to deal with Megan and were very happy with both her patience as we made decisions and the overall package she helped us put together. We are already recommending Megan to friends." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"Well, I'm booking for next year...." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"We had an excellent time - even with a twisted ankle (and I note the camps could not have been more helpful). The game we saw was so extensive, we had better list what we *didn't* see! We saw brown hyena, pangolin, so many antelope we only missed sable for a full house! If you want the 'big five', we only missed rhino. Every cat except serval and caracal. What can I say? We saw blister beetles hatching!

We saw many birds for the first time , and many we have seen before very close-up (e.g. pearl-spotted owlet 6' away)

We slept out under the stars (and the stars in the Kalahari are awesome).

Every trip brings new things to see and learn. We are very happy to have these moments to remember." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Botswana safari

"Our trip was excellent. Better than imagined! The itinerary went very smoothly.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We are very happy with Expert Africa and Richard Ball. Would definitely recommend." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"One of the best holidays we ever had, worth every single penny of the investment.

We are very happy to have Expert Africa organize the trip for us, would recommend them to anyone.

Megan Green was very helpful throughout, both when planning for the trip as well as answering some queries during our trip." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip