Reviews of trips to Maun

"There is no doubt that Botswana is truly an amazing experience. The wildlife is outstanding, the locations wild and remote, the camps are fantastic and it is a humbling experience to see the daily life and death struggles of animals trying to survive.

We travelled with Wilderness safaris - our second time - but I feel their objectives and ours were not entirely matched. I would take great care to ensure you get what you want.

A couple of minor gripes first. I know Expert Africa passed on our dietary (veggie) requirements but when we reached our first (not Wilderness) camp these were not quite correct. On passing back through Maun the next day we spoke to Wilderness direct and while these requirements reached the first camp they did not reach camps 2, 3 and 4. Camp 5 had them but I think only through the feedback given at camp 4. The camps mostly got it once told but on one transfer between camps we were given a meat sandwich on leaving and a meat salad on arriving.

As per my Khalahari Plains feedback there were flight problems and once delayed, because they have pre allocated your guide, activities did get very slightly compromised. This leads onto my major concern.

In the 2 years since our last visit the emphasis of Wilderness seems to have changed. They seem more focused on providing luxury rooms and slick appearances than on providing a true wilderness experience. Out of the 100 or so guests we met probably less than 10% were repeat visitors. They seem all out on attracting rich 1st time bucket list guests. The type of guests who are often more into the quality of the rooms and service rather than on the quality of the activities.

During our 15 days we spend 8 days in the company of very nice people who were on their first ever safari and at their first ever camp. This included the 3 days each at Little Vumbura and Chitabe.

The allocation of guests to guides is sorted before you get to camp. It needs to be more flexible. When we checked into Chitabe we had been 10 days on this trip (and 14 days on a previous). The camp management knew this. Yet they still put us with a couple of elderly sisters on their first ever camp. As much as they were very nice people our objectives and requirements were different. This should have been patently obvious (it was to the guide).

We knew, after 3 weeks in total on safari the differences between a Kudo and an Impala and a lapwing and a roller, While the guide did an admirable job of trying to manage the disparate needs of the guests it never quite worked. On our first morning at Chitabe we were half an hour late setting off because the ladies had not brushed their teeth or brought their kit for the morning drive.

After 6 days at LV and Chitabe we were bristling with frustration at the basic mismatching of guests' experiences.

(The day after we left Chitabe we understand their was an incident in our "old" truck where 2 people wanted to leave lions in the process of killing a buffalo whereas 2 wanted to watch the whole process. That should be sorted in the allocation process rather than leave some guests unfulfilled and some gusts traumatised.)

Would I travel with Wilderness again. Possibly but I would look at other companies too. If I were to go again I would be much more demanding and want:

1) A sensible allocation of guests - a sensible matching of experience. I recognise that it might not be possible to avoid first timers but experienced visitors should not be matched with people at their first ever camp.
2) If you want to occasionally go out all day (and not just morning and evening) say so before you go so that this is built in. Repeat what you want when you get to each camp.
3) Clarify whether you want to watch a kill in all its detail - its not likely to happen but if it does its a bit late to sort out conflict.

It just seems to me that Wilderness are becoming more focused on providing a 5 star "hotel" service rather than their core activities." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Botswana safari

"We had a wonderful trip and enjoyed every minute! Organisation was perfect, thank you Megan!

As we particularly enjoyed our walking safari, we will definitely plan more walking and boat trips for our next safari. Leaving Africa was, again, very hard. But we're already dreaming about going back!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

It would be great to be informed whether camps accept children." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 16 on a Botswana safari

"Thoroughly enjoyable, if tiring.

This trip was planned some 18 months ago and was programmed for May 2012, but medical problems arose and it had to be deferred to Nov. Throughout this process we were encouraged by the patience and consideration of Nick who is a great ambassador for your organization

The bulk of the time was spent in Kwando camps, with whom we have stayed before. They have a quality product, but it is not a good look when their guides have to borrow guests binoculars/reference books to identify a particular bird.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

As long as your staff show the same consideration as Nick when problems arise your customer service satisfaction levels should be high." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 13 on a Botswana safari

"The trip as a whole was great. Despite some issues we had a great time." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"So much of this trip was a bit of magic.

From climbing dunes to watching sunrise over the red dunes to watching a group of lions surround our vehicle and literally ROAR at us to watching Cheetahs stalk and kill, to sleeping under the stars, driving for hours on roads and being in this amazing wilderness and not seeing another car for hours and not to forget all the wonderful people we met. Some proprieters of lodges, guests and employees.

Not all of the trip was perfect, but all in all we had an amazing time." Read full review: 26 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"it could have been perfect. but it wasnt quite
delayed baggage didn't help but that was BA and Air Botswana mixup but five days late ! luckily I had a spare T shirt and bought a hat at Maun.
stolen phone,...at Maun airport in jacket pocket.
baggage hold not checked at Little Kwara strip.. seats not checked either before take off,.. caused me distress and a lot of work for Chan Gu and other staff.. shame really.
in order.. we loved Footsteps , we really liked Little Kwara , Bushbuck River lodge was agood location with helpful cheerful owner..and good value, delicious food there.. Siankaba was a lovely place to end our safari and get ready to leave...the views across the river and the staff were so freindly.. evening cruise is still remembered.

Thanks Maruska for helping to put a good package together" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Our trip was wonderful. We'd never been to Africa and so had no idea what to expect.

Megan was a pleasure to deal with, took time to understand our goals and provided clear and well thought out options for us to chose from. Just how well she'd designed our trip became clearer as it unfolded. Our trip included a diversity of settings (desert, delta, open plains) that meant we saw a lot of different animals but also has different activities available to us. Im also quite happy she recommended the Victoria Falls Hotel.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"This was a great trip, our eighth with Expert Africa since 2006, which entirely met our expectations and requirements.

Megan (and Lucy before her) did a great job on getting quite a complex itinerary to work. Thanks to all the team." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Overall we had a wonderful time with Xaranna Camp probably being the best.

The flight times on our return journey left a bit to be desired due to a number of reasons none of which could be attributed to Expert Africa.

It was &Beyond that changed our flights for us and their staff should be commended for the swift action they took to avoid us missing our connection to London.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No - you are doing an excellent job - carry on Expert Africa." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"It was a fantastic trip, we enjoyed every moment (apart from me feeling ill on the little planes!). Tracy suggested Susuwe Island Lodge, Tubu Tree and Baines Camp and they could not have been better suggestions, we were delighted with them. They were all a bit different to each other in style and in slightly different habitats so we saw different things, which is what we wanted.

We had a rather lengthy journey from the Royal Livingstone Hotel to Susuwe. We noticed from the map that there is what appears to be a direct road north of the Zambezi and then over a bridge but we were not taken that way, we assumed that it can't be a very good road. However, we learned when we reached Susuwe that it is a good road, a modern bridge and the journey takes 3 hours door to door. It took us 6 hours.

First, 1 hour drive to the Zambezi, checked out of Zambia, speedboat across the river, checked into Botswana, were driven 10 minutes by a woman who was on her mobile the entiire time then transferred to another vehicle and driver - why? He then drove us all the way to meet the vehicle from Susuwe, but we had to check out of Botswana and into Namibia. The journey took twice as long and presumably because of this cost us twice as much, we had to wait at the various immigration and emmigration posts and got another Botswana stamp in the passport to no useful purpose. We would still have been coming back this way of course to Kasane to fly to Tubu Tree, so going there a different way would have made a round trip which would have been more interesting as well as far more convenient. We would like your comments on this please.

When we were offered to change from San Camp to Jacks Camp because of a photo shoot at San we were told there were "a couple" of other guests at Jacks. There were in fact about 12 other guests which is considerably more than "a couple". We immediately thought we shouldn't have changed as if we had been the only proper guests at San we would have had a guide to ourselves, whereas with so many other guests that was not likely. We thought this was very misleading wording by Uncharted Africa.

However, by accident rather than design we did in fact have a - very good - guide to ourselves so were mollified! We were pleased overall that we changed to Jacks, it was quite an experience. Thank you to Megan who pointed out that I was particularly interested in the meerkats and they arranged 2 visits to them into our schedule so that was lovely, and I adored having them crawling over me!

I was amused to read in the Bradt travel guide that there are no meerkats in the Makgadikgadi park. This is plainly not the case!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari