Botswana: reviews from our travellers

"This trip was a legacy of our deferred 2020 trip.

We wish to sincerely thank Kwando Safaris for their understanding, and willingness to reschedule our trip. We also want to commend Lucy Copson for her assistance at the time of deferral (we had arrived in Cape Town just as all the borders closed), and then all her willing and cheerful help subsequently in rescheduling, and replying to many questions about details post-Covid.

We thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and it was well worth the wait...!

Everything went smoothly (better than we could have hoped for, given all that happened since 2020), and we would strongly recommend Expert Africa, Lucy Copson and Kwando!" Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"Everything from start to finish was superb.

From the initial chat about what I'd like to do, to the return, was handled exceptionally well by Meg and the whole Expert Africa team. You couldn't be in better hands." Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 4 on a Botswana safari

"Very happy with the manner in which our trip, which had to be re-organised twice due to Covid, was handled by Lucy and, on one occasion, Chris. Nothing was too much trouble for them.

We were particularly impressed that, on departure from UK day, Lucy made telephone contact to advise that our airline for one of our flights had been grounded and she had already arranged alternative flights.

We would definitely use Expert Africa in future.

I would not recommend Machaba camp to guests looking for Wild Dog sightings as there are very few in the area. It also seems Botswana has very few cheetah apart from Chobe area so not great for those with an interest in them." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Overall it was brilliant" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"We could not have been happier with the overall experience from booking through execution of our trip. Tracy Lederer was responsive and knowledgeable every step of the way. And thanks to COVID, she had three years to work with us on making the experience happen.

We stayed in Victoria Falls 3 nights to recover from the long journey and enjoy the Falls and Zambezi River experience. We had a 9-night mobile safari with 1-night stays in lodges before and after. Before to "transition" from Vic Falls area and at end to "transition" from mobile safari to the long journey home. All bookings, transfers, meals, etc were executed as expected with high quality service.

We found Tracy to be very helpful and honest in her guidance with us. The changing requirements due to COVID added more considerations for her and us to balance....and that all went smoothly with her help.

If we book more travel to Africa, we will definitely request to work with Tracy." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 11 on a Botswana safari

"We were so happy to finally get to Botswana 3 years after we originally booked.

Expert Africa were excellent at arranging for the trip to be rolled forward each year due to covid restrictions. The recommended camps were excellent choices and we enjoyed that all 3 camps were quite different.

Lucy was an excellent source of information and very responsive to all our queries. When our flight from Vic Falls to Joburg was cancelled at short notice, she was quick to arrange an alternative from Livingstone so that we still made our international flight back to London.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Everything was excellent. A trip of a life time and well worth waiting for." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"This started out as a once in a lifetime trip but as we travelled further in to Africa we decided we will definitely go back!!!!

I would have packed a little differently than I did. Taking 2 pair of thermal underwear would have been useful, as our nights and morning game drives were quite cold. We also had banking issues along the way. Even though we had given our bank all of our travel information we still had issues at ATMs. We should have brought far more cash with us than we did.

The people, the environment, and the animals were incredible!! Africa is something everyone should experience if they can.

We will go back!!!!!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None that I can think of." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"This was my fourth trip to Africa, but my first to Botswana, and it was the most rewarding. Sightings in three of the five camps visited were incredible - cheetahs, leopards, pairs of mating lions, mating hippos, and fighting giraffes and impalas. As a solo and older traveler, I really appreciated the friendliness, hospitality and inclusiveness shown by the Botswana people.

Overall the accommodation was excellent, as was the food and service, and the guiding generally exceptional. Having had multiple hip surgeries, I was so grateful my agent Maruska Adye-Rowe had done an excellent job in securing accommodation close to the main lodges, and preferential seating on the game drives. Maruska not only rearranged my whole schedule due to the pandemic, but also remained on top of my itinerary noting the cancellation my British Airways homeward flight from Victoria Falls, and arranging and paying for a new flight from Livingstone. The flight arrangements from camp to camp, and the transfers by Wild Horizons between Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia were absolutely seamless.

Sadly I did not see any wild dogs on this trip, and elephant sightings were few, even at Chobe Elephant Camp. However, I was compensated by many "up close and personal" encounters with other animals, and thrilled at the huge variety of birds.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Both Maruska and Chris McIntyre were always available to answer any questions or concerns I had about this trip, and could not have been more helpful.

In hindsight, I wish I had probed for more information in terms of the manner in which the various camps operated, and also about the weather conditions. Being overly concerned about my luggage weight, I did not pack adequately for the very cold morning drives and huge swings in temperature. The camp schedules were also quite grueling for me - starting at 5:00 a.m. and going until after supper with very minimal "siesta breaks" in the hottest part of the day. However, I took some downtime at Okuti, where I also found a heavy fleecy jacket, and got my second wind!

Many thanks to you both for making this trip so memorable!" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"Well worth the 2 1/2 year wait from booking to actually going! Tracy Lederer did a great job with the booking and subsequent changes, and hats off to Andrew for holding his prices for that length of time.

The only disappointment was that we did not see wild dogs as that had been one of main reasons for choosing to safari this way. Again, thank you to Andrew for his endeavours to find them, but they are wild animals and have huge territories. On that basis, all the more reason to return!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"My trip was really great. I saw may beautiful things in the almost pristine Botswana. I had a perfect mix of different habitats and plenty of wildlife. Wild dogs were one of the main drivers for this trip and I was able to see them in 3 out of the 6 camps.

So glad I included Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in my itinerary . What a great surprise. And what a nice camp, Camp Kalahari. And a meerkat experience which made me literally cry. Savute under Canvas was a bit of a disappointment. Due to the fact that this time the Savute channel was dry (no water - no life) and not the best guiding experience. Lebala I could have skipped without missing anything.

Great Plains offers superb wildlife experience. In very many ways. I have been very spoiled and lucky to have a car all to myself in both Duba plains and Selinda. Both are very pretty areas, and Duba plains even has a touch of magic.

I travelled alone and Botswana is a perfect and very safe destination. You travel alone, but are never alone. In the "posh" camps , people tempt to be a little bit more on their own, in the camps just below that level, all people join for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Logistics were arranged perfectly. Everybody knew when I was coming or going. It has been a wise - and very good - decision to book privates in several camps. Unique wildlife experience in your own pace. The " privates" in both Duba and Selinda were an extraordinary and great bonus." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 20 on a Botswana safari