Botswana: reviews from our travellers

"This is our second time travelling with Expert Africa and we were once again very happy with our experience. This is especially considering the many times we had to re-book due to Covid! EA worked hard to make sure we still got the experience we wanted and we are massively appreciative of that.

Megan gave excellent advice on where we should stay and was very patient with my many questions and changes of mind during planning. I always love that with EA you get one person who sticks with you from the first enquiry until you're safely home (In this case extra impressive when my first email exchange with Megan about this trip was Nov 2018!!).

I also appreciate that, unlike many travel agents, EA will happily communicate predominantly by email. This just suits me so much better around work and gives me a record of all the information for discussion with the rest of the group. The superbly detailed and easy to read information on the website is also a big plus.

Additional thanks to Chris, who responded personally when I had concerns about re-booking during Covid. It's also a lovely touch to get your guide book with a booking. Due to unforeseen circumstances, it was our only reading material for most of the trip so it's been read cover-to-cover and we're looking forward to a sequel!

Thanks again Expert Africa - we'll be back when the savings have replenished enough for another go!! (North & South Luangwa? Maybe Etosha... so many places to see!)" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"We cannot thank Expert Africa enough! This has been the trip of a lifetime, largely to do with the time spent on the organisation and the attention to detail by Tracy Lederer.

The trip was initially put together by Richard Ball, who has since left the Company and then taken over by Tracy, who gave us great confidence. Covid then hit and we had to postpone our trip twice, but at no point did we feel any concern that it was not going to go ahead or that it would not be what we had hoped for.

At the last moment one airline went bust, a few days before our departure but Tracy had got seats held on another airline before we even got in touch with her. The trip itself went really well, without a hitch. At every step we were met and guided across borders, through airports and onto transfers. The lodges that had been recommended were ideal and as we had hoped, the mobile safari was a real highlight.

Thank you to everyone at Expert Africa who worked so hard to make this a truly memorable and extremely enjoyable holiday.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We would not have changed a thing. Thank you for all that you did." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 11 on a Botswana safari

"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

"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

"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

"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