Botswana: reviews from our travellers

"An excellent trip." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Second time to Namibia, but managed to surpass previous visit with animals seen, and got some memorable images. Good to self drive providing so much flexibility as to how long you spend at a waterhole, we had well over 1 hour at one observing in the main bull elephants, only two other cars there.

First time in Botswana great time on the Chobe river viewing elephants crossing , and the birds. Spoilt with the number of lions with kills, and the first cubs I had seen albeit bit hidden in the trees.

Zambia provided a fitting finale something completely different, namely Victoria Falls, seen from the air and on foot, fantastic noise of the the water roaring.

The challenge is how to beat this trip?" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"We had a fabulous holiday full of fun and adventures. The trip was made so perfect by the people looking after us.

When we lost documents Expert Africa and the staff at Lianshula showed amazingly professionalism.

A true test of a good business is how they deal with their clients in a crisis. From our experience any one travelling with Expert Africa can be assured of a great holiday and if any incident / accident occurs they have the knowledge and contacts to turn a crisis into a great story. The perfect company with which to have " safe adventures " 🤗" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience; it was such a gift to be able to experience the nature, animals and people of Botswana.

Lucy from Expert Africa did an excellent job planning it, choosing the right places for our tastes, in the best order, and everything went off without a hitch." Read full review: 4 nights in Africa; 4 on a Botswana safari

"This trip was incredible and exceeded our expectations in every way.

Everything went smoothly; the people we met were gracious and friendly; wildlife was amazing and the accommodations and food were also superior." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"We had a fantastic trip.

Thanks to Sarah Glyde's suggestions we saw a wide range of habitats; we stayed at camps near permanent water channels, another near mopane woodland, another in open grassland.

The range of camps and the stunning flights over the region gave us a feeling for the vastness of the delta and the ever-changing water levels." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"I have tried hard to frame my comments from a specific point of view of an ex tour operator. The majority of our party was overwhelmingly satisfied. My dissatisfaction with Kwando comes from (perhaps unrealistic) previous expectations. The animals, the service, the camps, and the people were all 5 stars. I purposely put off giving this feedback to gain some perspective on the events of the trip, and I feel like what I have said is justified and fair.

I would like to offer some feedback to ExpertAfrica specifically - we were very frustrated with the lack of a final reconciliation 2 months before we left. We were trying to make our individual final payments and there seemed to be no way for us to get a list that said, PAX #1 owes THIS, PAX #2 owes THIS, etc. We ended up having to sit down with literally pages of payment records, separate out our own credit card surcharges, subtract our own payments made to come up with final payment amounts. It was EXCEEDINGLY frustrating. I can't believe that we are the first group travel you've ever dealt with - so it baffles me that a clear and final reconciliation was not provided. I went round and round via email, and requested this several times in several ways, but got the impression that I was asking the impossible.

In addition, I asked about tour arrangements in Cape Town, and was quoted USD75 per person to join a scheduled bus tour. When I asked about a private mini-van, the price doubled. I did a little research and booked privately with a well-known, well regarded tour company who gave us private tours for USD60 per person inclusive of wine tastings and park fees. My issue was that I had no means of contacting them once we were on holiday - although they were great and checked in with Acorn House, and it all went off just perfectly. it would have been much simpler to do this through Expert Africa and I cannot believe that with an office there you can't do better than what was quoted. The LEAST you could do is offer a recommendation of a company you like to save your clients the trouble of finding out. This booking was over USD40,000 and I had to do a lot of the legwork myself - don't get me started on international air because thats a different can of worms. I understand if you can't offer consolidator fares from the US, but arrangements need to be made if you're serving the American market." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"The trip was not a once in a lifetime experience for us -- this is because it was so good we have decided we have to do this again someday!

The split of a remote botswana camp, the slighly more civilised chobe lodge and a few days in cape town to top it all off really couldn't have been any better.

Also top marks to Expert Africa for the documentation they provided.
Everything went as planned and even those bits that we usually fret over (the pickups and transfers) went out perfectly.
Hats off from us.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Can't really fault anything with our trip -- from the initial consultation (lots of advice before we had decided to go with you guys) to the choice of camps and assistance with our baggage, everything was spot on.

Also thanks for the guide book and the document wallet, small things but both very very helpful to us as we prepared for the trip..." Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"On this trip I traveled with one other person to Botswana, Livingstone, South Luangwa and Malawi from May 17-June 4,2017.
Everything went smoothly-no delays or cancellations.

Highlights: New sightings that included: meerkats, brown hyena, porcupines, genet cat and wild dogs.

This was our third trip to Africa and first to South Luangwa and Malawi. Loved Malawi. It is a beautiful country with beautiful, happy people altho quite poor. The highlights here were the village walk and beautiful relaxing stay at Pumalani. Also loved the staff and surroundings at Mkulumadzi.

Was somewhat disappointed in the lack of wildlife at South Luangwa since we had read about the abundance of wildlife. Also -didn't realize there were no cheetahs(my favorite). However seeing the pack of wild dogs made up for everything.
Botswana-seems to be getting more and more expensive so will probably be my last trip there." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 6 on a Malawi trip

"The trip met our hopes and expectations on all counts and exceeded them in many aspects - a wonderful holiday!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari