Botswana: reviews from our travellers

"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

"Here are my thoughts I wrote on our beautiful Africa experience. It says it all...

Thank-you...

MEMOIRES OF AFRCIA:

So many stars in the sky each night, it took your breath away.
The horizon that seemed to go on forever...there was no end to it.
The cloud formations everyday painted by God.
The sunsets that gave you a vision of what heaven may be like.
Grasses blowing in the wind that reminded you of a rolling mighty sea.
Birds that were so colorful and different it made you smile at God's creativity.
Rock formations so rich in texture and color that it made you realize how truly old earth really is.
Faces of black Africans who wanted to please you and share the beauty of their land.
The conversations I had with staff members at each lodge about their wants, desires, and dreams for their lives.
The jeering, jolting impact the jeep had connecting with the ground as it bounced and tossed my insides around.
Lloyd Wilmott's facial expressions when he told stories about his past with the animals and his wife. (He never referred to her as his ex-wife...always his wife.)
Janet's kindness extended to us and her servants~ heart as she helped Lloyd make us feel welcome everyday.
Lloyd's face lighting up when he saw Janet all dressed up for dinners in the evenings.
The childlike wonder I saw in Sandra as she was taking pictures with her new camera and lens wanting to capture everything.
Becca's pure joy of experiencing every aspect of the safaris.
The pure, raw fear of not having guns to protect you in dangerous situations and how terrified I felt.
Gratefulness in my heart that Doug gave Becca and I this gift of experiencing Africa together.
Praying everyday that God would take my fears away and turn them into memories to treasure.
Having to be quiet on the jeeps rides when all I wanted to do was express my sheer joy of seeing the most wonderful creations.
Morning teas and enjoying the treats that went along with it out on the morning bush ride.
The feeling of my daughters arms around me telling me I can do this safari, while sobbing, wondering what I got myself into.
The smell of the campfires early in the morning while drinking french pressed coffee.
Lying in bed each afternoon for a siesta with sweat all over me wondering if it could get any hotter than this?!
The feeling of panic~terror as the first small plane left the runway and the relief I felt when it's wheels touched the ground.
Watching my daughter write in her journal and thinking how this experience in Africa has changed her life forever and what this will mean to her.
Michael sitting in the jeep taking notes on the iphone of all the different wildlife we saw and me thinking how cool and clever he was.
Seeing Becca and Michael laugh together and experiencing their pleasure just by watching them interact.
Eating outside for 3 weeks as I looked longingly at the inside of the lodges wanting to be inside away from the bugs.
Realizing how powerful the force of nature is with all the water damage in Kruger National Park in South Africa.
Not wanting to leave the quaint bed and breakfast after the first night because it was such a lovely spot to be in.
Animals... animals and more animals...
How beautiful the eyelashes on an elephant look.
Soft, fuzzy fur on a baby zebras rear end.
The longing look of the male lion as he courted the lioness.
How fast and furious the mating session was between the lion and lioness.
Mud caked on the elephants hide to keep themselves cool and the holes they dig to roll around in the mud.
The snorting sounds hippos make and how close they seemed to be.
Boating on the Delta river and feeling the wind blow across my face and thinking how alive I felt at that moment in time.
Listening to our guide Dutch talk about all he knew about the Delta and thinking how intelligent he was and how very interesting he was to listen to.
Feeling completely confident in Lloyd Wilmott's guiding abilities.
Loving the last safari the most and enjoying the simplicity and warmth of Lloyd and Janet.
The wonderful food all the cooks made and enjoying NOT having to cook it!!!

Thoughts to be continued...." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"We had a totally delightful time in Botswana and are very grateful for all the help Maruska gave along the way-could not recommend her services any higher." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"A an exceptional wild animal experience, but the accommodation was very basic.

Our luggage guardian at Johannesburg was helpful and efficient and prompt.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We regret not having considered including the Victoria Falls in our itinerary and it was not logistically possible to amend that once in Botswana. However we would have responded to prompting from Expert Africa for this additional option." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"Well organised" Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"This trip was a very good experience indeed. Having been relatively undecided about where to go etc we were helped to choose very rewarding destinations and despite the fact that we were in the middle of Africa and could have been quite confused everywhere, and I mean everywhere, we went there was a representative of the Expert Africa team on hand to let us know that they knew where we were going even if we didn't!

We were assisted through visa points, on and off planes of all sizes, met at airports, ferried to our camps and hotels and always by charming, well-informed guides very patient with elderly people!" Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 5 on a Botswana safari

"All went according to plan with no problems. We have highlighted only 2 things that were not up to standard but not of your doing.
We thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the organisation by yourselves was first class as always.

We asked for our documentation to be sent early as we were leaving our home in Portugal a few days before the part of our holiday that you organised and it arrived even earlier than we expected. Thank you for that.

Can't wait for the next one!



Cannot think of anything." Read full review: 52 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"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

"I think overall we liked Tanzania and Zanzibar better than Botswana and the Seychelles. However, it is like comparing apples to oranges. We have been fortunate in that we have been to Africa before and it is hard not to compare trips. Definitely flying from camp to camp is the way to go.

I think we must have just lucked our with our 1 and only guide in Tanzania, because we just loved him and we were with him for 10 days. If only we could have had ALL of the staff @ Lebala with us for the entire trip. Unfortunately that makes such a big difference, the people you share your time with.

As far as the safari/animal encounters it was great. In Botswana you see far less numbers of animals, but you are able to get much closer and with much fewer fellow tourists around. The part of the trip that we both liked the least was the Seychelles. To many transfers and to many quick overnight stays. The flights times did not make anything easy. We would get in to late the 1st night and then have to leave at the crack of dawn the following morning, missing meals, etc. Or we would get in too early to check in and would have to hang out in the common area for hours until our room was ready. Conveniently breakfast was always over and it wasn't time for lunch. I don't eat much @ 6 am while heading out the door for yet another shuttle/ferry or plane trip.

I know that Air Seychelles REALLY messed up our itinerary, and I think it would have been much better before all the changes. It certainly is beautiful there." Read full review: 25 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"It was spectacular. I am still amazed by the wildlife and the environment in general. Everything worked as planned which reflects very favourably on your services (within reason each camp was a rather different ecosystem, all connections worked as planned incl the transfer to Vic Falls, no abundance of other travelers and every camp was in a stunning setting).

I had some reservations about visiting this time of year (it was originally anticipated for October), but it appears we saw every species that can somewhat reasonably be expected; and more than one sighting for almost all of them. We did have rain in Botswana, but all in all we were not much affected by it: at Kwara they installed roofs on the Land Cruisers after one really wet game drive; at Nxai Pan there was rain during one game drive and the roads were really gutted and muddy but both were OK, at Lebala we got really wet once (no roof) and really lucky on a few other drives. [Not sure if the amount of rain we encountered was typical, or whether we hit a relatively dry spell; we encountered no rain in Namibia which is having a late start to the rainy season this year].

Even on our subsequent travel in Etosha (and elsewhere in Namibia) we saw incredible amounts and variety of wildlife, including rhinos, leopard, aardwolf and hyena. (Here we had to do our own guiding and tracking though ;-)

Thank you for your services and input. I have recommended you.

Suggestions for improvements:

Satellite phones might have come in handy with Profile Safari's plane mishap/crash in Etosha as well. [Nothing to do with you or us, but it happened when we were there]." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari