Reviews of safaris to Central Highlands

"Amazing experience. It is a great country with lovely people. The ideal first African experience.

We only wish we could have seen the Caprivi strip/push it to the Victoria falls instead of going back to Windhoek." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"We were thrilled with our trip. Namibia was an excellent choice for so many reasons. Such a beautiful and unspoilt country - with incredibly well-designed and high-end tourist facilities. First class hotels and delicious food. Good roads and safe to drive. Incredibly varied experiences, amazing animals, wonderful people, fascinating and troubled history.

The whole family (two adults and two teenage boys) loved this truly memorable trip. An amazing adventure which we would highly recommend.

We were also blown away by the superb advice and service we received from Sabina at Expert Africa. She worked so hard to plan our trip and take our preferences into account. Once we were in Namibia, she was also extraordinarily helpful, even phoning our emergency contact in London to track us down when we left a coat behind in a hotel - and then phoning us directly in Namibia - and all this within half an hour of us checking out. We were also very impressed and grateful that Wilderness Safaris organized an upgrade for us at Okaukuejo once they realized they'd made a mistake with our booking. And we were thrilled that Sabina recommended that we stay at Erongo despite the fire - excellent advice on her part that resulted in one of the most memorable 24 hours of our entire trip.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We found Expert Africa to be a remarkable company and cannot thank you enough for an amazing experience.

(We had no idea that such superb travel agents even existed!!)" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"After looking forwards to a trip for a trip to Namibia for many years my hopes were high. Both my wife's and my hopes were more than met. We saw everything we hoped to see and had a great adventure., Everything went according to plan a (except the Erongo lodge) with flights, car hire and accommodation all first rate. We really couldn't have wished for more.

Namibia is a fantastic place to go on a do it yourself safari trip as it feels very safe, the roads are quiet and the locals were all very friendly, helpful and knowlegdable. We didn't encounter any negative attitudes or pressure to buy in markets or shops and the Namibians are clearly proud of their country and keen to impress travellers.

We saw a huge amount of animals in Etosha and elsewhere brought back some fantastic photographs and memories. If only we could start it all over again!

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Just to reinforce the care needed when driving on the gravel roads. We had a bit of a hairy moment and saw one car overturn on the costal road north of Swakopmund." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"We have had a wonderful holiday and are already looking forward to another visit to Namibia in the future.

We appreciated Angela's detailed knowledge and expertise. She provided us with good advice and helped with the booking of every aspect of the holiday to ensure it was a success. Many thanks." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Very well organized." Read full review: 3 nights in Africa; 3 on a Namibia trip

"Our first trip to Namibia (2010), covered central, north, northwest and coastal areas.

This trip (2013) was about 98% new locations covering central, north, northeast, Caprivi, Okavango and Vic Falls, Zimbabwe side.
The most noticeable differences in that span of time were the money exchange, electricity adaptor difference, more people riding bicycles, shopping modernization of cities, availability of 3G services (more mobile phones in daily use)

General travel tips
1. Before leaving Namibia, change your Namibian dollars to another currency: South African Rand, Botswana Pula, Euros, Dollars. They are no longer exchangeable at the Jo'berg airport nor in Paris.
2. The children in Namibia were usually asking for pens, whether or not we took photos. The supplement money for educational supplies in 2013 was used for election campaign spending.
3. Clothing is a great donation to leave with the lodges in the northeastern sector of Namibia and in Botswana. They distribute it to the villages or the lodge workers or in one case to the local churches.
4. Adaptors - Throughout Namibia and Botswana, the large 3-rounded prong South African adaptor is used. We purchased a smaller 3-rounded prong which only works in Zimbabwe. Bring your own charging strip/surge protector if you have multiple devices. Zimbabwe uses the small 3-rounded prong and British adaptors.
5. In your checked luggage through Jo'berg, pack nothing of value, other than clothing, ! It will disappear, guaranteed.
6. Reading material:
The Wildlife of Southern Africa is a definite plus to keep track of sightings (birds, mammals, insects, flowers, trees, etc.) (Vincent Carruthers) at the Windhoeker Buchhandlung across from the Hilton Hotel
"Namibian" daily newspaper - fantastic way to learn about modern Namibian culture and opinions of all ages.
"Zambezi Traveller" free newspaper in the Caprivi/Okavango (Lianshulu Lodge) - regional tips, ideas and covers a wide territory.
7. Pic n Pay grocery store (throughout Namibia) was our favorite, Super Spar is also good for finding lunch items (including an ice chest) when driving between destinations
8. Namibia has frequent, fairly well-maintained picnic spots (tree shade, concrete benches and table), which we used for lunches
9. Languages/Dialects: the smartphone "notes" application is a handy recording device to write down the courtesy words: hello, good morning, thank you, how are you, etc. We encountered 10 different languages/dialects or more over three and a half weeks. Asking a lodge staff member "how to say" is an ice breaker and opens a door to their culture.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Fantastic voyage!

The planning, Expert Africa contact, accommodations, expectations suited our needs to a tee. We made our own flight reservations, which worked out smoothly.

The Namibia/Chris McIntyre guide book was our bible. Thank you for supplying it.

On the review feedback, what does "facilities" include/mean?

We would highly recommend Expert Africa for any future voyages.

Obtaining visas before departure between countries was not totally clear.
The basic information about visas in the travel preparations could be much shorter (e.g., Visas are handled at each border control for Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Show your international driver license and passport at customs. The rental car agency provides you with all of the car details, including chassis number and motor number to fill in the paperwork.)

We paid for a permit into Botswana, but wonder if we could have given them the permit on the windshield. This was unclear in the instructions from Budget/Expert Africa whether to turn it in or buy a new one. This was the Chobe border. This was a more difficult and time consuming border post (a real hassle).

The Mohembo Border Post at Mahango was a breeze with both Namibia and Botswana." Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"This trip exceeded all our expectations. The country was stunning, we saw far more animals than we expected, everyone was very friendly and very happy to answer many questions etc. We had fewer incidental expenses than we expected, fuel, food and drink being relatively cheap. This obviously helped to make the holiday good value.

Travel was easier, health issues were straightforward: everywhere was very clean, we could drink the borehole water, we didn't need antimalarials and sustained no insect bites.

The advice to take warm clothing was appreciated. A fleece and woolly hat are very useful. Breakfast/evening meals are often quite cool as they are in open rooms.

We did not appreciate how very dry it would be: lots of moisturisers and vaseline essential. Chris' guide is invaluable: a mine of useful and interesting information (especially about shops etc).

It might be useful to warn people about the veterinary fence, and the fact that they cannot bring meat products south through the fence (although we were not stopped as we left Etosha at Anderson Gate driving south, but we should have been). We were stopped both ways at Palmwag." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Amazing, yet again, and EA made it all very relaxing." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"Angela made our trip very special. I had researched our itinerary in great detail, but she added the cherries on the top of the cake. MEGA THANKS ANGELA!

Our tour was first rate. Namibia sets very high standards for itself and mostly achieves them. As our group travelled in June and July we knew the nights would be cold, but this wasn't a problem except we didn't linger in the outdoor showers!!!

We were glad to have the extra spare-wheel and also pleased to have paid a little more to upgrade to a Nissan Xtrail. We saw people in ordinary saloon cars having some problems here & there. The Bradt Guide and marked map were in constant use. Thanks for providing these.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Only one small initial blip, on arrival at Daan Viljeon we had to pay 170 N$ for entry even though we had rooms booked there.
I knew it was included because Angela had written it in our very first quote, but the lady on the barrier would not let us in without first paying. We were tired after our flight and not knowing what to do. It would have helped if we had had a voucher to give her to satisfy her needs! Maybe you could include one next time in your very snazzy Expert Africa wallet?

All 4 of us voted this our best African holiday experience...so THANK YOU EXPERT AFRICA TEAM!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"The whole experience was very enjoyable.

On reflection we wouldn't have done as much driving, some of it was tedious and although there isn't much traffic driving on the gravel roads was quite tiring. Having said this it was our choice and we wouldn't have seen as much as we did without the driving" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip