Reviews of safaris to Central Highlands

"We are very happy with most of the services and suggestions provided by Expert Africa. The lodge choices were excellent overall. We were also very happy that we decided to follow the recommendation of renting a 4x4. It made the driving much more comfortable and worry-free. Gwynn was a pleasure to work with. She is obviously very knowledgeable and passionate about her home country. The map provided was perfect! We had no problems at all driving ourselves.

I do have to mention two small bumps throughout the process. The first was a problem with the bank transfer from the US. Even though it is clearly explained in the instructions, I wish someone would have made it stand out. There are pages and pages of instructions to read and things are easily overlooked. It would be great if you could have a small list of highlights, including payment instructions. We ended spending over USD$300 to correct the bank transaction problem.

I was also disappointed about our lodging arrangements in the Kalahari. When we first discussed the lodging we were told that we were going to have to stay each one of the three nights at different places because everything was booked. To our surprise, when we arrived in Mata Mata and called !Xaus we were told that they had plenty of rooms available. They told us that they had availability when Expert Africa made our reservations. We ended up losing our entire payment for our night at Mata Mata Rest Camp which was not pleasant." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"This was one of the best wildlife holidays we have ever had. Certainly some of the places we stayed at were better than others, but overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip.

Some of our experiences - tracking rhinos at Desert Rhino Camp, dinner in the Boma at Damaraland Camp, finding elephant shrews at Erongo and tracking leopard and cheetah at Okonjima - have left us with everlasting memories !" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Our trip to Namibia was everything we hoped for and more, the country was spectacular and the people were very friendly and willing to share their knowledge. The hotels we chose were excellent and we feel that the advice that we were given on these by Expert Africa helped us to make the best of our limited time in the country. Namibia was a fantastic self drive destination - we really enjoyed being able to do everything under our own steam at our own pace.

When we go again (which I've no doubt we will) we would probably go a month or so earlier, as we were definitely getting in to the rainy season with some rather overcast and even cool days and the absence of concentrated game in Etosha. However we were aware of this when booking and chose our dates to coincide with my wife's birthday. The upside was that it was even quieter than we expected, enabling us to appreciate the solitude of the landscape and get the exclusive treatment from guides and other staff.

We would definitely book with Expert Africa again and would like to pass on our thanks for a wonderfully advised and arranged trip." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"We enjoyed it very much - very diverse. It was good to be self-drive.

The highlight was the flying safari.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

A very comprehensive feedback website ! Hope my comments were useful." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 22 on a Namibia trip

"WONDERFUL. A really great holiday over three weeks, NWR will not spoil it, a blip on the trip.

We would recommend a larger car than a Toyota Aygo, even though everyone said it could and indeed it did see us through the journey, a 4X4 with higher ground clearance and sand road capability would have been very desirable. With a small car, we were scraping gravel a lot of the time.

Cape Town, Primi Royal Boutique at Camps Bay, highly recommended as an option.

We stayed at some lovely locations and met some wonderful people as chosen by Expert Africa, thank you and well done.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None, you're doing a great job, keep at it." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"Our third trip with Expert Africa and the best yet. Gwynneth was very helpful and efficient and the arrangements were perfect. Locations and accommodation were just what we wanted and were all of a very high standard.

We hope to be travelling with you again soon.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None at all." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Namibia trip

"we had a great time ,the trip was organised just as we wanted it,and ,having been before you were able anticipate and suggest what we would enjoy,and worked to my budget. Thank you all for giving us such a good time" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"A great trip, very varied & we feel that we've seen as much of Namibia as we could have done in the time available.

Advice re itinerary, locations & alternatives (after the fire) were innovative & faultless.

Only suggestion we'd make is to stress the importance of getting the correct electrical adaptors (our "alleged" international one didn't work) in your pre holiday paperwork.. Thank you." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"What a country! It felt like reading a really good book - each page was exciting.When we got to the end we wanted to re-read it and savour it more." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We had never travelled to sub-Saharan Africa before, and found Chris McIntyre's book on Namibia a really useful starting point. Our main aim was to see zebras in Etosha (believe it or not) and the book made planning when to go very easy.

We found Expert Africa through the book. We normally book our travel independently, but decided that we would benefit from others' knowledge about Africa when booking this trip. We were limited in time, and Expert Africa did a good job of tailoring a trip to suit our aims and time constraints.

The pre-travel notes were brilliant to prepare us for what to expect.

We found the landscape in Etendeka and Etosha particularly beautiful, and saw masses of wildlife - much more than we expected. It was an incredible experience, and a huge privilege, to get so close to the wildlife in both those places, and in Okonjima.

We were well looked after everywhere we stayed - but nowhere better than Etendeka, where we found gentle, straightforward hospitality.

The driving was a bit daunting to start with on the gravel roads, but we settled into it, and were rather surprised to see tarmac again when we left Etosha! It suited us really well to be able to drive ourselves around.

Despite the relative ease of driving around, and the very comfortable places to stay, we found a real sense of quiet and wilderness in Namibia which was wonderful.

And we saw plenty of zebras." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip