Reviews of safaris to Damaraland

"This trip was the most exciting, inspiring, rewarding trip of my life. Namibia is vast and spectacular, desolate and beautiful - and the people are warm and friendly. I'd been dreaming of visiting the Namib desert for some years, and the experience was more stimulating than I imagined - it is a captivatingly beautiful, otherworldly place, and my mind keeps wandering back to those huge, fluid honey-coloured sand dunes... The driving was tough at times, but the thrill of adventure and discovery was worth it. Overall, we found the lodges and camps to be very well-organised, with good food and great service.

I'd go back in a heartbeat (as soon as the bank balance allows).

Expert Africa exceeded my expectations of a travel agent - Tracy and Elizabeth helped create a bespoke trip for us that met our wishlist and our budget. Prior to our departure, Josh happily gave time to us, talking through our self-drive route in detail and advising on how to manage the long drives to help us plan and to allay our nerves (we'd never done anything like this before!).

They also went above and beyond to help resolve a last-minute glitch with the car hire company, which truly saved our trip!

Thank you!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The only thing I can think of is clarity about the drivers of cost during the quotation process - I ended up going back and forth a bit early onto understand what was driving costs up - but overall, you guys were consistently professional, helpful and truly expert." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"My overall feeling about the trip is very positive, notwithstanding the occasional (probably inevitable) minor niggle, referred to in individual sections.

Everything was organised extremely well, with no problems of logistics, and the experience I obtained of Namibia was varied and consistently interesting. All the lodges were of a very good standard, with comfortable facilities and good quality food - as, indeed, I would have expected, given the overall cost.

The constant moving around was, inevitably, somewhat wearing by the latter stages, but this was an unavoidable element of this type of trip which attempts to cover a significant amount of ground. And, by the end, I felt I had acquired some satisfying insight into the country and its cultures, even if a trip of this nature can never hope to do much more than scratch the surface." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"We first contacted Tom in May to enquire about the possibility of arranging a holiday to Namibia in August/September. From day one he listened to our preferences and requirements and managed to put together an excellent itinerary in very short order. We very much appreciated his suggestions for places to eat, excursions, side trips etc and also his in-depth knowledge of what to expect at the places we stayed.

It was good to be met by the Wilderness rep on arrival in Windhoek who helped us with SIM card purchase and hire car collection.

Namibia surpassed our expectations as a holiday destination. Everyone we met was very friendly and helpful, the scenery was spectacular and we saw much more wildlife than we anticipated.

Despite some initial concerns about self-drive, we thoroughly enjoyed it and are glad we decided to travel this way. (Having a brand new 4x4 pickup certainly helped!)

All in all a wonderful experience and we would recommend it to anyone - along with Expert Africa!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"We had a truly wonderful 3 weeks in Namibia.

It is a beautiful country, with a stunning variety of landscapes and spectacular wildlife. We had many memorable experiences during our visit.
Guiding throughout was of a very high standard, and the arrangements all went very smoothly.

The mix of flying and self-drive worked well - though our relatively small 4WD car just coped with the extremely rough roads in western Etosha" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 18 on a Namibia trip

"Namibia exceeded our expectations and that credit can be attributed to Expert Africa and the very attentive and super patient Sabina.

We had corresponded with Sabina for some months before finally and very late confirming an itinerary. This was due to our schedule and various decisions that we were waiting on before being able to commit, therefore our itinerary was amended multiple times due to availability of lodges and car hire.
We have no complaints at all with the service of Sabina and Expert Africa, and have no hesitation in recommending or in using Expert Africa again to book a trip.
We encountered no problems with our reservations, paperwork or logistics and felt the coordination with Wilderness Safari,s was exceptional.

The recommendation of the Sandwich Harbour trip with Turnstone Tours was superb and one of the highlights of our trip. Highly recommended for other travellers.

We live in Nigeria so the ability to drive ourselves in an African Country was fantastic and we throughly enjoyed Namibia, the scenery, the accommodations and warmth of the people.

I have written fairly extensive reviews of our various experiences and sincerely hope that these are taken in the constructive manner that they are intended and not as direct criticisms.
We have lived in numerous Countries, some more challenging than others and are well aware of the often difficult balance of customer expectations, staff training and the logistics of the environment.

On a side note I became unwell towards the last two days of our trip, thankfully when back in Windhoek, and from our point of view when we were still in Namibia and not back in Lagos where we live as this would have necessitated medical evacuation.

On the day of our departure I was admitted to MediClinic in Windhoek and that afternoon underwent emergency surgery for acute appendicitis. After four days in hospital I joined my husband at The Hilton and after a further check the following Saturday with the surgeon (the thoroughly lovely Manoj Kamble) we flew later that day.

I can only add that my medical emergency did nothing to dampen our love of Namibia and its people, and I can assure other travellers who may have a concern about an unexpected medical emergency that I received superb first class care from the Hospital, surgeon, nurses and all the medical and administrative and ancillary personnel, and at no point did we feel that I was receiving anything but exceptional care.

As I was admitted on a Sunday there were some administrative issues with contacting our Insurance Company (International SOS) so we opted to pay and claim which was not a problem for us as we are very familiar with our insurance and know this option to be fine, however it is fair here to note that an unexpected hospital stay can be costly and so therefore some sort of insurance provision is mandatory.

At this point I would like to add that Bidvest car rental were very cooperative with our unexpected circumstances when my husband went to return our rental car on the appropriate day, and with finding us another suitable small vehicle for local use.

We had some issues with changing our flight with SAA but this was more to do with the SAA staff who were uncertain how to manage our changes. This was resolved eventually but had we needed to we would have contacted Expert Africa/Wilderness Safari for assistance.

Whilst you obviously did not request feedback for the Hilton Hotel I will add that my husband stayed there seven nights and me for two as a result of my hospital stay. It was well located with all the standard facilities and amenities that you would expect from The Hilton chain. Room service was good and they had a fantastic roof top bar which I managed to enjoy before we left.

My husband became very familiar with Windhoek during our unexpected extended stay to the point where his beer was poured for him without asking on arrival at the bar at Joe's Beerhouse.

We both sincerely look forward to another visit to Windhoek in the future and hopefully to explore the Caprivi Strip and the Falls,

Many thanks to Sabina and all who helped make our trip very special with wonderful memories.
You are a credit to your organization.

Sincerely,
Anna & Malcolm

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None at all - Superb service from our very first enquiry to booking and returning home." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 22 on a Namibia trip

"One of our best trips in Africa, self driving is a must.

We loved every experience, big thanks to our trip organizer Maruska" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"A great trip. Very varied. Friendliness wherever we went. A lot of miles, many on poor roads, the rest on very good (and quiet) paved roads. The standard of lodges was, on the whole, very high. The food was better than expected. Most of the extra activities were good and the country was as dramatic as we hoped. Virtually no mosquitoes at this time of year.

We changed plane at Jo'burg. No biometric checks in transit or any problems with forwarded luggage." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"We had a wonderful holiday in Southern Africa. There are so many memories- we tried to name our 'top 10 best moments' but it was impossible as each day offered something new and exciting. We will definitely be back to this lovely part of the world before too long.

Thank you to Tracy Lederer for her advice and organisation - everything ran very smoothly and exceeded our expectations." Read full review: 28 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Our trip was fantastic. It was well organised by Expert Africa and Sabina, our agent was accurate and helpful at all times. The book and advance information was invaluable, from packing lists to maps, money advice and maps, everything was just brilliant.

We traveled with three children, aged 10, 13 and 15 and our route, accommodation and destinations worked for us all. It is not easy finding places to accommodate a family of five and we appreciate that every lodge was ready with the extra beds and big rooms.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The main roads were easy to drive on and although parking in towns can be a little confusing with some people claiming to be there to 'watch' the car while you leave it there, and then expect you to pay them, we never had any problems and if in doubt we found residential streets to park on.

Take a cool bag/blocks in your luggage! We used these every day and the lodges were happy to freeze the blocks for us for our picnics each day.

Two weeks is just enough time to see a great deal of Namibia and if we could have extended by a week then maybe we could have made it to the Caprivi Strip; but like all things in life you have to cut your cloth accordingly and we managed to fit so much into our two weeks." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Namibia is a fantastic country and one that is relatively easy to allow children to experience a range of what Africa has to offer. There is a difficult balance between time available, distance travelled, quality of roads, type of accommodation, variety of experience etc but we got it about right for our three, but what works best will vary for everyone. We met some who travelled far more than we did and survived!

Even in early spring, our kids found the temperaturte difficult in the middle of the day, but the mornings and evenings were fine - so think carefully about when to go and when to travel. Five is a difficult number to travel with - but everywhere we stayed, the accommodation worked well. We could have travelled less, avoided Damaraland, or stuck more to the tar - but that would have detracted from the overall experience.

Overall, excellent.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Couldn't really fault it.

Thank you." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip