Reviews of trips to Fish River Canyon

"We had a very enjoyable trip, focused mainly on seeing parts of Namibia that were new to us.

The diverse landscapes, varied accommodations, intermittent sightings of wildlife, even the experience of two punctures and the help we received….it was all wonderful.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service

I just wanted to mention how helpful the staff were at the Wilderness lounge, at the airport." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"Fantastic experience or series of experiences. Lots of highlights. Country is very clean. The people are so proud of their country and are very friendly and hospitable.

Many different animals from penguins , seals and flamingoes on the coast to lions, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, leopards and cheetahs in the parks. Too many species of antelope to list and the same goes for birds. At least six types of eagle, alone.

In addition to the wildlife, the geology is astonishing. So many different styles of desert – not just the famous dunes – and so many different mountains with rocks of all sorts of shapes and sizes and minerals.

Three nights wild camping with a guide in Damaraland was an unforgettable experience.

We didn’t find the driving as difficult as we had thought – although a 4 x 4 is essential and we left the really difficult bits (e.g. sand dunes and canyons) to experienced guides.

Can’t wait to go back. Still plenty more to explore." Read full review: 33 nights in Africa; 26 on a Namibia trip

"A fantastic trip, which exceeded our high expectations. We did a lot of driving of course, which is part of the adventure, roads were good.

Its had to think what we would have done even slightly different.

We came back full plans for next time." Read full review: 30 nights in Africa; 24 on a Namibia trip

"We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Namibia. Expert Africa organised it so that we did quite a lot of our own driving, which is what we wanted, but broke up the trip with a few fully inclusive stays at lodges. This meant that after lots of long journeys when we were quite independent, we were able to stay put and take advantage of the wonderful service and activities at the various lodges and camps.

Sometimes it's tempting to do it all your own way, but I think what we learned was that if you let a guide share his local knowledge with you, you gain a huge amount which you then take with you to the next place. Learning as you go, you can't help but look at everything differently and you gain so much enjoyment from it.

I would say do as many activities as you can.

All aspects of the trip were seamless and all arrangements made by Expert Africa worked perfectly. We travelled a huge number of kilometres, saw some stunning landscapes, and enjoyed lots of wildlife particularly in the north.

We are already dreaming about our next trip to the areas we didn't manage to cover and I'm sure we will go back." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"In 1 word: epic." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"Amazing trip and very well organised by Tom Morris of Expert Africa.

Having been to Namibia before, and knowing roughly what we wanted to do, we set out to book the trip directly ourselves, but after discussion with Tom he came up with quite a number of options / lodges that we hadn't considered or been aware of.

After putting together a suggested itinerary it was clear that it was easier, and just as economic, to let Expert Africa organise all the accommodation. With map, guidebook and detailed intinerary and directions everything was made easy for travelling almost 4000km round Namibia over 3 1/2 weeks.

Overall a fantastic trip with great places to stay and visit.

Keep up the good knowledge of the country and its ever changing accommodation." Read full review: 25 nights in Africa; 23 on a Namibia trip

"I loved my trip. It really was the journey of a lifetime. It helped me a great deal to have the advice and support of Tom at Expert Africa in planning my trip, which was a fairly complex process as I was combining work and leisure for some of the time. Everything went smoothly and to schedule and I had no problems, which was amazing considering that I was away five weeks (everything except a cancelled flight home, but the airline dealt with that).


The places I stayed were well chosen and I enjoyed them all in different ways. I especially loved Fish River Lodge and the canyon there. I was lucky enough to meet the owners and to talk with them about their interesting plans to extend their conservation work in the area.


The only aspect of my journey that was different to what I expected and a bit more challenging was the driving. I did not have any problems, although I covered about 1,500 miles driving solo, but it is not easy driving on dirt roads (they are described as gravel roads but this is not really accurate). The car hire company and the Bradt guide recommend not driving above 70kph on dirt roads but that is not practicable over long distances and I think this advice should be revised. Nobody else was travelling at those speeds. If I had driven that slowly on certain days a 5-hour journey would have turned into an 8-hour journey, which presents a different kind of risk. I would recommend driving at the national speed limit, which is what I did, meaning that I was driving safely at 80-90 kph on those dirt roads. I think a frank discussion of what driving in Namibia realistically entails would have been useful, but this is a minor point!

Namibia is a beautiful country, for me part of its attraction is its remoteness and the opportunity to be alone in open spaces, but I also had encounters with Namibians of many different backgrounds, all of which were positive and interesting. I have brought home many happy memories and would love to return one day. Thank you, Tom, for making it happen." Read full review: 35 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"This was an amazing trip and covered areas of Namibia that we had not been to before. It involved long days driving which we were aware of and was part of the adventure. As this was our fourth visit to Namibia we knew the places we wanted to get to and also the majority of the lodges we wanted to stay and it didn't disappoint. All of the Gondwana properties were excellent and set the standard for accommodation in Namibia." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Great trip, especially suited to Africa novices like us.

Namibia has three really world class sights - Etosha, Sossusvlei and Fish Canyon. Luderitz, Swakopmund and Tweifelfontein interesting. Food and accommodation generally very good.
Only disappointment was the Skeleton Coast - one of the most boring drives I have ever made.

The main drawback of Namibia as a whole is the amount of driving involved, especially since the car rental firm imposes (maybe sensibly) a limit of 70km/h on gravel.

We covered 5000km and after all this time in the car, the last long stretch from Fish Canyon to Windhoek seemed an eternity...

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Only suggestion would be to let people know about the time spent driving. We found that on gravel roads, with the car rental company's speed limits and our own stops, we took 50% longer than Google thought we should. This made for a couple of very long days.

Not sure we would have changed our itinerary but if we had been aware earlier it might have made the hours in the car less of a downer. You should also advise people to get a phone app like Spotify and download a LOT of music on it to be played over Bluetooth." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Overall the trip had many surprises, and thankfully they were almost all positive!

The people we met were all enthusiastic, friendly and knowledgeable. Several went out of their way to help us. We did not meet anyone who was antagonistic.

The accommodation was better than we were expecting. We found all the small lodges to be exceptional and very well appointed. The individual accommodation was always superb. As a retired geologist I found Mowani's great granite boulders to be inspiring.

There was a lot of travelling and some of the roads were a bit rough but our Toyota dealt with them easily and never let us down. On one occasion when we got stuck in deep soft sand it's four wheel drive got us out with aplomb!

We had gone to Namibia to see the scenery and animals and neither let us down. I will never forget the elephants of Etosha and Damaraland. The sand dunes of the Namib are unforgettable.

This was the best holiday we have ever had. Thankyou!" Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip