Reviews of safaris to NamibRand Nature Reserve

"We had a great trip. With the one exception we were more than happy with each place we stayed. The guides were all excellent. We were surprised at how good the food was. As non meat eaters, we were ready to make compromises but at every lodge, the cooks prepared us excellent meals.

We were also happy that we did the trip in the order we did the trip, We had just done a game oriented trip to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, so it was good to start with the Namib and end with Etosha.

We wound up driving 3000 km. It would have been nice to have picked up the car in Swakomund and then head to Damaraland. But I would not have wanted to miss either Wolvedans or Kulala and we probably could not have afforded all the flight to go from Windhoek to the Namib and Swakomund.

We hope to come back and be able to get further up to the Skeleton Coast and the Kunene River region.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None. Expert Africa was great to deal with. Very responsive, good advice. We did not have a single problem with any of the arrangements made by Expert Africa." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"We had such a good time, it's difficult to put it into words. Namibia was incredible and the camps were terrific. We had very high hopes for the holiday and they were more than exceeded.

Our highlights were the visit to the desert adapted elephants from Mowani, a day of kayaking with the seal colony and getting driven over the dunes of Sandwich Harbour with a champagne and oyster lunch (which we organised directly with Sandwich Harbour 4 x 4), and the time spent at Okakuejo waterhole.

Our lowpoints - getting enveloped by a dust devil at Okakuejo." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"The overall experience exceeded my expectations. I was unusually critical of each place we stayed but it is only because you asked for feedback. I mentioned that Waterberg plateau camp rooms had cockroaches but is it fair to expect a place in the middle of a desert in Africe to not have bugs? The only things that would prevent me from going back to the Waterberg camp was the baboons, not the bugs.

I dealt primarily with Saskia Adye, but she wasn't on your list of team members so I chose her sister instead.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The service was excellent! The only thing I would suggest (and Saskia made have mentioned this but I didn't hear her) was to be prepared for cold weather, especially during early morning game drives. I wasn't prepared for such cold weather in the mornings and suffered a bit until the sun came up. A warm coat, gloves, scarf and a hat would have been nice and easy to pack." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"A brilliant trip--very varied with excellent mix of activities. A great experience and highly recommended.

Tracy put together a great itinerary which responded to our desires." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"This was a second holiday booked with Expert Africa. For the first trip they were excellent, but this time not so good. Three comments -
1. this second trip was across two countries and Expert Africa staff seem organised by country. I was passed from one person to another and initially nobody seemed responsible for the whole trip
2. lack of answers to e-mails. On a couple of occasions I gave up waiting and had to phone
3. I booked 10 months in advance and even that far out some lodges were already fully booked. We were wait listed. A month before departure I contacted Expert Africa to make a final check of our wait list status and was somewhat surprised to find that in 10 months Expert Africa had not followed up on the bookings. By lucky chance only, we eventually got our first choice lodges, but only because I followed up" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"Overall another wonderful trip back to Namibia. Very well organised by Sabina yet again. Regarding dietary requirements, everywhere ( except for the Nest Hotel in Luderitz) went to great efforts to fulfil our requirements, and where the more remote lodges were unable to do so, they informed us on arrival, again except for the Nest Hotel who were not at all remote. Tok Tokkie and Ultimate Safaris went to a lot of effort on this.

The highlights were; Ultimate safari in The Kalagadi with Polentswa and Rooipots lodges, The Mule Trail Hike, The Sedina boat trip, Sinclair Guest Farm and Tok Tokkie. The outstanding guides were Tarry (Ultimate), Manilow (Mule trail hike) and Domingo (Tok Tokkie) and last but not least, Taso from Sinclair guest Farm a very able guiding dog.

It was good to explore Southern Namibia & a brief excursion to Botswana & South Africa in the transfrontier park - stunning for wildlife.

As ever, Namibia provides huge contrasts & inspiration.

A big thank you to Sabina for sorting out potential problems with Budget car hire & other issues." Read full review: 27 nights in Africa; 15 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

"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

"Absolutely first class. For me this was the trip of a lifetime and I got my complete wish list. All arrangements went very smoothly and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole trip. Friendly, helpful staff everywhere and if I could go back I'd go tomorrow. Many thanks to all involved at Expert Africa and Wilderness Safaris.

I can even smile now at the memory of being whisked away in an air ambulance to Hospital for a night after breaking 4 ribs in an accident which was all my fault. Thanks to all who helped, especially Fatima at Little Kulala who deserves promotion.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just keep doing it!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Outstanding." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip