Namibia: reviews from our travellers

"We had a great time in Namibia. There were so many highlights - but if we had to choose our favorite places they would be Etosha and Mundulea.

We wish we could have stayed longer.

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I recommend a vehicle with high ground clearance to anyone visiting Namibia." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"We had the time of our life and were overwhelmed by the experience. Every day offered a new highlight and we still debate about what was the best.

We were lucky that Namibia had received a lot of rain this year and Etosha and the Soussouvlei were still flooded, resulting in plenty of wildlife in Soussouvlei and amazing photographs of the Etosha salt pan.

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I am more than happy with the service and information received and really enjoyed reading your brochures and Chris`'s guide book, which is superb and in depth." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"This was our fourth trip to Africa arranged by Expert Africa, and our third to Namibia.

We feel that Expert Africa operate to very high standards, which is why we wanted them to arrange this trip even though we have now moved from the UK to Australia. Thankfully there is now an office in New Zealand, and Maruska (and Saskia) did an excellent job of arranging our trip. Maruska was very knowledgeable, friendly, helpful, efficient and responsive. All our arrangements were perfect, and the documentation was faultless.

As for Namibia, our trips just seem to get better and better. The trip was perfect. We even received a free upgrade to our hire car, and in several places we were allocated what seemed to be the best rooms with amazing views (Erongo, Ongava, Waterberg). We visited some new areas which we particularly liked (Erongo and Waterberg), but we also visited places where we had enjoyed staying on previous occasions (Ongava and Kulala) and found that they were even better than we remembered! The management and staff at Kulala Desert Lodge provided my husband with a 50th birthday to remember.

All of our accommodation was attractive, well run, clean, comfortable and well maintained at the very least. We felt welcome everywhere, and everyone was polite and helpful. We experienced no problems or difficulties anywhere.

The driving was straightforward, and we found that staff at filling stations, shops, cafes, national park entrances etc were generally polite, friendly and helpful.

The scenery was beautiful, and the wildlife (our main reason for the trip) was wonderful. We had some excellent sightings, and wonderful experiences. We managed to do more walking on this trip than on previous occasions. This had the double benefit of being very welcome after a long car journey, and it helped us to work off all the delicious meals!

We hope to be able to return to Namibia.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Nothing that I can think of. Keep up the good work." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"The whole trip was excellent - well planned, organised and executed.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We had not been on a safari-type holiday before so I don't know if the Wilderness approach to engaging with the local staff is unusual, or whether that is just the Namibian way. It was all a pleasant surprise, although maybe a bit more information before travel about the Wilderness organisation might have been helpful and interesting.

The Namibia guidebook supplied before travel was great." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"na" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"It was amazing !!! 6 weeks travelling through Africa with a 6 year old child is not everyone's ideal holiday but due to the perfect recommendations given by Maruska and the closeness with which she worked with my husband ensured we had a relatively hassle free, stress free, safe journey.

The travel book was also a great guide as it was up to date and relevant

We would (and have ) fully recommended your company and specifically Maruska to everyone we met !

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
None that we can think of" Read full review: 46 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"You listened carefully to what we wanted and did your best to help find it. Very well organised - we would certainly recommend Expert Africa to others. We wouldn't have changed anything fundamental about the trip.

The marked up map and advice book was helpful.

Not sure about the advice to collect our luggage and then check it in again at Jo'Burg Airport when changing planes, however. We didn't do this, and had no problems. It could take ages if you had to go through immigration and then back again.

One word of warning - we started on the Waterkloof Trail in the Namib- Naukluft Park and had to turn back afternoon as it was obvious we were not going to complete it safely before dark. We should have started earlier, but hadn't allowed for the fact that the trail is very poorly marked (and the mapthey give you is lousy) and we took wrong turns several times. I guess the rains have washed markers off. It also slowed us down crossing and recrossing the river - I reckon over 50 times there and back - slow, even when each individual crossing is easy. We met another pair of hikers who had had similar problems. Very frustrating - it's a beautiful hike.

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No" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 21 on a Namibia trip

"We thought this an incredible holiday.

The accommodation you booked for us was all good and the advice you gave was excellent. If we were doing it again, we might not visit Luderitz and probably would not visit Erongo. That apart it met or exceeded our expectations. We saw incredible scenery, lots of wildlife and interesting geology.

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We thought your service was pretty exceptional. We met one of your staff in Luderitz and again at Sinclair - she was seeing some of the hotels and lodges and had clearly seen quite a bit of Namibia. We thought it excellent that you were really keeping in touch with the locations you recommended." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"Over all this holiday was a brilliant trip. The journeys between locations especially in the early part of the holiday were long hard and dusty. However, this was was more than compensated by the beautiful and varied landscapes we passed through and the wildlife we eccountered on the way. Without dout every destination made every bumpy mile well worth it. We would reccommend this itinerary in every respect. The locations, the accommodation and partiularly the direction in which the trip was planned. The harder drives were better handled early on in the holiday and of course the climax being Etosha. The other observation bourn out in my comments regarding the service is the friendliness of all the people we met, so many nice people where ever we went.

If you enjoy astounding landscapes
If you enjoy peace and tranquillity
If you enjoy wildlife (and sometime sharing it)
Namibia is for you.

What you won't get is anything contrived, everything so natural and so sympathetic to the surrounings. Nor will get is a chance to see the full Luna eclipse in the magnificent African sky from the veranda at Frans Indongo Lodge as we were so lucky enough to experience. (not unless you live another hundred years)

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

You recommended bags to put around the cases to help avoid the dust. (this is not a criticism) We duly did this. This pesented a problem of its own in that the dust was still there and we still got dusty reaching in the back of the car. The tip is, as were learnt from the manager at Desert Homestead, is to leave the back side windows of the pod open just a little. This creates a through draught taking a lot of the dust back out. This did not solve the problem but cut the dust down by say 70%.

We dispensed with the bags which were by now all split and inside out anyway and patted down the cases to rid the last of the dust at each accommodation stop. As the holiday went on the problem lessened as we encountered more and more tarred roads anyway. Just a thought." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"We had a very nice holiday in Namibia. Thank you Maruska, Angela and Gwyneth. Actually, two people dealt equaly with the trip, Maruska and Angela Griffin.

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This is not a suggestion, just a comment.

The luxury rooms at Olive Grove are not all of them bigger than the standard rooms. Some are, the ones at the second floor. There are two or three by the pool, and even though they are called "luxury rooms" they are small, very small for a couple with a baby sleeping in a cot. Nantie was absolutely kind and generous offering us the executive suite for our two first nights, as their other luxury rooms were occupied." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip