Namibia: reviews from our travellers

"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)

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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

"We had a wonderful second trip to Namibia. Our first focused on the scenery, and our second focused on Etosha. Our itinerary was: Waterberg-Mushara-Halali-Okaukeujo-Ongava-Etendeka-Grootberg-Okonjima. We loved it!

We've already recommended Expert Africa to our friends, and we'd happily book with Expert Africa for our next trip." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"A great trip! We were on 4 rivers: the Kavango, the Okovango, the Kwando and the Zambezi and stayed in a number of island lodges (as well as Okonjima and Windhoek). The variety was remarkable. Some of the road journeys were long but by and large the travel was good and we'd recommend self-drive because you have so much more contact with people. The border posts were a world unto themselves - lovely but leave plenty of time.

Given that we were passing through three countries, and had quite precise pickup times, it would have been helpful to have been told about the time changes. We worked out the ones between countries but were caught out by the fact that the eastern end of the Caprivi Strip is not on Namibian time!

The pick up at Kasane (n Botwswana) was not straightforward. We'd been told we would be picked up by our last lodge, Islands of Siankaba. But they don't pick up outside Zambia. A firm called Bushtracks does all the pick ups (and does not have a board with your name on it). It was quite by chance that we managed to find them. That said, the water crossing (at the crossroads of Zimbabwe/Botwswana/Zambia/Nambiia) was wild!

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Another great trip with Expert Africa. So thank you once again!
It would have been good to know about 'Caprivi time' and to have been given the name of the company doing the pick up at Kasane.

Thank you very much!!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 6 on a Namibia trip

"Amazing! We were lucky to have a month here but would have liked longer. There is so much to see and do.

A lovely country with great lodges and fabulous wildlife. I think we saw the best of everything thanks to the excellent advice from Sabina for whom nothing was too much trouble.

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It was really really cold, not just on game drives but also in tented camps. Windproof jackets need to be recommended at this time of year. Temperatures fell to at least -2 deg. C. We didn't feel prepared for it being quite so cold at nights. We were glad we had our thermal underwear with us! It even snowed at Solitaire two days after we left the area.

I was really glad that you recommended a 4x4 to us and think you should have pushed us in that direction earlier as it really enhanced the trip, e.g. we could fully explore Fish Canyon and the Luderitz Peninsula. Having no experience of 4x4 driving, a short course at the beginning of the holiday would have been useful and we met a woman (Rome, who is Willems neice) at the Barchan Dune Resort who was talking about doing just that in Windhoek where she lives." Read full review: 28 nights in Africa; 25 on a Namibia trip