Namibia: reviews from our travellers

"We had a wonderful trip despite a few blips, none of which were down to Expert Africa and we have recommended your services very highly to fellow travellers of all nationalities. In most of the camps visited it was lovely that they had taken note of your having informed all camps of the celebratory nature of our trip.

Bearing in mind the importance of transport to travellers in Namibia notice should be taken of our comments re Budget as one of the greatest worries on a trip of this nature is the comfort and reliability of your vehicle.

Namibia remains one of favourite destinations and we shall visit again. This is a wonderful country, totally different to all the others we have visited both in scale and emphasis and the people are wonderfully friendly and genuinely hospitable. We were met with true kindness and enthusiasm including when we travelled a scenic D route ( D2319 on our way to Uis), very much off the beaten track and were met by a steep bank and water filled river. On getting out of the vehicle to determine the water depth and whether we should proceed we were suddenly surrounded by a group of young boys herding cattle upstream who encouraged us to proceed, promising that they would push us out if needs be. It cost us all our biscuits, a little bit of money and lots of laughs. This was typical of our welcome everywhere we travelled.

This was our second trip, but was even more enjoyable as we had decided to take more time to enjoy this wonderful country. The scenery, the scale and the people make this an unparalled destination.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Thank you as always. You make planning the holidays a pleasure and think of absolutely everything even before we do. We know we can follow your recommendations with complete confidence and recommend you to others withour reservation." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"We had a wonderful time, we loved the isolation, the landscapes, the peace and quiet, the wildlife and the great lodges. We found the driving easy and enjoyable and the people were very friendly and welcoming. Namibia was a perfect destination for us and one that we will return to.

Gwynneth was very helpful making suggestions for accommodation when my preferred, researched ones, were unavailable. I had not realized in my inital dealings with Gwynneth that she was from Namibia though her knowledge and personal experiences should maybe have gven me a clue!! What I was impressed with was Gwynneths 'connection' to my trip - I didn't need to remind her of were we wanted to go or wanted to stay and felt she got a good measure of us and our needs/wants in making the recommendations she did. She also dealt with any query, no matter how minor, with ease and enthusiasm (even though I'm sure I asked some pretty basic and cautionary questions). Gwynneth also dealt with the unfortunate cancellation of Air Namibia flights from London very efficiently and calmly - which helped me not get too worked up about it either.

We would recommend Expert Africa to our friends and hope to travel with you again. One of the great pluses of your service is that you confirm the whole trip prior to any comittment being made by the customer - don't change it!! Loved the travel document wallet too (the little things count)." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"Having been born in Africa and not visited it for over 14 years this trip has been a truly wonderful opportunity to rekindle my passion for this continent and has left me very homesick for the place where my heart with forever truly lie.

One Africa is in your blood or gets under your skin you will never cease to hanker for the open space, simplicity and true honest friendly welcome of the local people. The terrain and landscape is breathtaking, so variable and truely magical.

Suggestions for improvement:

Keep up the amazing work- it has been terrific to deal with a company that truely understands and is willing to advise and put together an itinerary hat is so perfectly suited to a clients requirements and desires. Thanks so much for making this trip everything | had hoped for and more!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 4 on a Namibia trip

"We had sought to cover more than most in a 16 day trip, and the combination of road & flights worked really well, so thank you Maruska for putting together such a workable itinerary. It helped that A loves driving and so was more than happy to cover 450km in a day when needed - and the roads were quite okay. Worst bit was a patch on the C12 to Fish River canyon (very bumpy) but other than that we had some fantastic drives, particularly the C13 from Fish River canyon up to Aus - stunning!

Our route was Windhoek-Bagatelle-Fish River Canyon-Aus-Luderitz-Wolwedans-Little Kulala (by car) and then Doro Nawas-Ongava Lodge-Windhoek by plane. It was a throughly enjoyable mixture of hikes, wildlife, dunes, scenic drives and flights. We consider ourselves immensely privileged to have seen Namibia's nature when it wished to reveal itself - be it lion cub, hyena, scorpion, desert elephant, rainbow, lightening... fabulous!

Suggestions for improvements:

Only thing I would have appreciated was a simple guide to birds & wildlife - just a basic booklet of the most likely suspects. I picked up a check-list (no pictures) at Little Kulala, and bought the Etosha guide booklet - but that was our last stop so it was tricky remembering what we'd seen. Couldn't find anything suitable in any of the lodge shops en route and didn't want or need individual books on birds, mammals, reptiles etc" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Great holiday overall and we were awe struck by the landscape. There are a few things we would do differently such as:

Skip Windhoek
Stay closer to Etosha
Do Twyfelfontein from a different lodge
Do half day tour at Swakopmund

But these are details; it was a great great holiday and we hope to do Fish River Canyon and The Caprivi Strip on our next visit." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"The animals at Etosha were inevitably he highlight of our trip but this doe not take away anything from the rst of our holiday. We stayed at some exceptional places and had some wonderful experiences. Namibia is a stunning country and we enjoyed every aspect to it.

This is the second time we have used Expert Africa and the Bradt guide and are sure to use them both again. Sabina was always helpful and responded well to all my quirky requests.

Suggestions for improvement:

This not an improvement but is something I would like EXpert to consider taking up.

This is that I think that the quality of the experience offered by NWR at, especially, Etosha is deteriorating. Although the individual staff are generally courteous and helpful I think they need to improve their service as they no longer offer a value for money experience compared with that offered by the lodges with which they are in competition. This is an issue for them but my main concern lies with their management of the Park.

Firstly, I was extrememly concerned by their seeming lack of an effective response to a fire in the Park when I was there at the beginning of October. I first noticed the fire in the morning as a very small column of smoke which by the end of the day had extended on at least a 5km front from the western edge of the park right up to the Pan. I was told this was not the first big fire recently and would like to be assured that the NWR was learning from its recent experiences in this regard.

Secondly, the absence of rangers on patrol within the Park meant that there was little policing going on. It suggested to me that the aminals of secondary importance and this might be symptomatic of a neglect of the environmental conservation aspect of managing the park and that sadly it is increasingly looked upon by government as solely a cash cow." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"Officialdom
With one exception, officialdom was always courteous and polite, if often annoyingly slow.

At the vet fence north of Sehitwa in Botswana, we pulled slowly up to the white stop line on the road in front of the barrier as there were no vehicles in front. A policeman appeared and without explanation demanded a "fine" of 200 pula. He said we should have stopped at a stop sign which was propped up on bricks just a few feet earlier. After a polite stand-off, we left without paying. On discussing this incident at our next lodge, we were told that whilst on the spot fines are legal in Botswana, the amount demanded had been irregular. The consensus of opinion was that this had been a try on.

Suggestions for improvements:

We have been very satisfied, hence our repeat business. Off the cuff, we haven't any suggestions.

Overall
There were occasions when a 4WD vehicle could have been useful (but we don't know the cost).
This was our annual treatment for the 'Africa virus' and it worked very well (actually our eleventh trip to sub-Sahara Africa). Where next?" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"One of the best holiday we ever had!

Suggestions for improvements:

Can't really think of anything to be honest...." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Great. Saw and experienced everything we had hoped to and trip lived up to expectations in full." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"We had a fabulous time on our trip to Namibia, it was truly one of the best holidays we've ever had. The planning was perfect, and there really wasn't a part of the holiday that we didn't have an amazing time at.

It's hard to pick 'favorites' but we both loved Nhoma Camp for the culture, amazing people and proper 'wild'life, Onguma Tented Camp for a secluded taste of luxury, driving ourselves around Etosha and seeing lionesses and cubs cross the road in front of us, and staying at Okakeujo and seeing black rhino at the waterhole at night.

Namibia is a wonderful, safe and special country. We would love to return and will definitely use Expert Africa again.

Suggestions for improvements:

The only thing I would suggest is perhaps giving visitors some guidance on how far in advance they need to be in touch with Expert Africa to book things at peak season. We left our booking until May (for a Sept/Oct) holiday, and because of this the stays at the restcamps were a little fiddly and we had to switch rooms.

Perhaps recommend when to get in touch to book for peak season on your website?" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip