Namibia: reviews from our travellers

"The trip certainly was a grreat experience and we enjoyed the wildlife and the people very much.

What is always difficult is the estimation of a good itinerary - there were some days that we were more in the car than we planned or expected to be, but it's difficult to avoid unless you go again to a place you already know a little bit." Read full review: 26 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"We'd been to southern Africa a few times before (SA and Botswana), so we wondered how Namibia would compare with those countries. In some ways, for us, it combines the best aspects of those two countries - relatively straightforward self-drive, great wildlife, dramatic and varied scenery, great accommodation and good food.

One thing we'd do differently next time (fingers crossed that there is a next time!) is to hire a 4x4 - our little Toyota Yaris coped with everything we threw at it but we'd have been more comfortable in a vehicle with greater ground clearance and a softer ride.
Big thanks to Gwynneth for all her help and advice - our trip ran really smoothly.

Suggestions for improvement:

Not really, we would use you again for the countries where we feel we want the peace of mind of booking through a tour operator." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"The very satisfactory above just about says it all." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"All I can say is that we had never expected to travel to Namibia before this holiday but after it, we are so glad we have.

Seeing wonderful animals such as leopard, cheetah, elephants, lions and hordes of antelopes etc. in the wild and with the assistance and genuine affection for their jobs of the local guides, we both feel as though we have experienced something no one else has had...

Obviously, other people are doing the same, but we were made to feel very special by almost all of the people we met and by their staff, and it really made a difference to our holiday. The local people seemed so friendly and attentive to tourists and many countries around the world could benefit from their 'ideas on customer service'. A superb trip all round." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Several times on the trip staff at our various locations commented positively on how well organized this trip was, how every detail of our ongoing trip was confirmed and that people all along the way were expecting us. We were also impressed that several folks knew Chris McIntire and spoke so highly of him. Well done!

We have already recommended Expert Africa to several of our friends who are looking to travel to southern Africa and we will always use yoru services in future trips there. Thank you so much for all your work setting this up, knowing the best places to go, it was really the trip of a lifetime!

Two suggestions: we traveled by car from Gaboronne to Kasane (which we suggested and wanted to do) but wouldn't again because the road from Francistown to Kasane is the most horrendous road we have ever been on...I can't believe they even let cars attempt it...huge craters in the road big enough to swallow a VW mini-bus, we ended up driving way over on the shoulder to avoid wrecking the car. It doesn't look like this road is going to get fixed any time soon, either so please insist that people need to hire a 4x4 vehicle if they are going to drive on it.

Likewise with the road to the Rhino Camp (it wasn't as bad as the road in Botswana). It would have been wiser for us to hire a 4x4. While we managed to travel fine on these roads, the stress of not wanting to damage the undercarriage (which was not covered in the insurance) and the rush to get to the Rhino camp pick up location on time--made us with we had a vehicle with more clearance.

Overall it was a wonderful trip. Again thank you Maruska for all your hard work getting this together. We will look forward to using Expert Africa again on our next visit to southern Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service

I think I've put these into the regular comments. Hard to say how it could have been improved at all. Expert Africa ROCKS!" Read full review: 28 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"we had a lovely holiday.

Namibia is such a beautiful place

Gwynneth organised everything perfectly. It all ran like clockwork. Thank you

Suggestions for improvements:

It was all good" Read full review: 5 nights in Africa; 5 on a Namibia trip

"We didn't know what to expect on our trip and what a wonderful experience we had. Maruska did a fantasic job creating an itinerary that matched our interests and our budget. We enjoyed all of our accommodations, tours, etc...throughout our trip. We had the added challenge of a nine hour time difference but this was never an issue.

Maruska always answered any questions we had with a very detailed email response and promptly called whenever we'd set up a time/day to talk by phone. We appreciated the detailed information and the inclusion of the Bradt Namibia guide. The Bradt Namibia guide we found to be even more helpful once we were on our trip, reading it regularly as we made our way from place to place. The descriptions and information was very helpful, the "notes for travelers" were extremely helpful as well.

We felt so well prepared for this trip from all the information Expert Africa provided us, there were no surprises and things unfolded seamlessly.

The reviews on your web site were helpful to us as it provided us with information, insight in regards to what we could expect. We like that they are unfiltered and when Expert Africa would comment/respond to a review that was less than favorable. We really hope our reviews will be helpful to other travelers and are sorry it has taken us so long.

The recommended length of stay was helpful and we felt accurate based on our experiences. The length of stay for most of the places we stayed was 2 nights and we wondered if that would feel too quick, however, we felt very satisfied as we went from place to place. We felt like we'd experienced the activities and seen as much as we could within out stay. While we enjoyed all of our accommodations if we were to highlight some it would be Onguma Tented Camp, Etendka Camp, Khwai Tented Camp, and Mapula Lodge. Onguma and Mapula were definitely luxury experiences were are not necessarily accustomed to, however, we enjoyed them completely - we appreciated the simplicity of Etendka and Khwai.

We are already planning on another visit to Southern Africa and we would readily work with Maruska and Expert Africa again!

Suggestions to help improve trips and service:

The only thing we might do different was a 2WD car with more clearance. Many of the roads we traveled on weren't much different than roads we drive in Alaska, however, in Alaska we have a 4WD vehicle with more clearance than what we had. So, driving on some of the roads in a 2WD vehicle was different for us. We understand that because of our trip budget we pretty much had to go with the car we had and things really did work out well. However, if someone can afford it we believe a 2 wheel drive vehicle is sufficient for the self-drive we did in Namibia but having one with more clearance than an economy sedan would be better." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"We had a wonderful holiday travelling around Southern Namibia. Sabina helped us create a great itinerary so although we did plenty of driving we had plenty of activities planned too.

Although it was the winter, it was a great time of year to go as the daytime temperatures were lovely and warm but not too hot so we were able to do lots. After saying that it was very very cold at night so if you do go in the winter make sure you take plenty of warm clothes.

The highlights for us was the ballooning, the Tok Tokkie Trail and kayaking with seals in Swakopmund.

Suggestions for improvements

No we were very happy with everything." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"We felt Namibia was a wonderful country with very friendly and pleasant people everywhere we went. We just loved the countryside, the solitude and the wildlife.

Luckily Gwynneth suggested we upgrade from a basic car to a Nissan Xtrail. We would suggest that everyone does this as some of the roads (for example up to Corona Guest Farm) would have been challenging without the extra ground clearance.In addition there is no way that the camping gear we hired would have fitted into a small hatchback! Next time we would consider a full 4x4 as anyone who is in the least adventurous will find that even with the Xtrail there are a few places that are off-limits.

Camping gear was hired from Camping Hire Namibia in Windhoek. This was reasonably priced and included everything we needed but was rather shabby including horrible old plastic mugs.

We would thoroughly recommend our mix of a couple of camping nights followed by a luxury lodge - the best of both worlds!

We loved our first taste of Africa and would thoroughly recommend Expert Africa for their knowledge and experience.

Your information booklet sent to us on our booking was extremely informative and useful especially the tips on driving and car hire." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"Our trip to Namibia was enjoyable, although some of the driving distances were long this was more than made up by the fantastic places we visitied.

For the most part the lodges were excellent and all the locals we met really helped to make our holiday special.

The information pack provided by Expert Africa, including leaflets / maps and a guide to the region was really useful and great to have with us." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip