Namibia: reviews from our travellers

"A memorable trip to a new country. Any negatives about one or two places we stayed are more than outweighed by the excellent other ones. It was much hotter than expected (8-10 C above seasonal norms) and this, a bit of tummy trouble and the gravel roads made it tiring at times (and these are all hazards that are part and parcel of a trip and nothing that yourselves could / should expect to deal with).

The characteristics of travelling on gravel or tarmac are so different that we could have done with being better informed about specific routes when planning. Also the passage of time renders some of the guidebook information out of date and this is a problem on the map also. For example the map incorrectly shows a petrol station at Seeheim - this meant retracing our steps for 60 km (so an extra 120km which then meant missing an activity at our destination) to ensure we had enough petrol.

We lost count of the number of coffee shops / bakeries in the guidebook that had closed / disappeared. Having sussed the driving out we went "off-piste" and cancelled one overnight stay and cut-short our stay at Sesriem so we could fit in a stay at Walvis Bay. We let the cancelled place know but our email to Expect Africa to tell of the same went unacknowledged apart from an "o-o-o but someone is covering for me" reply.

Namibia is a spectacular country with friendly people and provided us with some great memories." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Many thanks to Sabina for her help and patience. Although I've been to Namibia many times and travelled a lot it hasn't previously occurred to me to use a tour operator (I've just booked things on the spot, or just turned up - easy enough in Namibia in February).

This was a good experience, with some definite advantages.

I don't know whether it was less expensive to do it this way than by doing it myself, but valuable the advice and help from Sabina was certainly something I wouldn't have got otherwise." Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 5 on a Namibia trip

"Wonderful first trip to Namibia.

Exceeded our expectations and we enjoyed all aspects of the trip. Landscapes are stunning, animals are exciting to see and we felt that the lodges and overall trip was making a positive contribution to supporting local people and environment efforts.

Would recommend kayaking with seals at Walvis Bay as a side excursion. Going out of season did mean that a couple of lodges were very quiet but in the positive side we had some personalised excursions, found that the Etosha waterholes were not mobbed by visitors and that the heat was manageable.

We would certainly recommend this trip and ExpertAfrica to others - thank you to Tracy for the fantastic service and also for sending us the Namibia guidebook which we found so useful and used extensively." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Sabina was endlessly patient in tweaking this trip to get it just right for us, and she succeeded beyond our expectations.

We had a great mix of accommodation styles and Sabina took on board our request for lots of hiking, giving us plenty of opportunities to really explore Namibia.

Overall a great trip." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"Running out of superlatives - we simply loved our trip, every single minute of it. We were a bit apprehensive at travelling after getting out of the way of it over the last three years. However, everything went so well, we'll be back for more soon, we hope.

All the arrangements went so well, from our arrival at Windhoek airport to the return two weeks later. We absolutely loved the Namibian people, who couldn't be nicer, at everywhere we went.

The land, the landscapes, the variety of animals, the food, the accommodation - we've never had better.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Can't think of anything. It all went so well." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Excellent.

I would try to combine trip to Okavango into one day if possible. I understand concerns with border crossing (as I had them) but very fast even though we lost power and were held up. I also would have spent another day at Okonjiwa although it would have broken my budget.

As Welwitschia Drive took so long and the map was so bad we ended up climbing Dune 7 at 6:30 pm which was a blessing. The sand was cool and climb was easy. In general I highly recommend the trip.

I will say we were rather unique travelers in that we were not looking for the massive herds and numerous predators. We had seen that before. Our interest was in the smaller things, nocturnal animals, unique environments and sustainable responses to those environments. So this might not be for everyone but worked perfectly for us." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Absolutely loved it.

It was always a bit of a risk going back to a country that we had previously visited and loved, but this trip was even better." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 21 on a Namibia trip

"We found the booking process with Tracy very straightforward, especially as we had only contacted her about 10 weeks prior with our idea of a trip to either Kenya or back to Namibia. Tracy was able to reserve all the lodges for us, and present an itinerary for our approval very quickly, after we showed an interest in the 'Pygmy Mouse' safari.

Having used Expert Africa before, we once again found the quality of the service exceptional, coupled with benefiting from the teams in depth knowledge of the countries we were visiting. We once again found Namibia to be a wonderful country, and very easy to self drive around. We absolutely loved exploring the areas of Botswana on our itinerary, and meeting the friendly people of Zimbabwe around the amazing Victoria Falls. Every petrol station we stopped at had fuel available, and all accepted payments by card or in cash.

All lodges have Wifi, usually available in the main lodge area, but we found quite often our room would be close enough to this to be able to use it there. The was a noticeable difference between the quality of the roads in Namibia (good) when compared to those we used in Botswana (not so good)." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"My recommendation is only a 7/10 because of the extremely bad dirt roads. I have driven on dirt roads in Australia for 15 years, and they were never as relentless as these in Namibia. The 'B' roads were superb.

Expert Africa did a wonderful job in every way. After this experience I would not go to Palmwag and have more time near Etosha. I would prefer to stay out of the National Park and travel in daily. The area around Vingerklip was great and the drive through the Caprivi strip was captivating.

We saw many other animals other than those listed for each lodge including hare, springbok, kudu ostrich, mongoose, black face impala, red hartebeest, jackel, duiker, warthog, waterbuck, monkey, bushbuck, red lechwe, baboon, crocodiles, and reedbuck." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Our second trip to Namibia that was arranged by Expert Africa. As before, this was an excellent trip. Our request were accommodated by Tom, and his suggestions for places to stay were excellent.

This trip in addition to Etosha we went along Caprivi Strip with gave us a different set of birds and mammals from our previous trip - the change in habitat was well worth it. The roads along Caprivi were much improved from guide books and many of the pot holed sections had been (or were being) resurfaced. This made travel even easier.

We thoroughly enjoyed this trip, relaxed in the knowledge that everything was arranged and would work - thank so much all at Expert Africa and in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip