Namibia: reviews from our travellers

"Namibia was an amazing place to visit - quite different from any other country we've been to in Africa - the landscapes were awesome.

Starting the trip at Galton House and ending it there was excellent - it gave us time to recover from the flights etc and at the end of the holiday we could relax, have a shower, a nice meal and get out of our safari clothes, put our normal clothes on ready for the return home and generally chill out!

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Flying between camps was ideal as having spoken to people who were driving the distances involved were long and this meant they couldn't cover as much ground as we did. When the Brandt guide is next updated you may want to note that the restaurant 22 Degrees South is closed.

We recommended Expert Africa to several people who were thinking of future African adventures so hopefully more business will come your way in the future." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"We had a wonderful time. Namibia was stunning, the people are friendly and it’s easy to get around. Josh from Expert Africa was excellent with his local knowledge and we would thoroughly recommend. He booked some fabulous places for us to stay and really listened to what we wanted from our trip and delivered 100%." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Wonderful trip. We drove everywhere - not something to be afraid of. The roads are empty and so long as one is careful the gravel roads are fine ( but would recommend a 4 by 4 ). Yes, there are long distances, but I found driving through amazing scenery very enjoyable.

Our accommodation was consistently very good. It seems almost invidious to come up with highlights - everything was good, but my personal favourites were Desert Rhino Camp ( outstanding ), desert elephants at Doro Nawas, the dunes of Sossusvlei, lions in Etosha - I could go on.

Our first visit to Namibia ( but not Africa ) - I should say that I found the people very welcoming and friendly, and we felt perfectly safe everywhere." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Awesome- we were able to feel relaxed because our trip proved to be so well planned with very dependable accommodation and other suppliers - from our greeting by EA's agents at Windhoek airport to the end. The quality of customer service - apart from airport staff / waits at Windhoek and VFA - was outstanding and reached a level unusually good in our experience at Safarikoek

We needed triple accommodation which was not easy to source but in hindsight if available would have gone to Safarihoek last in Namibia, it seemed later accommodation though very good was not quite as special.

Guiding was exceptional and we were able to enjoy not only wildlife but a sense of Africa.

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2 general comments: you may be a bit over generous , in common with other writers , about Namibia's gravel roads and those within Etosha. While much better than sand roads in Botswana, some of those we had to use to reach accommodation were badly corrugated or pot holed and we felt descriptions were a touch over positive.

Other review sites mention airports: we found immigration delays at Windhoek and VFA to be a bad as anywhere in the world and check in at VFA was also a challenge. We may have had bad luck but if not you may want to think about alerting customers. However we didn't follow your advice on checking luggage to JNB then rechecking: in our experience there were no problems at all in checking through to Windhoek from LHR and from VFA to LHR.
But these niggles aside_ it was amazing and your choice of providers very well considered.

And we saw 5 black rhinos....." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"Really wonderful. Excellent choices throughout, with the exception of Safarihoek.

We would not recommend the detour via the Skeleton Coast, and 2 other groups had in fact been advised against it.

Also, distances on directions were not always accurate, and at Onguma, which we approached from the west, the gate was only 100 metres (not 500) from the park and was not signposted in that direction! We, as well as 2 other groups, ended up going past it for varying distances before turning back. Not good at the end of a day! We understand, however that a new sign is under construction.

We can recommend the one and a half hour Tour of Swakopmund Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, run by Charly'sTours. Really excellent, knowledgeable and intelligent guide with a good understanding of the wider African context.

Windhoek Airport is absolutely terrible and simply cannot cope with the increasing tourist load. It will only get worse, but is a terrible introduction and farewell to a beautiful country. Do pressurise the authorities on this. One working x-ray machine for baggage is ludicrous, and an hour and a half in a non-air-conditioned immigration hall on arrival rendered us dehydrated, dizzy and shaky!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Namibia and would definitely return.

Having undertaken a 17 night stay that involved 2600km of driving I think we would not do such an extensive trip again but it was a really good way to see the contrasting parts of the country and we know where we would spend more time in any future visit.

Every location we stayed at was good and even where we have comments regarding improvements this didn't really detract from our enjoyment. Generally service was very good and people very friendly.

As others have reported, driving is very easy and as a disabled driver using hand controls, I can confirm it still remains easy.

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Very little to add as the overall experience was very good. We were very grateful for the time and effort Josh put in to help us arrange the hand controls on our vehicle.

Only one minor point is that the folder the trip material arrives in is a nice design, but unfortunately not that practical and it began to disintegrate early in the tour!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"An excellent trip and intinerary. Comments are relative from one lodge to another because they were all very good.
Only adverse comment about the trip as a whole is that it was hard work driving on the gravel, even though the use of self drive was a very good way of seeing the country.." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"SABINA PROVIDE AN EXCELLENT SERVICE

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I WAS DELIGHTED BY EVERYTHING EXPERT AFRICA DID FOR US AND WOULD CERTAINLY RECOMMEND YOU TO OTHERS - INFACT I ALREADY HAVE THREE TIMES!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"A fantastic trip covering varied scenery and a wide range of dessert-adapted wildlife." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Tracy Lederer did an amazing job advising and facilitating our wonderful safari trip to Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. We rave about Expert Africa to everyone - this is our second time travelling with you and you have been superb on every aspect of our trip both times.

From the subtle differences between lodges regarding cost, solitude (which we love) and what we could expect to see, to the painful rearranging of flights when airlines change schedules, every element has been handled by Tracy with true expertise, professionalism, insight and smart advice. Thank you so much!

We travelled with 4 American friends and sorting out bill payments was very easy for all of us. Two of them had not been on safari before, one of them celebrating their 60th birthday while we were away, and it could not have been a better experience. The magical surprise birthday braai at Motswiri was a highlight, along with all the animal and bird sightings under the expert guiding of Andrew Harkness on our mobile safari (thanks for the spot-on recommendation, Tracy!)

Altogether a trip of lifetime - thank you everyone involved.

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Happy with everything thanks." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 5 on a Botswana safari