Namibia: reviews from our travellers

"This trip was the middle portion of a longer African holiday which we planned ourselves.

We were delighted with the personal touch and attention to detail that Maruska provided. We had enough information from telephone calls, emails, books by Bradt and your web site to approach this section of our trip with confidence. We did not have to do the planning and make reservations as Maruska, arranged everything. We made some accommodation changes a few days before we left for our holiday and a last minute reversal on our Car Hire, (which involved a new company and an eventual refund) and were relieved at how efficiently those changes were handled.

Maruska's response of making sure we were first and foremost satisfied with our itinerary and happy with all arrangements was most refreshing and reassuring.

We have spoken very highly about your service with friends and family highlighting the ethos of your company. Thank you for everything. Marg and Phil Crosby-Jones" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"Our trip was fabulous. Only one of us can drive but we still enjoyed ourselves and didn't find the distances too far.

One of the highlights was that the trip was to celebrate a special birthday and several of the hotels kindly acknowledged this.

There is so much great stuff to see and we didn't feel too rushed spending a couple of nights in each place.

Marked up map was very useful." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Outstanding trip, fabulous experiences. Everything went smoothly with our reservations and activities.

Excellent planning by Claire Scott and other staff. The only problem we experienced was that the air conditioning in our private vehicle didn't work.

Neither we nor our guide realized it until we were already away from Windhoek so there was no opportunity to fix it.


We asked these travellers about their private guide, and they commented:

Johann was outstanding in every way. Knowledgeable, helpful, thoughtful, always pleasant and easy to be with. He has a great sense of humor.

He made sure we made the most of every activity and went out of his way to enhance our experiences.


Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No suggestions. We couldn't ask for a better trip." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"We were very taken with Namibia even though going in the wet season meant it wasn't the best time for wildlife viewing and there were some challenges in terms of driving through mud and crossing flowing water. The birdlife (122 species identified) and animal life (34 species) were excellent and we enjoyed the different landscapes - desert, mountains, coast and semi arid areas.

The accommodation was all of a very high standard and all the activities were good - though there was some variability which meant we haven't rated all of them as excellent.

We hope that we will have the opportunity to go back to Namibia to revisit most of the locations we covered and to see more of the country." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"This was by far the most amazing, awe-inspiring trip of our lives.

Expert Africa & Maruska did SUCH a wonderful job helping us arrange this journey and answer questions along the way. Namibia is a beautiful, diverse, visually spectacular place that will stay with us forever.

We really wouldn't change a thing about this trip except we wish we had a 4-4 vehicle due to some roads we would have loved to explore in Etosha but had to go around. Thank you for recommending Turnstone Tours for the Sandwich Harbor tour- this was a highlight of our trip because of how interesting & knowledgable our guides were.

Self driving through Etosha was an incredible experience and we saw so much wildlife everywhere.

Our trip went by without any hiccups thanks to your excellent planning and we will definitely use Expert Africa again for our next booking.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
Strongly recommend 4-4 vehicles in Namibia during the rainy season. Keep recommending Turnstone Tours - they were wonderful. We loved Naankuse Lodge as a special way to start our trip with the cheetah walk." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"Excellent in many ways. In retrospect we made two errors. Firstly we should have driven eastwards through Etosha and gone to Mundulea from the north, even if we had arrived a little later than 3.00pm. This would have enabled us to see more of the National Park and avoided going both ways along the B1 to Otjiwaranga. Secondly we should have seen Twyfelfontein in the evening, as we passed the turning, and saved the morning for a game drive at Doro Nawas. This was our mistake.

The dreadful car made driving on rough roads no pleasure." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"It was a good trip, well organised and we enjoyed it. And as people who have lived in Kenya and travelled pretty extensively I accept that we were 'difficult' clients to please.

The over riding thing that went wrong was the weather. I knew it was the rainy season and had hoped that March would see something of a wind down. On the contrary, according to every single local that we met, we were at the very height of it. The outcomes varied from the inconvenient (cold showers and damp towels) to an inability to get off main roads/tracks, getting wet and cold, being sent off to Etosha at the peak of the rainy season so nothing was there, and looking at clouds instead of the sun.

I had expected Kenyan style clouds building in the afternoon, rain and then a clear sky again but everywhere north of Swakop and indeed at Windhoek as we left there was considerable and persistent cloud (but not all the time by any means), together with heavy rain.

I would have liked a MUCH clearer warning of this.

The second problem was the car which was not fit for purpose, in terms of suspension at least. A car is just a car until it doesn't work in which case it drags everything down.

With those two caveats we had a good time. The bookings that (for me) didn't cut the cake were the Strand Hotel (but I don't like hotels), Doro Nawas and Ongava. The other side of the coin was excellent visits to Hoodia, Etendeka, Mundelea and Okonjiwa." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"We have travelled all over this world but this holiday is up there with the best few. It was a real adventure from start to finish.

We saw so many amazing sights and stayed at some amazing places.The service we received for management and staff alike was wonderful. If it hadn't have been for two things - not being able to see the Fish River Canyon, and the stay at the Ongava Lodge, we would say it was a perfect holiday but unfortunately this spoilt it somewhat.

Thanks to expert Africa for all arrangement which were perfect." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Our departure from Windhoek was not as smooth as it should have been. A very good car and driver (Sam) were provided by Wilderness to take us to River Crossing. Sam had not been told what time to collect us to go to the airport on the following morning. He and I agreed that 10.30 would be a good time and that he would get Wilderness to confirm by phone later, that didn't happen. At 8 am on the Saturday morning still nothing had been heard from Wilderness. At 9 the hotel manageress phoned Wilderness only to told that they'd have to look it up and phone back, Just after 10 am they phoned to say the car would come at 10.50. Surely something as simple as fixing a time should have been handled far better and we should have known the departure time on the Friday evening. The second trouble was at the airport. Sam had been instructed that we had to go the Wilderness office so that they could assist our check in. The office was deserted and Sam went in search of any Wilderness employees. This was wasting our time and we didn't need assistance anyway. Eventually someone from Wilderness did turn up. "Good morning, you are checking in for the KLM". He looked surprised to be told we were Qatar passengers and didn't need assistance. This performance didn't give us any confidence in Wilderness's management, perhaps it was just their weekend shift. Despite this poor finish the trip had been a great success. The itinerary worked and we saw virtually all the animals and birds we were after. With the full advantage of hindsight I think we should have stayed one more night at Bullsport. But it was great to see Namibia again after 26 years and the huge changes that have happened in that time." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"It was everything we hoped for. There were no glitches and no disappointments.

Kwandwe was even better than expected.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

You can't change a winning formula - you know exactly what you are doing. Trustworthy comes to mind. As soon as we decided to return to Namibia and S. Africa we contacted Tracy who had helped us the first time.

I hope we will do it again in the not too distant future.

Thank you for a wonderful trip." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 8 on a South Africa trip