Reviews of safaris to Skeleton Coast & Kaokoland

"we have, we guess, become bitten by the Africa bug. We had a great time though we know that our measures of enjoyment are not necessarily those that others might use. This was our first trip to Namibia and it lived up to expectations. Stunning landscapes, extraordinarily nice people, a history that you should learn about to understand the place.... and for those that live in great cities, just amazingly empty. What will we remember? Sabina said to us that we shouldn't waste money on hiring a 4x4 but suggested we got a vehicle that had good ground clearance. We went with this.

On our drive back from Wolwedans to Windhoek, having still not seen any major rain, we had to drive over a small range of mountains, and on the way to the main pass I realised that it had rained here and the road was largely washed away. But we got over the pass and I said it should be easy from here.My partner took over as we drove down to the plains, and the we remembered that if it rains in the mountains, the water has to go somewhere. When we drove into the second bit of flooded road which seemed to run as far as we could see in front of us, we swapped driving again, and after a couple of hiccups, we got through. Thanks for your suggestion Sabina, in a VW Golf, we'd still be sitting in the middle of a fllor, and as you know, not many cars come along in Namibia ....... We will of course go back; the deep south around the Snake River is there to visit and then we'd like to go along the Caprivi into Botswana and Zambia....

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Our experience of Expert Africa is that you are content to let people work out their own routes for particular sections of a trip and then help with areas where they are less confident. It probably reduces your income but it means that we feel that you are helping us work out what we want to do, rather than just selling us a package. This is more like the old time 'outfitters' who helped you buy your kit and suggested the best routes, than a travel agent. It suits us well and makes us feel confident in following your advice.

Thanks Sabina and you helped us enjoy your country." Read full review: 28 nights in Africa; 28 on a Namibia trip

"We had a great time on this trip. The driving in Namibia is easy and well sign posted. Our extra trip to Damaraland and Hoanib, caused by Wilderness Safaris not confirming Camp Kipwe, were interesting but messed up our leisurely 3 days we had planned at the start of a very busy holiday. However they were great experiences and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

All other arrangements ran beautifully smoothly and Expert Africa''s advice was spot on. I would recommend Expert Africa for African holidays as they are so well thought out and meticulously planned.

We had a great time. Thank you Expert Africa for this lovely experience.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We really appreciated the opportunity to meet your staff at the recent Sunvil event and at the Destinations Show. Keep up the good work!" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Namibia is a beautiful country which deserves to be visited by more British tourists.

Our trip exceeded our high expectations and Expert Africa were extremely helpful when we were fine tuning our itinerary and were very professional in the way they dealt with a problem we had at Hoodia. We hope that you will take our comments about Sinclair Guest Farm on board.

Thank you for helping to make our trip so memorable." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Pretty sure I was very happy, but there does need to be a way to clear old trips without just clicking 'average' for everything, since this is rather unfair. (Trust me, people will remember and comment on the bad stuff!)." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"An excellent itinerary which, after discussion with the very knowledgeable staff at Expert Africa, we tailored to fit our interests. The only thing they got wrong was the pick up point for Entendeka Camp but that did not cause any problems.

The quality of accommodation was very good value.

Driving was very easy with so little traffic. Wherever we stopped people were friendly and helpful.

One of our best trips." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Better than the last trip to Namibia ( and that was spectacular). Much better that we didn't have to cover such vast distances, and that we had 2 nights in many places. Highlight was kayaking with the seals in Pelican Point, the Skeleton Coast at Terrace Bay and Etendeka. Really well organised and literature excellent." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"Nothing to add to previous comments" Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 3 on a Namibia trip

"We had a fabulous time! Unfortunately, this once-in-a-lifetime trip makes us want to go again, and again, and again!

I do hope the concessionaire's are careful not to over build. They are able to charge top dollar because of their high concentration of animals to a low density of visitors. But when vehicles are stacking up, waiting for a 10 to 15-minute turn to see the animals, the concentration is already too high for my tastes. There is something to be said for having more eyes in the field, because you then have more opportunity to make a good sighting. But there needs to be a balance, and we saw many new camps being added, and many camps are increasing the number of guests they can accommodate. As someone going to visit, note not only the number of tents in your camp, but of all the camps within the concession.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
With your booking, Expert Africa has a general interest, basic requests, etc box; it would be nice to be able to customize that for each activity and/or camp to accommodate interests and expectations for different locations.

You guys and gals at Expert Africa are great! Everyone I've dealt with, though primarily Maruska and her sister Saskia when she was still with you, has been most helpful, honest, and pretty-darn-accurate, which I appreciate more than I can express!

Filling out this review has been a nightmare for me. Next time I will type things out elsewhere, and then cut and paste them in, which should work. When I tried to go back to previous page, whatever I'd typed was swallowed. If I hit save, it kicked me out, and I had to start again at the very beginning. I hated having to scroll forward through every page from the beginning, so I tried cheating and leaving the form open, but it would time out, again swallowing whatever I'd typed. It would be nice to be able to open on any page, so I could complete as time and mood allowed. Oh, well.

Sorry it's taken me so long to complete. I know I really appreciated other people's reviews and used the reviews heavily in making my choices--I would also like to see a scale of 1 - 10, because I would've liked to differentiate between good and excellent with a very good. The overall quality of all these camps is at least good, but some were far more excellent than others." Read full review: 34 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"We thoroughly enjoyed our trip. We planned the trip specifically to see as much wildlife as possible and expected Etosha to be the highlight but the rest of the trip more than matched this. We particularly enjoyed staying at the smaller camps of Kulala, Erongo and Okanjima.

You mentioned that previous customers had reported back that they would have preferred a 4-wheel drive car. We found our 2-wheel drive car fine. In fact the major irritation of the holiday was 4-wheel drive cars speeding past us, particularly in Etosha, causing dust clouds." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"A great trip starting in the south, working up the Skeleton coast to Angola and back south to Etosha. The highlight is the scenery which is breath taking. Also though for us, seasoned safari travellers, we wanted to see rhino and we had some close contact and saw black and white rhino and at Little Ongava, we saw the two together.
If you are a keen photographer there are some stunning opportunities.
If you are keen on game and predators there are better countries to visit but I would recommend the broader view; literally, and I am sure we will end up back there.
Best camps: Little Kulala and Serra Cafema
Standout moments; scenery especially Sossusvlei and Skelton coast, Himba people, rhino, quad bikes" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip