Reviews of safaris to Skeleton Coast & Kaokoland

"we had a great time" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 5 on a Namibia trip

"Our trip involved a lot of travelling with complicated logistics and pick-ups/transfers etc and without exception it was all excellent. Extremely well organised.

All flights in small planes were great and lodges in Botswana and Namibia were small, clean, comfortable with extremely friendly staff.

Great 2-weeks! Thanks Expert Africa for organising!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 5 on a Namibia trip

"It was a successful and very enjoyable trip. Everything went according to plan, and the only tiny hitch was a delayed pick up at Eros airport on the last day. It was a return visit to the country for me, but Angel loved it as much as I do, especially the spectacular wild desert scenery." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"This is probably one of our "all time" favourite trips.

Namibia is vast and beautiful and the people so welcoming. For us, everything went smoothly, our drives between destinations were problem free and the variety of activities worked for us. Despite distances travelled, it was very relaxed and arriving at lodges was always a delight with a welcome drink and a song. The small "touches" that the lodges offer really do make a difference.

Thank you Expert Africa for the itinerary recommendation, your expertise and organisation at relatively short notice." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"An amazing trip that we enjoyed from start to finish. It had the perfect balance that enabled us to experience many different aspects of this fascinating and diverse country.

Although driving distances were long, the fabulous scenery with everlasting landscape (and animals) you see along the way certainly make up for this.

Our only regret was we should have stayed longer!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Certainly can't think of anything at this time. Our 2nd trip with Expert Africa and we are sure there will be many more in the near future!" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 21 on a Namibia trip

"This trip - which had been twice postponed because of the pandemic - in the end turned out one of the best we've ever been on (and we've been to close to a hundred countries!).

The driving was great fun – especially through the vast empty landscapes of southern Namibia. The stunning scenery of the Namib, Namibrand and the Sperrgebiet will stay in our memories forever. This wasn’t so much about wildlife, but we had a few nice add-ons in that department too. Plus the highly atmospheric ghost towns of the Sperrgebiet and the lonely barren Skeleton Coast. And on top of all that we stayed at some outstanding lodges, characterful hotels and guest farms and enjoyed lots of good food (too much so – we both put on a few kilos over the course of this trip!).

Everything worked fine, no major hiccups, and we really found we were leaving our stresses and worries far behind and thoroughly recharged our batteries. Thanks for putting this together for us!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Can't really think of anything. It was all fine. .... maybe add Angola to your portfolio. We'd love to go to that northern neighbour of Namibia too ..." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 21 on a Namibia trip

"Maruska's patience in planning this trip with us was legendary and it worked out to be as perfect as possible. Overall transfers and some of the guiding was done by Ultimate Safaris. We were pleasantly surprised to be picked out of the long immigration queue by them and VIP'd through! Our guide was pleasant, interesting,and excellent. Transfers went well with only 1 hiccup with delivering our excess bags.

By our request this safari concentrated on the area around the Skeleton Coast. The constantly changing rocky, sand-duned and desert environment is fascinating to us. The tempest tossed coastline is so rich in marine life, with shoreline covered in hundreds of cormorants and seals in some areas. Flamingos, giraffe, elephants and ostrich all were spotted from our little Cessna on our Schoeman's Safari which was certainly a life changing highlight. We flew in the late afternoon during "golden hour" making the reds, pinks, ochres, greys of the desert shine. Surprisingly often there were areas of green. We were lucky as there had been abundant rain in March after 6 years of drought and so the normally bare desert was covered in soft golden grass. Also flowers blooming! so many varieties! It crossed my mind that at times it was like flying with Grand Canyons all around.

This is only our second visit to Namibia but we have found the staff members we have met particularly friendly and interesting. They come from a variety of tribes who until very recently would not have been interacting so closely. Many speak 3 or 4 languages or more which is humbling. The "click" language is especially magical to listen to. And remarkably hard to imitate!

The animal life is not so abundant as other parts of Africa but the adaption to the desert environment is special for the ones we did see. (Keep in mind we did not go to Etosha where animal life is more) As to flora the Welwitschia Mirablis , a plant which can grow for 2000 years was a wonder to see. It only has 2 leaves. There are male and female plants. We are told there are botanists who come to this area just to see this plant and now can see why..

We felt this visit to this area of Namibia to be one of our best of our dozen trips to Africa. Well planned, and very very special....

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service: Our third trip planned by Maruska. She is an absolute gem. We feel in good hands with Expert Africa." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"We had the trip of a lifetime and thoroughly enjoyed the whole itinerary and all the lodges….

I had a set itinerary including certainly lodges that were a “must do” Sabina of Expert Africa was the only person and company of the four I tried that was able to accommodate our wishes and make it all fit together seamlessly. Thank you Sabina it couldn’t have worked out better !!" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Wonderful as ever. It was our 8th trip to Botswana and 5th to Namibia but we still saw lots of things we hadn't seen before, had great experiences and made lots of great memories.

Expert Africa / Megan, as efficient and helpful as ever in ensuring it all went smoothly and that we had a great time.

Our special requests, eg, for vehicles with canopies wherever possible, were passed on and acted on.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

How can you improve on perfection!

Perhaps the 'sighting list' could be a bit more broadly based to cover the ever present animals (for those new to Africa) and some of the rarer sightings for those with more experience." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 11 on a Botswana safari

"Already said how impressed and delighted we were that our flight cancellation was dealt with so well and all was rebooked “+2” overnight on the day of our intended departure. Way prior to that the guidance and advice in putting everything together took time and great patience which Maruska coped with admirably. This included rebooking from 2021 when Vicky broke her shoulder compromising our initial plans.

I do have two observations which are offered as a reasonably regular EA client. Using a specialist based in a very different time zone does add complexity at the planning stage. Small details requiring a quick answer can take 48 hours to turn around through no fault of anyones. My second comment is that the relative costs of different options are not visible at the planning stage. I did not ask Maruska to work to a budget nor indeed did I ask for these costs in order to make our choices of destinations and lodges and so it may be my responsibility here. I now understand (but may need to be corrected) that Shipwreck and HVC were more expensive than other choices we made and perhaps having price bands indicated when putting together a tailor made trip might be useful. Useful also to have this information when giving feed back to hold the more expensive options to a higher standard even if tou can not compare apples and oranges of course!" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip