Zambia: reviews from our travellers

"We were delighted by the trouble and care Anna took from our first contact until our return - wonderful.

Everything Anna told us was true and we had an amazing holiday. my husband (it was for his 60th) said he will never forget this trip. He did question why we had never thought of going to Africa before now. all the camps and people involved wre of a very high standard and everyone was so caring and thoughtful.

A big thank you to Anna and we look forward to going back sometime in the not too distant future." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Zambia safari

"Not the best we have done due to circumstances but enjoyable all the same.

The arraangements made by Expert Africa were first class." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"Our holiday was fabulous! It all went very smoothly, and exceeded all our expectations.

It was all tremendous fun - we saw amazing things and met lovely people.

We have lots of wonderful memories and enough stories to last us years!

Suggestions for improvement:

No - you did a fantastic job for us!" Read full review: 29 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"The goriallas surpassed our expectations and this 4 day trip was a trip of a life time with 3 trecking days, the first day to see the golden monkeys and then 2 days of trecking to see the gorillas. Please be aware that with the animals each day you only get 1 hour of viewing time maximum.

South Luangwa lived up to our usual expections and the guys at Tafika base camp and the bush camps of Chikoko and Crocodile are some of the best in the area making a very good safari experience. My only comments here is they have to be careful when veting people to go on the bush camp trips as the make up of a group may affect the pleasure others get in this trip, i.e. mixing families with children with others on such a trip can be a downer. But certainly bush camps are for those who wish the real safari experience.

Toko Laya Safari Camp is an ideal place to finish yoru safari and catch the sights of Livingstone and the falls, a very well run and organsied camp despite having been only open since May 2008. A tribute to some of the good staff they have. The only issue that being in the game park next Livingstone it is not really a big game experince with no cats and not masses of wildlife. But a good place to relax and cover various experinces offered by the lodge.

Suggestions for improvement:

None
we were very well dealt with by Expert Africa and appreciated the opportunities to disucss fully when we wished to review/modify the itinerary." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"The holiday was everything that we could have wished for, and we loved every minute of it. Anna and Expert Africa are quite clearly highly regarded by the guides.

The one thing that did cause me some confusion were the various vouchers issued to us by Expert Africa, though ultimately it made no difference to our trip. One voucher stated that it was for a transfer from Lufupa Lodge to Lusaka, but in fact it was from Lunga River Lodge airstrip to Lusaka. The transfer vouchers for the second week while in North and South Luangwa were completely wrong. Though this caused me a lot of confusion, Remote Africa had worked it all out correctly, ignoring the vouchers, and everything was fine.

The issue of Tipping was a bit difficult for us, and definitely an area that I feel needs to be addressed in greater detail by Expert Africa. I had read somewhere that tipping is discretionary but that an amount of $5 - $8 per day per guest would be appropriate to pay to the guide. However, it is not only the guide that often deserves a tip, but also the staff at the various bush camps. I have no idea as to whether we were being mean or generous, but on average we were tipping our guides the equivalent of $40 - $50 for each day that we had with them, and a further $30 or so to the remainder of the staff at each camp per day (remembering that we are a family of five, and that we were usually the only guests at each camp).

Our guide for the whole of the first week was Brad from Wilderness Safaris. He was absolutely fantastic, extraordinarily knowledgeable about virtually anything that we wished to discuss, and seemed to possess a sixth sense when it came to spotting wildlife. He is such a nice person, and our 17,15 and 13 year old children all got on very well with him. He works tremendously hard and deserves a medal.

Would it have been possible for Expert Africa to give us advance notice of the identity of who we would be having as our guide? It would have been nice for us to have known his name in advance so that when we first met him we could have immediately realised what his role was.

Before we left the UK, I spoke with Anna and asked if it would be an idea for us to take out some spare clothing for the local villagers. She responded very enthusiastically and gave me a long list of suggestions as to what we could take, including any old clothes, shoes, toys, childrens books etc. When packing our bags we chose mostly old clothes that we did not wish to bring back to the UK at the end of our trip, and any spare room in our bags were then filled with other bits and pieces to give away.

At each camp that we stayed at we asked the camp manager whether it would be appropriate to give him some clothes and toys to distribute to his staff, and each time we received a very positive response. The staff may look well fed and clothed but their familes back in their home villages often own virtually nothing and we were assured that our meagre gifts would be gratefully received. Consequently we left quite a large volume of things behind in Zambia, and feel good that we have done our little bit to assist these people. Maybe Expert Africa could include some sort of guidance and suggestions in this area for any future like-minded travellers." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"This was a fantastic holiday.The adjectives that come to mind are not sufficient. The variety of landscapes, sights, activities and experiences were wonderful. It was a really good family holiday also. There was something for all our children to do and they got something out of every place we went to. However, the highlight of the trip for our 6 year and 3 year old was the car being pulled out of sand in road works on a minor gravel road in the Caprivi Strip by a huge six-wheeled grader - and particularly the bit where the driver forgot to put the grader's handbrake on and had to chase it down the hill and jump into the cab! Our 10 year old cannot say what the best part of the holiday was. It was all great. We agree.

Namibia is a great country and should be on everyone's list of places to see. The people are friendly. It feels safe and there is none of the lurking tension that you feel at times in South Africa. We'd say it was like South Africa, but better. There is such a variety of things to do and places to see. The desert is stunning. The dunes at Sossusvlei should be on your list of 50 things to do before you die. Swakopmund was so relaxing and it was just nice to potter about there. The food was delicious - seafood near the coast, game inland - and cheap. The smell and sound of the seals at Cape Cross will stay with us forever! Etosha is (insert your own superlative here - words escape us)! The numbers and variety of animals is mind-blowing - and all from your own car window. You do safari at your pace and go where you want to go without 20 other camera toting tourists in the vehicle with you. While there are lots of other people in the park with you, it never seems busy. The roads are largely empty and you could be the only vehicle at a waterhole on many occasions. We had the fortunate experience of a leopard cub ambling about in the road in front of us without a care in the world and eventually leading us to its mother, with no other cars in sight. Try doing that in Kenya! The Caprivi Strip is an undiscovered gem. The river camps and lodges are all perfectly sited and the opportunities to see riverine wildlife are fantastic. Again, there are few other tourists around (for the present), but once word gets out this is sure to change. There is none of the mass safari tourism of East Africa in Namibia. See it while it stays like this.

We also enjoyed finishing the holiday off at Victoria Falls while relaxing at the Zambezi Sun. Victoria Falls is another 'must see' and again adjectives do not sufficiently describe the experience. Our only regret was not seeing more of Botswana, but time did not allow. People we met who had been to the Kalahari and Okavango Delta were impressed.

It was very helpful and consderate of Sabina to contact us in Swakopmund to inform us that the garage in Kongola had closed and so fuel was not available there.

This was probably our best holiday ever with memories to last a lifetime." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"Difficult to imagine how it could have been bettered." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Zambia safari

"An excellent honeymoon that we will never forget that has given us a real taster of Africa. We will be back !

Suggestions for improvement:

It would be useful rethinking your advice on luggage weight limits . You may have been giving official figures but on proflight there was no strict weight limit in practice." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari

"A wonderful trip - thank you - our third trip with you and just as good as the others.

The second half (post safari) was an attempt by us to get closer to the real Africa again and we most impressed at Kawaza, Kaya Mawa and Nkwichi by the responsible tourism and how the lodges are working sucessfully with the local people" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"Our itinerary was very well judged by you, given our tastes and interests, and the order of visiting parks ideal. We loved North Kafue for the wide open spaces, hippo, antelope and especially birds. We didn't see big game there - except zebra and a couple of elephants - and it may be that clients with narrower tastes and interests than us would not appreciate the region as much as we did (there were some US clients at Shumba who said they were bored!). Of course, visitors at this time of year need to take the prospect of low temperatures seriously.

This was truly a holiday of a lifetime, and we are very grateful to Expert Africa for helping to make it so. We hope to go again in future, and in the meantime will not be hesitating to recommend you to our friends.

We were sceptical whether we could cope with the low luggage allowance. We didn't need to be; we survived easily on 15 kilos between us, and didn't wear some bits! You could emphasise this aspect even more strongly in your notes (but also stress the need for warm clothes at this time of year)." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari