Zambia: reviews from our travellers

"The trip was wonderful from start to finish and thank you to Maruska for her brilliant organisation and in depth knowledge of the region.

The combination of Zambia with Namibia worked very well, as we were able to spend time in one of the prime game viewing areas of Africa as well as have the freedom to see things for ourselves once we had the use of our vehicle. We will be back as soon as we can!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The only suggestion we would have for improving our itinerary would be to spend 2 days driving across Etosha national park rather than one, and staying in the intermediate camp. This would allow more time for game viewing while making the transit on what were quite rough roads.

On the other hand, the gravel road to Waterberg plateau was much better than expected and only took about 20 minutes to transit.

Overall, we were very glad that we had upgraded from a standard car to a SUV." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"It was a special trip - not the cheapest, but something we'd always wanted to do, and it didn't disappoint." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"This was the second time we had visited Zambia. We liked our first trip two years ago so much that we returned to exactly the same camps, changing only the order in which we visited them. In all our travels this is the first time that we have ever done that, and we were not disappointed.

Of course we saw many of the same animals as before, but every encounter is different, and we now have even more precious memories and photographs." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"As you will have gathered we had a fantastic trip thanks to Expert Africa and NCS.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

It's probably worth clarifying to clients about the seating in the jeeps so they know what to expect ie. if someone has to sit in the middle or not. Also we requested that the canopy be removed on one of the jeeps at Mchenja so that we could have a better upward view of birds and leopards in trees! This they did for us quite happily. It is worth people being aware of the option of an 'open' jeep which we managed to have throughout.

Just to mention re your staff - Ellie Dunkels was very helpful when Claire was not available. NCS seemed to think highly of Chris, Claire and Ellie." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Trip was very enjoyable (as expected, since we've been to these camps before). Once again, having assistance through immigration and with ground transport was very helpful and time saving." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Zambia safari

"Ellie yet again organised a great holiday, everything went like clockwork. The camps were all fantastic and met our requirements perfectly. We are not sure how she managed to organise three different Aardvark sitings but we are glad she did. The title Expert Africa justified comletely.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Pangolin sightings next time" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Zambia safari

"Just amazing! The time spent with Remote Africa (Tafika, Chikoko, Crocodile) was the best, but the other camps were also great.

Fantastic service and stunning animals." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"This trip exceeded our expectations in all respects.

From initial contact with Expert Africa to the conclusion, all details were well and timely arranged and we were kept informed along the way of all matters. At each "choke point" where things might have gone wrong i.e. flights with Proflight, the arrangements worked without a hitch. Transfers between camps occurred seamlessly, and we were expected at each venue.

Congratulations, therefore, to the Expert Africa team for putting together the trip.

The business of tipping we found irksome. At some stages guides and game guards changed and were missed. At others, notably Chongwe, there were so many for the different activities that we lost count. We ended by giving a sum of money to one of the staff at Chongwe and asked that it be distributed fairly among the guides, while also putting money in the tip box. However fair one tries to be, there is always the nagging doubt that some deserving soul has been missed. You ask for money for a donation of £20 to offset carbon emissions from the flights ( for which we have already contributed over £400 for our flights from London , grr), so perhaps there could be a donation similarly for the staff ?.

Throughout the trip the staff were most helpful, courteous, obliging, and knowledgeable and could not be faulted.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Perhaps see comment above re tipping, but otherwise no, we think you are a good organisation with whom we would travel again and which we would recommend to friends.

Thank you." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari

"I booked this trip as a Birthday treat for my partner. I wanted it to be spectactular, exciting, interesting, and memorable. It was all of those things and more.

Claire Scott listened to my wishlist and produced an itinerary which allowed us to see more than we thought possible in the limited time we had available.

One of the reasons I chose Expert Africa was I wanted someone else to do the organising this time, so as not to have to worry about connections bookings etc. Well, it certainly was properly organised. We even had someone meet us BEFORE passport control in Lusaka who organised our visas for us, and we didn't have a raise a finger on our own behalf for the whole trip.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really, but thanks to Claire for not laughing when I told her how much I expected to pay for the trip! ;)" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Overall very positive, most enjoyable and memorable trip. Some exceptional animal and bird sightings - eg leopard with young one.

The only negative points were the transfer from Kasane airport to Chobe Game Lodge, our stay at Lianshulu, and the stopover at Ghanzi, which we felt was unnecessary and not particularly enjoyable (though we did get to see another side of Botswana!)" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip