Zambia: reviews from our travellers

"Tracy had worked really hard to put together a wonderful itinerary, building to a great climax. All our venues had a wow factor and it would be hard to choose a favourite.

Travelling through Namibia, Chobe And Zambia gives an amazing variety of experiences.

One needs to watch the waistline as one is fed relentlessly on delicious fare.

Many thanks for great service, best wishes, Jane Westermann

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Luggage allowances were a problem as we were given different advice. Photographers need to know that they won't be separated from their precious stuff. There is obviously a difference between v small flights and the Proflights to Mfuwe. This doesn't necessarily relate to you but it was the only thing on which we were unclear." Read full review: 25 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"Brilliant trip with superb, knowledgable guides and a real Africa experience.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We are experienced visitors to Southern Africa and were delighted with this opportunity to explore what for us was a new area." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zambia safari

"First time in Zambia but ExAf was able to take feedback from previous trips to Namibia and create an itenerary to suit expectations. Had a great time.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Feedback I heard while out in Zambia at Tafika is that you are very good at matching people to the camps so that no one arrives with the wrong set of expectations.

That is also my experience in dealing with you, which is why I am a return customer..." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Zambia safari

"More than lived up to expectation, glad we chose the camps we did and appreciated the help Lucy gave us on our itinerary.

Will live long in our memory and very much hope to return sometime in the not too distant future.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None I can think of" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Zambia safari

"Everything went wonderfully well as we returned to our 4 favorite camps in Luangwa. Plenty of new things to see and do, and we met up with all our good friends in the camps there. What a bit of paradise it is.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No. Just keep it up! We value the service EA has given to us on 5 trips to Africa, and have recommended it to others at the camps.

The advice before the trip is especially helpful as it avoids the wrong expectations/clothing/cameras/binoculars etc that other operators seem to ignore." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Zambia safari

"Outstanding trip. We thought our last visit to Zambia couldn't be bettered, but it has been. All the camps were excellent - no negative comments or suggestions for improvement. The African bush remains as alluring as ever.

Unfortunately for our bank balance we'll be back - please wait for the call!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We really can't think of any. This is our fourth trip organised through Expert Africa, and every one has exceeded expectations. We've also recommended you to others, and they've also experienced outstanding service.

Keep it up!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Zambia safari

"We had a wonderful time! The lodges and camps were very much as we expected - or even better. It is true that one can 'travel light' because washing really does come back on the same day. Our sightings of wildlife were beyond our expectations and have left us with some marvellous memories - and hundreds of photos. We saw leopards on no fewer that seven occasions, and lions that were within touching diistance, not to mention all the antelopes, birds and other animals.

Unfortunately there was one event that could have spoilt our holiday had we not been fairly seasoned travellers who do not easliy panic. On arrival at Lusaka we discovered that our names were not on the Proflight list for the flight to Mfuwe, and it was full. The existence of our Expert Africa voucher for the flight proved totally worthless. Fortunatey we were assisted by staff from Tours Africa, who tried to contact Expert Africa for us but it was before office hours in the UK, and Chris McIntyre's phone was on voicemail.

They then contacted Heather at Tafika, and she sorted out an eTicket for the midday flight. All this meant we lost a morning hanging around at Lusaka airport, when we were expecting to be travelling out to the Luangwa valley. When we did arrive at Mfuwe we were met by a driver who had had to make an extra round trip to pick us up when he should have been on his way to one of the Tafika bushcamps. So our arrival at Tafika was all very rushed in the end, and not at all the relaxing start to a holiday that had been planned.

We would point out that Heather also checked our return Proflight flight, and passed on an eTicket (booked by Claire Scott), as there was no booking for that either. She also checked with Shentons that they were expecting us. Considering that this holiday was booked in early February this experience was very disappointing." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"My husband and I had been to Zambia 3 years ago and were travelling with my brother-in- law and his wife (from Canada) who had not been to Africa before. I think we were all very pleased with the holiday in terms of the huge variety of places we saw and things we did. It was a lot to pack in with 2 countries and 7 different camps/hotels in 3 weeks (so unavoidably a lot of travelling) but it gave us a great flavour of the countries and places we might want to revisit for longer.

We were pleased with the suggestions of places to stay especially the camps in Zambia and in S Africa Bishops Court and Ocean Eleven were really good. In retrospect the only changes I would make would be a day longer at Kaingo with possibly one less at Hog Hollow, and I would prefer to stay at one of the wineries rather than Rusthof.

The trip organisation was again excellent with all the connections, transfers etc working as expected and I would certainly use Expert Africa again for future holidays.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Perhaps worth considering suggesting people take evaluation forms with them as they are quite detailed and filling them in at the time might be easier and allow a more independent review (rather than comparing the different camps on your return." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Another wonderful holiday arranged by Expert Africa.

We stayed in some amazing places and had great wildlife sightings.

A real adventure." Read full review: 28 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Very disappointed about the walking safari experience and because there was so little interaction with animals the walking safari part was repetitive and after a few days boring. As the camps were relatively close to each other the terrains were very similar and therefore again led to repetition about the trees, grasses and poo.

The pictures in the Norman Carr brochures have obviously been manipulated (we heard that one of the hosts had admitted this to fellow travellers), very misleading. Had we known that the animals ran away we would not have taken this holiday. A very expensive mistake.

Because of the repetition we also thought that the trip was too long. 5 nights would have been more than enough before moving to a new location altogether.

A herd of buffalo bolted when we were 200 metres away. Hippos and crocodiles ran into the water when we were walking on the river banks on the opposite side to the sand spits they were on 40-50 metres away. A lion even moved into the grass when we were over 250 metres away. Lions, Hippos and crocodiles do not move away from vehicles even when they are relatively close.

We saw lots of game on the drives and were lucky to see 5 leopard and a significant number of lions including a mating pair during the trip.

There were some issues of cleanliness at the camps with broken or chipped toilet seats and general dirtiness of room floors and at Kakuli the bar area. We do not mean daily dust. Mrs Lloyd has lived in Zambia and understands the local situation regarding cleaning. The expat staff should be more on top of general cleaning.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We have no issue with Expert Africa's service.

For walking safaris I would suggest that you ask people what they think they will experience. The novelty of the walking safari experience is short lived and therefore we recommend that 4-5 days on the Norman Carr safari is more than enough. Our 9 night holiday was far too long." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari