Zimbabwe: reviews from our travellers

"A documentary feature on TV inspired us to embark on a walking safari in Zimbabwe. After much research we decided on Camp Hwange, Bush Camp and Victoria Falls. Freddie Sutton from Expert Africa helped us immensely in this process.

We have done mountaineering holidays, driving holidays and beach holidays around the globe and safari holidays in Asia; but this African Safari has been one of the better ones.

Extremely happy with the overall service provided by Expert Africa in general and Freddie Sutton in particular.

We absolutely recommend Expert Africa as travel consultants if one is planning a holiday in Africa." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zimbabwe safari

"We have done a fair bit of travelling and do not often return to the same place as there is still so much more to see. However, Namibia is an exception, this being our third trip.
It has everything, beautiful scenery, wildlife, friendly people. The roads are quiet and tourism is still relatively low key. It also feels so much safer than some other African countries.
With Expert Africa our trip was well organised and everything went seamlessly. We would use this company again." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Even though I love doing all the logistics on our Africa adventures the last two years I have used Expert Africa for booking much of our trip.

The team at EA are very thorough and timely in the handling of our details. Will use again" Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zimbabwe safari

"I have tried hard to frame my comments from a specific point of view of an ex tour operator. The majority of our party was overwhelmingly satisfied. My dissatisfaction with Kwando comes from (perhaps unrealistic) previous expectations. The animals, the service, the camps, and the people were all 5 stars. I purposely put off giving this feedback to gain some perspective on the events of the trip, and I feel like what I have said is justified and fair.

I would like to offer some feedback to ExpertAfrica specifically - we were very frustrated with the lack of a final reconciliation 2 months before we left. We were trying to make our individual final payments and there seemed to be no way for us to get a list that said, PAX #1 owes THIS, PAX #2 owes THIS, etc. We ended up having to sit down with literally pages of payment records, separate out our own credit card surcharges, subtract our own payments made to come up with final payment amounts. It was EXCEEDINGLY frustrating. I can't believe that we are the first group travel you've ever dealt with - so it baffles me that a clear and final reconciliation was not provided. I went round and round via email, and requested this several times in several ways, but got the impression that I was asking the impossible.

In addition, I asked about tour arrangements in Cape Town, and was quoted USD75 per person to join a scheduled bus tour. When I asked about a private mini-van, the price doubled. I did a little research and booked privately with a well-known, well regarded tour company who gave us private tours for USD60 per person inclusive of wine tastings and park fees. My issue was that I had no means of contacting them once we were on holiday - although they were great and checked in with Acorn House, and it all went off just perfectly. it would have been much simpler to do this through Expert Africa and I cannot believe that with an office there you can't do better than what was quoted. The LEAST you could do is offer a recommendation of a company you like to save your clients the trouble of finding out. This booking was over USD40,000 and I had to do a lot of the legwork myself - don't get me started on international air because thats a different can of worms. I understand if you can't offer consolidator fares from the US, but arrangements need to be made if you're serving the American market." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"As usual, the normal faultless Expert Africa Planning and execution - went like clockwork.

Despite its reputation, Zimbabwe proved to be a generally stress free place to visit and certainly all the facilities in and around Vic Falls and Hwange are all excellent with enthusiastic and helpful people every where we went." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zimbabwe safari

"The trip met our hopes and expectations on all counts and exceeded them in many aspects - a wonderful holiday!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"abundance of animals and clean lodging overcame food quality" Read full review: 5 nights in Africa; 3 on a Botswana safari

"Everything about the trip was amazing.

We were able to see many animals on Safari. All the lodges had excellent food and service.

We will definitely be booking our next Africa trip through Expert Africa. Sabina was quickly able to schedule our trip including everything we requested. She was a pleasure to deal with." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 5 on a Namibia trip

"Everything went smoothly and according to plan. The only glitch was having to leave Nduvo a day early in order to get to Maun on time." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"This trip was the middle portion of a longer African holiday which we planned ourselves.

We were delighted with the personal touch and attention to detail that Maruska provided. We had enough information from telephone calls, emails, books by Bradt and your web site to approach this section of our trip with confidence. We did not have to do the planning and make reservations as Maruska, arranged everything. We made some accommodation changes a few days before we left for our holiday and a last minute reversal on our Car Hire, (which involved a new company and an eventual refund) and were relieved at how efficiently those changes were handled.

Maruska's response of making sure we were first and foremost satisfied with our itinerary and happy with all arrangements was most refreshing and reassuring.

We have spoken very highly about your service with friends and family highlighting the ethos of your company. Thank you for everything. Marg and Phil Crosby-Jones" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip