Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"Lucy helped arrange our trip. She was wonderful. I travel a lot, and this is the first time I have used someone to plan a trip. It was so helpful, and Lucy was a pleasure to work with. Overall, it exceeded my expectations, and I learned more about my expectations and where I needed to be clearer in the future. What I really appreciated about Lucy, is I messed up a flight (spelled a name wrong on an airline ticket). I got no where in fixing it and Lucy jumped in and got it rectified.

I did learn that when flying with South African Airline and the smaller airlines that they change flight schedules and cancel flights frequently, so don't book multiple legs of a trip on one ticket - unless they are the same day." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"I had been planning this trip for well over a year, done a lot of personal research and held high expectations, which is not always a good thing before departure.
To my delight, all my expectations were surpassed and my husband and I agree it was the best trip we've been on thus far.

A big thank you to Richard Trillo.
Richard's advice and connections made it possible for us to have the best possible experience. For example at The Giraffe Manor we had a back room booked initially, then Richard was contacted by the property about a cancellation for Jocks room and he secured that for us straight away! What a treat.

All of Richard's planning was thorough and everything ran smoothly. I particularly loved the travel wallet which i am still using, the bag tags that others commented on and the 'Guide to Kenya', authored by Richard.

We fell in love with the African bush over the month we visited Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. We think it was a combination of the warm, friendly and proud (in a good way!) people we met and the animals we were honoured to be close to, together with 5 star accommodation, which made our trip so special.

One word of advice for potential first time visitors to Africa- if you are going to be visiting larger cities or towns do that first because once you go into the beautiful lodges within the National Parks you won't want to go back to the towns." Read full review: 4 nights in Africa; 3 on a Kenya safari

"The management and implementation of our safari package by Lemala was excellent in every way.

However our experience with Expert Africa did not live up to expectations. We chose Expert Africa because of their reputation and reliability which unfortunately for us proved not to be the case. Our main areas of concern being.
Wrong information regarding being able to book our flights to Africa. Also no proper discussion re: internal flight options.
Receiving incorrect forms and documents.
Poor advice on immunisation requirements.
MOST IMPORTANT. At no time were we informed that the gates to Tarangire National Park closed at 6:00pm. No one is allowed access after that time. If our flight had not been changed 2 weeks before our holiday we would never have reached our first lodge. A lack of awareness of this caused much stress to us, our guide and our lodge staff." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"On extra thing we added - we were due back in DAR at 4pm for the KLM flight at 11pm. As check-in wasn't open until 8pm, this gave a bit of a gap to fill. We didn't want to risk the journey to and from a hotel in the city centre, but we did find a relatively new hotel, the "Blue Sapphire" which is 10mins away, on the main airport boulevard, where we freshened up and had a meal before heading back to the airport. I would say it was adequate for this purpose and would be ok for an overnight as well, based on our experience here.

The new international terminal (T3) is coming in to use and although not fully opened, looks like a reasonably standard airport environment, so may be better for hanging about in than T2 was previously." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"We thoroughly enjoyed our trip. All the components ran very smoothly and we felt well taken care of throughout. Expert Africa had clearly passed on our dietary requests to the camps in advance.

We have previously visited Kicheche Laikipia and Kicheche Bush and this trip confirmed our liking for Kicheche Camps in terms of style, ethos and level of comfort." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 11 on a Kenya safari

"This was our second Expert Africa arranged trip.

Josh and Claire were helpful, knowledgeable and patient with our endless questions.

I have no hesitation in strongly recommending them." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"We knew this was going to be the trip of a lifetime, but nothing could have prepared us for the experience we had. By the 3rd day we had run out of superlatives and by day 8 we were tongue tied when trying to describe how remarkable the wildlife was, how fabulous the food, how gorgeous the accommodations and how well we were treated. Even now, two months later we have difficulty.

We would not hesitate to use the services of Expert Africa again, in fact we would insist on it for trip planning in that part of the world. We would also insist on having Lyndsey Marris as our personal representative. Lyndsey was outstanding from day one, asking all the right questions about our travel experiences, our wishes, making suggestions before I had a chance to even think to ask, and somehow despite her being in London and our being in the United States we never waited more than 24 hours for an email or telephone response. We don’t know how she managed to work around the time difference, but she did. Her recommendations were spot on and she was flexible with changes; nothing seemed beyond her. We met and formed a friendship with a family from greater London while in Ruaha who had also used Expert Africa and had Lyndsey as their agent and they had the same experience and praise for her as we did.

We were provided with daily itineraries including private drivers, reservations at restaurants, all flight arrangements, hotel and safari camp reservations and accurate information about all of them. In over three weeks of travel there was only one hiccup and that was minor and no doubt precipitated by a flight delay causing us to arrive in Nairobi 2 ½ hours late. The driver who was to have met our flight was not there and we were unsure on how to proceed. As it turned out, a very attentive gentleman had been observing our situation and eventually came over and asked what had happened and it turned out he worked for the same company, Southern Cross Safaris, who was to drive us that day and the next. He took over and got us transported to the hotel and put us back onto our activity schedule to see the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and the Giraffe Center. The driver from Southern Cross Safaris was delightful and informative and we met him again the last evening of our trip when we came back to Nairobi to fly home. The only adjustment we would make to our stay in Nairobi would be to give up the convenience of an airport hotel for the apparently unique, lovely experience of staying at Giraffe Manor. We didn’t know Giraffe Manor existed so it wasn’t something we asked Lyndsey about, but we really wish it had somehow come up.

I would suggest to anyone going on Safari to stay in multiple camps in diverse geographic areas. Lyndsey gave us a perfect itinerary in the perfect order: Nairobi, Selous, Ruaha, Mara River, Grumeti and finally Mafia Island and a flight home from Nairobi. Each of the areas had its own flora and fauna and special emphasis. Selous is private, no traffic or competition to view the animals, you can go off road, but the animals are very spread out due to its size. You have the opportunity to see the rare wild dog, but fewer cats. Ruaha, on the other hand, is a national park; you cannot go off road, there are many more vehicles, but it is definitely the place for cats. Mara River is all about the wildebeest crossing. It is also a national park. Grumeti is a private paradise in the Serengeti that gives you the absolute best of the best. Mafia Island is an exquisite respite from the “always on alert” feeling of safari.

If you looked on a map you might wonder why we worked from south to north just to fly much further south at the end, but Lyndsey explained her thinking, we took her advice - she was exactly correct. The wildlife built up as did the camps as we went along. Not once did we feel we were taking a back step in the quality of anything. And going on safari is quite tiring despite the fact you are being driven everywhere, so a restful beach idyll at the end is perfect.

We will definitely return to Africa. We would repeat this trip in a heartbeat. In fact this trip was so fantastic it will be difficult to resist literally going back to the same camps, but Africa is huge with so much variety, we will most likely expand our horizons. Where ever it is, Expert Africa will help plan our trip." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 18 on a Tanzania safari

"From the first contact with Expert Africa to the last moment of our trip everything was just perfect.
Lucy really provided expert guidance on chosing camps that suit us. We wanted to go back to Tafika and she has given us new places to consider and her recommendations have been excellent." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zambia safari

"Our second visit to Zambia and both experiences were great" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Expert Africa had organized trips for us before and we were always satisfied.

This time, our contact is Tracy. She did an excellent job. We discussed on the phone our interest and expectation. The hôtels she recommeded were great. It was her advice to have the rental car delivered to BullsPort rather than we went back to Windhoek to collect the car. It saved us time and driving. We wanted to stay in the Fish River Lodge and by the time we confirmed the trip, it was not available. She followed through with the lodge and at the end, we got a room.

We had a lovely trip !

A big Thank You to Tracy !

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Great job ! Keep going !" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip