Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"This trip exceeded our high expectations.

Smooth and no glitches in all of the arrangements. Expert Africa did great job helping us to plan this trip and recommending great camps and hotels.

Tracy's knowledge prevented some potential mistakes in our proposed itinerary.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Everything worked out very well - very pleased with Expert Africa!" Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"The couple running the Lodge were new and I think need to learn a bit more about other possibilities but very welcoming.


Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, I think you have good knowledge and are very helpful as when flight was cancelled at short notice" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 4 on a Malawi trip

"Fantastic - we've been singing the praises of Expert Africa since we returned. Everything was seamless and we didn't worry about a thing from the moment we arrived in Kenya. We had no idea what to expect on our first trip to Africa and this was the perfect introduction. I don't think we would have done anything differently.

We did go to Karen Blixen's home and while interesting - it isn't worth a stop if under a time crunch.

One of the reasons we loved Il Ngwesi so much was because of the community involvement in the lodge. It meant a lot to us that the money was going back to the 7 villages, who sat on the board of the lodge. We spent a long time talking to the staff at Porini/Gamewatchers and while their arrangement with the company and the villages is better than most, it is still not owned by the Maasai. It would be wonderful if there were more lodges and guide services owned by native Kenyans.

We had mixed feelings about the village visits. The one at Il Ngwesi was better because it was presented as "traditional" while acknowledging that things had changed. Yes, they use matches and cell phones and dress in tshirts, etc. The one at Selenkay seemed a little more artificial. While it was really good for us to learn how the Maasai have lived traditionally, we were really interested in their lives today. How have things changed? What do they see for the future? Our guides were willing to discuss it, but it would have been nice to talk to some of the villagers about it as well. For instance - none of our guides had multiple wives and almost all of them chose their own. One didn't own any livestock. Quite a few lived in more modern homes. We felt like it was perpetuating a view of Africa that was not up to date.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Recommend some more trips for us!

Also, I didn't see any multi-country trips on the website. We asked everyone where to go next and some recommended Namibia, Botswana, Victoria Falls trip.

Would be lovely to see an itinerary for that." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 11 on a Kenya safari

"High expectations exceeded." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"The trip as a whole was AWESOME!! The trip by far exceeded our expectations and was so so so so much fun!! Olivia spent countless hours talking to me on the phone and answering non-stop questions over email to make sure this trip was tailored exactly to our preferences. From the moment we stepped foot off the plane in Rwanda, to the moment we flew out of Nairobi, my family had an absolutely phenomenal time. Each aspect of the trip fit my family like a glove, and was a once in a lifetime experience. The entire trip, including transfers and activities were flawless and my family and I never had to worry about what was next. A guide or staff member always made sure we were where we needed to be, and that we were well taken care of.

Olivia recommended Kigali Serena and Encounter Mara, and Encounter Mara was the best time! Expert also booked all of our transfers for us and the guides were personable, knowledgeable, professional, and a blast! This was such an excellent trip and there is not a single thing about the trip that we didn't love!!

The only negatives we had about our trip was some layover schedules, but that was booked through a different US agency, so everything Expert did was great!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

THANK YOU to Olivia for booking this trip with us! She is absolutely wonderful and did such an amazing job! The only suggestions on how you could improve would be pushing more people towards Encounter Mara because it was so amazing :)

There is nothing we think you could have done to improve, great job!" Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 4 on a Rwanda safari

"The trip was more exciting & delivered more experiences in a short amount of time then any of us 4 in our group could have imagined. We've traveled to lots of different European countries, S. America & many of our own states in US in search of unusual places to visit. We thought we sort of had an idea from film, pictures, National Geographic, etc., but still you can't capture the emotion of being with these amazing animals in their environment. In addition, we really enjoyed all the people we came to meet in Botswana, Zimbabwe & S. Africa." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"We loved our safari holiday - we had a fantastic experience which totally exceeded our expectations. I can't wait to go on another safari.

Thank you so much for arranging such a great holiday." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"Really happy with this company and the level of service they provided to us for the whole trip - from the pre planning to during and the post the trip. All very professional and if/when i am going back to Africa again i would seriously consider getting a quote off these guys and using them as i was really happy. This was our third trip to Africa and i hope it wont be my last. Keep up the good work." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 4 on a Tanzania safari

"I had refused to do a long haul flight since our honeymoon 30 years ago. My husband was not convinced about going on safari but wanted us to go because he knew I would love it.

Expert Africa were brilliant at asking what would make the trip fantastic for us and what would make it bad. Their planning and advice meant we had the most mind blowing and amazing experience. We stayed in Arusha two nights, Little Oliver's in Tarangire two nights, The Highlands in Ngorongoro for two nights and Lemal Kuria Hills in Northern Serengeti for three nights. Everywhere was great and there is nothing we can fault about the camps, the service, food wine and outstanding hospitality.

Our eyes were wide with wonder from the moment we left the airstrip at Tarangrine airport and saw beautiful birds and incredible wildlife so close. Obviously we experienced a lot and so some experiences were better than others for us. The hospitality and exclusive feeling of Little Oliver's plus our brilliant, knowledgeable guide meant our time in Tarangire really stands out but that is very much a personal comment and does not mean the other camps and game drives were not brilliant.

Needless to say Duncan enjoyed the safari tremendously and I simply loved it!" Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"Maruska was so great to work with! It all started with a phone call to your main number. Although I'm in the US and she's in New Zealand, the time and geographical difference didn't matter. She encouraged me to rent a car which initially worried me but I'm so glad that we did. It gave us a lot of flexibility. She was right, we didn't need to rent a GPS. We did buy a SIM card at the Windhoek airport along with some data. That was essential for navigating Windhoek and Swakomund. Thanks goodness for Google maps.

We exchanged many emails and she was always kind and thoughtful with her answers. We really liked the leather travel folder and luggage tags. The travel folder was a good location to keep our documents and vouchers.

The booklet on Notes for Travelers to Namibia & The Coast was very helpful and I appreciated having it as a reference. It was good to know about tipping and the infrastructure. And that the tap water was safe to drink!

I found out about your travel organization because of the Namibia travel book written by Chris McIntyre. I'm excited to donate the new book that you sent along with my maps to the library. When I was researching Namibia, our library didn't have any travel books. Now they will!" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 6 on a Namibia trip