Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"I have already covered airline problems, we also had a very unfriendly and unprofessional experience with immigration at Nampula.
As advised we were prepared to get our visas at the airport. We were met on the run way by a shouting official, eventually determined he wanted our visa. He took our passports while we waited for the luggage which did not appear.

In the visa office we presented the visa forms provided by yourselves which were rejected, with a lot of shouting, and new cards were presented to us to fill in. The official asked my husband what we were doing in Mozambique, replying ‘tourist’ he shouted that we could have our visas after everyone else. After issuing visas to at least 2 other people who arrived after us we got our visas. Full finger prints were taken, photographs taken, our money was checked for fakes! We definitely got the feeling we were being treated as badly and as slowly as possible.

Another point to make is that the immigration clerks who were issuing the visas were very incompetent, almost ruining my husbands passport. Can I advise that anyone's travelling via Nampula does not try to get their visas at the airport. If they don’t live near London then get a visa company to do it for them and pay extra.

After all this drama we then had the 4 hour journey to Nuarro all in the dark.

Another point is that we were expecting to pay $30 each exit from Mozambique. No money was requested.

Another note regarding visas. We had not booked our return flights on the same ticket so needed to retrieve our luggage in Nairobi and re-enter the airport. This was easily done at the visa desk, a transit visa was issued for $20 each." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Mozambique holiday

"Perhaps not quite up to expectations because game sightings not as intense, prolific or frequent as anticipated. This may have been due to what we understood to be a two year drought.

Having flown economy, we were glad of the opportunity to relax for 2 nights at Victoria Falls before starting the safari. Our afternoon arrival at our first camp coincided with that of another UK couple who had flown from the UK straight to the camp and, unlike us, were too tired to go straight out on an evening game drive." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"In life you get what you pay [Generally] & whilst an Expensive Trip, we couldn't & wouldn't want to fault any part of it. A fantastic Holiday to a part of the World that we wouldn't ordinarily consider venturing to.

Accommodation was unbelievably good / Game Viewing superb & everyone that we encountered friendly & helpful.

If only we'd have found that Cheetah.!! - Oh well that's a good enough reason to return in my book.!!!

Thanks to Lucy Copson for preparing out itinerary & having the patience of Job with our various amendments.

Thanks Guys / Gals.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Off Hand no suggestions other than maybe a little more guidance re Visas & applying / holding hands a little more particularly Zimbabwe.

A great job

Thanks to Everyone involved." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 4 on a Mozambique holiday

"Loved every minute.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"More than met our expectations - we had a fantastic time.

The accommodation was mostly outstanding - we could hardly believe some of the rooms were ours!

The itinerary worked really well. We were fortunate to see a huge amount of wildlife and to have the opportunity to enjoy the scale of the landscape. The roads were sometimes interesting! The Renault Duster was lovely to drive.

'Solitaire' was well worth a stop.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No [Ed: suggestions] - but we would like to thank Tom for his involvement in what proved to be a memorable trip.

Including the guidebook and marking the route on the map was particularly helpful.

Thank you." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Very well organised - all arrangements/transfers worked well. No delays.

Thank you very much!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Something we were not aware of prior to our trip was that not all animals can be seen in all locations. This became very apparent when we were in Old Mondoro/Chiawa - there were no giraffes,. Whilst there should be some personal responsibility, someone who had booked a trip of a lifetime and had a checklist of animals this omission may have caused disappointment - perhaps this could be highlighted when trips are planned." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 14 on a Zambia safari

"A great safari. Was very well looked after and saw all the animals on my wish list. Only slight blip the safari link fiasco." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 11 on a Kenya safari

"The overall trip was brilliant and we'll remember it for ever. All the organisation worked impeccably." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 6 on a Rwanda safari

"As mentioned already, somehow the trip exceeded our expectations, even though we had been planning this for years! I am so glad we went with Expert Africa - a well named company. Having all the internal connections sorted out before we left made a big difference to our enjoyment of the trip in that we could relax, knowing everything was covered.

Lyndsey is great - we had a number of calls and countless emails. She always got back to me very quickly (within 24 hours) and provided clear and full reponses to my many questions and requests. Having the same person to work with throughout the process helped greatly and we couldn't have done better than Lyndsey - thank you." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari

"Thank you Megan (Expert Africa) for arranging this fantastic trip, taking into accounts my preferences and for suggesting the right camps based on my previous reviews.

Everything was organised to perfection.

A great combination of places to stay for varied wildlife experiences." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari