Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"I absolutely loved everything about this trip. I found Namibia to be a fabulous place. I loved the wide open spaces that you cannot describe to anyone who hasn’t seen them. I love the desert and all the fascinating things there, and we only just scratched the surface of what it has to offer.

Of course the wildlife is the big feature of Africa in general, and we certainly. weren’t disappointed on that score.

The people we met, both locals and visitors were friendly and interesting and so informative. We learned about the country and it’s issues since independence, and we learned about other places that some of the visitors we met had been to. Definitely whetted my appetite for Africat.

We realised that we were on a particular circuit so often met the same people who were a day or two ahead of behind us. I think with just about 11 full days, the tour was perfect. We might possibly, in retrospect, with what we know now, have chosen to drive through Etosha and stay a night in one of the other lodges.

Having said that, on our third day at Ongava we spent several hours in the hide and realised just how many animals come to the waterhole. It was non stop in the morning, and breath taking. Then in the evening the rhinos came! It’s interesting that the guides are very cagey about the number of rhinos they have, and it great that they are so protective." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We got the balance of Safari (3 days) and Lazing (6 days) just right and all the properties we stayed at great and as expected.

My reservations about Tanzanian safari are the volume of vehicles around the sighting of a leopard and the crossing; it resembles a traffic jam and the authorities need to place restrictions on the lodges/parks as it did affect the experience.

I would have second thoughts about returning to Tanzania having seen this congestion which I haven't encountered before." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zanzibar holiday

"We enjoyed this trip but not as much as other safaris as the number and variety of animals was disappointing." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"Namibia was an amazing place to visit - quite different from any other country we've been to in Africa - the landscapes were awesome.

Starting the trip at Galton House and ending it there was excellent - it gave us time to recover from the flights etc and at the end of the holiday we could relax, have a shower, a nice meal and get out of our safari clothes, put our normal clothes on ready for the return home and generally chill out!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Flying between camps was ideal as having spoken to people who were driving the distances involved were long and this meant they couldn't cover as much ground as we did. When the Brandt guide is next updated you may want to note that the restaurant 22 Degrees South is closed.

We recommended Expert Africa to several people who were thinking of future African adventures so hopefully more business will come your way in the future." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Botswana was our first return to Africa after many years and we had high expectations. We have come back with great memories having seen some fantastic wildlife, met some lovely and interesting people and had a few adventures.

We feel we have had a good mix of camps and experienced the delta and other areas.

There is just the niggle that we were at Chitabe on the wrong days!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, we were pleased with the service. Lucy asked lots of questions and listened to the answers!" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"We had a wonderful time. Namibia was stunning, the people are friendly and it’s easy to get around. Josh from Expert Africa was excellent with his local knowledge and we would thoroughly recommend. He booked some fabulous places for us to stay and really listened to what we wanted from our trip and delivered 100%." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Wonderful trip. We drove everywhere - not something to be afraid of. The roads are empty and so long as one is careful the gravel roads are fine ( but would recommend a 4 by 4 ). Yes, there are long distances, but I found driving through amazing scenery very enjoyable.

Our accommodation was consistently very good. It seems almost invidious to come up with highlights - everything was good, but my personal favourites were Desert Rhino Camp ( outstanding ), desert elephants at Doro Nawas, the dunes of Sossusvlei, lions in Etosha - I could go on.

Our first visit to Namibia ( but not Africa ) - I should say that I found the people very welcoming and friendly, and we felt perfectly safe everywhere." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"I find Zambia a great destination ,Chiawa and Old Mondoro wonderful camps and Expert Africa the perfect operator to organise and confirm the details." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"Awesome- we were able to feel relaxed because our trip proved to be so well planned with very dependable accommodation and other suppliers - from our greeting by EA's agents at Windhoek airport to the end. The quality of customer service - apart from airport staff / waits at Windhoek and VFA - was outstanding and reached a level unusually good in our experience at Safarikoek

We needed triple accommodation which was not easy to source but in hindsight if available would have gone to Safarihoek last in Namibia, it seemed later accommodation though very good was not quite as special.

Guiding was exceptional and we were able to enjoy not only wildlife but a sense of Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

2 general comments: you may be a bit over generous , in common with other writers , about Namibia's gravel roads and those within Etosha. While much better than sand roads in Botswana, some of those we had to use to reach accommodation were badly corrugated or pot holed and we felt descriptions were a touch over positive.

Other review sites mention airports: we found immigration delays at Windhoek and VFA to be a bad as anywhere in the world and check in at VFA was also a challenge. We may have had bad luck but if not you may want to think about alerting customers. However we didn't follow your advice on checking luggage to JNB then rechecking: in our experience there were no problems at all in checking through to Windhoek from LHR and from VFA to LHR.
But these niggles aside_ it was amazing and your choice of providers very well considered.

And we saw 5 black rhinos....." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"An excellent first trip to Africa and on safari. It exceeded our expectations and was hugely enjoyable.


Suggestions to help us improve

Thank you so much. You were recommended to us and we would recommend you to others." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 5 on a Tanzania safari