Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"Stunning! A huge variety of memorable experiences, diverse lodges and special people made this trip everything we hoped for.

Tracy Lederer take a bow as your help, suggestions, comments and patient answers to our many questions made this trip work as well as it did. Everywhere we stayed added something special to our overall experience and your suggestions of adding a private safari and a trip down to San Camp made a great trip a spectacular experience. Our private safari with Kazuma will always be very special and you may have spoiled us for the future!

We did not know what to expect from Botswana. The old mantra was Botswana was high cost because of low vehicle numbers/tourists. In our experience that is not totally true any more. Chobe around Kisane is so busy from the land and the river that it is unpleasant in places and it looks like development is continuing at pace. Some of the companies who run river trips are aggressive and do not consider the animals or other boats. Having said all of that, seeing the hundreds of elephants on the Chobe River near Kasane and being able to watch them swim makes this still a wonderful place to visit. Moving quietly in boats is a fascinating way to see wildlife from a different perspective. Savute and Khwai are both busy with Khwai being particularly so at times. In Khwai and Savute you can, however, leave the crowds around the lions or the dogs and go off and find your own wonderful wildlife which we could do with our private guide.

The wildlife is not the wide variety of plains animals that you see in Kenya or South Africa. Botswana is not the place for a quick tick-list safari. What you do have is much more intense and lengthy experiences with the animals you see. We found most of the animals to be very relaxed and not bothered by vehicles or boats. The variety of landscapes is breathtaking. The guiding is very, very good in general.

We are used to travelling in a variety of little planes which are used like taxis so they were not a shock. The routes are not finalised until the day before you fly so be prepared for short hops to drop off and pick up other passengers from a variety of dirt air strips. You may not get to leave at a time that suits you. The small planes we took were a mixed bag but the young pilots all seemed professional. The planes could get a little bumpy but nowhere near as bumpy as the road trip would have been!

We did not expect to come away with an understanding of how the different management styles between Botswana and Namibia affected the wildlife and the land. Although explained to us several times we are still struggling with the geography of the Delta! We did not expect to learn so much about the Salt Pans and how everything managed to survive such a harsh environment. We learned so much about animal behaviour by being able to take the time to sit and watch what was going on and have everything explained by well-trained and enthusiastic guides. We listened to the calm debate about the possibility of reintroducing hunting in Botswana. We met some wonderful like-minded travellers and some that were not so pleasant but that is what happens on safaris: you learn when to speak and when to leave subjects alone! We met some really special Batswana people whose enthusiasm for their country is wonderful.

This was a special holiday for us that we had wanted to do for a long time. We have been lucky enough to travel to many African countries, some repeatedly but had never made it to Botswana before. We would llike to return!

A few hints.
- A number of tourists did not realise how cold it can get at night so take clothes you can layer, a puffer jacket or fleece and even gloves and a hat.
- Take a torch and spare batteries.
- Take a kanga or a kikoy with you so that when the temperature gets unbearable you can soak it and wrap it around your neck to keep you cool. It also helps when it is very dusty to cover your mouth and nose.
-Laundry is done almost everywhere so you do not need as many clothes as you think and it is certainly not a fashion show.
-Almost everywhere we stayed provided shampoo, conditioner, soap and mosquito spray so you can save weight on not bringing too much of these.
- Stick to the baggage size /weight recommendations if you are in small planes. They really can not take suitcases! Have something different like a bright ribbon on your handle. We saw one group of around 20 all travelling with the same bags that were just like ours!
- Cross pack with someone you are travelling with in case one bag goes missing somewhere!
- Money: Botswana Pula is not available out of the country. There is no cash machine in the new airport at Kasane. There is a cash machine at a shopping strip in Kasane town so your driver may stop for you if you ask. I do not know about Maun. We carried US dollars cash with us for tipping (with a number of small bills for porters) and we carried more than we thought we would need.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
You are streets ahead of the opposition and I recommend you to anyone and everyone. The knowledge of your staff is first-hand and they always take our likes, dislikes and experiences into account when suggesting holidays. Seems simple but not often done!

Your web site is amazing however too many of your description pages that I was browsing now say that the lodge has not been visited since ... (quite a few years ago) I know it is impossible to keep totally up to date but a lot of pages are well past their use by date so maybe time for some more visits to keep your pages up-to-date and the comments relevant. Chris and I will volunteer to help whenever you like! :D

You do not have Aardwolf or Elephants on your San animal list." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"We had a fantastic trip, i was expecting great things, but i was still surprised at how great the trip was .

i would go back tomorrow and the next day,...

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

the trip was wonderful, Im sorry but i do find you website a bit dull, i prefer to go onto other web sites for inspiration and pre-holiday excitement. however that is small and wouldn't stop me using expert africa. the knowledge of the team is phenomenal" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Botswana safari

"It was a fantastic trip. Better than just "very satisfactory". It was organised for us by Tom who put together a great mix of experiences for us. Importantly all the logistics and connections worked perfectly. Thank you Tom and Expert Africa." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"We were a a group from three continents.

Based in UK all information and luggage tags etc were received but this was not the case for our USA and South African family. Hard copy travel data was not posted to the other's addresses. Although Expert Africa did not know the other's address they should have asked." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"Another very well organised trip with Expert Africa.

Freddie responded well to our request to select camps primarily for the quality of their guides. The camps were all of high quality and each had unique experiences, and great, knowledgable and experienced guides.

It is pleasing to see each camp supporting their local communities and doing their best to protect the wildlife and prevention of poaching. Clearly they are managing despite the current political and economic crises facing the country and are well worth supporting.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We like the fact that we can chat to your reps and you make suggestions to help us choose camps and locations based on our past experiences with you and don’t simply refer us to your website or brochures so the trip is truly tailored to our wishes." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Zimbabwe safari

"The trip was magical, a real bucket list holiday.

We were very happy with the thoroughness of the preparation and efficiency with which Lucy planned and booked our trip.

She was always available to answer our questions and her enthusiasm for Zambia and these two lodges added to the wonderful anticipation of our trip.

The only negative were the amount of tsetse flies.....the game rangers most willingly created a fire at the back of the vehicle using elephant dung and this was a great help !" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"This was a fabulous trip. Well organized and worked like clockwork.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, would happily use Expert Africa again" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari

"This was a fantastic trip, which exceeded expectations, everything ran very smoothly.

It was good that we were met at Lusaka airport and assisted with check-in, which were not expecting.

We would have no hesitation in re booking with Expert Africa and recommending them to others." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari

"Namibia was wonderful - so much more colourful than we expected.

The typical Namibian lodge we stayed in was in a good location (a bit of a drive from the main road), had well appointed rooms with a view, a warm welcome, a sundowner spot or drive, a 'signature' activity, and a nice dinner and breakfast. Service in general was good everywhere. 2 night stops in most locations worked well - we generally needed a full day to do whatever the 'signature' activity was.

Our highlights were Fish River canyon - it's a long, long drive south, but really worth it, Tok Tokkie Trails - sleeping under the stars, and Etosha - Okaukuejo camp facilities weren't great, but the water hole made it so much better than staying outside the park.

4WD car essential, together with an ipod for the long drives and in September in the south the nights were very cold - need jacket and a hat!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Can't fault anything about the trip.

We had a couple of problems - delayed bag, forgotten Kindle, on both of which we were helped by the local team - thank you!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"If anyone were to ask me how I would do it again, I think that I would make the trip a bit shorter and only use the Robin Pope facilities. If I had known how much I was to see in the first 8 days, I would have been happy to shorten the trip. But as a first timer I did not know this. I certainly do not regret the Kafunta add-on to my trip, but it would have been okay without it as the first 8 days were so perfect." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zambia safari