Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"I have been on safari many times but I rate this holiday as the best.

The internal flights meant that we lost very little precious time in the bush. We were on a game drive at 9.30 am on day 1 after a short flight from Arusha to Kuro and we saw a leopard in a tree before lunch.

Our morning flight to Kogatende gave us time to see a river crossing before lunch.

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Difficult to improve on the best." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Tanzania safari

"A great holiday - very difficult to find fault with anything, all aspects were of an excellent standard - except

There seemed to be a bit of a mix up when we arrived at Dar es Salaam and nobody came for ages to take us to the domestic flight area - did turn up eventually but it was a bit disconcerting to be virtually the last people off the plan still waiting for a lift, after that everything went well." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Tanzania safari

"We have had another wonderful holiday – our third trip to Namibia, and at least 9th with Expert Africa – but things could have been better.

Our feedback reflects what we have come to expect from Expert Africa – a minimum 4-paw grading for everything – therefore 5 paws are very hard to achieve and reflect something exceptional.

We were very annoyed by the cancellation of the direct Air Namibia flights; this caused us significant inconvenience. We met so many people who shared our views – from fellow travellers to lodge owners to guides – everybody was unhappy about it. Having been forced to fly via Frankfurt we thought Frankfurt airport was very poor – lack of signage, few shops, little seating and even a mouse in the Business Class lounge. Toilets were dirty. The process will make us think twice before going back to Namibia.

However........ arriving at Windhoek in the morning we found the drive up to Etosha no problem – there were 2 of us to share the driving and we stopped off for shopping and lunch on the way – we definitely prefer to get straight on the road rather than spending a night in Windhoek and effectively wasting a day. We'd recommend buying a Namibian SIM for your mobile at the airport (took 5 mins and cost around £10) – others tend not to work, even with Global Roaming enabled – and we did use it when we discovered we'd left Ghaub with the room key in a pocket!

We'd always thought the road signs on the B1 warning of warthogs rather amusing but we saw dozens on the side of the road this time! Our trip was mostly on tar roads this time, which is great in some ways but they can be very straight and boring – in particular the roads through the Caprivi. We were glad we had booked a 4X2 vehicle for driving some of the tracks in Etosha and Mahango – no need for 4x4 at this time of year.

We were so pleased we were doing a one-way trip; we met many people who had found the driving tiring and were not looking forward to the drive back to Windhoek from the Caprivi. We had tried to slow things down and space them out so that most of our drives were less than 4 hours and, where possible, we spent at least 2 nights in accommodation. This gave us the chance to take advantage of the activities on offer and relax (eg at Hakusembe).

Many lodges do not provide drinking water (or at cost) so we suggest buying a 5 litre bottle in a supermarket (about N$15) and taking it with you.

We would happily repeat our holiday and revisit any of our accommodation with the exception of Namutoni – no way!

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We have travelled with EA so many times it must be a recommendation in itself! We did do some market testing on this trip and found competitors more expensive. We're already organised for next summer's trip.

However, on rare occasions accuracy of quotations is somewhat sacrificed in the interests of getting them to clients quickly. This is obviously partly due to the complexity of trips but can be frustrating." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Wonderful trip. Namibia is a great place for a holiday. It has amazing scenery and wildlife, excellent accomodation and a good road network. We found traveling around by car easy and safe.

There is very little traffic, even on the major roads. Any problems we did have, mainly punctures, were quickly solved. Even though we were there in the main tourist season none of the places we visited seemed crowded.

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No. Tracey gave us excellent advice when we were planning our trip and very helpfully answered our numerous questions." Read full review: 27 nights in Africa; 25 on a Namibia trip

"We had an unbelievable time and would like to thank Expert Africa, and in particular Claire Scott for all her help and advice - particularly as we had to rearrange the trip because of the health issues!

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Difficult to know what to say as we had such good service and a great trip. The only thing i would say is that the photographs of the lodges, particulary of Shumba don't do them justice.....so nothing to worry about there then!!" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zambia safari

"This was our third trip to Namibia, and we had a great time. The organisation by Expert Africa was very good, and recommendations, by and large, were very reliable.

Suggestions for improvements:

Could provide advice about reclaiming tax on gifts - we are unable to cash the cheque we received at Windhoek Airport with our UK bank account.

Could remind travellers along the Capriva strip about the time difference - we were an hour late for our Susuwe pickup" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"one of the most memorable holidays we have had

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The service you provided was excellent" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"thoroughly enjoyed ourselves....would do very little different if starting again. it should be said that we had very fixed ideas long before contacting Expert Africa, and it was a bit of a debate whether to book through you or do it ourselves. Because of this my comments below are frugal and at times we might have been a handful for Sabina. I have to say I am very glad we booked with you and that we were assigned one person...Sabina.

Sabina's advice to stay a couple of nights in some places was probably correct and at Sossus Dunes Lodge and Erongo we could have certainly done with the extra night. We booked flights independently and then Air Namibia stopped flying from the UK. We weren't allowed onto the replacement BA flight at Heathrow and if Expert Africa hadn't sorted it at a moments notice we wouldn't have got there!

Sabina had to rebook everything because of the revised flights which would have been difficult for us alone. We had an accident and we were really grateful for the support from you that was always available on the end of the phone. I should also say that if you hadn't made extra insurance readily available, we would now be very out of pocket...naively we would have thought that the car hire would cover it.

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no since approaching perfection!
I would certainly recommend you...and my photos are already drumming up new business!" Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"As a whole and forgetting Doro Nawas it was superb and one of the best if not the best holiday's I've ever had." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"We really loved our trip. I think we were both surprised particularly as to how much we thoroughly enjoyed the safari part of the trip, even though we thought we'd be really tired after our wedding.

The advice we received before we booked was so helpful as we really had no idea what we wanted to do and speaking to someone who had visited all the places and could answer even the smallest queries was really helpful and helped us to make a really good choice of trip. And it also meant that when we arrived, everything was as we expected and there were no nasty surprises!! The website was really helpful - we found all the reviews from people who had recently travelled to the places was really helpful as well to help us make our decision, and the descriptions about each place were very thorough.

It was the first time we had used a travel agent to book an entire trip and it was so good - everything worked so well. All the details we received before we travelled was very helpful and thorough and made it easy for us to check that everything was booked as we had discussed. During our trip all our transfers were there to pick us up on time and all the hotels expected us when we arrived - it was all very efficient.

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I don't think I can think of anything you could do better!

Thank you for helping us organise a wonderful honeymoon!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zanzibar holiday