Africa: Reviews from our travellers

"We very much enjoyed the itinerary. Fish River Canyon was lovely, but clearly many people do not have time to do there. It was empty! People are missing out on some lovely scenery. It was a very good time of year to see Etosha, it is almost too easy to spot the wildlife! Using the N$35 guidebook is very helpful, shows you where all the waterholes are and what to look for at the waterholes. Great investment.

No hawkers etc, fantastic. Shops well stocked, road signs excellent, even if some of the roads are not quite excellent, but many are fine. Changing travellers cheques takes time!!!! I work for a bank and was able to help the teller through the system, otherwise it would have taken hours not he 45 minutes it actually took!!

yes we will do more trips to Africa, but not immediately

Suggestions for improvement:

As experienced travellers, the help and service was perfect for us." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"The whole trip was excellent. From my initial query all the way through I dealt with Gwynneth, her suggestions were spot on, she was always more than happy to answer my questions. I would normally arrange a holiday myself, but not having travelled in Africa before it was a reassurance to have one company to book everything, and I couldn't have picked a better company than Expert Africa.

It was good to be able to read other people's experiences on the website, I found that one of the most useful tools for selecting lodges, along with Gwynneth's good advice. I wouldn't change a single part of our holiday.

Namibia itself is a wonderful and varied country, the scenery is vast and ever-changing. The people we met were welcoming & seemed genuinely happy that we'd chosen Namibia to visit, their sense of humour, and good nature added to the whole enjoyment of the trip, not to mention the singing, even when doing the most mundane jobs. The birds, animals and night sky were a bonus.

Two of our party were vegetarian & we had no problems whatsoever with food, with notice it didn't seem to be a problem. My father was most impressed that you can buy Marmite in the supermarkets, and two lodges we stayed at even had it on the breakfast table!

I shall return one day, hopefully in the not too distant future & will happily use Expert Africa's services again.

Suggestions for improvement:

Keep doing what you're doing, it works very well." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Excellent.

From the planning and organisation (including the marking of the route on the map) and all of the information we were given to the experience of the holiday itself this was a perfect trip.

We would recommend Expert Africa to anybody contemplating going to this part of the world (and indeed have done)

We knew very little when we started looking at the possibility of this trip but Sabina's help has been superb. Whenever we told people in Namibia where were going we were told what an excellent itinerary we had been given. Thank you." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Wonderful. We have had a short game trip in the Kruger many years ago but this exceeded our expectations. Ian used to live in Zambia as a teenager and this was his first visit back there for 45 years. He now wishes he had returned earlier. Gloria had never seen the Victoria Falls and she thought it was fantastic.

We thought Botswana and its people were delightful and would not hesitate to recommend this trip to our friends.

Thank you everyone.

Suggestions for improvement:

No very happy with the way the trip was organised." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"A most wonderful trip but slightly tainted by a very dissapointing visit to Kings Pool Premier Camp. The pure extravagance and oppulance does not compensate for poor game viewing.

If Wilderness Safaris are moving to towards more and bigger Premier camps I trust they retain some of the Clasics." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"In fact I would go higher than this if the choices allowed and say that it was truely memorable. The key factors were:

1. The initial conversation with Chris and and Anna to help make our choices.
2. The Expert Africa web site is just brilliant at providing information for making informed choices.
3. The way that Anna coomunicated with us and when necessary made changes to accommodate our preferences.
4. The Lodges did just what it says on the tin.
5. The wildlife was beyond our expectations
6. The Delta and Chobe are a good combination

If I could improve on this the only thing I would need is a trip that geared to the needs of a video enthusiast. Guides that don't talk too much and fellow tourists that can avoide asking questions or chating when I am filming. Not many tourists take video so don't understand how much a microphone can pick up. The only answer is to have a truck to yourslef but at $500 a day at Duba is a bit too much on top of the trip cost.

This was our second trip organised with Expert Africa. My comments above reflect the high satisfaction we have with both the individuals and the company. This was also reflected by others whom we met on this trip who had booked with Expert Africa. We particualrly appreciate the care in making selections geared to what we like doing. The two way communication feels more like a partnership than a traditional customer relationship. You have proved that this standard can be maintained so we would have no hesitation in both coming to you again and recommending others to save themselves a lot of trouble and use Expert Africa." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"A well planned itinerary ensured that we had an extremely enjoyable trip with many memorable experiences.

Fifteen days was not long enough to take it all in.

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We can't think of anything." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"In a word - excellent.

We were also most impressed to receive a signed copy of Chris's book and about him giving up a hour or two after hours one friday evening to talk everything through and answer all our initial questions. We also found Lucy a fountain of useful information and suggestions, who also gave prompt answers to any queries I had." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zambia safari

"We really feel we had the best honeymoon we could have done, and are so glad we chose Tanzania, and Expert Africa to help us achieve this. Ellie really listened to what kind of an experience we wanted, all her recommendations were true to what she'd said, and suited us in terms of what we'd asked for, and our budget.

Going on safari is expensive, and we were initially quite taken aback at how much it does cost - however we could both see where our money had gone in terms of accomodation, food, guiding and ambience of the places we stayed. I don't think you would get that at bigger camps or on a more budget trip, so we were glad we balanced the safari part with the beach part - it's good you can do this.

It was a great choice to visit both Selous and Ruaha as the terrain is very different, and so was the difference in how close you could get to the animals - the ones at Selous, especially zebra, were more skittish than at Ruaha due to it being a game reserve as opposed to a national park.

We would definitely use Expert Africa again - we're already dreaming about coming back during migration to the Lamai wedge! and have already recommended you to some of our friends wanting to go on safari.

Thanks for getting things right for us, we had a great time in a beautiful and friendly country.

Suggestions for improvements:

Nothing we can think of!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Tanzania safari

"The mark of a top operator is fitting the right trip to the client. This was achieved perfectly. A difficult spec - a mixed party of 8, including youngsters ages 8, 11, 15 and 17 - most of whom had not been to Africa before. We were tight on high season dates too.

Maruska came up with a trip which really fitted the brief, and scored at least 9 out of 10 from the participants.

Particularly excellent was Santantadibe Mobile Camp in the Okavango Delta - all ages (8-51) loved the genuinely African experience, the fact we had it all to ourselves, and the super hosting/guiding of Grant and Daphe. Well done!" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 4 on a Botswana safari