Reviews of safaris to Central Kalahari Game Reserve

"In 1 word: epic." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"Pre-trip planning was great. I had many back-and-forth conversations with Megan and we tailored a trip that met our specific needs. We had to go through several rounds of proposals until we got the right one, and Megan was patient, prompt, friendly and very helpful. We definitely could not have arranged the trip without her guidance.

Once on the ground in Africa, we encountered a major problem. Because I was traveling without my wife, I was told by the border agent in Namibia that I needed to present my son's birth certificate, a letter from my wife giving me consent to travel alone with my son, and a copy of my wife's passport. This is all due to child trafficking prevention laws in southern Africa. I was not aware of these requirements and had to call my wife at 2am in the morning US time so that she could send me a copy of my son's birth certificate. The border agent also wanted the letter and her passport scan but I told her there was no way I could get those in short order and she reluctantly let us in to the country.

Over the next few days, I had my wife get a notarized letter and scan that and her passport and send to me. This, however, was not technically in compliance with the laws of these countries, as I was supposed to have an original copy of both the birth certificate and the letter. This meant that any border agent in Zimbabwe or Botswana could have decided to follow the law exactly and decline us entry into their country.

Upon reviewing the itinerary from Expert Africa, I did see a short section about traveling with children under 18 in southern Africa. It was several pages into a long itinerary, it was pretty vague (it mentioned a birth certificate but nothing else), and no one at Expert Africa - either by phone or in email - ever pointed this out to me.

I feel that this was a major failure on the part of the company. I had several restless nights wondering if I was going to miss an entire week of my trip due to this, I had to call my wife in the middle of the night, I spent time talking to the US consulates in each of these countries and generally this caused me a lot of stress.

I want to be very clear with this: any time Expert Africa has a parent and child traveling with them, they should repeatedly and proactively remind the parent to get all necessary documentation in order weeks before the trip takes place. This should not be left to a small-print section at the back of a document. As much as I loved my trip and the service I got planning the trip, I don't think I can recommend Expert Africa to friends unless I have confidence that other travellers would not be put in the same situation that my son and I were put in." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"We really liked the suggested itineraries on the Expert Africa website. If we were to book again we might spend a little more time analysing the alternative camps." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"I've been to Africa on numerous occations and so decided to visit locations that I haven't been to before. Central Kalahari, Naxi Pan and Kwando concesion in the Okavango.

The three camps that I've stayed in, Tau pan, Naxi pan and Kuara are all run by Kwando safaris. The camps, situated in great locations, were stylish, spacious, comfortable and clean.

The teams were friendly, profesional, easy to talk to and made us as wellcome as possible.
The food was varied and tasty, pesonally I love a buffet and was spoiled with alternative dishes to accomodate my lactose intolerance.

The tents/rooms were enormous and very comfortable.

All the guides and trackers that I've spent time with were cheerful motivated and knowledgable.

Being the rainy season I knew that animal sighting could be patchy, although pleasingly Naxi pan was busy with wildlife due to the limited water supply.

I was delighted to find out that most people I've met were repeat visitors to Africa, some many times over.

Overall I was satisfied with my holiday. Unfortunately the Okanango section of my trip didn't live up to expectations due to few animal sitings." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 13 on a Botswana safari

"Potentially it was a great trip but the insect bite which resulted in hospitalisation in Johnannsburg rather took the shine off!

However all the people at Kwando Safaris were extremely helpful." Read full review: 7 nights in Africa; 3 on a Botswana safari

"Excellent.

I would try to combine trip to Okavango into one day if possible. I understand concerns with border crossing (as I had them) but very fast even though we lost power and were held up. I also would have spent another day at Okonjiwa although it would have broken my budget.

As Welwitschia Drive took so long and the map was so bad we ended up climbing Dune 7 at 6:30 pm which was a blessing. The sand was cool and climb was easy. In general I highly recommend the trip.

I will say we were rather unique travelers in that we were not looking for the massive herds and numerous predators. We had seen that before. Our interest was in the smaller things, nocturnal animals, unique environments and sustainable responses to those environments. So this might not be for everyone but worked perfectly for us." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"The (waterproof) ponchos with built in fleeces that all camps provided were excellent - saved bringing an extra layer.

We all used wooly hats and gloves first thing so thank you for the advice. The glass water bottles they provided were heavy and breakable so we did not use them. Laundry was efficient. Ridiculously small wash basins at Tau pan meant it was difficult to wash your "smalls". Expert Africa's beautiful travel wallet was left behind - with only 15 kgs allowed did not need another 250gms! All in all, a very special anniversary trip which was well planned and in the correct order.

Tau pan gave us a bottle of champagne and Splash organised a special last night anniversary dinner for the 4 of us and we made sure Moz, our guide, joined us too as we got on so well with him.
We enjoyed the singing and dancing at all the camps - many of the songs were directed at us personally.

We have now done many trips with Expert Africa, and come back to you because of your experience and knowledge of the countries and camps and advice on where to go next." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"We would definitely recommend Expert Africa to our family and friends.

We have received personalise assistance and guidance throughout all aspects of our holiday. We cannot praise Maruska enough. She has been at the end of emails and phone calls ready to answer all questions and give us help. Thank you Maruska.

All the bookings and flights worked well and we cannot fault the organisation in any way.

The company website gave great information, helping us to make our choices of camps to our needs and the camps that we _booked_ lived up to expectations.

Well done Expert Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service: Any suggestions have been made in our feedback on the camps.

There are certain camps that I would suggest for a longer stay of three nights. One being Dinaka but this might be dependent on what an individual was looking for. My suggestion is based on us being keen photographers.

It could also be noted that a bush walk at one camp could be quite different from another. Dinaka is our example in this as the walk is done by a Sen bushman. This had more appeal to us than the walks at other camps. So a ‘what to expect’ from this activity could be useful.

Noting the different types of vehicles in use is a minor point but useful. When we moved from Kwando camps to Ker Downey camps I failed to notice that the side of the truck (where you step in) had a lower opening. This meant that I did not have some items, including my feet, clear of the floor surface when we went through water meaning that my feet and the company blanket (which was hanging down over my legs) got soaked." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"A fantastic holiday experience only marred slightly by abysmal international flights with British Airways which is not Expert Africa's fault in any way.

Very, very pleased with Tracy Lederer (and Lucy Copson who stood in for her when Tracy was away).

Lodges well chosen with wonderful accommodation, guides, variety of landscape, wildlife and activities." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 15 on a Botswana safari

"Ultimately Expert Africa was helpful with two rebookings over the pandemic but they really made the first one troublesome, first telling me to pay balance and I would get a refund if I couldn't make it and then refusing to give me the refund!!!

Inevitably, when reviewing so many different things, one is bound to make some comparisons resulting in not everyone getting an “excellent” review. Plus, I completely lost track of any individual lodge’s pricing since I bought a package to start and then we had several years of adjustments. So, I wasn’t really rating based on “value”. For example, Otjimbondona really impressed us but it might have been crazy expensive!!

Overall, it was an excellent trip and I appreciated the variety of experience. The self drive portion was much easier than anticipated and it was great having that independence after the very prescribed Botswana portion. It was absolutely beautiful reaching the coast at Luderitz (and seafood!) after so much desert time." Read full review: 37 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip