Reviews of safaris to Chobe National Park

"Amazing. A trip of a life time" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"With the exception of ProFlight all ran to schedule. Ground handling good, no delays.

At Xakanaxa airstrip (which incidentally is a new runway positioned a little further from the camps than the 'old' strip) we were very pleasantly surprised to see Banda, our requested guide for Camp Xakanaxa where has been based since last January, albeit we were due at Camp Moremi first. Apparently in agreement with the D&DS marketing manager (regret don't know his name and was not aware he was the South African chap who wished us well as he leaving for the plane we arrived on) we were allocated Banda for the whole of our 5 night stay on an exclusive basis. This is an amazing example of D&DS customer service for which we are truly grateful. If you are aware of the chap's name please let me know and I will send a thank-you e-mail. Thanks should also be extended to all the D&DS staff including Setch and staff at Suvute and Albert (who was 'care-taking' between Moremi and Xakanaxa) and all the staff.

We will undoubtedly return to Nkwali, Savute and delta camps again - don't know when. However in future we will try to avoid Jo'burg airport if only due to the totally inefficient and unfriendly staff at passport control. It takes ages to be processed. Never enough staff on duty. As you maybe aware, there are 2 sections, one deals with SA residents, the other all non-SA passengers.

There are some 25 (maybe more) passport control booths on the non-SA section. Less than half were being manned on our first arrival and only 7 when we arrived form Maun. Coupled with the delays occurring to some families, presumably associated with the recently introduced regulations and paperwork required for people travelling with children, the delays are totally unacceptable. We were directed to stand in a queue behind a family which we were already aware had processing problems and had to wait 20 minutes while they continued to try and resolve without any apparent success so we asked to move and were eventually directed to stand in another queue. There is no efficient management system in place, it's a shambles.

It is not surprising that Lusaka airport is building a new terminal (by the Chinese!) and Maun wants to expand so that passengers can fly direct rather than via Jo'burg which attracts so much criticism. BA used to fly direct to Lusaka but apparently no more. We met people who flew with Emirates via Dubai so for the future it's worth considering another carrier. There may be others." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"This trip was a great introduction to Africa! The amount of preparation and information provided by Expert Africa meant that there was very little that we had to worry about, but still felt that we were in control of our own adventure.

Overall our highlights were exploring the sand dunes at Sossusvlei, our day trip out of Swakopmund to Sandwich Harbour, the wildlife at Etosha NP, the village life and waterways of the Caprivi Strip and the up close and personal experience of Camp Hwange.

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We were incredibly impressed with the service we got from Maruska, she put together our trip at very short notice, was always quick to respond to emails, and seemed incredibly knowledgeable when we spoke to her on the phone. We would happily recommend her and Expert Africa to anyone wanting to book a trip to Africa." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 5 on a Namibia trip

"It had been about nine years since we were last in Southern Africa and we had the pleasurable task of introducing some members of my family to this wonderful part of the world for the first time. It was a bit of a challenge to chart a course of safaris and 'chill-out' in the Cape when you have a combination of first-timers and a couple of 'old lags' to keep happy.

With the patient and knowledgeable Tracy at Expert Africa to help with suggestions and alternatives, I found the task was not as daunting as it might have been even when some members threw a bit of a curve ball at the end of the process, an eventuality that Tracy handled with professional grace and efficiency.

My partner and I have been clients of Expert Africa since Sunvil brought Chris in to broaden its product range. This he has delivered with peerless professionalism and has built a knowledgeable and very competent team over the years who, in this client's opinion, provide the best service available in the UK. Well done all and thanks to Tracy again." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"The trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana with a hotel and two game lodges was well-organised with a good range of activities. Megan at Expert Africa gave good advice about the selection of game lodges and after a few iterations of the itinerary a satisfactory plan was produced.

Our first stay was at the Victoria Falls Hotel on the Zimbabwe side of the falls. We were a bit dubious about visiting Zimbabwe following the long political unrest but our fears were unfounded as the people are friendly and the hotel was charming. On arrival at Victoria Falls Airport we were 6th off the 'plane but it still took about 30 minutes to get our visas. There is no particular hassle or unpleasantness at the airport - it is just a bureaucratic (and expensive) process.

Our one negative comment after getting our visas was the long, hot wait in the airport for a shared transfer with two other couples who were not even staying at the same hotel as us. Since the drive to the hotel is fairly short we thought that a private transfer would have been more sensible after a long and tiring journey rather than a wait of almost 1 hour for the slow immigration process.

The rest of the journeys were quite seamless with on-time pick up at the hotel and a drive to the Botswana border where the driver assisted with exit formalities while another vehicle was waiting to take us onwards to Muchenje, with a stop at Kasane Airport en route to change vehicles.

We had a great welcome at Muchenje Game Lodge. Transfer back to Kasane Airport was provided in the lodge's own vehicle where we were met at the door by the Wilderness Air representative who took good care of us and our bags. The flight to Vumbura air strip was a great experience, even if slightly sick-making!

At Vumbura everything was well organised with pick up and return by the guides. The home trip was quite tiring with flights to Maun and Johannesburg before the long-haul back to London.

In all the whole trip was well organised and the choice of lodges was excellent with a good contrast between Chobe National Park and Chobe River game viewing and Okavango Delta experience." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"We had a wonderful holiday which we enjoyed tremendously - other than the visa concern mentioned at the start the only other thing which It would have been good to know is that tipping is standard and the daily rate per day guide in dollars would have been useful for us to know - also that a general tip to staff is normally given as well - this would give you a chance to have the right amount of cash in hand - as there is nowhere in most of the camps to get any cash - we fortunately had just about enough in various currencies to do this but it was a concern as we had not anticipated this ( probably it being our first time doing this type of trip)" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"A good combination of a remote wilderness camp and a lodge close to the Chobe River section of the park." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"It was our second trip to Botswana and it was another unforgettable one!!!!

We visited different landscapes an environments, saw so many and different species including 3 times wild dogs, 11 different(!) leopards, lions, many and even rare antelopes, probably thousand elephants and finally a pangolin (not to forget about 120 different bird species in total !!!)
We met again so many friendly and helpful people and were happy to join celebrations of Day of Independence.

We will come back to Africa! This trip was our third one with Expert Africa and again everything worked perfect!

Many thanks to wonderful Megan who was so helpful in planing this trip with us and never got tired to answer all our (many!) questions.
Her organisation was perfect and we definitely will plan our next trip to Africa with this very special and knowledgeable agency again!

Thanks again and all the very best to all of you!!!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Botswana safari

"We were very much impressed with every aspect of the organisation of our trip. We expected it to be the trip of a lifetime, and it surpassed our expectations.

We found it reassuring to have the knowledge and expertise of Expert Africa's staff behind us, to guide us through a part of the world of which we had little previous experience. The choice of lodges was perfect, and every arrangement that had been made for us went without a hitch. We were particularly grateful for the huge contributions made by Maruska, in the initial planning of the trip, and Tracy, who took over when we were forced to postpone our trip by 12 months, following a family bereavement.

We would not hesitate to use Expert Africa again in the future, nor to recommend them to friends and family." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We had a wonderful time in both the Victoria Falls area and Botswana.

There were no blips with the organization and all that was expected to happen, happened, and we had no fault to find with it. Any adverse comments in the previous pages [Ed: the individual lodge reviews] are very, very minor ones, but you did ask!

All in all we'd go with Expert Africa again without any doubt." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari