Reviews of safaris to Kwando-Linyanti area

"We had a fantastic trip.

Thanks to Sarah Glyde's suggestions we saw a wide range of habitats; we stayed at camps near permanent water channels, another near mopane woodland, another in open grassland.

The range of camps and the stunning flights over the region gave us a feeling for the vastness of the delta and the ever-changing water levels." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"I have tried hard to frame my comments from a specific point of view of an ex tour operator. The majority of our party was overwhelmingly satisfied. My dissatisfaction with Kwando comes from (perhaps unrealistic) previous expectations. The animals, the service, the camps, and the people were all 5 stars. I purposely put off giving this feedback to gain some perspective on the events of the trip, and I feel like what I have said is justified and fair.

I would like to offer some feedback to ExpertAfrica specifically - we were very frustrated with the lack of a final reconciliation 2 months before we left. We were trying to make our individual final payments and there seemed to be no way for us to get a list that said, PAX #1 owes THIS, PAX #2 owes THIS, etc. We ended up having to sit down with literally pages of payment records, separate out our own credit card surcharges, subtract our own payments made to come up with final payment amounts. It was EXCEEDINGLY frustrating. I can't believe that we are the first group travel you've ever dealt with - so it baffles me that a clear and final reconciliation was not provided. I went round and round via email, and requested this several times in several ways, but got the impression that I was asking the impossible.

In addition, I asked about tour arrangements in Cape Town, and was quoted USD75 per person to join a scheduled bus tour. When I asked about a private mini-van, the price doubled. I did a little research and booked privately with a well-known, well regarded tour company who gave us private tours for USD60 per person inclusive of wine tastings and park fees. My issue was that I had no means of contacting them once we were on holiday - although they were great and checked in with Acorn House, and it all went off just perfectly. it would have been much simpler to do this through Expert Africa and I cannot believe that with an office there you can't do better than what was quoted. The LEAST you could do is offer a recommendation of a company you like to save your clients the trouble of finding out. This booking was over USD40,000 and I had to do a lot of the legwork myself - don't get me started on international air because thats a different can of worms. I understand if you can't offer consolidator fares from the US, but arrangements need to be made if you're serving the American market." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"On this trip I traveled with one other person to Botswana, Livingstone, South Luangwa and Malawi from May 17-June 4,2017.
Everything went smoothly-no delays or cancellations.

Highlights: New sightings that included: meerkats, brown hyena, porcupines, genet cat and wild dogs.

This was our third trip to Africa and first to South Luangwa and Malawi. Loved Malawi. It is a beautiful country with beautiful, happy people altho quite poor. The highlights here were the village walk and beautiful relaxing stay at Pumalani. Also loved the staff and surroundings at Mkulumadzi.

Was somewhat disappointed in the lack of wildlife at South Luangwa since we had read about the abundance of wildlife. Also -didn't realize there were no cheetahs(my favorite). However seeing the pack of wild dogs made up for everything.
Botswana-seems to be getting more and more expensive so will probably be my last trip there." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 6 on a Malawi trip

"Wow, it was just wonderful everything went seamlessly. All we wanted to see, we saw - painted dogs, leopards, lions, cheetahs; the whole lot and more. Venues were superb and staff and guides brilliant at all the camps. If we did the same trip again we might stay an extra night at Lagoon, and sacrifice one night at Little Kwara, just because it was so good. Thanks Tracy for all your advice and help, (also Chris for his offer to help with the BA problems - which thankfully did not affect our return.

The small plane flights were great and the hot air balloon trip outstanding." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"Very good." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 4 on a Botswana safari

"Expert Africa is really professional and knowledgeable about this type of travels." Read full review: 5 nights in Africa; 5 on a Botswana safari

"The trip was a big success. Everything worked as planned. Expert Africa was shown to be knowledgeable and competent. I would now recommend them without hesitation, and will in fact do so to individuals who might be good prospects for something similar.

My only period of trepidation occurred after I had transferred a vast amount of money to Expert Africa prior to the trip, and had received no assurance or proof that everything was on the up and up. I don't know what the solution is, but maybe you might consider some sort of escrow or something to reassure new customers that they had not been scammed. I know that I was worried for a few days and actually made some telephone calls to your competitors to make sure that you were for real. You will be happy to know that you passed the test." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Mark Hitchcock took on the task of organising this trip for us. He did a great job and says he could not have done it without Nick Hobbs input.

This was an outstanding trip and my first visit to Botswana. We knew we were taking a risk going towards the end of the rainy season but that we would also see more birds at that time. In the event we had great weather throughout and our drivers also coped with the consequence of the previous flooding. We never got stuck!
In my opinion, with Nick Hobbs input, Mark put together the perfect trip for us. We are very experienced travellers, with a keen and developed interest in the natural world, natural sciences, the environment and exploring new places. We were not there to see the "Big Five" (we did see four of them anyway). We had an unforgettable experience and many, many laughs along the way.

Having been on about 6 weeks of safaris in the past since 1991, i thought this off season trip was also good value for money.

When a problem arose, once we were able to contact you, Chris resolved our issues with an acceptable solution. You cannot ask for more. Well done to him and his team and organisation. I am happy to recommend Expert Africa to others." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"Fantastic!

In the following section, the team member who put our trip together was actually Nick Hobbs; Lucy Copson took over from Nick after he left Expert Africa. My ratings below refer to Nick. Lucy was very helpful and professional in transacting the safari and in dealing with an issue encountered while in Botswana.

Thanks Lucy!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"Overall another great trip.

I recommend EA to all travellers that I meet and anyone who asks for advice on visiting Africa!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari