Botswana: reviews from our travellers

"Our expectations wre totally met and more.

Suggestions for improvement:

we would certainly like to thank Sabina for her help. Having done three trips previously we knew what we wanted and some of Sabina's suggestions turned out to be great." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"We would have no hesitation in recommending Expert Africa to our friends.
This was the trip of a lifetime.

Suggestions for improvements:

None whatever!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"I've put Gwynneth down as my main contact, although Maruska did most of the up-front planning of the trip. They were both excellent, and the comments for Gwynneth should also apply to Maruska.

We had a great holiday overall and will treasure the memories from it for years to come. We had some of the best bird and mammal sightings we've ever had.

The mettle of a company is how they cope when things go wrong, and we did have 2 hiccups in our trip. The 1st being when the inbound SAA flight was delayed so we missed our connection in Jo'burg and the 1st night on safari, and then when my mother fell ill at the last camp. On both occasions, we were more than happy with the support we got.

In Jo'burg, we phoned Expert Africa in London and told them of our problems. They put us in contact with a local representative from Wilderness safaris called Dave - he was fantastic and ensured we made our connection the following day. If you could pass on our thanks to him, that would be appreciated. I've already said in our feedback on Vumbura Plains how supportive and professional the staff were there." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 11 on a Botswana safari

"This was our forth trip to southern Africa. It was undoubtedly the best for animal sightings. It was more restricting than driving ourselves around Etosha or the Kalagadi or being driven around Etosha from Ongava in that there is nothing to do between 1100 and 1600. The six people to a vehicle at Kwando is very bad, fortunatel we only had that happen three times in 18 drives so it wasn't too bad. However if we had been there when the camps were full it would have definitely spoilt the holiday.

Salinda, I'm told. have three seats down either side of the vehicle and all other camps we have stayed at have three rows of seats. Apart from being cramped the person in the centre of the three can't see very much as their side view is restricted and those in the second row have forward vision restricted as well.

The Kwando vehicle seating is the only real complaint of the whole trip. The Kwando experience was really fantastic we saw just about every animal we wanted to see, the only exceptions were cheetah and leopard cubs! We would certainly recommend the Kwando circuit to any one, especially Kwara. I think that three nights at each camp is the minimum one should have and we would have been happy with five nights at Kwara. If we were to go back to northern Botswana we would certainly go to Kwara but probably not Lagoon and Lebala.

Baines, whilst not e real dissappointment, was not in the same league a the others. It may be that had we done Baines first we would have felt differently but the guides we had weren't upto Kwado standards and there didn't seem to be enough land to visit different areas on different drives." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Botswana safari

"very good all round,no problems.

Thank you Maruska,we highly recommend your firm having done a fly drive twice.
keep up the good work,2 trips were excellet thank you" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"I read once that a trip to the African bush puts a mirror up to the soul, its teaches you about yourself, in away thats not possible in the city.

I hope that I can discover more of both very soon.
In the mean time I have some great photographs to remember this trip, until my next venture.

Thank you." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"We made the big mistake of putting the trip back from October to November, with the rains arriving very heavily and promptly. We did experience some pretty spectacular storms which sent the animals into the green bush, we must be among the few people who went to Chobe and didnt see an elephant.

It was a lesson to me to research the weather pattern better,and not to be put off by difficulty wih accomodation to push the dates on to a less favourable season

This is not to say that we had a great well organised trip, in which all your arrangemets were well thought out, lodges well selected, and went like clockwork.

We would certainly travel with expert africa again." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"Because we were traveling on our own to Livingstone, Zambia prior to the start of our Botswana adventure we needed to make arrangements to travel from Livingstone to Kasane, Botswana and back again by ground transport. These arrangements were initially a concern for us as they required car transfers, boat transfers and meeting up with our scheduled flights to the camps. But these details were planned and arranged without complication helping to begin and end our trip on a positive note especially considering the many things that can potentially go wrong when crossing borders in Africa and using multiple forms of transport!

November is considered a shoulder season in Botswana and thus the costs are usually a bit lower. But this is because it is also the start of the rainy season. Weather is obviously beyond the control of any planning and if you travel during this time you must plan for possible rain (Of course it could just as easily start earlier or later). In our case the first rains happened to occur on November 4th, the night before we arrived in Botswana. Nearly every day there was at least overcast and the threat of rain for some portion of the day with occasional light showers on several occasions. We were prepared for this and it did not dampen our enthusiasm for our trip. If you travel during this time you should be prepared for this possibility too.

Kwando provides nice ponchos on every game drive but it is recommended you carry at least a light or medium weight jacket and personal rain gear as desired as it is surprising how quickly one can get cold in a moving vehicle once you get a little wet, and especially in the evening, even when it had been 90+ degrees earlier in the day. That all said we had only one game drive that was significantly impacted by rain enough to return to camp and most game drives had little or no rain. Game remained plentiful during our visit.

Laundry service is available in each camp but drying is at the mercy of the weather so keep that in mind. At our last stop in Kwara things never really got dry (towels, socks, shoes) even though it didn't rain all that much. Can't imagine what it might be like at the height of the rainy season!

Kwando uses custom safari vehicles that are completely open (no roof, canvas or otherwise). This is absolutely fantastic for photography but be advised it provides no protection from rain or the sun. So bring sunscreen, hats and long pants and long sleeve shirts if sun exposure is a concern for you as it was for me. The vehicles have 2 rows of seats with room for 3 people in each row. If you happen to get lucky and have only four passengers in the vehicle this is very comfortable and great for amateur photographers like myself who bring way too much gear! If you have 5 or 6 it is not quite so great especially for the person in the middle particularly if they are an avid photographer. Each vehicle has both a guide and a tracker which is an excellent luxury to have for game spotting.

Suggestions for improvement:

The superb Expert Africa website was what first drew me to the company and contributed to my booking with Expert Africa despite being from the US. This feedback form is a nice feature although it tends to time out quickly if you tend to be overly long winded with comments as I am! I suggest you write and save your comments elsewhere and then cut and paste to this from when you are ready." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"This trip was our first to Botswana and our first dealings with Expert Africa (EA).

I can honestly say that all the staff at EA were excellent with sorting out the itinerary for us and giving us advice when asked - everything went just like clockwork with no problems encountered. The paperwork etc. was just perfect explaining many of the things we had doubts about.

The Botswana people were the friendliest we have met anywhere in Africa and because of this we hope to make a return trip soon.

To conclude I would like to thank you all at Expert Africa again for setting all this up for us and making it one of the best safari holidays we have ever had.

Suggestions for improvement:

We did have a worry regarding the number of blank pages required in the passports, but needn't have panicked as I started with 7 blank pages and still had 6 at the end!! We were told that we needed 3 for each country visited." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and we do like to visit Botswana as the people are so friendly.

Flights were all on time so no delays." Read full review: 37 nights in Africa; 5 on a Botswana safari