Botswana: reviews from our travellers

"We had a great time.

The Kwando camps are excellent.

Everyone did their best to help us have the best time.

We would thoroughly recommend Kwando and Expert Africa to all prospetive travellers.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The only suggestion is keep up the good work!!" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"It was a very pleasant and comfortable safari experience. Service was impeccable, loved the social dining. Would gladly come back again." Read full review: 3 nights in Africa; 3 on a Botswana safari

"Our trip was utterly memorable - we had a wonderful time. Namibia provides such a diverse landscape - from desert to the lushness of the Caprivi Strip.

We are glad that we did the itinery we did - of course one learns things for next time! We would not have bothered with Swakopmund - we did not find it an attractive place at all. What we really wanted to do from there was a flight down over Soussevlei but were unable to get booked on anything. Had we known about this in advance we could have booked a flight earlier but of course recognise that no tour operator can tell the clients everything! With hindsight another day in Soussevlei would have been useful to have had more time to explore and climb the dunes.

The whole trip went very smoothly indeed apart from entering Zimbabwe - we did not know that you still need a Covid certificate to enter there and also $55 cash for the visa - it would have been useful to have been told this - thankfully we had a very helpful assistant on our transfer from Botswana who baled us out. But without exception all other transfers etc when super smoothly which was great.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Gosh - it's a hard enough job trying to get a handle on what the client wants I don't know how you could do it any better!" Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Super trip, extremely well organized.

A meet and greet at every critical transfer point and I was well looked after throughout, especially when upset stomach occurred" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"Usually you remember a safari by the wildlife sightings and interactions. In the case of the Central Kalahari and the Kalahari salt pans we will remember the diverse topography and amazing landscapes. That said in the Central Kalahari we have never seen so many Giraffe and Oryx and equally in the Salt Pans the Wilderbeest were in huge numbers." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"The Expert Africa staff were excellent. From beginning to end, we always had staff directing us to where we had to go including getting us across the Botswana Zimbabwe border. Everyone was on time and professional. We felt completely cared for. I would highly recommend using Expert Africa and when I decide to take my next safari, I will be using them again!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"We love Botswana and a good part of that is Expert Africa.

The service and attention to detail is outstanding and really lends to the enjoyment of the trip . We will always use them for our trips to Southern Africa ( this was our fourth trip with them). They truly are expert in the area. Also Tracy Lederer is a great friend and guide for us, making it easy and super fun." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"We had a wonderful time in Botswana and will have many happy memories of our trip." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"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