Botswana: reviews from our travellers

"Thank you for organising a great holiday which all four of us enjoyed.

Suggestion - We would have liked to stay overnight in Maun to have a little experience of a Botswana town. May I also suggest a little phonetic crib sheet for speaking a little Setswana. It may be me but I found they usually did not understand my effotrts

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I think I would have liked a little more direction about camps. It was our first time in Botswana and I did not realise that I chose three camps very close in area. If /when we go again I would chose camps in more different areas. I certainly would have liked say 2 nights on the Chobe waterfront and perhaps 2 nights to have a chance to see Rhinos. However these are quibbles becasue we saw a vast range of animals in their natural habitats including good viewing of leopard, cheetahs and wild dogs. Thank you for all the work your team did" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"The whole trip was fabulous. Despite hating cold weather I had no trouble layering up to get out every morning and afternoon to explore the bush some more. The people we met were also interesting because of this common interest to explore. I have always wanted to do this but never fully realized how magical it would be.

Maruska was a great help in setting everything up perfectly and advising that our orlginal idea to track for three weeks would be just too exhausting. We met another couple from Colorado at Little Kwara who had also been delighted with Maruska's service." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari

"The trip as a whole was great. Despite some issues we had a great time." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"So much of this trip was a bit of magic.

From climbing dunes to watching sunrise over the red dunes to watching a group of lions surround our vehicle and literally ROAR at us to watching Cheetahs stalk and kill, to sleeping under the stars, driving for hours on roads and being in this amazing wilderness and not seeing another car for hours and not to forget all the wonderful people we met. Some proprieters of lodges, guests and employees.

Not all of the trip was perfect, but all in all we had an amazing time." Read full review: 26 nights in Africa; 14 on a Botswana safari

"The trip as a whole was very well organised. We came to Expert Africa after I had contacted several other companies who had their ideas about what we should do and did not listen to us and our requests. We did have several revisions of the itinerary but Nick was very patient and helpful throughout.

We were very impressed by the high level of organisation of all the trips we went on and in particular how the 2 companies we were travelling with contacted each other so that we went seamlessly from one part of the country to the other. Flights between locations in Botswana were impressively efficient and on time.

The whole trip went extremely well and met our expectations. i think it might be worth pointing out to travellers who come direct from Botswana to the Uk that they will be travelling for over 24 hours (in our case Kwai- Maun- Johannesburg- London) and to suggest the option of an overnight stay in Jhb." Read full review: 45 nights in Africa; 1 on a Botswana safari

"It was although expensive it was good value.

The organisation of the trip was spot on and logistics were superb." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Everything has been perfectly well organized by Nick and Expert of Africa for our trip to Botswana. They really do Tailor-made trips and can arrange a wide variety of activities and understand very well your constraints (mine were mostly photographic). Everything was pretty smooth with no disappointment just pure joy!

No doubt I will recommend Expert Africa and use their service again.

Thanks you!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"This was the perfectly orchestrated trip, introducing us to southern Africa. Maruska's ability to listen and plan an experience for complete strangers is uncanny.

Her recommendations assured us of perfect days, every day. To be met at a remote airfield, an hour late, by a jeep who dropped us at a waiting boat at the side of the river, met at the other side and taken to a hotel, all by kind, proud, and efficient staff is an amazing feat. It never occurred to us to be worried - we just accepted each step as part of our wonderful journey.

Looking back it could have been a series of mishaps - but it was perfect! Graeme never wants to travel anywhere else because we enjoyed sights and experiences we never imagined - endless desert, rich delta, the power and beauty of the animals, the kind and gentle people, and moving music. Thank you for the gift!" Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"This was such a great holiday.We were so pleased we tried three camps in different areas and we loved them all. Kwando Safaris who ran the camps should be complemented on their camps, staff, service, food and general all round attention to guests comfort and safari experience.The animal sightings were marvellous and probably better than we had anticipated and the Okavango Delta is just beautiful. The whole trip was a huge success.

Note for Megan.........bet you wish you were at the Durban Trade Fair.....we met several people who worked in the travel industry and were vising different camps and some of them were in Africa for 3 weeks!!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We were completely happy with all aspects of your service. Thank you Megan for your suggestions , for putting together our itinerary ,introducing us to Kwando Safaris and organizing our travel arrangements." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Botswana was our 5th trip to Africa on safari holiday. We had very high expectations on the basis of outstanding previous experiences. But we returned very disappointed. There were few exciting moments and our memories, quite honestly, are of relative dullness. Our photos convey this; we have relatively few and those which we have are not as good as others taken on previous trips. The meerkats and vic falls were the exception but this was an extremely expensive way to see them!!

There was just no excitement. We were expecting the delta to be lush and teeming with wildlife but in reality it is just a series of islands interspersed with wet bits. We went all the way to Botswana and didn't even see a hippo! And we saw just one elephant in the water. You see more in Kenya! The country is also very flat and visually dull. Even the short flights are boring.

The guides are all very pleasant but come across as bored. Where is the enthusiasm?

It's hard to put it onto words without coming across as overly moany. We regret going, to be honest, as it is an expensive country (why???) and we could have had 4 good other holidays in place of this one. We won't be recommending Botswana to anyone.

This appears to be a country which is cleverly marketed but fails to deliver in reality." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari