Malawi: reviews from our travellers

"A great trip. Am already planning the next one. Claire have you any ideas?" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"The camps we visited were great. But you could just as easily book them directly and frankly, I wish I had done.

We needed a transfer from the local airport to Mumbo Camp and for this were presented by EA with an invoice for about £600. I queried this and got a response fro EA that I found both patronising and condescending. It transpires that EA does not supply the transfers and knew very little about them. Apparently, it goes through a whole load of intermediaries who all seem to add a slice. You are much better going direct.

In the end I used a local taxi firm and did the transfers for about £100 from Andrew at Anake Taxi, Excellent firm, use them if you need a taxi in Malawi, we found him safe and so ignore the scare stories.

So the EA website is great but the level of support knowledge and expertise I found to be a long way below "expert" as I think I managed to do a better job myself.

I have been on many safaris over many years and used agencies before but found EA to be the least useful of any to date.

I will book with the camps directly in future or with a different agency." Read full review: 4 nights in Africa; 2 on a Zambia safari

"Malawi is the third trip that we have booked with Expert Africa in the last year following Namibia and Rwanda (incorporating Uganda) and disregarding the issue with the Ulendo flight from Likoma and the miscommunication with Latitude 13, it was another wonderful trip.

Many thanks as always for the organisation and recommendations that have made our trips so memorable and special. We look forward to the preparations for our next one.

Sincerely, Anna & Malcolm

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Pack me in one of your suitcases please.....😊

Its always a pleasure dealing with the staff of Expert Africa!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 9 on a Malawi trip

"Great trip. Everything happened as per plan. The only reservation was about the new Robin Pope camp and that needs commencing to the owners.

Otherwise, an amazing experience, and we saw far more wildlife than we were led to expect from the literature.

The country felt safe and friendly and the lack of hordes of visitors made you feel you were experiencing the real Africa." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 12 on a Malawi trip

"We went to Malawi after many visits to the RPS camps in Zambia. Whilst we did not expect to see rhinos or big cats in Malawi, we did see many species of antelopes, including sable, roan and nyala for the first time, and also many new birds.

Photography in Majete was more difficult than we had anticipated, because of the dense woodland.

Our impression was that the camps were underresourced in terms of vehicles and guides, and therefore could not offer the standards set by the RPS camps in Zambia. But in each camp, the camp managers were doing their best with the limited resources available to them.

Potential guests should be aware that RPS has no age limit for children in their camps, and wants to promote them as family destinations." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Malawi trip

"We loved Botswana and Malawi but our hearts belong in the Valley. We’re already planning the next trip.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just keep up the good work." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 9 on a Malawi trip

"I think my third trip with expert Africa was probably my best so far.

The South Luangwa in particular exceeded my expectations and was truly an unforgettable experience. I certainly hope to revisit this part of Zambia in the near future. All the arrangements and flight connections worked without a hitch.

On reflection I should probably have selected a stop over on my outward journey as I travelled continuously for more than 30 hours. I think it is worth mentioning that travelling between the lodges in Malawi does involve some lengthy road trips. In my case nearly 6 hours each time. This is not really a problem , but I think should be born in mind.

I learned a great deal about Malawi and the problems facing the country while I was there , and there is a programme of recovery and restocking of wildlife going on across the country in areas that suffered greatly from poaching and neglect in recent decades. African Parks are the main driving force , and are to be congratulated and supported. Therefore I encourage people to visit the parks and lodges in Malawi in support of this project , as well as to visit a very interesting country.

My thanks to Claire in particular at Expert Africa for arranging everything , and for helping me to Plan such a successful trip.

I certainly intend to use Expert Africa again in the future." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"Lucy organized our trip for us. She is so easy to work with & very responsive to emails. The trip went flawlessly. We used Expert Africa to organize a trip to Zambia/Malawi for us 2 yrs ago & will be asking them to help us with a possible trip to Namibia next year!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 4 on a Malawi trip

"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

"Very well constructed itinerary which for most part ran smoothly.

We were disappointed with Malawi for the reasons mentioned and also for the costs associated with Lilongwe airport. The actual internal flight departure tax is $7 per person and the external departure tax is $35 per person. Visa charge is $75 per person.

Considering the country is regarded as 'poor' and want to encourage tourism the Tourism Board should consider requesting the Government to reduce the fees involved. Suppose the UK equivalent is Air Passenger Duty (APD) which is £13 per person for flights of less than 2000 miles." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Kenya safari