Reviews of safaris to Caprivi Strip

"Our first trip to Namibia (2010), covered central, north, northwest and coastal areas.

This trip (2013) was about 98% new locations covering central, north, northeast, Caprivi, Okavango and Vic Falls, Zimbabwe side.
The most noticeable differences in that span of time were the money exchange, electricity adaptor difference, more people riding bicycles, shopping modernization of cities, availability of 3G services (more mobile phones in daily use)

General travel tips
1. Before leaving Namibia, change your Namibian dollars to another currency: South African Rand, Botswana Pula, Euros, Dollars. They are no longer exchangeable at the Jo'berg airport nor in Paris.
2. The children in Namibia were usually asking for pens, whether or not we took photos. The supplement money for educational supplies in 2013 was used for election campaign spending.
3. Clothing is a great donation to leave with the lodges in the northeastern sector of Namibia and in Botswana. They distribute it to the villages or the lodge workers or in one case to the local churches.
4. Adaptors - Throughout Namibia and Botswana, the large 3-rounded prong South African adaptor is used. We purchased a smaller 3-rounded prong which only works in Zimbabwe. Bring your own charging strip/surge protector if you have multiple devices. Zimbabwe uses the small 3-rounded prong and British adaptors.
5. In your checked luggage through Jo'berg, pack nothing of value, other than clothing, ! It will disappear, guaranteed.
6. Reading material:
The Wildlife of Southern Africa is a definite plus to keep track of sightings (birds, mammals, insects, flowers, trees, etc.) (Vincent Carruthers) at the Windhoeker Buchhandlung across from the Hilton Hotel
"Namibian" daily newspaper - fantastic way to learn about modern Namibian culture and opinions of all ages.
"Zambezi Traveller" free newspaper in the Caprivi/Okavango (Lianshulu Lodge) - regional tips, ideas and covers a wide territory.
7. Pic n Pay grocery store (throughout Namibia) was our favorite, Super Spar is also good for finding lunch items (including an ice chest) when driving between destinations
8. Namibia has frequent, fairly well-maintained picnic spots (tree shade, concrete benches and table), which we used for lunches
9. Languages/Dialects: the smartphone "notes" application is a handy recording device to write down the courtesy words: hello, good morning, thank you, how are you, etc. We encountered 10 different languages/dialects or more over three and a half weeks. Asking a lodge staff member "how to say" is an ice breaker and opens a door to their culture.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Fantastic voyage!

The planning, Expert Africa contact, accommodations, expectations suited our needs to a tee. We made our own flight reservations, which worked out smoothly.

The Namibia/Chris McIntyre guide book was our bible. Thank you for supplying it.

On the review feedback, what does "facilities" include/mean?

We would highly recommend Expert Africa for any future voyages.

Obtaining visas before departure between countries was not totally clear.
The basic information about visas in the travel preparations could be much shorter (e.g., Visas are handled at each border control for Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Show your international driver license and passport at customs. The rental car agency provides you with all of the car details, including chassis number and motor number to fill in the paperwork.)

We paid for a permit into Botswana, but wonder if we could have given them the permit on the windshield. This was unclear in the instructions from Budget/Expert Africa whether to turn it in or buy a new one. This was the Chobe border. This was a more difficult and time consuming border post (a real hassle).

The Mohembo Border Post at Mahango was a breeze with both Namibia and Botswana." Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"The trip was spectacular and worked out very well, perfect mix of places, good amount of time spent everywhere. Desert and rivers provided a good mix of wildlife and scenery, we were never bored looking for animals, always discovering new ones. We also enjoyed seeing the villages and a living museum. A bit more contact with locals would have been nice.

We loved the self drive and the ability to explore things on our own. While expecting a bit more adventure, it was surprisingly comfortable and easy, which was fine.

Maruska was wonderful in putting this together for us, she knew the places well, was very helpful and patient.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Looking up locations on a google map was important to me (especially off the path campgrounds), would be nice to have a google map that showed all places of interest (with lat/longs that one can use to enter in one's own google map search)

As much as we wished to get away, Wifi is becoming important for many travelers, and it would be good to collect that info (uptime and speed) and pass it on to the lodges. Elegant guest house and Mushara had good wifi. Ngepi was slow, Muchenje pretty spotty with several outages. Victoria Safari camp had expensive one, Victoria Falls Hotel had good ones for guests.

For guest support on the road, calling is often hard, it might be useful to have email addresses to contact local agents." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Namibia trip

"Excellent overall

Food is perhaps too westernised - would be good to introduce more diversity and more flavour" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"From Victoria Falls onwards our holiday was one highlight after another. And everything ran like clockwork with friendly, professional people always there to help and guide us.

Thank you ExpertAfrica" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"We had an amazing time. Everyday had something new to experience. We didn't have a single bad day." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"I was thrilled from beginning to end with this holiday. Each of the wildlife experiences exceeded my expectations and whetted my appetite." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"Apart from Budgets 4*4 which was rubbish (I have detailed it separately) it was a smooth, easy and enjoyable trip. We drove ourselves from Windhoek to Fish River, then back up through all the places one needs to see to Etosha, then along the Caprivi Strip, dropping car off at Kasene in Botswana, crossing the border by boat into Zambia and flying back from Zambia

My rating of "fairly satisfactory" reflects our problems with Budget - but Expert Africa did recommend Budet, rather than me asking for it. The rest of the trip wa better than "very satisfactory" and I was impressed by Expert Africa's knowledge and help, nudging me to avoid driving to far if we were likely to have to drive after dark, and offering help when hotels were wanted were book (remember you are dealing with hotels of 10 to 20 rooms on most of our trip)

In short I can recommend this sort of trip to anyone, it is doable, safe, instructive and enjoyable." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 18 on a Namibia trip

"This was our first trip to Africa and, thanks to Saskia Adye's excellent help and advice, it was a thoroughly memorable and enjoyable month-long holiday with fantastic game sightings as well as lots of cultural interactions.

We were extremely happy with all of our accommodation and transfers. The only disappointment was Rwandair Express which is the most unreliable airline that we've ever flown with, but Saskia did warn me of that in advance so I should have taken her advice to fly SAA instead!

Would highly recommend Expert Africa - and Saskia Adye in particular - to anyone planning a trip to this fascinating continent.

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You thought of everything so .....no!" Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 5 on a Rwanda safari

"Thoroughly enjoyable, if tiring.

This trip was planned some 18 months ago and was programmed for May 2012, but medical problems arose and it had to be deferred to Nov. Throughout this process we were encouraged by the patience and consideration of Nick who is a great ambassador for your organization

The bulk of the time was spent in Kwando camps, with whom we have stayed before. They have a quality product, but it is not a good look when their guides have to borrow guests binoculars/reference books to identify a particular bird.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

As long as your staff show the same consideration as Nick when problems arise your customer service satisfaction levels should be high." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 13 on a Botswana safari

"Overall a fantastic trip - huge success and really enjoyed by all of our party.

Would reconsider flying from Kasane to Bazaruto via Joburh - this was slow and boring.

Interested to note direct Flights from Capetown into the delta- that might offer interesting options for pre or post safari time.

Mozambique looked great from the Air but we did not feel we could explore much when we got there.
Also felt a bit of a "prisoner " in remote beach lodge - maybe staying on mainland or nearer a town might have worked for us." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Mozambique holiday