Reviews of safaris to Central Highlands

"We had a fabulous time on our trip. Namibia is a very special and beautiful country.

We thoroughly enjoyed all of the accommodation especially Kulala Desert Lodge and Doro Nawas Camp. On our first day at Kulala, we took a sundowner tour from the lodge and were also lucky to see the full moon over the dunes. On our second day, we took an early morning guided drive to Sossusvlei. The guide was excellent. He found a shovel-snouted lizard and a white lady spider for us. At Doro Nawas, we also had an excellent guide. We saw about 25 desert-adapted elephants; at night, the same guide showed us scorpions.

We also liked Swakopmund and the Sandfields Guesthouse. The two-hour flight from Swakopmund was a unique way to see the dunes, the desert, the flamingoes, the seals and the skeleton coast. We also enjoyed kayaking with the seals.

There was a bit of a glitch on our day tour to Sandwich Harbour. There were two vehicles on the tour, and our family had a junior guide who was a good driver but was not knowledgeable and could not provide us with any information. However, this problem was later resolved by talking to Bruno, who offered us a free three-hour tour the next day to a magnificent area located about 10 km from Swakopmund. Bruno also included sandboarding as part of the tour. His tour was definitely one of the many highlights of our stay in Swakopmund.

We found Etosha National Park to be a very special place. It was raining before we arrived in Etosha, and as a result the animals found different sources of water and were not attracted to the waterholes. We sometimes had to drive for a few hours before spotting animals. We did, however, see many animals in the end, including three lionesses, a sleeping lion, a black rhino and a group of about 15 hyenas. As far as accommodation goes, we liked Mushara Bush Camp better than Andersson's Camp.

Franz Indongo Lodge was also a fine place to stay and well located to visit the CCF. The cheetahs were quite active when we visited, and both the tour and the museum were very informative.

In conclusion, our trip was a great success. Although we drove a lot, we found the roads well maintained and the car very comfortable. We would like to thank you for organizing this trip for us. We are already thinking about other destinations in Africa and we will be in touch.

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Keep up the good work" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"A memorable experience which fulfilled all of our expectations. Having visited Africa 25 years ago we were always keen to return and it did not disappoint!

We will return again! A great family holiday." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"South African Airways was a disappointment. O.R.Tambo needed more time on the outward journey due to long queues at immigration.

Hotel, Lodges and Guesthouses were on the whole excellent. Meals were of a good standard.

Some of the driving was not for the fainthearted! Road surfaces varied from excellent tar roads to poor dirt roads, none impassable! As expected!

We had a wonderful time for our second visit to Namibia, very friendly people. South Africa is equally friendly." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"Thanks for making our incredible honeymoon possible.

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The one thing I wished for over and over on the trip was a bit more slack in the plans. There were towns I would have liked to explore, and people I'd have loved to get to know, but we really did not have time. I don't remember it being an option to add in extra time in places, but this would have made the trip more enjoyable for me.

Also, an ATM map and a tip guide would be helpful. But overall, we were very pleased, so thank you." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"A great trip. All the arrangements worked well.

Namibia and Botswana are beautiful countries.

We hope to go again and would certainly use Expert Africa." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"A superb holiday and an extremely well organised one, by an expert agent. Thank you Tracey" Read full review: 27 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"A wonderful visit to a fascinating country. It was good to deal with someone who knew the camps, and I know Tracy made a particular effort to get us into Sossus Dune lodge which was much appreciated. The website is very appealing and I particularly like the use of google maps to show more about the locations. I was surprised by the lack of people everywhere and missed having any real interaction with local people. Overall the trip was excellent.

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It would be very helpful to have average driving times between lodges or mileage at and early stage - we probably woudn't have gone so far every other day if we had known how long it would take. It might be worth advising people who eat fish but not meat that it's better to stick to vegetarian - when we were given fish it wasn't great." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"We enjoyed our trip immensely. This was our first time in Namibia and we were so impressed by the country and its people. The variety of places to visit and things to do was great. The organisation from Expert Africa was second to none and ensured that everything went smoothly.

Overall the standard of accommodation far exceeded our expectations (with the exception of The Beach Hotel Swakopmund which was acceptable and Halali camp as outlined above). I know that because of the unexpectedly busy tourist season in Namibia we were a bit stuck for places to stay and this is understandable.

We took a kayaking trip with Jeanne in Walvis Bay as recommended in the guidebook and this was really excellent - she was a great guide.

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We were completely happy with the service provided and will have no hesitation in recommending Expert Africa to friends and family." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"We debated long and hard about the difference between Very and Fairly satisfactory. We chose the latter for the following reasons:

1) Bullsport was a good stopover, but not in the style of the other lodges. We knew it was a working farm and perhaps we should have chosen differently.

2) We are not convinced that visiting at the end of the dry season was a good choice. We were aware of the lack of rain, but did not realise that it would be so unusually hot. This was not the fault of Expert Africa.

3) Although happy with the 2 x 4 car, a more powerful diesel model would have been more suitable.

On a positive note, we were delighted with Expert Africa's response to our delayed arrival after we had difficulty contacting Wilderness Safaris. We also feel that the whole process from the initial enquiry to the actual holiday was well managed, with excellent advice and information. We would (and already have) recommend Expert Africa.

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The guidebook does need updating. The wifi in most camps is better than described for example. Conny's restaurant (page 181) was very welcome, but there was only """"chicken"""" or a toasted sandwich. It was very clean and had some very interesting geological specimens.

Solitaire has a memorial to Moose who died in 2014, (page 265). The Kameldorn Garten restaurant in Otjiwarongo (page 405) closed some time ago.

We greatly appreciated camps with good wifi, bean to cup coffee machines and chilled water. Sounds trivial, especially when we have also greatly enjoyed the friendliness of staff and the beauty of the country that is Namibia.

Thank you." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"The arrangements generally worked clockwork and all the places we stayed were well worth visiting.

Apart from the mishaps in respect of the car (see earlier) the other thing worth mentioning is the problem of the border crossing from Botswana to Zimbabwe. We apparently arrived at a peak time, but queuing for over 2 hours in the sun to pay $55 dollars for a visa was infuriating - all the more so because it was obvious that virtually every transfer agent except ours had a special arrangement with the clerks issuing the visas.

We lost count of the number of times transfer agents would go to the front of the queue with wads of passports and forms. We were, literally, the last in the queue at the point we left, even though many people arrive after us. I'm not sure of the answer - probably either they should crack down on petty corruption or you should get a different agent?" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip