Reviews of safaris to Central Highlands

"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.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

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

"We had been planning a comprehensive self drive tour of Namibia for a couple years and were completely frustrated by our own inability to make key reservations with the national parks. We reluctantly called in the help of Expert Africa and were pleasantly surprised at how competley helpful and indispenable Maruska was in making all our arrangements while keeping the costs lower then we had expected. Everything over the course of our month log visit, encompassing over 18 lodgings, worked out smoothly.

We had a very helpful assist from Wilderness Safaris staff who met us at the airport and helped us get a burner phone and deal with a slightly troublesome initial car rental interaction. We are ow sure that we could not have done the arrangements on our own with out significant hassles and problems and our very happy that we put our trust in Expert Africa.

We saw numerous independent travellers at the national park Lodgings who thought they had successfully made reservations to find that the parks had no record of them or places for them to stay. Not clear how these were ever resolved but it never impacted us! Maruska's printed material that she sent us had incredibly useful advice on everything form what to look for in car rentals to how to greet people in shops and restaurants. We saw many abrupt tourists getting a cold shoulder from staff that turned around and treated us very warmly because we had been told to do a full on relaxed greeting, asking about how they are and wording the questions in a more polite manner then most European and US travellers would normally use.

Namibia itself was a dream come true visit to Africa. We knew we would see all the major animals (rhinos, elephants, giraffes, ostrich, wildebeest,kudu, oryx,lions, eland, hartebeest, springbok) but we had no idea we would see as many as we did in such high concentrations. Unfortunately the drought is probably responsible for this, pushing all the animals to the waterholes just to survive. We saw 33 species of mammals and over 200 species of birds and most of them from the rental car.

Maruska's advice on several places was spot on. She had gently warned of some dropping standards at a couple places which turned out to be true, while encouraging us to do the kayaking with the seals trip and the 4X4 sand dunes drive to Sandwich Harbor. The latter was a true highlight, and it might not be as fabulous with a guide other then Bruno Nebar, but I am sure it still would be enjoyable. We were quite lucky to spend that day with two of Expert Africa's people, a complete coincidence, but they were both very interesting and helped in drawing out so much information form Bruno while having interesting stories of their own. We usually do not like travelling in guided tours but this was a fabulous day with great company.

Namibia is barely dealing with the tourist influx from Germany and the rest of Europe, and are not prepared to deal with the kind of influx Americans will contribute once Americans realize what a fabulous destination Namibia is. i am telling our friends and family to go now and to use Expert Africa to make their arrangements! We met only 2 Americans and had many more meaningful encounters with local Damara people including valiant efforts to teach us some click language words! But this will not last long." Read full review: 31 nights in Africa; 27 on a Namibia trip

"Expert Africa did a fantastic job.

Everything was flawless and I couldn't be more pleased." Read full review: 31 nights in Africa; 27 on a Namibia trip

"This was our first trip to Africa. We chose Namibia on the basis of its reputation for wildlife, fantastic terrain and 'emptiness' but also because it gave us the 'self drive experience' in a safe environment. It met or exceeded all our expectations, particularly the wildlife in Etosha.

Truly the trip of a lifetime that we will never forget - it has definitely made us want to visit Afica again in the future. We never felt uncomfortable in any way whist we were travelling and luckily did not experience any problems with the car - I wasn't looking forward to having to change a wheel by the side of the road in those temperatures!

Expert Africa arranged a great itinerary for us which we wouldn't have changed at all in retrospect, Also many thanks for the detailed replies to all our questions and queries before we left." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"A very memorable trip. The Caprivi Strip is so different to the rest of Namibia. Delightful lodges. Expert Africa very good, as always.
Only two small comments:

1. there was a chap from Wilderness Safaris at Windhoek airport to meet & greet us. This has never happened before, so we walked straight past him. I hope he wasn't offended, but there was nothing from Expert Africa to say that we were being met at the airport. Bit of a surprise.

2. Wild Horizons transfers. Perfect and on-time for each occasion. The problem was communication. We we not given a pick-up time for the transfer to Livingstone Airport. Our previous driver said we would be contacted and informed 24 hours before pick-up. We were not contacted, and none of the telephone numbers given in Zimbabwe was contactable either from a mobile or the hotel's phones. I even tried sending a text, but there was no reply. In the end we had to ask the Avani concierge to phone Wild Horizons local office in Zambia. If Wild Horizons has a local office, why give travellers lots of numbers in Zimbabwe ? (none of which seem to work)." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"Thanks to Maruska who organised a great trip for us at very short notice. We had previously visitied Namibia 9 years earlier so chose to visits areas we hadn't been to before, going down to the Fish River Canyon and up to Bushmanland.

The whole range and variety of scenery across the country continues to be massively impressive, with many places to relax in remote areas looking across vast expanses of land.

Self driving is very easy (provided you don't forget your driving licence as I did, needing to courier it out!). We took a 4x4 this time which realistically we only needed (but then certainly did) in 3 or 4 locations.

Tourism has clearly grown a lot in the last few years - we saw many more tourists driving on the roads compared to 9 years ago. The country still feels very safe (albeit there are now warnings in some major towns with regard to petty theft).

The Namibian people continue to be warm and friendly but we did notice a significant reduction in the interest of guides to ensure we had a great experience - many seemed to have lost some interest in the job. This may have been because we were in less visited areas or a dfference between the South and North of the country.

Still a fabulous country to visit.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No improvements - Maruska was fabulous (again)" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 18 on a Namibia trip

"This was a great trip.

The first two weeks were sightseeing rather than a traditional safari, but the photo opportunities were fabulous, Wilderness is a bit corporate for us, but extremely well organised, with great guiding. You cant fault Wilderness, but for us not a traditional safari experience. For a traditional safari that challenges mind and body mundulea is a must on the list. Where you can fly between camps, fly, the distances are huge

This is our 10th safari. In total we saw 34 mammals, 13 new species. if you are going for animals you need to be more patient in Namibia than other African countries. But every fabulous, iconic grumpy black rhino you see makes the wait worth while.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

When you are paying so much money for a trip, you want to make sure everything is 100%, occasionally we felt that we were being a bother as we were having to repeat questions. however Tracy was always a pleasure to deal with" Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 18 on a Namibia trip

"Excellent

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Very happy with the trip.

Re feedback from - a problem in that I can't preview what I wrote and I may not have changed some overall ratings from the ""excellent' default so they won't match my comments. please check this and contact me if there is a discrepancy." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"We had a great trip.

The roads were very variable, but we stuck to the route planned for us and felt we'd had the best option.

The yellow sheet provided with restaurants and cafes, was useful. please note the Camelthorn Beer garden no longer exists! The couple have divorced.

WE had lunch in Otijwrongo at Kari's ,Hindenburg street which was excellent and a good replacement, same directions would find it! The Farmhouse deli inThe Strand Hotel in Swakopmund was a real find too." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip