Reviews of safaris to Central Highlands

"We had an excellent trip to Namibia and it was good to be back there after 10 years. We had a plan of where we wanted to stay, but due to lack of availability, our itinerary was not possible, and it was initially suggested that perhaps the trip should be postponed until 2020.

We were keen to visit in 2019, and Tom Morris worked extremely hard to come up with a workable itinerary. This he managed to do, keeping our trip to the area we had originally planned, encompassing some of the accommodation we had wanted and also introducing some new ones. The itinerary worked very well and gave us a mix of self-drive and guided drives.

Thank you Tom for once again organising another excellent trip for us." Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 22 on a Namibia trip

"We had an excellent trip. But, like a previous reviewer, we would have enjoyed it more with a better vehicle. EA recommend a Renault Duster as being 4-wheel drive and adequate for the Namibian roads. While 4-wheel drive is occasionally useful, the Duster has standard tyres and in some places more rubber is definitely needed. The roads round Sesriem and in Damaraland are considerably worse than in other parts we visited and we would recommend anyone visiting these areas to pick a Toyota hi-lux. See our comments on Bidvest for more details.

Our second disappointment was the amount of electric light we experienced. Nearly every lodge had path lights which stayed on all night, ruining the view of the sky, and in some cases our sleep. We were used to little light and Tilley lamps on previous visits to Africa and this came as a shock. Tok Tokkie and Mundulea were a relief from this. In some places the lights were behind the tent/room but at Erongo we had to resort to removing lightbulbs from the path outside to allow us to sleep. At Ongava, the waterhole light shone directly into our room. We are very saddened that lodges feel this amount of light is necessary.

EA often states that when on half board “drinks are extra”. Most of the lodges we stayed on half board included 2 large glasses of house wine per person each night. Sundowners were extra.

We stayed at 3 Wilderness Safaris lodges and got to know their dining style. Everywhere else game was often the meat provided, at Wilderness it was regularly basic beef, pork or chicken which was quite uninteresting. They also had an obsession with hot plates, which at 30C seemed unnecessary.

It was very nice to receive a recent copy of the Namibia guidebook in August. This was hardly opened before our trip and still fell apart before we got to Etosha. A large number of pages fell out somewhere which meant that we didn't have the information about Etosha that we wanted. We also had with us a 30 year old bird book with all its pages intact. It's a shame Bradt can't make their books a little more robust.

We were told that using toilets at petrol stations could not be recommended. We carefully took a trowel and a roll of paper with us. This was completely unnecessary as every toilet we visited was spotless." Read full review: 25 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"Thoroughly enjoyed our first trip to Namibia and definitely want to go back.

We deliberately only covered a relatively small area so we didn’t have to drive more than 4.5 hours a day and are glad we did this to ensure we had the time to properly see what we wanted.

Will definitely use you again for our next trip!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"A fantastic experience.

Enjoyed our days driving in Namibia, seeing the very dry terrain which was so different from when we last visited in April 2018. The lodges where we stayed were very good, the wildlife we saw exceptionally varied, and the people we met were a delight.

Cape Town was crazy busy, fun, very different to when we last visited 22 years ago and the whale watching in Hermanus was well worth a day trip. Our favourite activity was visiting Kirstenbosch and seeing the proteas.
The Okavango Delta in Botswana and Shinde in particular was the icing on the cake and probably the best African experience we have ever had, and we’ve had 7 trips to Africa over the years, so that’s praise indeed!

First time we've used Expert Africa and we are well-impressed. Thank you Megan for listening to what we wanted and helping us to make the choices, it was a perfect holiday - no, a perfect ADVENTURE!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"We had the absolute best honeymoon ever!!

Namibia is an incredible and varied country and the itinerary enabled us to experience as much of this beautiful country as possible in two weeks. You can tell that a huge amount of work has gone into planning these trips and itineraries - it was perfectly paced for us, with the right amount of time in each place and wonderful places to stay. The Etosha part of the trip was especially well planned, with a base in the East and then in the South it meant that we could cover a good proportion of the Park, and one of our 'travel days' was also a full day within the Park which was fantastic.

There was plenty of driving but it never felt too much, especially as we shared the driving, which was a big positive.

All of the places we stayed were incredibly welcoming, with excellent food and some really luxurious touches.

As we are usually quite independent travellers, we really welcomed the fact that we were booked mainly on a half board basis, as we were very happy to drive ourselves around Etosha and the attractions in Damaraland and Swakop/Walvis Bay, so this worked perfectly for us. But we were very pleased that the excursion at Hoodia was included as it was fantastic and we wouldn't have fancied driving ourselves on the sand.

All of the communication we have received throughout the process has been first class. The travel guide was an invaluable companion which is now looking very well used!

Thank you for making our honeymoon so memorable." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"It was amazing! We had a wonderful time, especially in Botswana. The scenery and the lodges in Namibia were exceptional but our enjoyment of them was tempered by the poor condition of many of the unmaintained gravel roads. The government should get on to this if they are serious about the importance of tourism to their economy." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We had a wonderful trip. We loved Namibia, the diversity of its landscapes, animals, birds and flora, and in particular the friendly welcome and fantastic level of service almost everywhere.

We only saw snakes in display tanks, and a single dead spider in a bin (so happy, happy days for two members of the family) but we were thrilled with the rest of our wildlife experiences and will never forget our sadly-too-short visit to Namibia.

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Can't fault Expert Africa.

Tracy was knowledgeable, patient, had lots of common sense, honest advice and inspiring ideas. Thanks Tracy!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"I had planned our engagement in Dead Vlei in great detail and even ending up in the wrong pan and there being no sunrise (fog) couldn't detract from it being an amazing location, possibly my favourite and a truly amazing country. I wanted to show Agita what all the fuss was about and Namibia didn't fail to deliver once again.

Thank goodness she said yes as we still had 14 days to spend in a car together - could have been a bit embarrassing

I would like to thank the EA team with special thanks to Megan (who sorted out a few wrinkles during the trip) for all their support and also the Wilderness team for getting our luggage to us at Wolvedans which is greatly appreciated, as we were starting to small by day four.

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It is difficult to call anything perfect, but you are getting very very close." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"This was our second Expert Africa arranged trip.

Josh and Claire were helpful, knowledgeable and patient with our endless questions.

I have no hesitation in strongly recommending them." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Expert Africa had organized trips for us before and we were always satisfied.

This time, our contact is Tracy. She did an excellent job. We discussed on the phone our interest and expectation. The hôtels she recommeded were great. It was her advice to have the rental car delivered to BullsPort rather than we went back to Windhoek to collect the car. It saved us time and driving. We wanted to stay in the Fish River Lodge and by the time we confirmed the trip, it was not available. She followed through with the lodge and at the end, we got a room.

We had a lovely trip !

A big Thank You to Tracy !

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Great job ! Keep going !" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip