Reviews of trips to Fish River Canyon

"Interesting and varied- the combination of flying and self-driving was the perfect choice for us. However, one does need to be prepared to drive long distances - often hours in endlessly flat, unchanging country.( A good, detailed map is essential - the Tracks Africa map is excellent)

Rather disappointing that Hoanib was the only camp that provided any educational/informative element- a very good film on the desert lions and a lecture by a visiting bat researcher!

More of that sort of thing would have much appreciated- especially where we stayed three nights in one place, (Most camps seem to be geared to two-night stays) Would have very much liked to know more about the different tribes etc- which we finally did on our last day at the National Museum in Windoek , which has seen better days, but is still very interesting.

We loved the ability to get away into some unspoilt and spectacular county -and avoid crowds of tourists. The exception to that was Sossusvlie, where there were far too many people and traffic .... a bit of a shock after the tranquility of Etendenka!

We worry that Namibia is about to OD on tourism and lose its unique appeal....." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"Great trip with a great variety of lodges. Twenty one stops in total .

Very enjoyable and effortless driving between lodges. We covered 5,000 km in the rainy season with no problems. The twin cab Ford Ranger was perfect.

The following will be especially remembered
Dabis for the interest and the enthusiasm of the owner
Wolverdans for the situation and for the charm of Thelma
Vreugde for the friendliness of the family
Mundulea for everything about it
Nhoma for the humour of the bushmen
Ngoma for the lodge its situation and management" Read full review: 39 nights in Africa; 27 on a Namibia trip

"We had a fantastic trip to Namibia, were pleasantly surprised by the standard of accommodation, helpfulness of the staff in all but one of our stops.

If Planet Earth II has not convinced you to visit then you should go anyway as it has much more to offer than what was shown in the short time that the BBC allotted to the Namib desert.

If you are looking for something totally different look no further." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 18 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

"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

"We had an amazing trip, there's no two ways about it - the knowledge of the Expert Africa team (Liz) was invaluable as having never visited there before (and not knowing anyone that had), we'd probably have got stuck on the planning side.

The itinerary was fantastic and enabled us to fit in everything that we had said we wanted to - the map and route planning incredibly useful and accurate. Plus everywhere we stayed was nigh on perfect - the organisation was faultless and made the whole experience very simple for us!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"We had a great time in Namibia. At the start of our holiday, our luggage was lost which caused us to lose some time. We had to buy necessary supplies, had to drive back to the airport, etc. After that, our experiences were fantastic.

Namibians are very friendly people, always willing to help & waving at the side of the road. The nature is beautiful and watching the wild animals is just amazing. The entire trip was perfectly organised. From the planning of our trip to when we arrived home. When we had questions, Maruska was always very fast in her replies.

We would also like to express special thanks to Wilderness Safaris for their support when our luggage was lost. They really did a great job." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 7 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

"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