Reviews of safaris to Okonjima Nature Reserve

"As well as seeing some wonderful scenery and a plethora of wildlife in their natural habitat the trip also taught us much about the culture of this African country. The knowledge and passion of all of the guides was amazing.

We never once felt unsafe or threatened though we took the usual precautions to protect ourselves and our belongings.

There is clearly a huge diversity of wealth in the country which did make us feel uncomfortable from time to time.

Given the opportunity we would certainly return and we will encourage others to do the same." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"Namibia was an amazing place to visit - quite different from any other country we've been to in Africa - the landscapes were awesome.

Starting the trip at Galton House and ending it there was excellent - it gave us time to recover from the flights etc and at the end of the holiday we could relax, have a shower, a nice meal and get out of our safari clothes, put our normal clothes on ready for the return home and generally chill out!

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Flying between camps was ideal as having spoken to people who were driving the distances involved were long and this meant they couldn't cover as much ground as we did. When the Brandt guide is next updated you may want to note that the restaurant 22 Degrees South is closed.

We recommended Expert Africa to several people who were thinking of future African adventures so hopefully more business will come your way in the future." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Awesome- we were able to feel relaxed because our trip proved to be so well planned with very dependable accommodation and other suppliers - from our greeting by EA's agents at Windhoek airport to the end. The quality of customer service - apart from airport staff / waits at Windhoek and VFA - was outstanding and reached a level unusually good in our experience at Safarikoek

We needed triple accommodation which was not easy to source but in hindsight if available would have gone to Safarihoek last in Namibia, it seemed later accommodation though very good was not quite as special.

Guiding was exceptional and we were able to enjoy not only wildlife but a sense of Africa.

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2 general comments: you may be a bit over generous , in common with other writers , about Namibia's gravel roads and those within Etosha. While much better than sand roads in Botswana, some of those we had to use to reach accommodation were badly corrugated or pot holed and we felt descriptions were a touch over positive.

Other review sites mention airports: we found immigration delays at Windhoek and VFA to be a bad as anywhere in the world and check in at VFA was also a challenge. We may have had bad luck but if not you may want to think about alerting customers. However we didn't follow your advice on checking luggage to JNB then rechecking: in our experience there were no problems at all in checking through to Windhoek from LHR and from VFA to LHR.
But these niggles aside_ it was amazing and your choice of providers very well considered.

And we saw 5 black rhinos....." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"Really wonderful. Excellent choices throughout, with the exception of Safarihoek.

We would not recommend the detour via the Skeleton Coast, and 2 other groups had in fact been advised against it.

Also, distances on directions were not always accurate, and at Onguma, which we approached from the west, the gate was only 100 metres (not 500) from the park and was not signposted in that direction! We, as well as 2 other groups, ended up going past it for varying distances before turning back. Not good at the end of a day! We understand, however that a new sign is under construction.

We can recommend the one and a half hour Tour of Swakopmund Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, run by Charly'sTours. Really excellent, knowledgeable and intelligent guide with a good understanding of the wider African context.

Windhoek Airport is absolutely terrible and simply cannot cope with the increasing tourist load. It will only get worse, but is a terrible introduction and farewell to a beautiful country. Do pressurise the authorities on this. One working x-ray machine for baggage is ludicrous, and an hour and a half in a non-air-conditioned immigration hall on arrival rendered us dehydrated, dizzy and shaky!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Namibia and would definitely return.

Having undertaken a 17 night stay that involved 2600km of driving I think we would not do such an extensive trip again but it was a really good way to see the contrasting parts of the country and we know where we would spend more time in any future visit.

Every location we stayed at was good and even where we have comments regarding improvements this didn't really detract from our enjoyment. Generally service was very good and people very friendly.

As others have reported, driving is very easy and as a disabled driver using hand controls, I can confirm it still remains easy.

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Very little to add as the overall experience was very good. We were very grateful for the time and effort Josh put in to help us arrange the hand controls on our vehicle.

Only one minor point is that the folder the trip material arrives in is a nice design, but unfortunately not that practical and it began to disintegrate early in the tour!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"An excellent trip and intinerary. Comments are relative from one lodge to another because they were all very good.
Only adverse comment about the trip as a whole is that it was hard work driving on the gravel, even though the use of self drive was a very good way of seeing the country.." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"SABINA PROVIDE AN EXCELLENT SERVICE

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

NO

I WAS DELIGHTED BY EVERYTHING EXPERT AFRICA DID FOR US AND WOULD CERTAINLY RECOMMEND YOU TO OTHERS - INFACT I ALREADY HAVE THREE TIMES!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"Overall an excellent trip which showed off the diversity of Namibia

The only aspect of the trip that was poor was Windhoek airport - a disaster area with no concept of care for travellers - particularly immigration Not a good advertisement to encourage travellers!" Read full review: 27 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"We truly could not have dreamed of a more special place to spend our honeymoon! Every aspect of the trip was so exciting - from our driving to all of the different lodges to getting to see such different terrains of the country. The whole trip - from A to Z - was so perfectly organized by Expert Africa (and Wilderness Safari). It was such a pleasure to work and plan the trip with Sabina, who was very responsive and conscientious of what we envisioned for our honeymoon.

My only negative comment would be relating to the disappointing choice of stays at the Okaukeujo Camp, as well as the Hotel Thule. Not that these hotels were truly awful, but coming from each of the different other amazing lodges, it really felt like a dip in our trip, as they were average, if not poor hotels. Given that it was our honeymoon, it would have been nice to have stayed at consistently nice accommodations so that there would have not been any regressing point during our trip.

This being said - the Voigtland Guesthouse - which I personally asked Sabina to book for us as it was not originally on the Expert Africa list of recommended hotels, was absolutely wonderful. We stayed there our final night and the owner's Stephan and Gaby could not have shown us a warmer stay. It is also only a twenty minute drive from the International airport, making it the perfect hotel to stay at the final night's stay in Windhoek before heading home. My hope is that Expert Africa familiarizes themselves with more hotels around Windhoek, as the few options that were offered to us were not of the same ranking in terms of quality as the other lodges/hotels around Namibia.

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Again, we were so impressed with how organized everything was for our trip! There wasn't a single time where we felt lost regarding any of the planned details. From renting the car to making sure we had all the necessary material for each of the hotel checkins, Expert Africa made sure we were more than prepared for each part of our trip.

Besides the two hotels where we felt a bit underwhelmed by (the Okaukuejo Camp and the Hotel Thule), every single lodge we stayed at was absolutely amazing. One other small suggestion would be to recommend to clients to download the 'map.me' navigation app. Although Expert Africa provided us with a physical map, this app provided us offline driving routes all throughout Namibia that really helped us navigate our route to each lodge. It worked really well and gave us extra confidence driving in a country we were both unfamiliar with." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"It was a really fantastic holiday! Absolutely loved every minute - each place we stayed was lovely in it's own way, the driving was easy and being in Etosha was a long held dream come true! The dramatic landscapes and beautiful animals are just breath-taking to see! Our trip was carefully planned to ensure that we had a good mix of 'safari-time' in the National parks and downtime to rest and enjoy the beautiful surroundings." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip