Reviews of safaris to Southern Namibia

"I have to say that I was very much impressed by the Namibian people, the landscape, the parks and how well it's all organised. This was my 10th safari trip, but first to Namibia, and I can easily say that you outrun any other trip I've done to Kenya and their parks.

Guides respects the rules of driving, respects the animals, very well educated in their habitat and great guest awareness. I hope to be back for the next winter, but then for a camping tour!

Expert Africa could not have chosen a better representative then Maruska Adye to sort this out for us." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 13 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

"Our trip was absolutely fantastic. We loved Namibia. It felt like an enormous adventure travelling along the long gravel roads through the most breathtaking scenery in our 4 wheel drive. Every time we turned a corner we seemed to be confronted with an even more beautiful view.

The lodges we stayed at were fantastic. We made a change to our itinerary as we didn't feel that Swakopmund offered us a truly African experience so we swapped 2 nights in Swakopmund for a night in Erongo Wilderness Lodge, which was very special, with beautifully designed up market tented accommodation in the Erongo Mountains. The activities were simple (trekking in the mountains) but very good fun.

Then we went to Okanjima to track leopards and cheetahs. This was an incredible experience. We didn't love the accommodation and the restaurant so much there, but it was well worth the visit because of our close encounters with these beautiful wild cats." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 9 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

"We have come to expect wonderful holidays when organised by Expert Africa and once again we were delighted. From our first chat to Tracy until we got this form our holiday was all we expected it to be.

We only wish it could have been longer - a couple of days more at Bushman's Kloof (to take advantage of their 4 nights for the price of 3) and an extra night at Augrabies Falls. We wonder if staying inside Etosha is not for us anymore as standards do not improve - although the accommodation was fine in both Dolomite and Okaukuejo.

Thanks Tracy we had a fantastic holiday!" Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 11 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