Reviews of safaris to Southern Namibia

"We had a wonderful trip.

If doing the trip again we might change a few things but overall we were very happy with our experience. The materials provided by Expert Africa prepared us well for the trip. The highlighted map showing our route and lodges was great.

However, more detailed driving directions would have been helpful. (Before we started our trip Steve put together a set of detailed driving directions using Google maps, lodge websites and other online information.)

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We had an excellent experience with Expert Africa and can highly recommend the company and its services to others. Our only suggestion is the one given above about detailed driving directions." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"5*.
A few special mentions for individual excursions:

Turnstone tours - did a trip down to Sandwich Bay with Wayne. This was excellent.

Francois - we had booked the kayaking trip to see the seals. Rather than the lady who normally does it (she was on holiday) we were taken out by Francois, who runs a competing tour (though they seem to share bookings). He was excellent and gave us an incredible day's kayaking. Highly recommended.

Georg Erb (Swakop Tour Company) - recommended by our guest house, this was the best tour we did all trip. Georg is superb and knows everything. He has an excellent afternoon tour itinerary and is absolutely essential if you're in Swakopmund. Please promote him - such an interesting afternoon.

Ballooning - Can't remember the name of the company but we did a balloon trip from Kulala Desert Lodge with John. He was outstanding. Definitely worth the money...loved every minute of it and an excellent breakfast too.

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Push people to book things to do in Swakopmund up front. It's a dull place just to hang around...but there are excellent excursions around the town. We met some people who hated the place...but they didn't do anything. Don't let people stay there for 3 nights without booking some things to do..." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 6 on a Namibia trip

"I had a truly amazing time in Namibia. The Private Guided Safari was fantastic, and I had a top guide in Orlando. He immediately picked up on my interests and tailored each day's itinerary to suit, making it both fun and interesting.

Wilderness Safaris then took over and once again everything was extremely well organised. I had a tremendous time and some extra special sightings.

I had high expectations and these were surpassed on all levels.

A big thank you to all concerned." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 18 on a Namibia trip

"The trip as a whole was wonderful. Everything went smoothly despite being in Africa!!

Driving in Namibia is really straightforward and the distances were not a problem at all.
Everybody very friendly.

We went mainly for the scenery and landscapes and were not disappointed.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We stopped at Tsumeb by chance which was a lovely town. Maybe you could make suggestions to your clients for 1 or 2 hr stops in nice places along their route to wander around or for lunch.

I know we needed to stop at / near Swakopmund because of length of journey from Sossus to Kipwe but apart from the kayaking which we enjoyed the town did nothing for us. So easy to be wise after the event but 1 night here and an extra one at Wolwedans or Okonjima would have been a much better use of time for us." Read full review: 26 nights in Africa; 18 on a Namibia trip

"Having done the trip there is somethings I know I'll do different next time, but it was a great holiday." Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"Initially even we thought we were slightly bonkers with this ambitious itinerary but after extensive and detailed planning everything went smoothly (with the exception of Elegant Farmstead cancelling our booking at the very last minute in favour of a large group; if this is typical of their attitude maybe they're not suitable for EA's independent travellers).

We had a FANTASTIC time!!!! Whilst some drives were long they were perfectly manageable with two drivers, a flask of coffee and our trusty MP3 player to entertain us. The roadside picnic stations provided good places to stop and eat a bit of lunch – there are plenty of supermarkets in the towns to buy provisions, including a 5 litre bottle of water. Most lodges charge for water (about N$13 for a small bottle) so it makes sense to buy a big one in a supermarket (about N$20) and top up your little bottles from it. There seemed to be far fewer parking guards about than on our previous trips and, we were surprised to see, even petrol station attendants don't seem to expect tips any more.

Garden Lodge provided a gentle start to our marathon trip with good company, tasty food, an excellent boat trip and lots of cats and dogs to play with. Kasane is an interesting little frontier town, buzzing with activity though not the place to stock up for a long trip. Don't be surprised to see a warthog trotting across the road in the middle of town.

The brand new Ngoma lodge is excellent (see review) with loads of animals to see, excellent food and great staff. We highly recommend it. It is one of the few places that provides free water – we promised to take our Ngoma bottles all the way to Cape Town; after many refills they finally met their demise at security in Cape Town airport!

We returned to Garden Lodge to have our car delivered and set off for the border next morning. Crossing the border into Namibia is no problem at all and after stocking up at a supermarket in Katima Mulilo we set off across the Caprivi strip. Roads in the Caprivi are, as Chris's book says, long, straight and can be quite tedious though you need to keep an eye out for wandering cows, goats and dogs (and the occasional human).

Arriving at Ndhovu in the early afternoon, we spent a couple of hours on our deck on the river bird-spotting. Next day we took a trip across to Buffalo (suggest pre-booking if you want to do this) and then drove ourselves to Mahango in the afternoon.

It was a long drive to Ghaub the next day but switching from 'Caprivi time' meant we gained an hour; we had been debating whether the hour was going backwards or forwards and it was only when the guard at the vetinary gate greeted us with a cheery 'Good Morning' that we were certain! After two nights peaceful rest we set off to Okaukeujo. We arrived at Etosha in good time and managed to visit several good waterholes on the drive across the park.

We spent most of the next day in the park and then moved on to the big surprise of the trip; Taleni. We'd wanted to spend two nights at Okaukeujo but had been unable to get a room despite booking very early. Taleni is just outside Etosha and we loved it. It does attract some large groups but the staff use the different dining areas to give couples or family groups privacy and peace.

A comfortable morning's drive brought us to Gocheganas, just south of Windhoek, which proved an unexpected pleasure. We had been booked to stay at Elegant Farmstead but they had cancelled our booking at the very last minute (after we arrived in Namibia). As it turned out Gocheganas fitted in with our itinerary much better and we thought the place was excellent. Thanks to Sabina for organising the change for us; in the days before BlackBerrys and the internet this could have been a major problem but in this case was (almost) painless.

The drive to Bagatelle, for some reason, took longer than anticipated; the roads were good and we'd calculated the distance but it just took longer! However we arrived in comfortable time and enjoyed watching the waterhole, excellent food and company and, of course, the meerkats!

Next, off to Fish River Canyon. Until Keetmanshoop the B1 is a good tar road but you then have to venture onto gravel. The road is bumpy and undulates with the landscape, which is beautiful, and you may even meet a train! The canyon itself is fantastic and there are few people about; such a contrast to its rival in the USA!

We left Canon Lodge in the sunshine and headed for the border with South Africa. The crossing itself was painless though there was a notable diminishment in friendliness of immigration staff on the South African side. Heading down the N7 the weather turned and we found ourselves in rain and/or cloud. As we had plenty of time we went down to Skilpad to see the flowers with which we were disappointed. However, driving back over the mountains they were lovely.

It absolutely tipped it down overnight (not ideal in a room with an iron roof!) and we set off for the marathon drive to Cape Town with some trepidation. Driving over the mountain passes in heavy cloud was 'entertaining' to say the least (particularly when we were held up by major roadworks – waiting time at least 20 minutes). We stopped off in Clanwilliam which we thought a lovely town.

The sun came out as we arrived in Camps Bay. We'd arranged our own accommodation here; there are lots of good guest houses .
The place has clearly been spruced up since the World Cup and there are some excellent new restaurants. We ate at The Codfather – excellent but shellfish is very expensive, Ocean Blue – just as excellent but less pricey, and The Kove – best steak Martin had all trip and great staff. Tuscany Beach was also highly recommended by our guest house.

We did the tourist bit – open top bus tour (don't forget to use the vouchers printed on the back of the ticket!) boat trip and lunch at the V&A – recommend The Greek Fisherman and City Grill Steakhouse – then the bus back to Camps Bay. The following day we drove (yes we hadn't had quite enough!) down to Cape Point where there seemed to be bonteboks around every corner (even on the beach) and few other visitors about.

Finally off to Hermanus and the whales. You really can see them from the coastal path, though the boat trip out to sea is well worthwhile too. The town is lovely and there are some excellent wineries to visit nearby.
Overall, a wonderful trip which we'd wanted to do for years. What's next???????

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

If only travel to Africa was less expensiver!

The name says it all - you are the Africa Experts and although we do shop around we come back time and time again.

Perhaps a minor point is that you should consider regular travellers' previous trips before saying they can't do something" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Absolutely amazing! Great country, great people, great food, great animals. Lived up to all of our expectations. Would recommend Namibia as the African country to visit - without any reservation at all.

Would love to go again but there might not be as much pampering next time! This year was a special holiday so we splashed out a bit but now we've been once we wouldn't mind a bit of camping another time. The campsites we came across all seemed very safe and well equipped. And the beer was good too!

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Keep up the good work!" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"We had high expectations of Namibia and were never disappointed. The landscapes were vast and varied, the people helpful and friendly and there was so much so see.

The country was so beautiful in so many different ways. Going in winter we saw arid desert, red dunes and flowers everywhere. It was truly breathtaking.

The people are quite reserved but really helpful. All the accomodation and facilities wherever you went were very stylist and spotless.
The driving was a challenge; hard work in some areas, and the distances vast.
We will never forget it.

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We were incredibly impressed by your service, and mentioned your name in many places. We had no problems with any of the arrangements ; all worked well.
Your advice was spot on and literature well laid out and informative. I found it very useful to have a discussion about an option and then be able to look at it on your website and read the comments.
Thank you very much." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"We had the time of our life and were overwhelmed by the experience. Every day offered a new highlight and we still debate about what was the best.

We were lucky that Namibia had received a lot of rain this year and Etosha and the Soussouvlei were still flooded, resulting in plenty of wildlife in Soussouvlei and amazing photographs of the Etosha salt pan.

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I am more than happy with the service and information received and really enjoyed reading your brochures and Chris`'s guide book, which is superb and in depth." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"Another excellent trip. The only negative points would be we wished we had just had a room at Okaukeujo, instead of a chalet, as the kitchen had no facilities for cooking, so we could have saved a bit on the accommodation. Also Grootberg was very close to Etendeka, so we arrived at the vet fence at 9am and had to try and arrange an early pick up to the camp. We luckily managed to do so by midday, but otherwise we would have had to wait until 3.30, but as we were the only guests, Bonnie came to collect us early. There was nothing to do at Grootberg in the morning, apart from pay for a guided walk, which was expensive." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip