Reviews of safaris to Southern Namibia

"We totally enjoyed the trip overall. This was a terrific agenda, thank you to Tracy at Expert Africa for all her hard work and our many changes.

Johann, our private guide, was absolutely super. We could not have asked for a better person to manage our way and maximize our stay in Namibia. Highlights were numerous, and we would not have missed any. Outstanding for all of us was our stay at Huab under Canvas, Driving the Dunes at Sandwich Harbour, Sossusvlei & Deadvlei and Kolmannskuppe.

Elephant and Rhino tracking were once in a lifetime experiences, and we appreciate all the efforts involved to allow us those opportunities. We would highly recommend the trip, and both the care & service provided by Tracy before we got there, and by Johann once we were in country." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 13 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

"Very satisfactory is not even close to describing our satisfaction with our experience with Expert Africa. Maruska did a superb job in communicating with us whether over the phone or by email. She answered all our questions promptly, stuck to our budget, fulfilled our request for a self guided tour and the areas we wanted to visit and provided many more useful suggestions. We followed her itinerary to a T and was never disappointed. Still there was plenty of opportunity to use the Bradt guide and add extra excursions when we wanted. I think that was only possible because of her careful, knowledgeable planning. Our group of three visited from Oct 5 - Nov 1, 2019

If we know of anyone going to Africa we would not hesitate to point out the excellent service that Expert Africa provided us.

Thank You Expert Africa and especially Maruska! You made our vacation hassle free and memorable." Read full review: 30 nights in Africa; 18 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.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

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

"What a great trip. Superbly organised by Expert Africa (thank you Tracy). It was well worth organising a private and exceptionally nice driver (thank you Ronnie) as we were able to cover an enormous distance in great comfort (an 8 seater Land Cruiser with A/C and a fridge just for the 2 of us).

We saw and understood much more by having our own guide than we would have done if we had guided ourselves. We were spared the problems of driving on relatively poor roads and the anxiety of coping with possible punctures and breakdowns.

With hindsight we wonder whether it was worth the very long journey to Fish River Canyon. Yes it was amazing but unless you have arranged to walk the canyon, you see only a limited part of it from the rim.

We also wonder whether an entire day at a diamond mine that wasn't working was worth the bother.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We think that your organisation and service was fantastic. Well done and thank you." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Namibia trip

"An amazing adventure which we will never forget.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The only thing that concerned us was the tipping on the Safari. We had taken enough USD to tip as per the guide, but did not expect there to be 5 people looking after us at each camp. What worries us about the tipping situation is whether the staff are being paid properly or are they reliant on tips." Read full review: 34 nights in Africa; 22 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 !

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

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

"Overall it was a great trip and very well organized. Despite our booking the trip rather late EA managed to provide us a good mix of accommodation and we can honestly say that only one or two places were below average, most were excellent. Had we booked earlier I'm sure we would have been able to secure more first choice accommodation.

If we are fortunate to plan another trip to Africa in the future, we will definitely consider Expert Africa again, as well as recommend them to others." Read full review: 32 nights in Africa; 22 on a Namibia trip

"We loved everything about our trip. The choice of lodges was excellent. The car hire perfect. The route on the map was good and we didn't get lost. Frankly it would be hard to do better.

Thank you" Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"Our second visit to Namibia and every bit as good as the first with spectacular scenery and a very high standard of accommodation.

Peter, our guide/ driver was excellent and added to our experience. The activities were varied and we saw more wildlife than expected. Kolmanskop was excellent but the tour to Elisabeth Bay was an unnecessary add on in our view. We had a very uninspiring guide (Helmut) and would have enjoyed more time at Kolmanskop instead. Peter picked up our frustration with the guide but it wasn’t appropriate for him to do anything at the time.

We are already thinking about another trip!" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip