Reviews of trips to Swakopmund & Walvis Bay

"A few minor issues, but generally the most amazing experience" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"From first contact with Expert Africa, this had the feeling of being a special trip - and our experience was exactly that.

The suggested itinerary, prepared by Tracy after discussing with her only what we vaguely wanted, was spot on; the standard of the accommodation was beyond our expectation; and the quality of the detailed information pack, guidebook, map etc was the best we've ever had (and we've travelled extensively so have lots of benchmarks).

No question was too silly, even those we had on the day before we left about a particular route we were thinking of taking, and Tracy clearly had detailed, expert knowledge and insight of Namibia which was both reassuring and inspiring.

Our overall experience was way beyond anything we've ever had before and, based on this, we will use Expert Africa every time now. and would recommend them without hesitation to others.

Keep doing what you're doing - it's best in class!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"This is the 2nd time we have used Expert Africa to organise a holiday in Namibia. As on the first occasion, they suggested the itinerary and arranged car-hire and accommodation.
It all went very smoothly and was generally very enjoyable.
I feel that all required information and documentation was provided, in good time. Chris's book is excellent.
Because nothing went wrong I can't comment on your problem resolution.
It was useful to to have wilderness safaris available at the airport." Read full review: 30 nights in Africa; 30 on a Namibia trip

"Pre-trip planning was great. I had many back-and-forth conversations with Megan and we tailored a trip that met our specific needs. We had to go through several rounds of proposals until we got the right one, and Megan was patient, prompt, friendly and very helpful. We definitely could not have arranged the trip without her guidance.

Once on the ground in Africa, we encountered a major problem. Because I was traveling without my wife, I was told by the border agent in Namibia that I needed to present my son's birth certificate, a letter from my wife giving me consent to travel alone with my son, and a copy of my wife's passport. This is all due to child trafficking prevention laws in southern Africa. I was not aware of these requirements and had to call my wife at 2am in the morning US time so that she could send me a copy of my son's birth certificate. The border agent also wanted the letter and her passport scan but I told her there was no way I could get those in short order and she reluctantly let us in to the country.

Over the next few days, I had my wife get a notarized letter and scan that and her passport and send to me. This, however, was not technically in compliance with the laws of these countries, as I was supposed to have an original copy of both the birth certificate and the letter. This meant that any border agent in Zimbabwe or Botswana could have decided to follow the law exactly and decline us entry into their country.

Upon reviewing the itinerary from Expert Africa, I did see a short section about traveling with children under 18 in southern Africa. It was several pages into a long itinerary, it was pretty vague (it mentioned a birth certificate but nothing else), and no one at Expert Africa - either by phone or in email - ever pointed this out to me.

I feel that this was a major failure on the part of the company. I had several restless nights wondering if I was going to miss an entire week of my trip due to this, I had to call my wife in the middle of the night, I spent time talking to the US consulates in each of these countries and generally this caused me a lot of stress.

I want to be very clear with this: any time Expert Africa has a parent and child traveling with them, they should repeatedly and proactively remind the parent to get all necessary documentation in order weeks before the trip takes place. This should not be left to a small-print section at the back of a document. As much as I loved my trip and the service I got planning the trip, I don't think I can recommend Expert Africa to friends unless I have confidence that other travellers would not be put in the same situation that my son and I were put in." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"yes loads but no time to write about them

wilson - best guide ever had

Overall - Excellent" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"A memorable trip to a new country. Any negatives about one or two places we stayed are more than outweighed by the excellent other ones. It was much hotter than expected (8-10 C above seasonal norms) and this, a bit of tummy trouble and the gravel roads made it tiring at times (and these are all hazards that are part and parcel of a trip and nothing that yourselves could / should expect to deal with).

The characteristics of travelling on gravel or tarmac are so different that we could have done with being better informed about specific routes when planning. Also the passage of time renders some of the guidebook information out of date and this is a problem on the map also. For example the map incorrectly shows a petrol station at Seeheim - this meant retracing our steps for 60 km (so an extra 120km which then meant missing an activity at our destination) to ensure we had enough petrol.

We lost count of the number of coffee shops / bakeries in the guidebook that had closed / disappeared. Having sussed the driving out we went "off-piste" and cancelled one overnight stay and cut-short our stay at Sesriem so we could fit in a stay at Walvis Bay. We let the cancelled place know but our email to Expect Africa to tell of the same went unacknowledged apart from an "o-o-o but someone is covering for me" reply.

Namibia is a spectacular country with friendly people and provided us with some great memories." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"Wonderful first trip to Namibia.

Exceeded our expectations and we enjoyed all aspects of the trip. Landscapes are stunning, animals are exciting to see and we felt that the lodges and overall trip was making a positive contribution to supporting local people and environment efforts.

Would recommend kayaking with seals at Walvis Bay as a side excursion. Going out of season did mean that a couple of lodges were very quiet but in the positive side we had some personalised excursions, found that the Etosha waterholes were not mobbed by visitors and that the heat was manageable.

We would certainly recommend this trip and ExpertAfrica to others - thank you to Tracy for the fantastic service and also for sending us the Namibia guidebook which we found so useful and used extensively." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Sabina was endlessly patient in tweaking this trip to get it just right for us, and she succeeded beyond our expectations.

We had a great mix of accommodation styles and Sabina took on board our request for lots of hiking, giving us plenty of opportunities to really explore Namibia.

Overall a great trip." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 20 on a Namibia trip

"Running out of superlatives - we simply loved our trip, every single minute of it. We were a bit apprehensive at travelling after getting out of the way of it over the last three years. However, everything went so well, we'll be back for more soon, we hope.

All the arrangements went so well, from our arrival at Windhoek airport to the return two weeks later. We absolutely loved the Namibian people, who couldn't be nicer, at everywhere we went.

The land, the landscapes, the variety of animals, the food, the accommodation - we've never had better.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Can't think of anything. It all went so well." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip

"Excellent.

I would try to combine trip to Okavango into one day if possible. I understand concerns with border crossing (as I had them) but very fast even though we lost power and were held up. I also would have spent another day at Okonjiwa although it would have broken my budget.

As Welwitschia Drive took so long and the map was so bad we ended up climbing Dune 7 at 6:30 pm which was a blessing. The sand was cool and climb was easy. In general I highly recommend the trip.

I will say we were rather unique travelers in that we were not looking for the massive herds and numerous predators. We had seen that before. Our interest was in the smaller things, nocturnal animals, unique environments and sustainable responses to those environments. So this might not be for everyone but worked perfectly for us." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip