Reviews of safaris to Waterberg Plateau National Park

"We had a wonderful month and intend to return to Namibia with a longer trip into Botswana." Read full review: 28 nights in Africa; 26 on a Namibia trip

"The arrangements generally worked clockwork and all the places we stayed were well worth visiting.

Apart from the mishaps in respect of the car (see earlier) the other thing worth mentioning is the problem of the border crossing from Botswana to Zimbabwe. We apparently arrived at a peak time, but queuing for over 2 hours in the sun to pay $55 dollars for a visa was infuriating - all the more so because it was obvious that virtually every transfer agent except ours had a special arrangement with the clerks issuing the visas.

We lost count of the number of times transfer agents would go to the front of the queue with wads of passports and forms. We were, literally, the last in the queue at the point we left, even though many people arrive after us. I'm not sure of the answer - probably either they should crack down on petty corruption or you should get a different agent?" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 9 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

"We have been to Namibia before and it definitely did not disappoint this time, such a magical country.

It was our first time in Botswana and we loved it and would like to see more, as is always the case in Africa in my experience. The people were so friendly and the wildlife amazing.

Victoria Falls was also good and we were glad we took your advice about seeing the falls from the Zimbabwe side as there was plenty of water! It was also a nice little town to wander around with interesting history, a good end to our trip." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip

"The whole trip was superb. No hassle, very friendly, very easy. We found Namibians to be very friendly, helpful and talkative. We would readily return to any of the sites that we stayed at. We are mainly wildlife enthusiasts, I have worked in Nature Conservation in UK and many other countries for more than 20yrs and Namibia was wonderful for the wildlife, landscapes and in the ease of travelling.

Our one issue was in booking the accommodation in that we would ideally have liked to have stayed in Etosha for more nights including Okaukuejo (maybe 1 Namutoni, 2 Halai and 3 Okaukuejo. Our initial queries directly to the camps came back saying there was no availability. The initial itinerary from Expert Africa had 1 night at Halali and on asking again we got two nights. Was the difficulty in us not trying to secure accommodation early enough in advance of our planned trip? If so how much notice is needed to book accommodation and expect to get into the Etosha Camps that we would like?

My experience of Expert Africa was very good. I felt that we were very well supported and that if there had been any difficulties we would had a lot of help. We are all experienced travelers in our group (even my 11yr old) so I think we know what to expect and are pretty independent and prepared but the assistance for Expert Africa has been very good indeed and I would readily recommend you to friends and colleagues

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just going back to my earlier query about the booking of certain camps in Etosha, some clarity on why places that had not had availability then did have and some guidance on how long in advance to plan if your main aim is to stay within the park as much as possible." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"This trip was truly a most rewarding experience, we both were enthralled by the journey and the sights we were able to see.

The trip was very well planned and organised, and offered a really in-depth insight into Namibia and its wildlife and stunning scenery.

We covered a lot of ground in our in Namibia, and whilst distance itself is not a problem, the state of the roads can make road travel very demanding. If we are able to return again I would seriously consider flying in and out to the lodges.

Our thanks go to Elizabeth for producing a very detailed travel plan and itinerary" Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 22 on a Namibia trip

"A very good trip to Southern Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

See feedback but otherwise nothing further to add apart from thank you for arranging a most enjoyable holiday" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We had a complicated itinerary lasting just over a month and taking in everything from mountain gorillas in Rwanda to desert rhinos in Namibia.

Expert Africa lived up to their name and advised on the best itinerary, booked everything including most of the more important treks and tours, the guide in Rwanda and the self-drive 4x4 in Namibia and of course flights. We started with a thick book of vouchers with a lot of scope for things not to work. In the event every single booking worked perfectly, the itinerary was reasonably easy to keep to and we had an absolutely wonderful and memorable trip staying without exception at interesting and comfortable hotels and lodges.

Thanks again Tracy for organising it for us!.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
Just keep up the good work! We will be back!

It would be good to have more transparency on the costs of the trip - i.e. a breakdown of how the trip was costed so we knew the relative costs of different hotels and lodges. When reporting on the different places we stayed we were uncertain as to how their costs compared and clearly it is not reasonable to expect as much from low cost places as from the most expensive ones.

Lastly a small criticism of this feedback form is that there is no obvious way to navigate back to the beginning other than to click """"back to previous page"""" over and over again. The tabs on the left side bar don't seem to do anything. When two people are filling this in, as in our case, we needed to go backwards and forewords a few times. Otherwise it is a nice form to fill in." Read full review: 32 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"Absolutely fine, no particular problems, the weather this time was mixed with more than usual in the way of stormy and wet days, which meant ETOSHA had fewer animals around." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip