Reviews of trips to Johannesburg

"We chose Expert Africa on the recommendation of a close friend who had used the agency a couple of years ago. We are so glad we did!

We dealt with Maruska, who was amazing. She is knowledgeable, efficient and our questions (which seemed endless) were answered promptly and cheerfully. We were particularly impressed that Maruska put us in touch with a colleague in the UK office because she was not as familiar with the Seychelles. Admitting that, and getting us the information, is not something everyone is good at doing.

The Zambia portion of the trip was amazing and exceeded all of our expectations. The camps Maruska suggested were excellent - she asked us lots of questions and really tailored the experience to our preferences. She was very familiar with all the camps and her comments were spot on. We would definitely go back to Zambia.

We enjoyed the Seychelles. Seeing those amazing beaches and swimming in the warm ocean was delightful.

We would recommend Expert Africa." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"This was a trip of a lifetime. We had a magical time.

Maruska did an excellent job of putting together the perfect itinerary for our family. I had started with only two places in mind: Victoria Falls and Etosha National Park. I would say Chobe River experience was a highlight and I didn't even know about it until Maruska brought it up. Thank you for everything.

My friends have already started to ask me about our experience and I'm definitely going to recommend that they use Expert Africa in planning their trips to this wonderful continent." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"The trip was outstanding! And Lucy Copson was excellent and responsive, in helping us plan and navigate our way through the whole process.

I would highly recommend Expert Africa in general and Lucy Copson in particular, when looking to book an African adventure.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Nope - you all get an A+! Thank you very much for a trip of a lifetime." Read full review: 6 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Cannot say enough about Lucy's assistance, recommendations, and responsiveness. She proved to be an exceptional representative for Expert Africa and her knowledge of the area was extremely helpful. We want to thank her for making our travels truly memorable." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Overall, and in every detail, this trip truly turned out much better than we had expected - and our expectations were high.

Maruska went the extra mile, several times, to ensure that our itinerary was precisely what we wanted. When the initial camp selections turned out to be more expensive than we wanted, Maruska proposed alternatives that worked out very well.

Our safaris to Botswana and Namibia couldn't have been better.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
We never received a brochure, but did receive a glossy guide to your offerings, after we had returned home. Since we used your web site, and it's very good, it wasn't really an issue.

There were a number of comments about various camps that were only for Expert Africa, but there wasn't a place to put them. So we were obliged to just put them at the end of reviews. Ditto for some suggestions regarding improvements at camps, probably only of interest to camp managers. These things could be removed before posting the reviews, if you like.

We'd like to thank the Expert Africa team, and Maruska in particular, for arranging this very special trip for us." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"It exceeded our expectations for just about everything.

For your adventurist guest, when staying in Victoria falls, take a rafting trip on the Zambezi river and don't forget to do the Gorge swing if you don't have a heart condition! Botswana may be more expensive that other African countries for you Safari, but if you are concerned about the well being of the local people, we have been told that your money actually goes to free health care and education for their people. The Zero tolerance for poaching by the government appears to be working.

Its a very special place and without recommendations from Maruska Adye of Expert Africa, we would have never known what we were missing.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

You need to update the info on laundry. There is no limits on what they wash. Shinde, Okuti and Muchenjie all provided flash lights and had plenty of medical supplies. No need to supplement this when trying to keep baggage to a minimum. Trip itinerary was flawless. All of the connections to and from camps, while "open" went off like clock work.

Thanks Again Maruska!" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"All of expert Africa's arrangements went to plan very smoothly. Really enjoyed the trip but think we underestimated the amount of travelling we'd undertaken. Maybe 3 countries was one too many!

Zambia and Botswana in particular were great countries and loved getting to know some of the people we met. Had picked camps with a good chance of lion activity but were not lucky in that regard. Did feel at Vumbura that other jeeps seemed to be having a better experience and that our driver - who was lovely - was low down in the pecking order and perhaps being directed to the quieter areas of the reserve.

Didn't help that for the last 3 or 4 drives we had a community overseer on our trips who didn't speak to us really and it cast a bit of an atmosphere. We actually preferred Machaba which was not what I was expecting! Have passed your brochure to my boss as I can't fault your end of things." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"It was excellent, brilliantly organised and managed.

In retrospect we should have chosen Sabyinyo in Rwanda, Ngorongoro Crater in the Crater. I would have preferred to stay at the Hyatt in Dar - or an alternative to the Serena - it was a shocker.

I had concerns about Little Kwara before I went and these were confirmed. I would not stay with a Kwando facility on a return to Africa." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 7 on a Tanzania safari

"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

"." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari