South Africa: reviews from our travellers

"We had a really superb honeymoon.

Every flight, connection, transfer, car hire and hotel was planned with our requirements in mind in a totally seamless manner. The recommendations of what to do and see and how to get about were spot on.

Thank you very much Lucy at Expert Africa for such superb personal recommendations which really made the difference.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I really can't find fault with anything at all and look forward to travelling with you again.

We read about you in the Daily Telegraph and look forward to using you again next year." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 10 on a South Africa trip

"A good well organised trip to Malawi & Zimbabwe.
Two beautiful lodges with a good range of wildlife
Excellent food at Mkulumadzi
Thomas at Chilo Gorge & Mali at Mkulumadz were excellent knowledgeable guides with a sense of fun. Thomas was an expert on birds." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zimbabwe safari

"Our intention was to make this a one time bucket list trip, but now we are talking about going back! It was truly a wonderful experience.

Maruska did a fabulous job of arranging this and was so patient in answering all of our questions." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Expert Africa delivered everything we had asked for for our holiday. Excellent service, understood what we wanted - remote, few other people and especially few other vehicles but with lots to see. Personal service everywhere we went and we always felt we were valued as people as well as customers.

Remote Africa Safaris were exactly that, at the edge of the South Luangwa - superb places to stay and excellent guides. A walking safari isn't for everyone and you don't get as close to animals as you would in a vehicle, but the whole experience more than makes up for that. We saw lots of animals and birds - large and small and can't thank our guide (Moffit) enough - he really made the holiday.

We loved the eco ethos of both Remote Africa Safaris and Kaya Mawa; home grown food, avoiding plastics were possible, local employment, clear investment in staff training, recycling and solar energy.

A great holiday" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"We had a great time in SA. it is a truly beautiful and spectacular country.

In hindsight, we regret not spending longer in Plettenberg Bay and would also have loved to spend a night or two in Prince Albert. At the expense of either Swellendam or Oudtshoorn; both of which towns were not as memorable.

Tracy was very helpful and gave great advice. If we travel to Africa again, we plan to use Expert Africa and have recommended it to several friends.
This was our second time to use Expert Africa. We travelled to Namibia in 2016.

Thank again" Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 12 on a South Africa trip

"We knew we needed someone knowledgeable to help us with our first trip to Africa. Claire was fantastic! We were so pleased with all of her suggestions and everything she planned for us. Everything went exactly as planned and we had no concerns during our trip about our plans.

We’ve already passed Claire’s name along to a colleague and she is working with him and his wife now on their upcoming trip. We definitely want to return to Africa, probably as soon as next year, and will plan to contact Claire to see about helping us with that trip as well." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zimbabwe safari

"The trip as a whole was simply outstanding.

We cannot thank Tom of Expert Africa enough for helping to plan this most memorable trip. All of his suggestions were worthwhile as we saw different landscape and animals at each location. Even our least favoured location (Dolomite) was worth seeing for the views and the variety of wildlife. Shame about the Camp. All the other recommendations by him were spot on and would happily return to any of them.

The variation of Namibia's landscape was incredible and we still cannot believe that we were actually there. I had dreamed of Sossusvlei and Deadvlei and it was just magical when we were there. Every place visited offered its own adventure. The Namibian people were friendly and helpful wherever we went. Driving on the dirt roads was an experience and when we encountered a tarmac stretch or road, we became as excited as if we had seen a rare animal!!

We have no hesitation in recommending Expert Africa to other travellers - Tom was able to deal with our exacting and specific requests with no difficulty.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

More advice on driving on dirt roads for first time travellers would have been helpful. We would emphasise paying great attention to the mechanics of changing the wheel when the spare is chained under the vehicle and also checking tyre pressure before leaving the city for the first time." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"My adult daughter and I agree that Somalisa was the best camp with Waterberry a very close second. Her favorite experience was the meerkat climbing on her. I found so much of it awesome it's hard to describe.

In trying to explain the experience to people the closest I can get to accurate is "something amazing happens and then something else amazing happens, etc." I can't compare the rush of seeing lion doing their thing against seeing the rush of Victoria Falls. I can't compare how it feels to be in the vast desolate Makgadikgadi Pans to seeing the vastness of the southern sky's blanket of universe. Being comedically entertained by the meerkat, mud wallowing warthogs, running ostrich, and hippo grunting are experiences like no other. It's completely absurd that neither my daughter nor I were afraid of the 7 white rhino we walked to and stood amongst. It was pretty clear to me when the 1st bush flight landed scaring away zebra and an ostrich from the airstrip that Africa suits me. I guess that's why I didn't blow the air horn when the elephant tried to join my shower.

To close this out - I've lived and worked on 3 continents and know a 4th extensively but there is nothing like Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The process was long for both me and everyone that had to interact with me. Now that I've done it I hope to not be so high maintenance in the future.

One of the reasons I chose EA was because when my plan went from Zambia only I was handed to another person with more expertise in the new regions. I appreciated that. No one at EA tried to "upsell" me either. That is why I dropped the other company I had begun inquiry with.

I'll be emailing the wildlife sightings. We wrote in a lot." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 3 on a Botswana safari

"For us it always a pleasure to travel to southern Africa, which we have been doing for over 40 years.

As ever the Expert Africa consultants were excellent and we wouldn't consider travelling to Africa without their help and advice.

Although the travel tags and wallet are extremely well made and gratefully received, we found them bulky and might act more like flashing beacon to unscrupulous locals to locate unsuspecting tourists! We didn't use them preferring a simply plastic wallet on the basis that 'more is less'..

We booked our hotel accommodation The Taj in Cape Town ourselves. Located opposite St George's cathedral it is a very comfortable and welcoming place with staff eager to please. They also provide a complimentary shuttle service, by limousine (Range Rover/Jaguar ) to anywhere within 10 Km area and a regular shuttle bus to VA Waterfront and Table Mountain. Most rooms have views of Table Mountain too." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 5 on a South Africa trip

"A great trip." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a South Africa trip