South Africa: reviews from our travellers

"A trip of a lifetime. We had a tremendous time from the moment we landed in Johannesburg till the moment we left Cape Town. We do encourage people to visit Johannesburg and we stayed at the Monarch Hotel which was very conveniently located close to the train to the airport, close to the mall and also to restaurants. The people we met were nearly all helpful and kind and we felt that our trip added rather than took from the places we visited. Everything was taken care of other than a couple of things.

All the connections worked out but I would strongly recommend you including in the itineary the addresses of locations after a flight. The flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town did not include Jeanne's bag. We spent quite a lot of time waiting and then talking to the lost baggage people about this. They found the bag in Johannesburg and wanted an address to deliver it to us when it arrived. We didn't have the Acorn House address and they didn't have access to the internet or a phone and nor did I. All I could think of was to go to the driver and find out from him. I made the fatal error of leaving the arrivals area to talk to him and then trying to go back to tell the baggage people what the address was. That caused a real problem and I had go through a ridiculous process to get back to Jeanne even though five people watched me walk out of the arrivals area and refused to let me back without special authorization and being escorted through security.. Please include the address in your documentation.

Under the category of things I wished I'd known was the fact that both lodges in the Delta were open to the elements and quite cold at night. We had been warned by our friends it would be cold in the Etosha area, but didn't think there would be the same issue in Botswana. We adapted, by showering when it was warm out and wearing our warmest clothes to bed but it was a surprise." Read full review: 28 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"A stunning safari - expensive but worth every penny.

Seeing pangolin and aardvark in the day was incredible and the quality of our guide, Kyle with his extensive knowledge and infectious enthusiasm made this safari particularly special." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a South Africa trip

"Although the rains meant that we did not see as much game as we usually do, we greatly enjoyed the smaller animal behaviour and the birds.

We loved the trip and thank Expert Africa for their suggestions, their planning and their professionalism.

We will most definitely use them for our next trip.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We were thrilled with the trip. I've tried to not rate all the accommodation and camps as excellent, but everything really WAS excellent.

Thanks Expert Africa!" Read full review: 26 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zimbabwe safari

"Excellent trip. Great organisation by Expert Africa meant we got all the lodges we wanted and everything ran smoothly.

We saw some great wildlife - lions, leopards, cheetahs, caracal, brown hyena, african wildcat + lots of smaller stuff.

You have to work harder to find animals in the Kalahari but the payoff when you do makes the effort worthwhile and the desert has a stark beauty all of its own.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Nope - all great and I'll be using you again." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 10 on a South Africa trip

"Trip was great as can be read on the comments/reviews. I have learnt a lot and would definitely change a few things next time; particularly the sequencing of how everything was planned. Also it got a little travel hectic at times which kind of effected the flow of things. For example flying from Sossusvlei Desert Lodge to Windhoek, then transferring to Johannesburg, waking up at 3am, flying to lusaka, then transferring to Chongwe was not that fun, also i would have chosen Luwi or Nsolo (dependent on who I'm traveling with) for 3 nights rather then split them up, we ended up spending 1 night in Luwi (after our full day travel from Chongwe), 1 night on the sleep out and technically we were meant to stay 1 night at Nsolo before moving to Chinzombo. So the combination of the traveling from Sossusvlei with the bush camp split up meant that we were frequently in transit. Not that big of a deal but would definitely mellow it out a little. Perhaps i should have chosen closer more connected neighboring countries and focused on staying a places for more then one night. We got on 15 different flights from leaving home to returning, so you could imagine that we got over it. Also learnt how much i prefer being isolated rather then being with other game drive lodge vehicles. As mentioned earlier, it was a shame that i didn't end up seeing many cats, nature told me otherwise, one of the main considerations of choosing the destination was based on my obsession for lions an well as my mission in working a conservation program to protect them. Happy to have meet with the Zambian carnivore project team. That was fantastic, i'm glad we ended up linking before we left. Now ready to plan my next escape." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"I wish we had known just how early in the season we were going and the limited amount of game sightings we should expect, we would have gone later if we had.
Otherwise the trip was well done and worked as planned.

This is the second time we've used Maruska and were very pleased before, so perhaps it was poor communication on my part." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zimbabwe safari

"We had a wonderful, fantastic trip and experience.

Everything was pretty much perfect and went according to the itinerary.

Game viewing ad Kgalagadi was exceptional as was the unexpected green desert due to the late rain. It was really stunning and the location and views form the lodges were great.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Excellent and helpful as always.

Hope to reurn to Namibia with a trip to the Skeleton coat and stay with the Himba people!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip

"Another fabulous holiday organised by Expert Africa! Everything was well organised and just right- a great mix of places and accommodation. We are already planning the next trip, and will spend longer on the Port Elizabeth end of the garden route where the scenery is truly spectacular." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 7 on a South Africa trip

"Thank you Tracy for helping us choose such lovely places to stay and for organising it for us. We definitely want to revisit, this time starting out from Port Elizabeth as we didn't have time for Plettenberg and beyond." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 7 on a South Africa trip

"We were very pleased with the structure of the trip: 6 very busy days on safari followed by 3 days R+R at a superb location.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari