South Africa: reviews from our travellers

"Brilliant" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a South Africa trip

"All very enjoyable with a very high standard of accommodation and food. It was meticulously organised by Tracy, who is really professional.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep it up! Our next trip is already booked..............." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a South Africa trip

"Thank you for guiding us through the arranging of our holiday of a lifetime! Expert Africa's advice on where to stay, suggestions on itinery and patience in putting the trip together were exceptional. In particular, the advice to stay at Kwandwe Game Reserve made the holiday for us.

The only change we would have made would have been to stay in Cape Town for a further day, but we couldn't have extended our holiday to do this - a good excuse to return in the future!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Nothing we can think of - we'll certainly recommend Expert Africa." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 12 on a South Africa trip

"We really loved our trip and would not hesitate to use Expert Africa again or to recommend you. We really appreciate the extra advice you gave us when planning our trip.

It would be handy on the itinerary if more details could be given on transfers for example that the flight from Livingstone to Luangwa was via Lusaka and the approximate length of the onward transfer by jeep - it is good to know what to expect!" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"We planned our trip a year and a half ahead of our travel date, which allowed us to book all the accommodation that we wanted to stay in at the places we wanted to visit. Maruska is fantastically knowledgeable and very friendly and always tried to match our wishes with the places that she knew would suit us. This proved very much the case with KTC. We were sad that Maruska had moved to New Zealand, by the time we returned, however, we had the pleasure of meeting Chris McIntyre and Tracy Lederer who were also very kind and helpful on our return.

Prior to our departure in addition to Chris' books and the brochure, the literature and the organization of the vouchers and pictures of the places we were staying at, were excellent. We often spent time at airports spotting EA travel tags!!!
We also met other travellers who were equally happy with their EA trip.

We had the most wonderful trip, which surpassed all our expectations. We would definitely recommend Expert Africa to anyone wishing to travel to Africa, particularly for making it such a personally tailored experience. We certainly will be using EA on our next trip!

Just to mention as well we had a very comfortable stay at the Brigadoon in Swakopmund run by a lovely called Margaret ." Read full review: 23 nights in Africa; 8 on a Namibia trip

"This was not a trip, certainly not a holiday (we returned exhausted !) it was a mind-and-soul-enhancing experience. We saw the hoped-for range of exotic plants and beasts, which alone was impressive. For two people who have only ever experienced elephant, ostrich and zebra in miserable enclosures at zoos, to see them roaming at liberty and (zebras) in such numbers was a privilege. The experience of such huge open spaces (coming from the land of the M6 and M1) was awe-inspiring - we feasted on the landscapes and wildernesses and dunes and beaches and rocks that we visited. This visit to Namibia, and the series of places we visited & stayed, refreshed our minds and souls, and affected us more strongly than any other foreign visit we have made, all assisted with nothing stronger than the occasional glass of wine !

We also had the luck and privilege to spend time with some extraordinary people, who enriched our lives incredibly: Wayne (Sandwich Bay), Petrus (Kulala), Lister (Doro Nawas).
Thank you for making this possible !

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

- Insist that the default vehicle for car hire will be a beefier vehicle than a Toyota Corolla, whenever significant stretches of gravel roads are to be used
- Don't use Air Namibia !
- Don't release unsuspecting Brits into Frankfurt airport !
- Inform clients what the 'toilet' arrangements are in each accommodation !!" Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip

"From the first contact with Tracy our experience with Expert Africa was a very pleasant one.
Tracey patiently listened to our requirements and took our budget into account.
We all changed things around until the final programme was agreed.
Even though Tracy was clear that Expert Africa's experience in South Africa was limited this did not deter us and between us we came up with a solution.
Our only real dissapointment was Roggeland, our last 2 nights which had so much promise... see our reviews.. which was let down by circumstances beyond Expert Africa's control but hopefully the feedback will get through.

We would not hesitate recommending Expert Africa... special thanks to Tracy" Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 12 on a Namibia trip

"We had a fabulous holiday, and the experience was definitely enhanced by your arrangements, particularly the excellent choices/recommendations that you made regarding accommodation - all our hotels were in superb locations that enabled us to see or access the main attractions with great ease." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 2 on a Zambia safari

"We would like to thank Lucy Copson for helping put together such a wonderful experience.

The choice of camps suited us perfectly." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"Another fabulous trip to Africa, we can't wait to go back

One thing we did notice however, was that, while the standard of guiding remains generally very good, there seem now to be some guides who are doing the job just to make enough money to be able to fund other business/life plans. As a result we encountered one or two without the old passion/feel for the job. While their knowledge was probably very good, it was in a bit of a textbook style and seemed to lack an empathy with the animals/environment.

Possibly because the good rains had meant animals were more dispersed and therefore a bit more difficult to find, there seemed to be a lot of racing around trying to find things without stopping to evaluate the surroundings and potential. I also felt that there was a bit more harrassing animals by changing position to let people get a different shot rather than just sitting quietly to observe, again perhaps because of the perceived need to move on to try to find something else. Also because there were possibly fewer 'opportunities to view' there tended to be several vehicles at each sighting.

Suggestions for improvements:

Difficult to think of anything Expert Africa could do better. We are always delighted with the service and have recommended you to lots of friends.

It would have been helpful to have seen the questionnaire before we went so that we could make notes on relevant points as we went along. After three weeks and lots of locations it is a bit difficult to remember precise details for" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari