Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs MS from N London

"This was a fantastic trip. We spent 25 days doing a full circuit of Namibia - everything we expected and far more.

I expected it to be all desert, but I never knew how many different kinds of desert there are and what amazing landscapes and geology Namibia has. Nor did I realise what a fantastic variety of wildlife and birds there are.

We chose to have a driver/guide and it was well worth every penny - he not only took all the strain of the long drives, he was also an astonishing fund of knowledge and expertise. WIthout him, we would not have seen half the things we did, nor appreciated what we did see half as much.

Then we had 9 days in the Okavango Delta, a truly amazing place where the concentration and variety of wildlife is quite extraordinary. Very good guides provided by the lodges to find all the animals. The days were filled with great experiences.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We had a fanatastic time and no complaints at all. However, we did find that quite a few of the lodges etc were really rather over the top in their attempts to emulate 4- or 5-star hotels. It's a matter of personal preference, but we actually felt more comfortable in the places that didn't try quite so hard and were perhaps a little more authentic in their atmosphere - like Etendeka and Kwara.

If I had known better what the range of options was, I could probably have explained this to Tracy at the beginning. So my suggestion would be that your agents could maybe spend a little more time getting to know what the client's expectations are and what kind of experiences they are looking for, and discuss the options, to enable them to make better-informed choices.

My impression is that, because I didn't have a limited budget, the assumption was that we would automatically prefer the most up-market places; that doesn't apply to us and maybe others are the same."

Feedback response

We have very much taken on board these travellers’ comments regarding the style and cost of accommodation, and have noted to try and probe even deeper when chatting about accommodation options with future travellers. We pride ourselves on taking time getting to know exactly what our travellers what from a trip and then suggesting the best places to suit their individual desires. We are sorry that we may not have got it completely correct on this occasion.

We too love rustic and authentic styles of camp such as Etendeka and Kwara, however unfortunately there are very few of these types of camp any more. Most have opted to ‘upgrade’ to more modern structures and facilities due to popular demand. We feel this is a bit of a same as there are a number of our travellers who clearly prefer this style of accommodation.

For clarity sake we feel we should mention that the accommodations used in Namibia were by no means the most expensive, in fact many are some of the more economical places to stay. However travelling with a private guide, although offering a fantastic experience, does add a fair amount to the cost of any trip. However Nxabega and Sandibe in Botswana are pretty costly, though no more than many other camps in Botswana - it’s just an expensive country to visit!