Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs W-J from UK

"Having visited South Africa briefly on several occasions we decided to make it our focus this time. The weather was good, though very, very hot at Kwandwe.

We had a good range of accommodation and the exchange rate meant that everything was extremely good value once we got there. We'd chosen our own accommodation at Oudtshoorn which we suggest Expert Africa look at for future travellers.

Cape Town was, as always, lovely!

Already booked to go back next year!"

"We had wanted to visit Western Serengeti and Lake Victoria for many years and they did not disappoint.

The migration wasn't where it was supposed to be but we still saw it. Rubondo island is very different but we highly recommend it. Cheetahs abounded in southern Serengeti.

Travellers to Tanzania should be aware that all timings of Coastal flights are subject to change and that lodges should be asked to check them for you - every one of ours was changed. Also that if flying from Nairobi your point of immigration may be different from that on your ticket - we were told Tarime but ended up going through Musoma.

Thanks Ellie - you will not be surprised that we have ideas for our next trip!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

All staff are always friendly and helpful even though we are, to quote Chris 'particular' about our travels. However that means we have always had wonderful trips and is why we keep coming back again, and again, and again!

For first-time Africa travellers more information on the vagaries of internal flights might have been helpful."

"Another great 3 weeks wandering around Namibia!. This was our 5th trip which, we think, pretty much says it all. Some new places and some old friends to see.

Can we go back please?"

"RPS camps are still some of our favourites and we had a great time courtesy of El Presidente Daudi, the team and our fellow travellers.

Getting to Zambia is now something of a real long-haul as the direct BA flight has gone - perhaps we will explore other options next time."

"An amazing trip to see one of the last wildlife wildernesses. We feel extremely privileged to have been able to spend time at Liuwa in the company of Jason, Robin, Kanga and the team. The difficulties of the journey to get there are immediately forgotten on arrival; we really hope RPS will restart these trips when the new lodge in the park is built; maybe someone will also construct an airstrip on land firm enough to take planes big enough to get guests and supplies in. The current one can only take the tiny research plane but is otherwise used as a running track as the soil is so soft!

South Luangwa was excellent as usual with some fantastic sightings including a leopard taking her three (!) tiny cubs out for the first time.

All ground arrangements went smoothly as usual though, for us, we found Tours Africa a little too attentive – we really don’t need somebody to shepherd us to the lounge once we’ve passed passport control. And we’re perfectly capable of paying our own departure tax."

"Another wonderful trip, our 12th (!) with Expert Africa.This was probably the simplest to arrange - thank you Ellie.

Although Mwagusi lost one paw in the marking for the temperature of the food it was definitely our favourite of the two camps - to the extent that Jane cried on having to leave!

Trip 13 is booked and 14 in the planning stages!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep going - we even toyed with the idea of trip 15 tonight."

"Initially even we thought we were slightly bonkers with this ambitious itinerary but after extensive and detailed planning everything went smoothly (with the exception of Elegant Farmstead cancelling our booking at the very last minute in favour of a large group; if this is typical of their attitude maybe they're not suitable for EA's independent travellers).

We had a FANTASTIC time!!!! Whilst some drives were long they were perfectly manageable with two drivers, a flask of coffee and our trusty MP3 player to entertain us. The roadside picnic stations provided good places to stop and eat a bit of lunch – there are plenty of supermarkets in the towns to buy provisions, including a 5 litre bottle of water. Most lodges charge for water (about N$13 for a small bottle) so it makes sense to buy a big one in a supermarket (about N$20) and top up your little bottles from it. There seemed to be far fewer parking guards about than on our previous trips and, we were surprised to see, even petrol station attendants don't seem to expect tips any more.

Garden Lodge provided a gentle start to our marathon trip with good company, tasty food, an excellent boat trip and lots of cats and dogs to play with. Kasane is an interesting little frontier town, buzzing with activity though not the place to stock up for a long trip. Don't be surprised to see a warthog trotting across the road in the middle of town.

The brand new Ngoma lodge is excellent (see review) with loads of animals to see, excellent food and great staff. We highly recommend it. It is one of the few places that provides free water – we promised to take our Ngoma bottles all the way to Cape Town; after many refills they finally met their demise at security in Cape Town airport!

We returned to Garden Lodge to have our car delivered and set off for the border next morning. Crossing the border into Namibia is no problem at all and after stocking up at a supermarket in Katima Mulilo we set off across the Caprivi strip. Roads in the Caprivi are, as Chris's book says, long, straight and can be quite tedious though you need to keep an eye out for wandering cows, goats and dogs (and the occasional human).

Arriving at Ndhovu in the early afternoon, we spent a couple of hours on our deck on the river bird-spotting. Next day we took a trip across to Buffalo (suggest pre-booking if you want to do this) and then drove ourselves to Mahango in the afternoon.

It was a long drive to Ghaub the next day but switching from 'Caprivi time' meant we gained an hour; we had been debating whether the hour was going backwards or forwards and it was only when the guard at the vetinary gate greeted us with a cheery 'Good Morning' that we were certain! After two nights peaceful rest we set off to Okaukeujo. We arrived at Etosha in good time and managed to visit several good waterholes on the drive across the park.

We spent most of the next day in the park and then moved on to the big surprise of the trip; Taleni. We'd wanted to spend two nights at Okaukeujo but had been unable to get a room despite booking very early. Taleni is just outside Etosha and we loved it. It does attract some large groups but the staff use the different dining areas to give couples or family groups privacy and peace.

A comfortable morning's drive brought us to Gocheganas, just south of Windhoek, which proved an unexpected pleasure. We had been booked to stay at Elegant Farmstead but they had cancelled our booking at the very last minute (after we arrived in Namibia). As it turned out Gocheganas fitted in with our itinerary much better and we thought the place was excellent. Thanks to Sabina for organising the change for us; in the days before BlackBerrys and the internet this could have been a major problem but in this case was (almost) painless.

The drive to Bagatelle, for some reason, took longer than anticipated; the roads were good and we'd calculated the distance but it just took longer! However we arrived in comfortable time and enjoyed watching the waterhole, excellent food and company and, of course, the meerkats!

Next, off to Fish River Canyon. Until Keetmanshoop the B1 is a good tar road but you then have to venture onto gravel. The road is bumpy and undulates with the landscape, which is beautiful, and you may even meet a train! The canyon itself is fantastic and there are few people about; such a contrast to its rival in the USA!

We left Canon Lodge in the sunshine and headed for the border with South Africa. The crossing itself was painless though there was a notable diminishment in friendliness of immigration staff on the South African side. Heading down the N7 the weather turned and we found ourselves in rain and/or cloud. As we had plenty of time we went down to Skilpad to see the flowers with which we were disappointed. However, driving back over the mountains they were lovely.

It absolutely tipped it down overnight (not ideal in a room with an iron roof!) and we set off for the marathon drive to Cape Town with some trepidation. Driving over the mountain passes in heavy cloud was 'entertaining' to say the least (particularly when we were held up by major roadworks – waiting time at least 20 minutes). We stopped off in Clanwilliam which we thought a lovely town.

The sun came out as we arrived in Camps Bay. We'd arranged our own accommodation here; there are lots of good guest houses .
The place has clearly been spruced up since the World Cup and there are some excellent new restaurants. We ate at The Codfather – excellent but shellfish is very expensive, Ocean Blue – just as excellent but less pricey, and The Kove – best steak Martin had all trip and great staff. Tuscany Beach was also highly recommended by our guest house.

We did the tourist bit – open top bus tour (don't forget to use the vouchers printed on the back of the ticket!) boat trip and lunch at the V&A – recommend The Greek Fisherman and City Grill Steakhouse – then the bus back to Camps Bay. The following day we drove (yes we hadn't had quite enough!) down to Cape Point where there seemed to be bonteboks around every corner (even on the beach) and few other visitors about.

Finally off to Hermanus and the whales. You really can see them from the coastal path, though the boat trip out to sea is well worthwhile too. The town is lovely and there are some excellent wineries to visit nearby.
Overall, a wonderful trip which we'd wanted to do for years. What's next???????

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

If only travel to Africa was less expensiver!

The name says it all - you are the Africa Experts and although we do shop around we come back time and time again.

Perhaps a minor point is that you should consider regular travellers' previous trips before saying they can't do something"

"We have been working on this trip for years - and it lived up to every expectation. Great variety of accommodation, excellent game viewing and a bit of swimming at the end. We have already discussed the possibility of going back.

Thank you to all at Expert Africa who have had input to this over the years - Chris, Claire, Penny, Liz and Ellie.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The trips are excellent, service very good and, despite trying, we cannot better you on price."

"We have had another wonderful holiday – our third trip to Namibia, and at least 9th with Expert Africa – but things could have been better.

Our feedback reflects what we have come to expect from Expert Africa – a minimum 4-paw grading for everything – therefore 5 paws are very hard to achieve and reflect something exceptional.

We were very annoyed by the cancellation of the direct Air Namibia flights; this caused us significant inconvenience. We met so many people who shared our views – from fellow travellers to lodge owners to guides – everybody was unhappy about it. Having been forced to fly via Frankfurt we thought Frankfurt airport was very poor – lack of signage, few shops, little seating and even a mouse in the Business Class lounge. Toilets were dirty. The process will make us think twice before going back to Namibia.

However........ arriving at Windhoek in the morning we found the drive up to Etosha no problem – there were 2 of us to share the driving and we stopped off for shopping and lunch on the way – we definitely prefer to get straight on the road rather than spending a night in Windhoek and effectively wasting a day. We'd recommend buying a Namibian SIM for your mobile at the airport (took 5 mins and cost around £10) – others tend not to work, even with Global Roaming enabled – and we did use it when we discovered we'd left Ghaub with the room key in a pocket!

We'd always thought the road signs on the B1 warning of warthogs rather amusing but we saw dozens on the side of the road this time! Our trip was mostly on tar roads this time, which is great in some ways but they can be very straight and boring – in particular the roads through the Caprivi. We were glad we had booked a 4X2 vehicle for driving some of the tracks in Etosha and Mahango – no need for 4x4 at this time of year.

We were so pleased we were doing a one-way trip; we met many people who had found the driving tiring and were not looking forward to the drive back to Windhoek from the Caprivi. We had tried to slow things down and space them out so that most of our drives were less than 4 hours and, where possible, we spent at least 2 nights in accommodation. This gave us the chance to take advantage of the activities on offer and relax (eg at Hakusembe).

Many lodges do not provide drinking water (or at cost) so we suggest buying a 5 litre bottle in a supermarket (about N$15) and taking it with you.

We would happily repeat our holiday and revisit any of our accommodation with the exception of Namutoni – no way!

Suggestions for improvements:

We have travelled with EA so many times it must be a recommendation in itself! We did do some market testing on this trip and found competitors more expensive. We're already organised for next summer's trip.

However, on rare occasions accuracy of quotations is somewhat sacrificed in the interests of getting them to clients quickly. This is obviously partly due to the complexity of trips but can be frustrating."

"Our second visit to Namibia and a wonderful prelude to the longer trip planned for 2009. It was great to revisit some areas (though in different accommodation) and try some new places. Okonjima was in easy reach of the airport, even though we flew BA via Jo'burg and didn't arrive at Windhoek until 2pm. We met many people who regretted spending their first night in Windhoek rather than venturing further, but also some who were exhausted on arrival and just wanted a sleep - it has to be a personal decision.

Damaraland had been beautiful in the dry season but after the rains it was stunning with river beds full of flowers - and even some water!

After much debate in the UK we decided when in Namibia to drive the Skeleton Coast road (after taking local advice) and had no problems at all - it was a fascinating, though long, drive and we're really glad we did it; however we probably wouldn't choose to do it again. Local advice is crucial if you want to do this drive.

We saw no rain at all - apparently it had all come early this year.

Thanks to Tracy, Sabina and Chris for their help in organising the trip at pretty short notice - think they surprised themselves in finding availabilities!"