Reviews of trips to Livingstone & Victoria Falls

"We had a wonderful trip and hope to return to Botswana in the future." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Botswana is definitely the premier destination for wildlife safaris. Having been to Tanzania, Namibia and South Africa, I felt Botswana had the most to offer although the former holidays were great in their own right.

The camps were, on the whole, well run and the staff hospitable and friendly. The guides were passionate and knowledgeable - always keen to answer questions and reveal the secrets of their country. We not only learned a great deal about the wildlife but also the traditions of the people and how the country has benefited from the flourishing tourist industry. Other struggling African nations could learn a great deal from the shining example posed by Botswana.

We had a fantastic time and hope to return at some point in the future, Expert Africa's recommendations and organising skills were spot on. Flights, pick ups, drop offs etc etc all went like a dream, so well done to Megan and her team. These things don't happen without a lot of work going on behind the scenes.

One negative point, perhaps worth mentioning, is that we were told it would be difficult to book the holiday as late as January as the good camps would be full. As it turned out, none of the camps were anything like full, and Duba Plains, probably the best camp we stayed in, was half empty for two of the three nights we stayed there. I know that travel companies want you to book early but it did not suit us on this occasion to do so.

Another useful service Expert Africa could offer, as some other companies do, is a breakdown of the costs of each camp. This would allow the client to compare like with like and assess, at least in a cost sense, the quality of individual camps.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just keep doing what you do. I can think of nothing to criticise in the organisation of the holiday. Obviously, very expensive but a lot of the tourist cash does filter back to the people of Botswana which is vital in maintaining the passion and commitment of guides and staff.

It would help to receive some feedback from Expert Africa re my observations and comments above. We did not receive any feedback to our comments regarding a previous holiday in Tanzania. Perhaps a phone call discussion with Megan would be a useful way of showing that our feedback was valued." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 13 on a Botswana safari

"We had a wonderful trip--even better than our first visit 2 years ago. Many thanks to Nick Hobbs for interpreting our needs and producing a superbly balanced itinerary.

CHITABE camp was truly exceptional and will live long in our memories.

We will start saving for our next trip." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Thanks to Claire. Claire provided us with the holiday we asked for and it went without a hitch.

As we went through our itinerary we came to understand the background work and knowledge she had put in to our holiday from the connecting flights, boarder crossing to the plane seating and hotel room overlooking the Victoria falls bridge.

She has first hand knowledge and had suggested the Livingstone instead of the Zambezi Sun and she was right I was wrong. Only those of us that have experienced how Africa operates will understand fully how all those involved made this holiday so memorable thanks again Claire.

Bob and Ann Gallop" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zimbabwe safari

"A great once in a lifetime trip. Far exceeded our expectations.

Thank you very much Maruska for putting it all together and your patience in answering our never ending questions.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Recommend that:
- travelers be forewarned about the transfer between Zambia and the Kasane airport.
- travelers mark their battery chargers with highly visible markings so that they are not confused with other charges in a central charging station.

The trip turned out to be fantastic and would highly recommend the use of Expert Safaris for planning and organizing a safari in Botswana." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Overall our trip was excellent. Only glitches were a missing extra spare tire in Namibib and they guy in Livingstone who was to meet us ran off with another couple. Thanks to a great airport travel desk guy, he sorted it out and matched us with the person we needed.

The Expert Africa folks we dealt with were uniformly very good to excellent. There were some delays in feedback during the planning process which we noted but overall very good. Quick feedback during the planning process is critical to us as we are comparing ideas and proposals from more than one company and we need to hear from everyone.

For this trip we spoke to three different folks--Nick, Sabina and one other. Next time I would spend more time in conversation with each of them and would better understand our itinerary options. There is only so much I retain from web sites and travel books.

We also want to find places in Botswana with animals. That was the big surprise for this trip. Our East Africa trips have spoiled us and shaped our expectations for game viewing." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"This was a wonderful trip. We would work with Expert Africa again and recommend them to family and friends.

The team member who dealt with most of our trip was Gwynneth -- who I know is no longer working at Expert Africa -- but she deserves recognition for all her efforts. I am evaluating Gwynneth below, even though I have to choose a different team member from the drop-down menu" Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"Nick was straight back to us on the text when he knew we would be late and showed great forethought in reserving us a room at the Airport Hotel. The A380 had a lot of passengers who missed their flights and the hotel soon became fully booked.

As a comment if Expert Africa has customers who are "time rich" as we are [though not necessarily "cash rich" ] it might be a good idea to suggest a day's stopover after a long-haul flight. Because we had to stay over a day we started our holiday fit and refreshed and enjoyed it all. If we had arrived at Nxia Pan Camp as planned I think we would have been exhausted and it could have taken a few days to recover............the tourist schedule for retirees is pretty demanding !" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"This trip went extremely well.

All the details were attended to, flights were met, transfers occurred as expected and memories were made. We've lived in Nigeria for the past 8 months and so did not have extremely high expectations for successful logistics. This trip proved us wrong in the most wonderful way.

We loved this trip so much that we are planning a similar trip for next year's spring break.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
Expert Africa delivered exactly what they promised and we were very happy with our experience. We have and will continue to recommend Expert Africa to friends who are planning trips to Africa." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 5 on a Zambia safari

"Great trip, lots of variety, went without a hitch so thanks to expert africa for all the organisation" Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 3 on a Zambia safari