Zambia: reviews from our travellers

"One of the best holidays we have ever had. What an adventure. The organisation was second to none. We could do it all over again. Indeed we didn't want to come home!!

Recommend you change the Mazambala though - unless there is a change of management!

You will undoubtedly be hearing from us again" Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip

"We had a wonderful trip and even though there was the odd misfortune we counted them as part of the experince. We enjoyed sharing the trip with our friends and have a wealth of photos and memories which will remain with us.

Our thanks for your good advice when we started plannig the trip. Your knowledge was invaluable and made a huge difference.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

You may wish to advise travellers about problems at Maun with luggage tampering. We had nothing of value in our luggage so merely suffered the inconvenience." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"We had an amazing adventure through SA, Namibia and Botswana. Being independent Kiwis, we were keen on arranging our own itinerary and travelling under our own steam, preferably off the beaten tourist track. Namibia appealed, and once I found your amazing website I was hooked. In a former life I was a travel agent here in NZ, but most trips were packaged and rigid, and that was not what we wanted. Having worked out roughly where we wanted to go, I emailed your office, who then referred me to your Namibian expert who (unbelievably!) actually lived in NZ.

Maruska's in depth knowledge of Namibia and her recommendations really made the trip work. Travelling distances were good, and although we travelled over 7,500 km in 5 weeks, it was very do-able. Maruska listened to our preferences and we were delighted with her choice of accom. We enjoyed having the freedom of travelling in the 4WDs to suit ourselves. I fully expected the odd hiccup when we finished with the vehicles and then were reliant on a complicated series of transfers, boats, small planes with no set schedule, more transfers etc, but it all went according to plan and worked like clockwork.

Full marks to Maruska and your agents in Namibia and Botswana for attention to detail and for putting it all together.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just keep doing what you do so well. Your website is just fantastic, great to read other peoples reviews, which is why I've spent all day putting up all this feedback (Sorry it took so long!).

The Brandt guides to Namibia and Botswana are actually in our local library, and it was from there I picked up the website in the first place. Our copies are well worn from the trip, and there was a bit of a bun fight over who kept them. Maybe one per couple would be good, or at least one per vehicle? The Namibia maps were great and Maruska had highlighted each of our stops which was also great attention to detail. We were very happy with the service we received from Maruska - she's a gem - look after her!" Read full review: 33 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip

"All in all it was a wonderful holiday and (having said that it would be a one-off) we can't wait to return next year.
I cannot recommend RPS highly enough (and I'm usually pretty difficult to please!).

Expert Africa arranged everything smoothly and efficiently and we would be pleased to use them again.

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It's hard to improve on flawless!" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Another fantastic trip, our third one with Expert Africa, thanks Ellie!

This was a longer trip (2 weeks) visiting two Countries and several places. This involved a lot of organization and we are once again impressed by how well every little details is sorted in advance. We spent a lot of time asking Ellie a million questions and debating about options and she never ever gets tired of answering my emails...and usually in a matter of hours if not minutes! Every suggestion she gives us is great.

Having been to Tanzania previously in June, we wanted to see different places and the green season. The landscape is fantastic and as expected it is a bit harder to see animals, but we still saw a lot. Of course this is not the best season for walks, as it is a bit hot (at least for us) and some roads and area are not accessible or not safe for walking but we did enjoy morning walks. The bonus is there are very few people and you have the places for yourself.

The game behaviour is very different in South Luangwa and Hwange: in SL they are almost tame, for example impala are in the middle of the road and do not move away from you, while in Hwange they are more skittish. On the other hand Hwange feels a lot wilder (even if they created artificial waterholes). It is good to see different places and landscapes and their contrasts.

We got the biggest safari bug and we are already dreaming about another trip, with Expert Africa of course!

As a last comment I would like to add that everywhere we went everyone (including a couple of tour operator from Australia) spoke highly of the Expert Africa team, not surprisingly!

Thanks a million!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No matter how hard I think I cannot find any suggestion- no need to improve!" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Everything worked smoothly and we really enjoyed our visit.

The itinerary planned by Lucy perfectly met our requirements and the Norman Carr team looked after our every need.

We will definitely travel again with Expert Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep it just as it is!" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"It was a great trip that I enjoyed completly. Nothing to complain about

All was good" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"We booked this trip (unusually for us) at very short notice but EA was able to come up with an itinerary which totally matched our parameters and which worked out extremely well (including the potentially tricky issue of crossing the Zam/Zim border twi ce with different carriers on each side). We were very happy with the whole experience

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

As mentioned in feedback from previous trips we do think the website could be usefully updated more frequently. But we would congratulate you on the 2011 brochure which is a step up from the still very good 20010 version." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zimbabwe safari

"Zambia continues to be one of the great holiday destinations.

The level of professionalism seems to increase each time I visit, and the people, with their charming and helpful attitudes, make a holiday there very special There are too many members of staff in the lodges to mention individually, but our thanks go out to them all for making our stay with them memorable in every way.

Thank you, Lucy, for organising everything, and I will certainly be in touch when organising my next trip to Africa.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, you seem to have covered everything." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"Excellent organisation and coordination ( travel connections : plane - car - boat - connecting flights etc )
Wherever we expected someone : he was present, knowledgeable and up to his job.

Very well organised. ( greetings at airports - assistance to jump the VISA queue on arrival in Lusaka )
Quality of the provided services = superb.

In our first contact - by phone - : perfect selection of the camps by Chris McIntyre .
( although a bit handicapped by the timing of the trip : several camps were closed or closing )

Adminstrative follow-up by Lucy Copsen : very efficient , very friendly


It might look as us being easy going , easily satisfied travellers. We are not.
Our quotations are as we feel : Very satisfied.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep us informed by mail and/ or brochure !

We keep telling people how pleased we are." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari