Zambia: reviews from our travellers

"We had a wonderful holiday with no problems or nasty surprises. We'll never forget a holiday where we saw 15 individual leopards in 10 days and 8 in a day!

Before the trip we were a liitle concerned about the short transit time in Lusaka between the arrival of our afternoon Emirates flight and our Proflight booking to Mfuwe. We were assured this was not a problem and this proved true.From the time of landing, Immigration and Visa issue, Luggage collection, and check in for the next flight were completed in just 30 minutes.

We were very pleased with the knowledge on birds of guides at all the camps. This meant there was always something to look at.

A couple of points of our personal views not necessarily relevant to Expert Africa:

We rather wish we had spent one night in Lusaka, for no other reason than we don't feel we've visited the country in the true sense.

In a future trip we would look for an alternative to the Emirates routing via Dubai.The timing of this allows little chance of a proper sleep in a transit time of over 17 hours from London to Lusaka. Via J'burg is better in this respect and we would also consider more direct routes via Addis Ababa or Nairobi, which could include a stopover.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Nothing springs to mind. Every query was handled quickly and efficiently." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"Very pleasant and unforgettable holiday! From booking until arriving back home. We've had already the opportunity of visiting several countries in Africa, and this travel to Zambia was one of the most fantastic.

The chosen camps, their locations, the accommodations, the food and the activities in which we took part are/were great. Everything has gone very smoothly, as planned or above expectations. We had some very agreeable surprises that we will never forget. But, above all, it was the professionalism, the sympathy and the warmth of the people we've met.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Booking this travel with Expert Africa was a pleasure.

From the very beginning, the quality of the information obtained, the clarity of the documents, the rigor of the approach and all the support provided by Maruska were simply superb.

Doing better is not easy..." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"Lucy helped arrange our trip. She was wonderful. I travel a lot, and this is the first time I have used someone to plan a trip. It was so helpful, and Lucy was a pleasure to work with. Overall, it exceeded my expectations, and I learned more about my expectations and where I needed to be clearer in the future. What I really appreciated about Lucy, is I messed up a flight (spelled a name wrong on an airline ticket). I got no where in fixing it and Lucy jumped in and got it rectified.

I did learn that when flying with South African Airline and the smaller airlines that they change flight schedules and cancel flights frequently, so don't book multiple legs of a trip on one ticket - unless they are the same day." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"From the first contact with Expert Africa to the last moment of our trip everything was just perfect.
Lucy really provided expert guidance on chosing camps that suit us. We wanted to go back to Tafika and she has given us new places to consider and her recommendations have been excellent." Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zambia safari

"Our second visit to Zambia and both experiences were great" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"Excellent trip." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari

"Could not have been better" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 3 on a Namibia trip

"Our first holiday to Africa was simply amazing, it surpassed all our expectations. The National Park was stunningly beautiful with such a varied landscape, the views and the light were so photogenic. The opportunity of seeing the wildlife and birds was beyond our dreams and expectations, it was amazing what we saw and we appreciated being immersed in the landscape whilst in the camps and on game drives, a truly memorable experience. We also valued the fact that the Park was not overrun with tourist vehicles surrounding and disturbing the animals.

The guides were fantastic, their knowledge and skills were awesome, they literally enhanced our whole experience with their information and their ability to locate animals and birds. Their knowledge did not stop there, we enjoyed being told about the different trees, the tracks (thank you Daudi for your drawings), and even the different animal poo...all so interesting.

The camps were all in quiet, beautiful locations, they were so comfortable with a very high standard of house keeping. The food was constantly delicious, varied and so beautifully prepared and served. The laundry service was efficient and so appreciated .
Finally though, it was the welcome we received from all the staff that made our holiday so perfect

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We have wanted to do a safari holiday for many years but we have worried about the impact of tourism on local communities, the environment and the wildlife but then we were told about RPS and Zambia by some friends of my sister, who also recommended Expert Africa. Having looked at the RPS website and receiving their Monday newsletter we knew that Zambia was the place for us but as we hadn’t been to Africa before we had so many questions to ask and many of them trivial.

We wanted to talk to someone at Expert Africa directly and Claire was perfect, she answered all our questions quickly and patiently, she put together our wonderful itinerary and had so much knowledge and enthusiasm. We will be returning to Zambia and we will be in touch with Claire to discuss our future holiday.

In addition, the complementary guide book and wildlife survey were so appreciated.

Thank you all at Expert Africa and RPS for a fantastic holiday in Zambia." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zambia safari

"SATISFIED WITH ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR SERVICES, MEET AND GREET DURING THE TRIP WAS GOOD WITH NO HICCUPS.

NO COMPLAINTS.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

NO." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"Overall we enjoyed our holiday, especially the "off piste" section we organised in the Cape before returning via JNB.

Less game and far less variety than we expected. Dissappointed to find night drives not allowed in Zimbabwe. Expert Africa should provide more details of the flight operators for the bush flights and there needs to be tighter communication when informing guests and checking their documents and itineraries." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zambia safari