Zambia: reviews from our travellers

"A truly memorable experience seeing the wildlife and birds, and also experiencing the friendliness and knowledgeability of the Zambians we met. We also feel we know more about the way of life for some Zambians after visiting the village and school at Kawaza.

All our travelling was planned to go off without a hitch, and we were met and assisted all along the way which was wonderful.
Our thanks to Claire for organising it.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Guidelines are needed about whether to tip the hosts." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zambia safari

"you managed to do and enabled us to see what we wanted

outstanding choice of lodges and locations - well done

your advice regarding wild dogs was spot on

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

keep up the good work" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"Very good thank you." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari

"I found the trip to be a profoundly enriching experience.

The visions South Luangwa offered of at least partially intact natural systems are for me unique" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zambia safari

"The trip was great, exactly what we were hoping for.

I cannot comment on your staff as my husband dealt with them." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zambia safari

"We felt always very safe, because the support services were always there when we needed them (transfers, flights, guides).

Some camps turned out to be much better than others; might have to do with the size of them too, and of course, to their management team.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Maybe you should inform people of the cold weather in some of these camps at this time of the year. We did not bring warm enough clothes; some people even had ski masks, that in the early morning drives were nice to have.

About the luggage restrictions, we were appalled to see that we were the only ones complying with everything. We found bags with wheels (actually provided by travel agencies), people carrying 2 or more bags each, plus their handbags and photo equipment. I even heard of people travelling with hair drivers. Some had so much photographic equipment that they needed and extra car to bring it to their camp. So much that, while we were 6 people per jeep, they only had 3 per jeep. This last was, as always, in Chitabe.

Of course, no bag was ever weighted anywhere or even measured. I had such a rough time finding the appropriate bags for this trip that I felt really stupid being one of the few complying with the strict rules." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"Our trip to Botswana was an amazing holiday and unfortunately a 'one off'.

Despite a short delay in Maun which was dealt with quickly and efficiently by Beverly of Mac Air, everything went according to plan thanks to Megan's help and advice. The game drives, lodges and even the wildlife far exceeded our expectations." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"This feedback is far too long and not what you want to receive on your return from holiday when you have a million other things to do!! This is why it has taken me so long to complete after the end of the holiday. Why bother to ask about S A Airways and B A?

I have travelled with your company on several occasions and remain a great fan of the effort you take to make a holiday, to what could be a difficult area, run as smoothly as possible. This time was no exception and the following comments are for your guidance / information and in no way a criticism.

As you suggested we collected our baggage in Jo'burg and checked in again. On both occasions that we passed through Jo'burg the airport was EXCEEDINGLY busy and it was a good job that we had a 3 hour wait (as you had intimated) otherwise we would have missed the connecting flight. Anyone who was nervous of crowds and queues and delays may have felt concerned especially as a dangerous situation occurred as there was no room for passengers to alight from an escalator to join a massive queue through passport control.

Please see comments on the car at Mundulea.

When we arrived to check in at the Taj Pamodzi they asked for credit card details (which is usual in a hotel) and then asked how we were paying for the accommodation. It took over 10 minutes to convince them that we had already paid our travel agent. They had the audacity to say 'has it cleared through your bank account'. Eventually someone agreed that Expert Africa would be paying for the accommodation BUT THEY HAVE NOT YET PAID. Who was correct? At one time they wanted us to contact you before they would let us stay.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Whilst I can appreciate that you want as many good comments as possible I feel that you may miss out on the odd nugget of criticism / feedback because some like me considered giving up and are put off by the length of this feedback form.

The availability of a paper form would have been appreciated." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"It ran like clockwork. I have nothing but praise for every aspect of the trip, and for Expert Africa's ability to get it right for us.

As the title suggests, the trip of the lifetime is a cliche but nonetheless true in this case. I would love to visit Botswana in future and just hope that this becomes possible.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The only thing I'd say is that given the timings of our flights which, although we booked them ourselves were the same as those that Expert Africa would have booked for us, it would have been a good idea to stop over for one night in Jo'burg on both outward and return journeys. This would have made the journey far more enjoyable and less tiring.

Clearly we could have made such arrangements but it didn't occur to us until we were waiting for 4 hours plus at Jo'burg airport for our onbound flight to Maun.

So, I suggest that EE might advise their clients that they might like to consider a stop over when flight timings are like this. This is not a major criticism just a suggestion that may make the journeys of other more pleasant. Otherwise we were very happy with the arrangements the EE made for us." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"We had a wonderful trip and enjoyed every minute! Organisation was perfect, thank you Megan!

As we particularly enjoyed our walking safari, we will definitely plan more walking and boat trips for our next safari. Leaving Africa was, again, very hard. But we're already dreaming about going back!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

It would be great to be informed whether camps accept children." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 16 on a Botswana safari