Reviews of safaris to South Luangwa National Park
942 holiday reviews from our travellers of holidays which include South Luangwa.
"My Sep 2013 trip"
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
Pangolin sightings next time" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Zambia safari
"Goodfellow/Williams Trip Sep 2013"
From initial contact with Expert Africa to the conclusion, all details were well and timely arranged and we were kept informed along the way of all matters. At each "choke point" where things might have gone wrong i.e. flights with Proflight, the arrangements worked without a hitch. Transfers between camps occurred seamlessly, and we were expected at each venue.
Congratulations, therefore, to the Expert Africa team for putting together the trip.
The business of tipping we found irksome. At some stages guides and game guards changed and were missed. At others, notably Chongwe, there were so many for the different activities that we lost count. We ended by giving a sum of money to one of the staff at Chongwe and asked that it be distributed fairly among the guides, while also putting money in the tip box. However fair one tries to be, there is always the nagging doubt that some deserving soul has been missed. You ask for money for a donation of ÂŁ20 to offset carbon emissions from the flights ( for which we have already contributed over ÂŁ400 for our flights from London , grr), so perhaps there could be a donation similarly for the staff ?.
Throughout the trip the staff were most helpful, courteous, obliging, and knowledgeable and could not be faulted.
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Perhaps see comment above re tipping, but otherwise no, we think you are a good organisation with whom we would travel again and which we would recommend to friends.
Thank you." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari
"Superb holiday!"
Fantastic service and stunning animals." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari
"Mary's Birthday safari"
Claire Scott listened to my wishlist and produced an itinerary which allowed us to see more than we thought possible in the limited time we had available.
One of the reasons I chose Expert Africa was I wanted someone else to do the organising this time, so as not to have to worry about connections bookings etc. Well, it certainly was properly organised. We even had someone meet us BEFORE passport control in Lusaka who organised our visas for us, and we didn't have a raise a finger on our own behalf for the whole trip.
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Not really, but thanks to Claire for not laughing when I told her how much I expected to pay for the trip! ;)" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari
"wonderful experiences enhanced by Expert Afr"
For us Premium Economy was an advantage, though others may well find economy is satisfactory.
Each of the arrivals, transfers and departures was eased by the reps involved, looking out for us, and aware of our plan ahead.
The choice of game parks was excellent for us and staff were outstanding. Good value for money compared with our experience of two hotels. The small numbers at Lodges made a better holiday of it, and contact with staff was informal, informative and careful attention was given to individuals. So often a hotel visit is a commercial exercise, Lodges at once suggest they are there for us.
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I do not recall seeing a brochure, wish I had one, but might have passed it to another member of our party of four, but we could not find it. The Bradt guide was an excellent companion in advance, and will be a fine reference book.
I could have done with more detail in breakdown in price. After an estimate we were shown minor differences, as adjustments were made. If I had done everything myself I may have saved some money, but your price gave us the confidence of expertise and back up that was essential for a trip of this complexity not least since our combined age is over 320! We were at no time anxious about planning or arrangements as they happened without problems, and with the assistance we anticipated at every stage." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zambia safari
"Zambia1"
"fabulous return to zambia"
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
better access to information regarding special offers" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari
"Thanks"
Made the holiday rather more expensive than I'd anticipated(!) but was thoroughly worth it. Your initial advice about where to go was spot on too. Thank you.
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
In a word - No. Whole experience was superb." Read full review: 8 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari
"My Sep 2013 trip"
For a month long holiday there was only one minor one hiccup so that's pretty good. The Wild Horizons road transport from Zambezi Sun to Livingstone Airport didn't turn up. They then didn't answer any of the contact numbers incl their emergency mobile so that is probably more of a concern. No problem we just got the hotel to order us a taxi. A Wild Horizons rep finally called the hotel & said their vehichle wouldn't start that morning & they had another vehicle on the way. We said that given the time we were now taking whatever turned up first (which was the taxi). To their credit Wild Horizans must have contacted the taxi driver and told him to return the fare to us.
Proably the only thing we would have changed on the holiday was to sway Tafika camp in Sth Luangwa NP for one that was on a perennial river with watersports such as canoeing (eg Lower Zambezi NP)
Maruska was extremely helpful with planning our trip and very responsive to our questions .. thanks Maruska
PS: We don't normally have our trips organised by a travel agent and only initially contacted Expert Afrika for the Busanga & Tafika bookings .. but then Maruska offered to book most of the other accn & transfers & that's what happened. Very unusual for us to have transfer cars waiting at an airport etc with our name on a card & we don't see much of an advantage over just getting a bus/taxi .. but i can see that some folks would love the certainty of transport waiting for them
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
No" Read full review: 21 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari
"My Sep 2013 trip"
I would love to go back to Zambia, so I'll have to fit it in when I've gone through everywhere else on my list." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari
Where to stay in South Luangwa
Our suggestions for safari camps in South Luangwa National Park