Reviews of safaris to South Luangwa National Park
944 holiday reviews from our travellers of holidays which include South Luangwa.
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The arraangements made by Expert Africa were first class." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zambia safari
"Rwanda, Luangwa and Livingstone Safari Trip"
South Luangwa lived up to our usual expections and the guys at Tafika base camp and the bush camps of Chikoko and Crocodile are some of the best in the area making a very good safari experience. My only comments here is they have to be careful when veting people to go on the bush camp trips as the make up of a group may affect the pleasure others get in this trip, i.e. mixing families with children with others on such a trip can be a downer. But certainly bush camps are for those who wish the real safari experience.
Toko Laya Safari Camp is an ideal place to finish yoru safari and catch the sights of Livingstone and the falls, a very well run and organsied camp despite having been only open since May 2008. A tribute to some of the good staff they have. The only issue that being in the game park next Livingstone it is not really a big game experince with no cats and not masses of wildlife. But a good place to relax and cover various experinces offered by the lodge.
Suggestions for improvement:
None
we were very well dealt with by Expert Africa and appreciated the opportunities to disucss fully when we wished to review/modify the itinerary." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zambia safari
"A fantastic holiday"
The one thing that did cause me some confusion were the various vouchers issued to us by Expert Africa, though ultimately it made no difference to our trip. One voucher stated that it was for a transfer from Lufupa Lodge to Lusaka, but in fact it was from Lunga River Lodge airstrip to Lusaka. The transfer vouchers for the second week while in North and South Luangwa were completely wrong. Though this caused me a lot of confusion, Remote Africa had worked it all out correctly, ignoring the vouchers, and everything was fine.
The issue of Tipping was a bit difficult for us, and definitely an area that I feel needs to be addressed in greater detail by Expert Africa. I had read somewhere that tipping is discretionary but that an amount of $5 - $8 per day per guest would be appropriate to pay to the guide. However, it is not only the guide that often deserves a tip, but also the staff at the various bush camps. I have no idea as to whether we were being mean or generous, but on average we were tipping our guides the equivalent of $40 - $50 for each day that we had with them, and a further $30 or so to the remainder of the staff at each camp per day (remembering that we are a family of five, and that we were usually the only guests at each camp).
Our guide for the whole of the first week was Brad from Wilderness Safaris. He was absolutely fantastic, extraordinarily knowledgeable about virtually anything that we wished to discuss, and seemed to possess a sixth sense when it came to spotting wildlife. He is such a nice person, and our 17,15 and 13 year old children all got on very well with him. He works tremendously hard and deserves a medal.
Would it have been possible for Expert Africa to give us advance notice of the identity of who we would be having as our guide? It would have been nice for us to have known his name in advance so that when we first met him we could have immediately realised what his role was.
Before we left the UK, I spoke with Anna and asked if it would be an idea for us to take out some spare clothing for the local villagers. She responded very enthusiastically and gave me a long list of suggestions as to what we could take, including any old clothes, shoes, toys, childrens books etc. When packing our bags we chose mostly old clothes that we did not wish to bring back to the UK at the end of our trip, and any spare room in our bags were then filled with other bits and pieces to give away.
At each camp that we stayed at we asked the camp manager whether it would be appropriate to give him some clothes and toys to distribute to his staff, and each time we received a very positive response. The staff may look well fed and clothed but their familes back in their home villages often own virtually nothing and we were assured that our meagre gifts would be gratefully received. Consequently we left quite a large volume of things behind in Zambia, and feel good that we have done our little bit to assist these people. Maybe Expert Africa could include some sort of guidance and suggestions in this area for any future like-minded travellers." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 6 on a Zambia safari
"Fantastic trip"
"Zambian Honeymoon"
Suggestions for improvement:
It would be useful rethinking your advice on luggage weight limits . You may have been giving official figures but on proflight there was no strict weight limit in practice." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari
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The second half (post safari) was an attempt by us to get closer to the real Africa again and we most impressed at Kawaza, Kaya Mawa and Nkwichi by the responsible tourism and how the lodges are working sucessfully with the local people" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari
"An overwhelming and life changing experience"
This was truly a holiday of a lifetime, and we are very grateful to Expert Africa for helping to make it so. We hope to go again in future, and in the meantime will not be hesitating to recommend you to our friends.
We were sceptical whether we could cope with the low luggage allowance. We didn't need to be; we survived easily on 15 kilos between us, and didn't wear some bits! You could emphasise this aspect even more strongly in your notes (but also stress the need for warm clothes at this time of year)." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zambia safari
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Expert Africa did a super job;" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari
"Zambia safari and Kaya Mawa"
Anna's advice was bang on and I thought of her several times during the trip, remembering her enthusiasm and wanting to say how much I agreed!
Suggestions for improvemnet:
Tell your clients to take plenty of dollars. Sterling is no good. They need money for taxes in Malawi as well as in Zambia. And lots of money for tips, which were much more standard than we had been led to believe in the Guide." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zambia safari
"Zambia - we loved it even more than before"
It is a fantastic place with really superb people at the camps we've visited. We'd like to try some other camps next time we go, but don't know if we'll be able to tear ourselves away from Remote Africa - I guess we'll just have to try to find some extra time!
Suggestions for improvement:
You really helped us decide against Botswana in an open and honest way. Having had such a great holiday we can't think of anything you could have done to improve it since we don't believe you can control the airport/flight aspect." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zambia safari
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