Reviews of safaris to Matobo National Park

"Truly a holiday of a lifetime. Excellent programme put together by Freddie Sutton and Tom Morris, with a range of experiences from colonial splendour in the Vic Falls Hotel, to the ultimate bush camp experience at Hwange Bush Camp and the startling architectural wonder in a stunning location at Amalinda in the Motobos.

Expert Africa are very much the experts - highly recommended." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zimbabwe safari

"A fantastic 2 week trip.

Hardly another vehicle to be seen whilst on safari, great wildlife sightings, excellent accommodation and superb guides." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Zimbabwe safari

"It was an excellent trip. We were more interested in behaviours and walking than in counting animals, so sorry for not filling in those details.

Amalinda promised a lot, but fell short on delivery. Verneys has too many elephants fighting for not much water, but the camp design and massive family tents were impressive.

Vundu is a class act with beautiful surroundings and a very well run camp." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 13 on a Zimbabwe safari

"We loved ever second of our trip to Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The game viewing in both countries vastly exceeded all expectations, with Chobe providing some very special highlights, while Hwange gave us a real sense of the space, variety and beauty Zimbabwe has to offer. The Matopos were also a great way to finish, giving us time to relax and really enjoy a beautiful landscape. We couldn't be happier with the schedule you suggested - just perfect!

Many thanks for all your guidance, support and help - so very much appreciated!" Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zimbabwe safari

"We have been to Africa before with Expert Africa and we knew what we wanted to see this time.

We then spent a long time with Richard Trillo and his team discussing options and then left it to him to put together an extended trip to hopefully tick all the boxes on our wish list.

ALL BOXES TICKED, this was a fantastic journey through 5 African countries, we have seen and experienced so much, so a VERY BIG THANK YOU to Expert Africa for arranging this for us.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No, just carry on doing what you're doing now - it would be very hard to improve what you're already doing so well." Read full review: 44 nights in Africa; 17 on a Kenya safari

"As Zimbabwe emerges from recent troubles we wanted to visit three of its classic locations of Matopo, Hwange and Mana Pools. We were particularly hopeful of seeing Painted Dog, although sadly this was not to be.

Matopo has some fabulous scenery, history and was a place to track rhino on foot - tick to all three. Rhino with calf was a highlight. It also gave us our best ever sighting of Elephant Shrew at Rhodes Grave! The National Park, however, has little game and incursions from cattle and humans are common. Locals roam the whole park on foot cutting grass for sale. It is still worth a visit and arguable needs more visitors to recover, so I’d still include it if you can.

Hwange with its pumped water holes and huge elephant population delivered more classic sightings, and a pride of lions with 6 cubs provided entertainment on all our game drives. Good antelope including Sable and Roan with huge buffalo herd of 500 plus were also a highlight. The open areas and mixed forest gave good variety to habitats.

Mana Pools was in drought in June so maybe not at its best. We were surprised at the number of self drivers and campers, some of whom are clearly not controlled effectively by the NP staff (much to the frustration of guides). No off road but you can off walk so great encounter with lions on a kill on foot was the highlight. If this is the jewel in the crown for Zimbabwe then it’s a little disappointing - at times it felt like a safari park - particularly as the unique environment offers so much.

Versus other neighbouring safari destinations, Zimbabwe still has some catching up to do if it is to return to its previous premier ranking. The amazing teams at African Bush Camps certainly warrant a visit." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zimbabwe safari

"We had a great trip in Zimbabwe.

Always felt very safe and welcome. Met wonderful people in camps, cities and along the roads.

Felt like we got the privilege of experiencing the wilderness almost completely alone with our hosts. And got interesting openhearted stories about everyday life in the country." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zimbabwe safari

"We knew we needed someone knowledgeable to help us with our first trip to Africa. Claire was fantastic! We were so pleased with all of her suggestions and everything she planned for us. Everything went exactly as planned and we had no concerns during our trip about our plans.

We’ve already passed Claire’s name along to a colleague and she is working with him and his wife now on their upcoming trip. We definitely want to return to Africa, probably as soon as next year, and will plan to contact Claire to see about helping us with that trip as well." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Zimbabwe safari

"I try not to anticipate nor expect too much so I won't be disappointed - this trip far exceeded anything I could have imagined, I enjoyed it all so much and it all ran smoothly except the weather the first day but then I would not have experienced Latitude 15.

Thank you for organising such a wonderful itinerary, Freddie, did a great job." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 8 on a Zimbabwe safari

"This was my third African safari adventure and – aside from the fact that I still have not crossed the Aardvark, Pangolin or Pel's Fishing Owl off my "must see" list – the trip exceeded my expectations in many ways. I liked the wide range and variety of camps and the mixture of air and road transfers, even if two of the latter were, to put it mildly, arduous. I don't regret having experienced the long drive from Amalinda to Somalisa or the one from Mkulumadzi to Pumulani, but I wouldn't want to do either of them again.

I'm happy I returned to Zimbabwe and Zambia – two outstanding wildlife countries with exceptionally skilled guides – and I very much enjoyed my introduction to Malawi. The Majete Wildlife Reserve is still in its infancy but holds great promise, and I found Lake Malawi breathtaking to look at and fascinating to explore.

Working with the Expert Africa team – and particularly with Freddie Sutton – to plan my month-long itinerary was great fun and very rewarding. Freddie is experienced, knowledgeable, patient and, above all, flexible. He responded quickly to all of my requests for changes and updates, and he always found an attractive alternative where one was needed. Even when a slight glitch arose during my time away, he immediately resolved it and all went well." Read full review: 38 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zimbabwe safari