Zimbabwe: reviews from our travellers

"Our first trip to Namibia (2010), covered central, north, northwest and coastal areas.

This trip (2013) was about 98% new locations covering central, north, northeast, Caprivi, Okavango and Vic Falls, Zimbabwe side.
The most noticeable differences in that span of time were the money exchange, electricity adaptor difference, more people riding bicycles, shopping modernization of cities, availability of 3G services (more mobile phones in daily use)

General travel tips
1. Before leaving Namibia, change your Namibian dollars to another currency: South African Rand, Botswana Pula, Euros, Dollars. They are no longer exchangeable at the Jo'berg airport nor in Paris.
2. The children in Namibia were usually asking for pens, whether or not we took photos. The supplement money for educational supplies in 2013 was used for election campaign spending.
3. Clothing is a great donation to leave with the lodges in the northeastern sector of Namibia and in Botswana. They distribute it to the villages or the lodge workers or in one case to the local churches.
4. Adaptors - Throughout Namibia and Botswana, the large 3-rounded prong South African adaptor is used. We purchased a smaller 3-rounded prong which only works in Zimbabwe. Bring your own charging strip/surge protector if you have multiple devices. Zimbabwe uses the small 3-rounded prong and British adaptors.
5. In your checked luggage through Jo'berg, pack nothing of value, other than clothing, ! It will disappear, guaranteed.
6. Reading material:
The Wildlife of Southern Africa is a definite plus to keep track of sightings (birds, mammals, insects, flowers, trees, etc.) (Vincent Carruthers) at the Windhoeker Buchhandlung across from the Hilton Hotel
"Namibian" daily newspaper - fantastic way to learn about modern Namibian culture and opinions of all ages.
"Zambezi Traveller" free newspaper in the Caprivi/Okavango (Lianshulu Lodge) - regional tips, ideas and covers a wide territory.
7. Pic n Pay grocery store (throughout Namibia) was our favorite, Super Spar is also good for finding lunch items (including an ice chest) when driving between destinations
8. Namibia has frequent, fairly well-maintained picnic spots (tree shade, concrete benches and table), which we used for lunches
9. Languages/Dialects: the smartphone "notes" application is a handy recording device to write down the courtesy words: hello, good morning, thank you, how are you, etc. We encountered 10 different languages/dialects or more over three and a half weeks. Asking a lodge staff member "how to say" is an ice breaker and opens a door to their culture.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Fantastic voyage!

The planning, Expert Africa contact, accommodations, expectations suited our needs to a tee. We made our own flight reservations, which worked out smoothly.

The Namibia/Chris McIntyre guide book was our bible. Thank you for supplying it.

On the review feedback, what does "facilities" include/mean?

We would highly recommend Expert Africa for any future voyages.

Obtaining visas before departure between countries was not totally clear.
The basic information about visas in the travel preparations could be much shorter (e.g., Visas are handled at each border control for Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Show your international driver license and passport at customs. The rental car agency provides you with all of the car details, including chassis number and motor number to fill in the paperwork.)

We paid for a permit into Botswana, but wonder if we could have given them the permit on the windshield. This was unclear in the instructions from Budget/Expert Africa whether to turn it in or buy a new one. This was the Chobe border. This was a more difficult and time consuming border post (a real hassle).

The Mohembo Border Post at Mahango was a breeze with both Namibia and Botswana." Read full review: 24 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip

"I'm very sincere when I say that it was spectacular! 5 out of 6 of our travelers had previously been on safari and they all agree that this was the best experience they have had on safari in Africa. The wildlife was amazing, as were the camps and all of the people we met. Memories to last a lifetime!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Feedback form could be more specific and less open. The brochure was great! My only suggestion might be to make the link the the brochure more visible on the website as I thought that the brochure was the best tool to decide on a trip (excluding Megan who was very helpful as well).

Otherwise the trip was very well organized and very thorough. There weren't any problems with reservations or transitions whatsoever. It was easy and seamless!" Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"The trip was spectacular and worked out very well, perfect mix of places, good amount of time spent everywhere. Desert and rivers provided a good mix of wildlife and scenery, we were never bored looking for animals, always discovering new ones. We also enjoyed seeing the villages and a living museum. A bit more contact with locals would have been nice.

We loved the self drive and the ability to explore things on our own. While expecting a bit more adventure, it was surprisingly comfortable and easy, which was fine.

Maruska was wonderful in putting this together for us, she knew the places well, was very helpful and patient.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Looking up locations on a google map was important to me (especially off the path campgrounds), would be nice to have a google map that showed all places of interest (with lat/longs that one can use to enter in one's own google map search)

As much as we wished to get away, Wifi is becoming important for many travelers, and it would be good to collect that info (uptime and speed) and pass it on to the lodges. Elegant guest house and Mushara had good wifi. Ngepi was slow, Muchenje pretty spotty with several outages. Victoria Safari camp had expensive one, Victoria Falls Hotel had good ones for guests.

For guest support on the road, calling is often hard, it might be useful to have email addresses to contact local agents." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 6 on a Namibia trip

"The trip Nick Hobbs and I put together for our family with 3 adult children, far exceeded our expectations.

For me the night in Maun allowed me to be ready, not tired from travel, to appreciate every moment of our camps in the okavango delta.The combination of 3 camps over 8 nights was given the thumbs up by all, as being exactly the right amount of time at each camp and overall. It gave us time to enjoy the wonderful different aspects of 3 areas without a huge amount of travel between. We were able to capture sights of different animals in different surroundings, ie seeing the lions at Duba Plains swim. We were also able to appreciate the things they had in common, their care for the local environment and the future for the animals.

Finishing the trip, in Victoria Falls with an exhilarating Helicopter trip and an amazing time Walking with the Lions aided by Paul our wonderful guide , was perfect. Our extra day, then gave us the chance to wander around the views at the Falls National Park, go to Zambia, explore the town and markets and soak up the ambience on the hotel verandah.

Two travel hiccups, lost luggage and lost phone, were extremely well managed by Nick and the team at Expert Africa. I would highly recommend them to others. Thank you for a special holiday." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 9 on a Botswana safari

"It was a brilliant trip.

The only thing we might have changed on hindsight was that we wouldn't have ended in Camp Hwange, but started there. We saw significantly more in Botswana, so the change to Hwange required some adjustment on our part." Read full review: 22 nights in Africa; 6 on a Botswana safari

"Excellent overall

Food is perhaps too westernised - would be good to introduce more diversity and more flavour" Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"From Victoria Falls onwards our holiday was one highlight after another. And everything ran like clockwork with friendly, professional people always there to help and guide us.

Thank you ExpertAfrica" Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"We had an amazing time. Everyday had something new to experience. We didn't have a single bad day." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"I was thrilled from beginning to end with this holiday. Each of the wildlife experiences exceeded my expectations and whetted my appetite." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 7 on a Botswana safari

"When asked we would, and have recommended Expert Africa. Nick, Chris and Megan have all been very responsive, knowledgable and gave considerable guidance and listened quite carefully to our needs and expectations.

As you are very much aware this being our third try, I must admit my expectations were not as high as they were two years ago, thus the joy way that they were exceeded by a significant margin.

The extraordinary Wildlife, both birds and Mammals and the different eco Systems that we encountered them in throughout the journey. The people of Botswana were most helpful, polite, knowledgable and carried a fine sense of humour. They realise that the protection of their lands and wildlife are key to the sustainable Safari trade and defend these traits with great passion. There were some exceptions, which I have mentioned per camp.

The planning was good, now that we have been, we might have more input, should we be going again. I think that the areas need to be visited in a different season to obtain a proper perspective. We did expect a greener, wet time, but Mother Nature stopped the rains in Mid March.

The overall quality of the Camps did vary more than we expected, in that we presumed that they were of equal value/cost. This I believe is more an issue with the management of such as opposed to the actual staff.

All areas

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Face to face meeting prior to and after for follow-up, if possible with contact.

This is not intended as a criticism, as I was going to suggest it and like most got lazy and distracted. Will come up to see you all soon.

Donald and Susan" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari