Zimbabwe: reviews from our travellers

"We enjoyed our stay in Zimbabwe and found a very warm welcome from everyone we met. There is obviously a strong desire to promote tourism and in Victoria we were thanked for going there.

Many friends questioned the safety of our choice of destination before we went and so we ended up saying safari in Africa after a while! We encountered no problems nor any hostility towards us at all. We will now be able to tell people so.

Cash purchasing is all important so take plenty of it - 4 of the places we stayed had safe facilities. No one wanted travellers cheques, and credit machines seldom worked.

In Victoria, vendors are persistent but not aggressive - just keep in mind they just want to make a $. There are plenty of tourist police on hand if need be.

The Falls are stunning and well worth the visit. We had 3 nights in Victoria. Two is more than enough if it is only the Falls that you wish to see and in fact we did that on arrival so 1 night would have been sufficient for us with more time on safari.


Importantly the game viewing is excellent and the regions offer a great deal of contrast so it is worth doing as much as you can afford! I would not recommend less than 3 nights in any camp/area if travelling between regions as the travelling is long and tiring. Travel arrangements need improving overall including communication about them.

The guiding was all of a very good standard with obvious enthusiasm.
We had hoped to do more walking, but were constrained by our travel arrangements. This is a great pity. For the nervous, think carefully before choosing Goliath as the proximity to wildlife is challenging and could be very uncomfortable for some. For those who would like the experience, it is awesome.

We would recommend Zimbabwe from the experience we had. Just plan your route carefully" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Zimbabwe safari

"Overall, we had an extremely enjoyable holiday. The variety of wildlife experiences exceeded our expectations. Accommodation was all very good or excellent. All the arrangements within the control of Expert Africa, whether for accommodation or transfers, worked out fine, without any problems.

The holiday wasn't one of Expert Africa's standard holidays. We spent some time working out the itinerary with them. That was time well spent and their expert advice was invaluable. Thanks very much to Gwynneth and also Nick for his advice on Botswana early on.


A couple of specific comments which don't fit in elsewhere:

1. We had two flights with Mack Air and had a good experience with them both times: friendly pilots and good flights. In addition, we had arranged for suitcases to be flown on separately from Maun to Kasane. This was handled efficiently and there was no difficulty retreiving the suitcases at Kasane airport.

2. We had a transfer with Wilderness Safaris from Kasane airport to Victorial Falls. This was handled efficiently so that we were able to complete the border formalities on entering Zimbabwe without a hitch.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

No - well organised holiday, plenty of helpful information." Read full review: 18 nights in Africa; 7 on a Namibia trip

"This was our 2nd visit to Zimbabwe. We went to Mana Pools as part of a safari to Zimbabwe in 2011. There we were guided by Mark van Zuydam. We were so impressed by the park and Mark's exceptional guiding that we asked Expert Africa to arrange a private safari to Mana Pools with Mark as our guide. This safari rates as our best anywhere in Africa.

Mark is extremely competent at what he does and was a pleasure to be with for our 11 nights. We had a fantastic time tracking lions at various locations throughout the park and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be able to spend so much of the time walking instead of being in the vehicle. We will certainly be going back in the future.

All the road transfers from Lusaka and across the border at Chirundu in Zimbabwe went very smoothly. The drivers at both sides helped us with the immigration procedures etc. The drive from Lusaka to Chirundu takes approx 2.5 to 3 hrs as the traffic in Lusaka is so busy, then the drive from Chirundu to Mana takes approx 2-3 hrs depending on where in Mana you are going.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

This is our 3rd trip with Expert Africa and will definately use them again in the future.
I can't think of anything you need to improve on. Keep visiting the camps as your 'on the ground' knowledge is the reason we use you." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 4 on a Zimbabwe safari

"We had the most wonderful trip - all the camps far exceeded our expectations - the staff were lovely, and couldn't be more helpful - the guides were knowledgeible, expecially at Kwara - and we enjoyed every minure of the trip, even being chased by an elephant which was a bit scary!!!

Thank you for being able to assess the sort of thing we wanted, making a trip which suited us and giving us a trip of a lifetime. All three of us had the best holiday we have ever had.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just need to add that the booklet you sent us with tips for the trips was extremely helpful, but we took your advice about only taking low denominations in dollars literally, and then had to spend ages dolling out one dollars for our visas. Maybe a slightly wider mix of bills might have been helpful. However, that is the only suggestion - everything else were great, even though I couldn't believe that we might need gloves - next time I'll take them!!" Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 8 on a Botswana safari

"A fantastic trip, with only a few minor bumps." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 9 on a Namibia trip

"Good to visit Zimbabwe at last. Discovering Mana Pools was a delight." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zimbabwe safari

"Excellent trip.

Claire Scott was careful to not overstate any details, and we are already beginning to plan next year's safari." Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 7 on a Zambia safari

"Trip was extremely well put together. Claire was very efficient and could not have been more helpful.

We had an issue with the transfer from Kaingo to Rukomechi. With hindsight had we realized it would take over 11 hours we would have probably made a different decision about the combination of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Secondly, there was a mix-up between Executive Air (Safari Logistics) and the booking for the transfer from Mana Pools Airstrip to Hwange. The plane arrived at 11:00 AM, which was his scheduled arrival according to his sheet but was an hour before we were expected to be picked up. Luckily the pilot waited for us and the two other passengers. We arrived at Hwange Airport at 2:15pm and there was no vehicle there from Camp Hwange. Again the pilot waited as he did not want to leave us at a closed airport building with no means of contacting the Camp. Finally a vehicle arrived at 3:15 pm.(the driver said he had been told to arrive for 3:30pm). The pilot Janade Krarim left with the other two passengers bound for Victoria Falls. Without the kindness of the pilot we could have been stranded." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zimbabwe safari

"Overall it was very good: the variety of locations and wild life mix, top guides, generally very good catering and personal attention. Good advice from Expert Africa. The basic itineray was discussed and fixed with Lucy Copson. Nick Hobbs and Megan Ingoldby helped very active and constructively fixing issues and final arrangements. I cannot select one team member (see below), so I indicated Chris McIntyre. You should change the question to the team members (multiple) who assisted." Read full review: 26 nights in Africa; 11 on a Zambia safari

"Since many years it was a dream for me to visit Botswana and the Okavango delta.
I've read many travel guides (also the very recommendable one of Chris McIntyre!) and had contact to many travel agencies.
Although living in Germany I've chosen Expert Africa to help me and organize this trip for us.

From the first contacts I knew that it was the right decision - it couldn't have been better somewhere else:
Lucy and Megan were always helpful, patient and with great knowledge about the different locations and accommodations.

The organisation of the trip was excellent - we've had no problems, everything worked perfectly and in conclusion the trip was the one we've hoped to have. All the places we've visited had their own and special atmosphere and showing something different.

Thanks again to the people of Expert Africa who made an excellent job!
I can recommend Expert Africa not highly enough and whenever I/we will return to Africa I will ask them to manage it for me." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 12 on a Botswana safari