Africa Wildlife Trips

Having done a safari in lodges in Kenya 20+years ago, we wanted to experience the adventure of a safari under canvas, getting up close to the wildlife of Botswana. Oh boy! We were not disappointed. This was the most thrilling holiday we've ever been on; absolutely sensational. Our leader, Brian, and his team were brilliant, making sure everything ran smoothly and we got the most out of each day. Wild camping is an experience like no other. It's very down-to-earth, can be very hot and dusty, but is a lot more comfortable than you might think. Our party were all 50+years old but adapted to the camping easily. There are lots of early starts, but who cares when you see so much wonderful wildlife. This is an adventure not to be missed.

Wonderful trip, fantastic leader, challenging country with immense poverty, government corruption and inequality. Difficult issues to face when coming from the west and our affluence. Wonderful wildlife and birds and insects. We saw so much and took some fantastic photos. Our leader Charles was the best organised, knowledgeable, helpful and kind person and assisted our every need. FAB

I have wanted to go to Africa since i was a child and this trip was amazing. As a photographer many of my dreams were realized in seeing so many animals but I wanted more. Everyday was filled with animals I had only dreamed of seeing. But to capture their behavior and seeing them love was - a dream come true. Our guide Joe was truly the best with his 20 plus years of experience. We couldn't have had a better more experienced leader on this trip. He knew how to give us the best view for photos without infringing on the animals and keeping in mind there were sometimes other trucks posturing for a view or photos. The accommodations were planned perfectly giving us the super nice Batonka Lodge to begin and ease us into the rough camping, then back for a luxury night in Maun for a real shower, bathroom, pool and dining. Then out again to the houseboat for views on the river. I would have loved a few more days in the rough camp with all the animals rather than the long trip through Namibia heading back to Victoria Falls. As like I said, I wanted more, more, more of the animals. Batonka Lodge staff was amazing and I was very happy to become acquainted with some the staff the took perfect care of all of us. My only disappointment was that I was advised not to bring specialized photo equipment. I was the only person on the tour that was shooting an SLR and long lens. I would have brought an even longer lens for the trip if I had known it was okay and I will know for the next experience. I was the only American on the trip surround by 11 Brits who were all great. I had an amazing time and I'm still wading through my many 1000s of images. I plan on entering the Explore photo contest in hopes of winning a return trip.

This was an excellent holiday which happily we returned from some days before the UK advised against all travel to Madagascar. Hopefully problems will be resolved enough for people to go in the future. Our tour leader Armand was truly excellent. Our bus driver and assistant did a great job on awful roads. Our group was a lovely group of 9 guests and worked well together. I was amazed how many lemurs we got to see and how close. The forests, reserves and parks are very good and the guides excellent. The evening walks were good as well as the daytime ones. The Tritriva crater lake and the Ranohira canyon area are spectacular and not to be missed. There were chances to experience local culture and see some dancing. The cultural evening at Ambositra was particularly good. I chose the optional snorkelling trip followed by lunch on the beach and can recommend these highly. The hotels are typical of Explore, pretty good on the whole but not top of the range. Minor niggles occur in the odd place such as only one towel for a couple, poor bar service etc. but mostly very good. The best hotel was Relais de la Reine near Ranohira, both for location and service. Most of the others very good too. But Artisan hotel at Ambositra had a very pokey little room and Feon'ny Ala Bungalows at Andasibe was truly awful with leaky plumbing. I would recommend taking a head torch with plenty of batteries and not just for evening walks. Most of the hotels have their own generators but don't always run them the whole time the electricity is off. Even when the electricity is on the lighting is often poor so the head torch helps. The food I found was generally excellent quality but often the portion size was rather big for me. I used a watertogo filter bottle to drink tap water from and bottled water for cleaning teeth and used regular hand sanitiser especially after handling money and I didn't suffer any stomach bug, though a few people did. A unique holiday - put it on your bucket list!

Good mixture of things in the tour, less of the tourist african tribe stuff and more of the safari. A lot of the history was repeated between the two local guides.

What an epic adventure! Some of which must be attributed to our excellent tour guide Joe, who was assisted throughout the trip by great and friendly support staff at the camp sites and lodges. The number of animals and diverse birdlife seen totally exceeded expectations. There's a lot of travelling and camping without home comforts, however we felt this was made very clear in the holiday notes and in some ways added to the experience in a positive way. A special mention should also go out to William, Pape & Carlos who some how churned out a succession of really good three course meals just using a camp fire!