Our booking with Secret Namibia was very last minute - we were going to stay with friends in Angola and had an unexpected week free, so decided to visit Etosha. We had very little time to research all the different Safari tour organisers, and settled on Secret Namibia because they had some good reviews, but without knowing much more about them. Something that we liked straight away was being able to make a zoom call to discuss options before making a booking - it can be daunting organising a trip like this on the net from the other side of the world, when you don’t really know who you’re dealing with, so it was great to speak with Chrizell face to face to discuss what we wanted from the trip.
She came up with an initial itinerary for us, then several alternatives (because we weren’t completely sure what we wanted) without any fuss, and all in a very short time before we left.
When we arrived at Windhoek airport Peter was there to greet us with the vehicle, and after a short familiarisation we were on the road. It was our first visit to Namibia, so we didn’t know what to expect, but the roads are very good, well sign posted, and fairly empty, so driving around was easy. The vehicle provided was very comfortable and easy to drive, and with a very welcome fridge in the back. The only real drawback was the satnav - really hard to follow and giving contradictory instructions (not Secret Namibia’s fault - it’s the one that comes with the vehicle, and they’re waiting for an upgrade which may make it more useable). However, there’s a wifi access point included, which worked well whenever there was a 3g signal, which was most of the time. This meant we could use google maps on an iPad, even inside Etosha, so we’d strongly recommend having that with you for the meantim
The accommodation was very impressive, and mostly more luxurious than we expected, with some excellent meals as well. We would have happily stayed longer in any of the lodges, but we only had 6 nights so we kept moving on…
One of our party had mobility issues, and uses a walking frame to get around. We’d mentioned this to Chrizell, and she really made sure this got through to the lodges - all the accommodation, including the bathrooms, and where possible the rooms we had were really close to the dining rooms, and had adapted bathrooms where possible. This information doesn’t always get through as you’d want, so hats off to Secret Namibia for making sure it did!
We were visiting in the rainy season, and had read that it can be more difficult to spot wildlife as the vegetation is thicker, and the animals don’t need to congregate around the water holes so much, but we still saw lot of different species, especially in the Eastern part of the park: zebras, giraffes, wildebeest & springbok became almost commonplace, and we also saw lions and a rhino, and a close encounter with herd of elephants, as well as many different bird species.
We really enjoyed ur first visit to Namibia, and hope we can come back one day: if we do, we’d certainly use Secret Namibia again!