If you don’t want to read everything: all of this is to say that The Cardbox Box travel shop was amazing and helped us to organise our trip to Namibia. If you go to Namibia: don’t hesitate and use it!
When we started planning Namibia we were a bit confused: what to do, where to go, how long to stay… and then we had to make all the bookings.
Booking wise in Namibia: in many places the procedure is to send an email/web form and request the date the we wanted to check in and check out. Then after one day approximately (sometimes a few days) they answer say and “it’s available” or “not available but we suggest some days earlier/later” (or, in the Etosha national park accommodation they used to email in a few days saying “we are going to email you in a few days” and then they “oops, not available in this lodge but we will put you in another one). If the dates are available they sometimes send a Microsoft Word document and one should write the names there, check in, check out, tick the type of accommodation and write the credit card/debit card number for the payment (wow, yes!). Sign it and send it back. Then this needs to be done for each accommodation, let’s say that being there 2 weeks could easily be 5 different places (probably 7). On the top of this: do this for the car company, some activities, etc. (sometimes with an online payment instead of the Word document). For each one of it can easily take 30 minutes, so probably around 3 hours for all the bookings and then deal with small changes (move some booking with a cascading effect, etc.).
Then it comes the questions: is this too much driving? Do I need Namibian dollars or South African Rands? Should I stay in that place or the other place? Should I stay 2 nights or 3 nights?
So if you would like to have a local person answering the questions, making all the bookings for you, giving you recommendations (which car to rent, where to go first, etc.): we used The Cardbox Box and our agent (Rachael) was amazing! (and for the comments in TripAdvisor: they are always very good). She answered all the questions patiently, gave ideas from a local point of view, she accepted to do some small changes when it was almost all done (we had some problems booking one of the flights). We didn’t book all the lodges and hotels we dealt direct because we needed some more time to look at a few places in Swakopmund but it wasn’t as problem either.
Initially I was wondering about the price. They charge the same price as the places we booked direct. It’s really convenient to safe time instead of booking direct with all the dependencies (if this places is full then we should go there, but postpone one night that other place). After agreeing on the plan we paid in one transaction using an online secure system and they provided us with all the vouchers for the lodges. They also emailed a few tips what to bring and how to do things.
Star service, saved lot of time and gave us good ideas! Cardboard Box Travel Shop, Namibia
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