Reviews of Chobe Game Lodge

"The property is very nice with hotel like rooms lined up above the Chobe River.

In the middle, there is a dining area, offices, seating and spa. We were met by a cordinator who handed up our detailed itinerary. The standard activities included truck-based game drives in the morning with breakfast following at 0900. A boat cruise at 1100, followed by lunch at noon, afternoon tea at 1500 and afternoon game drives at 1530.

We were offered a sunset boat cruise as a first activity when we arrived around tea time on the first day and a sunrise cruise before we checked out on the last day. With the knowledge that we could schedule other outings as add-ons, we stuck to the schedule. Coming from a camp on a private reserve, we arrived to a bit of culture shock. The rooms and facilities were very nice, and the aircon was a welcome change, but it had more of a "Cruise ship" atmosphere: Dinner buffets with hit or miss food, customers needing attention, and staff intent on pleasing but in a "process".

Once we went on our first game drive, however, that melted away. Our animal encounters, even according to our wonderful guide, Bella, were "special". We saw leopards on three separate occasions, a mother lion nursing 5 cubs, giraffe, elephants, hippos, and one thing that seemed to impress our guide more than anything else: 6 ground hornbills walking along the river bank.

The river cruises all followed the same route so there was a feeling of sameness there, but we still managed to see at least one new thing on every cruise and were glad we didn't skip a single one. We were fortunate that the rain mostly left us alone, but that is a risk in late December. The lodge is within the park boundary and that is helpful: it allowed us to extend our encounter with the mother lion and cubs longer than we might have otherwise.

The park is public, though, so once a "special" animal is spotted, a lot of trucks can arrive quickly once the guides get on the radios. But without them sharing information, you're more likely to miss out than find something special. Chobe Game Lodge is a very nice, comfortable, place to stay and go on safari w/o making any sacrifices. We saw a lot of families there, and I can see why." See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana; 4n in South Africa; 2n in Zimbabwe

"Our experince there was not good. The food was generally terrible, and we wound up with food poisoning. The effects of the food poisoning effected us for the entirelty of our trip.

Our server was very unaccomodating and rude at times. About 1/2 the meals were served buffet style with staff never refilling the dishes. The food quality was very poor. I skipped at least 2 meals because of the quality and offerings. It was only the last night when the chef came to speak with us and apologized for not paying attention to our dietary requests.

Other than our guide, and a couple others, the staff was not warm or inviting.

Our guide Maggie was the highlight of our experince. She tried extra hard to find a variety of animals to give us a great safari adventure. She did a great job, and we were lucky to have her as our guide." See all these reviews: 5n in Zimbabwe; 4n in South Africa; 3n in Botswana

"Huge thanks to everyone at Chobe Game Lodge, especially Ana and Bonnie, for their professional guiding and attentiveness.

In addition to the sightings of mammals recorded below, we saw a Puku." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana

"Chobe Game Lodge was, of course, different from anything that had gone before. It is a large hotel set by the Chobe River within the National Park. My wife and I had been there on our last visit to Botswana four years ago. We had had such a good experience then that we wanted to try another visit.

The facilities at the Lodge were much the same as before: the rooms, the food, the service were all excellent and the staff were again very friendly and helpful. Again the Lodge was relatively empty. On offer were game drives in the Park early morning and late afternoon and boat trips on the river early and mid-morning and late afternoon. At this time of year it can be a magical place to see a huge number of elephant. We had had that experience before and we hoped for it again.

We almost achieved that. In light of the fact that we had already had nine days of game drives we chose to take the boat trips only, three times. On the first occasion, there were elephants everywhere, which had migrated up there in order to take advantage of the permanent water, which towards the end of the dry season was scarce elsewhere. By my no doubt very inexact reckoning we must have seen many hundreds of them, probably in excess of a thousand. Family after family, most of them with a good number of youngsters, came to the water's edge to drink voluminously and to enjoy just being in and near the water. Some crossed the main channel, using their trunks as snorkels in order to breathe when they were out of their depth and with the younger ones sometimes holding the tail of the one in front with their trunks for reassurance. They are such wonderful animals that my wife and I could happily watch them all day.

With the approach of the rains there was thunder during the night and a little rain. And at the water's edge next morning there was hardly an elephant to be seen. It was extraordinary how so many large animals could just disappear like that into the forest away from the river. We heard from some of those who had gone on the game drive that morning that they didn't see many either so they must have retreated deep into the forest away from the tracks that vehicles were confined to.

Apart from the elephants there were plenty of other animals such as baboons, kudu and impala which came down to the river to drink. There were also a number of crocodiles in or near the water, some of them very large, and birds, most notably fish eagles with their wonderfully distinctive calls." See all these reviews: 12n in Botswana

"Luxurious, air-conditioned room near boardwalk with great views over Chobe river and floodplain.
Friendly staff at the lodge.
Enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide, one of an all-female guiding team.
Just the right length of game drive and boat safari.
Best elephant, buffalo and hippo sightings of our trip. Several sightings of lions and brown hyenas, too. And good birding in lodge grounds and throughout Chobe NP.
Full-body massage at the lodge was excellent." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana

"Stays here are very busy with land and river game drives.. On our first day, we were taken on an afternoon boat safari with about 30 guests and 2 guides. On the following day, we went on a much smaller boat, which left at 11am. On both these trips we saw elephants and baboons, who had come to feed at the water's edge. We also saw pods of hippos and plenty of crocodiles. The Game Lodge's boats always go in the same direction for the same distance. You pass two areas where animals access the river. Of course, you never know how much wild life will be at these points.

The early morning boat drive, at the end of June, is really a bird watching one. It's very cold in the mornings, so whether you are doing a land drive or a boat one, many of the animals are not moving to the river. On our one afternoon game drive, we saw many animals, especially elephants on their way to and from the river.

On our journeys from the River View lodge to Chobe Game Lodge and back to the airport, both about 11am, we also saw animals, especially elephants on the move. From the point of view of animal sightings, I don't think that we really gained much by actually having accommodation in the reserve. A benefit that we did gain was being able to see animals from the Lodge's viewing platform, next to the river, but animals were at a distance. On game drives ,we did see animals clearly.

Our chalet accommodation was clean and well- maintained with everything we needed for our stay. Half our meals were buffet style eaten by the river. The one evening meal we had in the restaurant was disappointing,. The Lodge management decides which meals are buffet style by the river, so there is no choice about this.

Before our stay, we read a lot about the fact that all guides are female. We think it's great that women are having this opportunity. We stayed for two nights and think that is a sufficient amount of time to experience this lodge We had two jeep game drives and three boat trips, each at a different time of day. We also has some good wild-life sights on our transfers by jeep." See all these reviews: 5n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe; 2n in Namibia

"Compared to Xigera this lodge was much more like hotel accomodation and the animals were much more abundant.

It was a nice change to have a bit of luxury after sleeping in the tented rooms but I wouldn't do this lodge exclusively as it does feel a little too close to civilization." See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana

"Although it did not feel quite right to have female guides and trackers I have no complaint about their performance. It was only at Chobe that I saw a porcupine (running as if there was no tomorrow), two honey badgers and the riverside antics of a herd of elephants. It was also at Chobe where I watched a pair of hamerkops building their nest.

The Lodge was very suitably placed for game drives and river cruises, both of which I enjoyed. The land between the Lodge and the River Chobe was imaginatively used but I think the Lodge had missed the point of being a GAME Lodge and was veering towards being a modern up-market hotel that did not quite fit the title of GAME Lodge; although I noted that Families seemed pleased with the Lodge's services. Perhaps a minor detail but I did get fed up with every member of staff I passed asking me how I was, I found it intrusive.

I did wonder also about the roll of the Lodge's lady hosts: on my second evening the gentleman who had shared our table the previous evening asked my host to have dinner with himself and two other visitors (excluding myself) which my host did with apologies to me. During their dinner there was a lot of 'selfy' photos taken with close contact between the gentleman and the host and I cannot but question why, also are these 'displays' now acceptable to Botswana culture or are they just for European and American visitors.

The other questionable was why did the waiter decide to accompany me from the dining room as if I had asked him to - I was only able to get him to leave me when I stopped walking and firmly said 'Goodnight'.

At times whilst in the Lodge I felt uncomfortable with a lack of freedom and felt that the staff were ever watchful of me.- perhaps as a single female I stood out like a sore thumb.

It is debatable whether I would choose to stay at the Lodge again, perhaps I would find the tented camps more suitable." See all these reviews: 13n in Botswana

"We enjoyed our game drive very much (and saw lions!) and the facilities/rooms were excellent. Having adjoining rooms for our family worked out well and the pool was super.

Despite trying to accommodate our youngest child, it was clear there was little experience with this, and we felt constantly 'on guard' that we would disrupt their expectations. There was no child menu - and very few vegetarian options at meal times (we all had pasta and red sauce for our final meal). My oldest daughter fell at the pool and cut and bruised herself pretty badly but several staff just stood around until we asked for some help.

However, despite the somewhat stiff ambience, there were a few staff who stood out as excellent, including our guide." See all these reviews: 5n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe

"I had been to Chobe Game Lodge 12 years ago and was looking forward to a return. We found, however, that our game drive guide was not very good - which we regretted as we liked the idea of a female guide group.

The food and dining staff were very helpful. We did not like driving on the road (as is necessary in a game park) as there were far too many jeeps all at the same place. After the three bush camps this was definately an anticlimax. I would not return to Chobe Game Lodge." See all these reviews: 11n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe