Reviews of Lagoon Camp

"We had some wonderful sightings and memorable experiences at Lagoon Camp.

Guide (Ike) and tracker (James) were both very good - even amazing.

The "tents" are huge! The camp is in an excellent setting." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana

"Fantastic guide. Can’t praise him enough.

Wildlife viewing excellent" See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe

"Located on the Kwando River, this was a very welcoming place, and we were well looked after.
Our guide was accompanied by a tracker/spotter colleague, and they managed to locate some special sightings, particularly the wild dogs (with puppies).
From our tent verandah we could watch the hippos in the river." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana

"Lagoon camp was set in a beautiful riverside location where you could regularly see hippos, elephants, antelope and baboons from the camp. In fact several times we met the elephants on foot heading back to our rooms! Amazing.

The staff were all friendly, welcoming and excellent at their jobs. In particular we had a great team for our game drivers with our guide Spencer and tracker Kern. The food was excellently prepared and served and the managers were always around for a chat about your day.

We had been prepared for the food to be less good than other camps we'd been too but that wasn't our experience at all! Yes, it's buffet style not fine dining but we had many high-quality and excellent dishes. Early morning light breakfast (best muffins ever!) followed by brunch after your drive, afternoon tea and then dinner at around 8pm. Shout out as well to the self-service bar which even provided lemon and ice for G&Ts and a good range of beer and wine.

But of course we were really there for the animals! And they didn't disappoint. Straight off the plane we were offered a game drive (and said yes of course!) and were soon sat watching 3 leopards eat their dinner and then drag the remains up into a tree. Other highlights included a huge lion pride on the move, seeing the wild dogs at their den and some rare night drive encounters (including an Aardwolf!!). If you've not been to a camp that does night drives before, it's a great addition.

EA is right to highlight that Kwando camps emphasise hunting for predators and that sometimes this means lots of time spent tracking (not always effective, but really interesting... our guides were experts) and darting off to the other side of the reserve at speed when another vehicle spots something. But that's how you see leopards and wild dogs!

Compared to our time on safari in south Tanzania the overall game density felt lower, or at least harder to find, but that led to much more willingness to search for specific sightings and it paid off in rare animals we had never seen before. If you have a specific interest, your guide will definitely try and find it for you. One of our group really wanted to see an owl and we found three different species (two technically owlets). Yes, we were there for the predators but by the end I was quite the birding expert as well! All down to Spencer's outstanding knowledge about everything we saw.

Would definitely recommend Lagoon camp to others and fingers crossed we might be back one day!

(We did experience an unexpected negative event whilst staying at Lagoon camp that resulted in us leaving a night early for another Kwando camp. I am fully convinced this was an extremely rare occurrence and out of the control of Kwando, it's staff and EA - all of whom helped us handle it with minimal disruption to our trip. I mention it here in good conscience so that you can speak to EA if concerned but personally would still 100% recommend this camp. Things can go wrong anywhere; if you're very unlucky and it does you'll find you're in good hands.)" See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana; 3n in Zambia

"I had a private in Lagoon. Because of my specific desire to see the wild dogs. And what a pleasant surprise it was that - after 10 year - Spencer again was my guide. He is a very experienced and knowledgable guide. He (almost) thinks like a predator. So I had my wild dog sightings. And it was great to be with him again.

At the same time this says a lot. Because at Lagoon they seem to focus very much on the predators: lions, leopards, cheetah, wild dogs. And it seems that all other animals are quite squitisch and run form the car. A car which is driving quickly (in order to keep up with the dogs or find lions). And they go very far in order to pursuit their goals. Maybe sometimes a little bit too far I would say. Especially ellies react very strongly to the cars. Completely different behavior then eg in Selinda.

We were able to see a herd of Eland from fairly close. And - first sighting for me ever - an aardwolf at night.

The rooms maybe could use some repair, refurbishment and fresh paint." See all these reviews: 20n in Botswana; 1n in South Africa

"We were made to feel extremely welcome by the managers and staff at the camp. The standard of the chalets was excellent and the service obtained from everyone was great. The meals were excellent and they catered very well for the requirements of one of our group.

Our guide, KB and tracker, Vincent deserve particular mention for their knowledge and their skill in helping us to find the location of this year's Wild Dog den in the area." See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe

"A good variety of wild animals including leopard, buffalo, elephant, ardwolf ,honey badger, owlet, water monitor lizzard, bat eared foxes and cievet cat.

The highlight at this camp was locating a pack of 8 wild dogs and followed some of them to their kill where they were feeding on a Kudu. From there we followed the alpha dog through dense vegetation to their ground level den where the alpha female dog was looking after her newly born pups. They were not on view.

Later that day we saw the dogs chasing wildebeest unsuccessfully." See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe

"Lovely large suite overlooking the lagoon and situated close to the lodge. Hippos were rather noisy at night, and recent droppings by my balcony indicated elephant were passing close by while I slept.

Breakfast was held around the campfire before we headed out on the morning drives, and as Lagoon was on a private reserve vehicles were able to return later in the afternoon enabling potential nocturnal sightings.

Guiding by GI, and Tracker, John, was excellent. I experienced two great leopard encounters and saw a tremendous variety of birds. The young, energetic, and service-oriented management team - Victor, Beano and Kay made every effort to ensure one's stay was a memorable one.

The only disappointment at Lagoon Camp was the lack of wild dog sightings. When I booked this trip back in 2019, I was assured wild dogs would definitely be evident at this camp." See all these reviews: 14n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe

"We found Lagoon Camp the most disappointing (and we had visited the Camp in 2013). Unlike the write-up in Brandt's edition 5 of Botswana Safari Guide, we thought the facilities were dated and in need of maintenance and upgrading and the food average at best. The feel of the camp was very much a corporate managed operation with accountants having a significant influence. The staff, although very friendly, it was a friendliness required by the rules and less genuine than experienced at the other camps. Our sense was the staff performed to the corporate rules rather than to the guests interests.

The design of the spacious chalets was very good, but the lighting inside was totally inadequate (there was adequate lighting to read by except in bed), there wasn't any mosquito netting around the bed and the building settling had made the doors hard to open. Fencing around the propane tank was falling down. Lagoon Camp was the only one that did not have WiFi. In essence, only two and a half means a day were served. Before the early morning game drive, coffee/tea and porridge (actually a soupy maize one notch above gruel) was offered around a fire, then a lunch buffet of one item plus eggs to order and an evening meal with only one main and a vegetarian dish on offer. All the dishes were of inexpensive ingredients and the choices were very limited and it was all buffet style not requiring any service.

In contrast to the Camp, the wildlife was abundant and quite varied. For example we saw a Pangolin that we had never seen at any camp on any trip. The guiding was excellent and the only limitation to finding animals was the tall grass. It would be have excellent game viewing in the dry season as it was when we visited at that time in 2013. It is just a shame the camp's operating philosophy is to cut costs as much as possible even though its pricing remains high." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana; 6n in Zambia

"We travelled in the middle of March post-COVID and for half the time we had the Camp to ourselves.

We had fabulous leopard and cub, lion and wild dog sightings and even a couple of springhares fighting in the daytime.

Food and room were excellent." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana