Reviews of Lagoon Camp

"Good-sized en-suite tent with great views over Kwando river.
Friendly staff at the camp.
Expert guide and spotter.
During our stay here we saw the highest concentrations and greatest variety of wildlife on our trip.
Morning and afternoon game drives were long, which made brunch a relaxed affair but left very little time before dinner.
Kwando river was too shallow for boat cruises." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana

"Excellent all round and spectacular setting overlooking the lagoon, fed by the Kwando river.

Staff at Camp were especially warm and welcoming, creating a very pleasing ambience and the Kwando formula of driver guide and tracker, working as a team on the game drives worked very well and made for some very interesting sightings. In particular, on one drive, the team tracked wild dogs for 3 hours before finally locating the pack resting by the river. Their patience and persistence was truly impressive. On another occasion, similar teamwork resulted in an encounter with 2 male cheetahs. The guides in different vehicles communicated well with each other, alerting and directing their colleagues to interesting sightings.

The daily formula consisted of morning and afternoon game drives. The latter merged with a night drive for the last hour or so on the way back to camp after dark. There were opportunities to fish from the lagoon directly from the deck in Camp as well as from the Camp's boat. Because of the unprecedented dry conditions, the boat was moored some distance from Camp but we were given the opportunity to undertake a boat safari which provided some wonderful bird sightings and a fresh perspective on the location.

We also stayed at the sister camp in this concession (Lebala) which was equally as impressive but quite different in character with its setting within open grassland. The opportunity to experience both locations back to back made for an interesting and varied programme and we felt it maximised the wildlife viewing opportunities in the concession, although of course, nothing is guaranteed." See all these reviews: 16n in Botswana; 10n in Zimbabwe

"We had 3 nights at Lagoon camp, where we had sightings of lion, cheetah and wild dogs. Also a glimpse of a civet and honey badger and 2 bush babies.

I almost stepped on a black scorpion on my back to the tent at night, saved by the prompt warning from our guide, Gee.

One night we had a most impressive storm, and next morning the camp was running as normal, The boat trip was great, so close to such very large elephants!" See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana

"Beautiful setting with luxurious accommodation" See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana

"Superb location with the spacious chalets all right on the river bank overlooking the river and wetlands. We heard hippos in the river at night and saw them during the day together with elephants. Whilst we saw lion, cheetahs etc., game viewing was not as prolific as others had reported, perhaps due to it apparently being the 2nd year of drought, nor did we see anything significant at night. The river cruise was enjoyable for its peace and tranquillity and bird life but the high point of our 2-night stay was 2 sightings of a pair of cheetahs passing through the camps concession. Of the 4 camps we visited, this was one of 3 that had trackers as well as guides and we found having a tracker considerably enhanced the experience.

Food average, with meat a challenge but vegetable items good. The absence of mosquitos was welcome. The chalet had socket outlets for both a variety of worldwide plug types and also S. African 3 round pin plugs as well as USB plugs. By taking a UK plug to S. African round pin socket adapter, we were able to simultaneously utilise these 2 sockets to charge 2 gadgets. Able to get a Namibian phone signal." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana; 2n in Zambia

"We stayed at Splash Camp for 3 days 1st & now 3 days to stay at Lagoon Camp. We had such a great experience in our 1st ever safari at Splash Camp we really had no expectations here at Lagoon Camp. This Camp is right on the water & the days (Aug. 6th) were just starting to get hot, so being close to water this felt a lot cooler for us right away. The rooms at the Camp were fantastic, lots of room to spread out & views along the river. The overall camp facilities are a bit dated & some maintance needed, i.e.all the tiles from pool missing, but we had the most volume of animals in close conditions here. Our experiences from watching large pride of lions get into position to hunt Cape Buffilo, to tracking a leopard for nearly an hour that finally roars at us & runs away to following Wild Dog pack line up trotting military style & narrowly missing antelope. Night drive disclosed young lions trying to figure out how to get a porcupine over without getting stuck. All the time we are mere feet away watching the events unfold. We had no idea it could be even better then we already experienced at our 1st safari. Even more close sights & large volumes of pride, herd, packs every type of animal except Rhino, but none of us were disappointed didn't see this 1 animal. So much to see in river rides & land safari's. Cannot say enough good things about the service and people running the camp. The encounters & especially the guides Gee & PD were amazing at tracking & positioning vehicles right in the middle of all the action. Many times it was only the 4 of us, along with our 2 guides." See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe

"We had to fly from Kasane to reach this camp. Due to a last-minute cancellation we were the only passengers for this 1-hour flight.

Unfortunately, we only spent 2 nights at this camp. The views of the river in front of our room were superb. There was a full charging station in the room, which included 2 Usb outlets and we were able to charge all our devices at the same time. The rooms were huge and very well appointed and food was excellent. We had early morning game drives starting after an early breakfast (sitting around the campfire) and returning for a full breakfast. After our last camp, it was nice to have some time to ourselves before tea and the afternoon game drive at 4pm. We enjoyed just sitting on our balcony and watching an elephant feeding on the river bank right in front of our room. He eventually swam over to our side of the river to continue grazing. Hippos were also in plain view, going in and out of the water.

The highlight of this trip was finding a pride of lions feeding on a roan antelope. In all there were 2 males, 2 females and 7 cubs all competing for the spoils. We sat there for ages just taking it all in. The next day, we went back to the same location so the new arrivals could also experience this sight. This was the only camp where we had a tracker in addition to the guide. On day 2 we followed lion tracks for a couple of hours without success, but did see a huge herd of buffalo. Unfortunately, we did not see any wild dogs as they were apparently denning.

We stopped by the river (with hippos) for sundowners and to watch the sunset. A full bar had been put out on a table, again an unexpected surprise. Driving back to camp at night was uneventful. The nights were very noisy with the sounds of hippos in the river.

Again, a wonderful experience with no negatives." See all these reviews: 11n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe

"Lagoon is as always a wonderful camp with lovely, friendly, helpful staff, noisy hippos, good food and again the personal touches which make it so special. Nothing is too much trouble.

As our trip was a special celebration, one evening we returned to find a card and present on the bed and at dinner some of the staff appeared singing “Happy Birthday” and carrying a delicious, decorated cake with candles. It was a wonderful surprise and much appreciated.

Again we had some amazing sightings both during the day and at night when spot-lighting thanks to some excellent work by both the guide and the tracker. Among the highlights were the tracking down of two cheetah brothers, as well as sightings of sable, roan and porcupine." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe

"The situation and the facilities are magnificent. Better than both Little Vumbura and Gomoti.

But, food and service very poor.
Breakfast before a drive: porridge and cereal and sponge cakes. No proper orange juice. No cheese. No fruit. (Although i did get some cheese and fruit by asking for it; but why not put it out.) No eggs. No meat, cold or hot (bacon). (But they did produce specially strong coffee for the Notts every day after we had asked for stronger on the first morning.)
Lunch unimaginative and again only boring fruit: apples.
Dinner very poor and dull food. e g overly spiced lentil soup followed by dry tasteless roast chicken underdone carrots and tinned peas . No choice.
Very hot Mexican soup followed by shredded beef ( dry and tasteless ) cold stir fried broccoli, cold stuffed gem squash . Inedible bullet like chocolate donut to finish. No choice of wine unless one asked for it. Service, particularly of wine, incredibly slow.

We had a torch in our room. It didn't work. And when we went to the management they said "It's a wind up torch". But no-one had explained this to us (and we left the torch as we were about go on a drive and it did not get back to the room).

I suspect a combination of not enough staff and no proper management of the staff that were there.

Night drives are a waste of time unless you are a fanatic. In all our trips, we saw half a civet, half a hare, and a black backed jackal. And we saw the jackal in daylight which was much more use.

We did have a wonderful sighting of lion cubs with Spencer and James.

The other guides spent far too much time talking on the radio turned up very loud. Much of what was said appeared to be either repetitive or idle chatter or both, and it was very distracting and off putting. Radio transmissions should be kept to a minimum and when made should be as brief as possible.

Problems of communication. Language was a problem. They did not have a good grasp of Enlish. One example only. We asked the camp to get their office in Maun to reserve us seats on a booked BA fllight as we could not do it ourselves as there is no wifi. We gave them all the details to allow them to access the BA website and told them to do so after 7.20 pm on the day we handed the details over as we could not reserve seats earlier without paying. First they came back about 6 pm and said we had to pay. Then, when we again explained they had to do it after 7.20, they went off and, in effect, never came back. We did eventually get our flight details paper back but not reservation.

For sighting details see my separate e-mail." See all these reviews: 12n in Botswana; 3n in Zambia

"Lovely welcome. Accommodation comfortable and well equipped.
Excellent food.
Very good guide and tracker with good information.
Despite only staying one night we saw a number of animals in that 24 hours.
Beautiful location by a river, close to hippos and elephants, and one or two crocodiles." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana