Reviews of Lagoon Camp

"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

"This was our favourite camp because of its location right on the river with hippo coming and going, as well as other animals coming to drink. Plenty of game but still needed to have a skilled tracker to find it. We really liked the tracking experience.

Also liked the the Kwando model of having a guide and a tracker for each truck. This was especially important for the night drives which were rather uninteresting when there was only one guide/driver searching for night-time beasts. Also Kwando camps were private concessions allowing off-road exploration and a maximum of 3 trucks per 'action site' so there was never overcrowding of the tourists or by the tourists." See all these reviews: 11n in Botswana

"Good to see plenty of water after being at Gomoti Plains! River outside had lots of often amusing hippo activity.

Elephants in abundance - even delayed our arrival at the camp and in getting from chalet to the bar.

Great staff and great sightings including aardwolf, jackal and one wild dog." See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana

"The beautiful position by water channel full of hippos and water lillies is enhanced by atmospheric thatched bungalows which are endowed with a bathroom with bathtub, comfy leather chairs and a cool breezy deck where one can view kingfishers, hippos and other daily life on the river. Heaven!

The safaris were as exciting and varied as one could wish with lions, elephants, a profusion of birdlife, hippos and antelope including red lechwe, impala, kudu etc. Very impressed by the large numbers of hippos. Didn't see wild dogs, but not for want of trying. The staff were exceptional, their cheerful teamwork reflecting genuine enjoyment of their lovely camp.

Cannot fault the experience here and will be my top priority to come back." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe

"Lagoon Camp has large, beautifully furnished tents facing the river, each with a verandah that makes the perfect spot for viewing the numerous animals that visit the river. The location enables Lagoon to offer boat trips, which make a peaceful and relaxing alternative to a game drive.

One of us has mobility challenges, and the staff could not have been more helpful, finding ways to make it easier to get and out of the vehicle and negotiate steps and ramps within the camp.

We had a great team in our guide and tracker, Poster and KT. The wildlife was amazing: numerous antelope species, including roan; zebra, elephant, giraffe, hippo, baboon. We had wonderful close-up encounters with two magnificent male lions; witnessed lions mating; found a beautiful female leopard lounging in a tree; and after a hectic chase through the bush, saw a wild dog kill.

We also saw, for the first time, brown hyena." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana

"This was our first safari so we did not know what to expect, but this surpassed anything we had dreamt of. Poster our guide and James our tracker were first class and so knowledgeable and knew just where to go and see the wildlife,which was plentiful, we were also lucky enough to see wild dogs, brown hyenas, a civet, serval and leopard as well.
The staff were really friendly and efficient and looked after us well with great food. Our cabin/tent was perfect, roomy, very comfortable and blessed with a wonderful outlook over the lagoon where we could watch numerous different animals and birds. The whole experience was excellent, the time just passed too quickly." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe

"Great atmosphere. Great staff.

Special thanks to our ranger/guide (Spencer) with his great stories and unbelievable energy. He has some great stories and anecdotes. Esp ask him about Howard, the croc if you ever visit this camp.

long game drives (5 hours each) maybe for some guest (we liked it) too long. one afternoon gamedrive a surprise with a white linnen bar set up in the middle of nowhere to have our sundowners. Nice surprise!" See all these reviews: 14n in Botswana; 4n in Namibia; 2n in Zimbabwe

"We were lucky to see a Wild Dog pack (6 adults and 4 pups) during the morning drive and the afternoon - in the afternoon we left them alone as they started out on their hunt. Very satisfactory occasion all round.
Also lucky to see 2 young Aardwolf at the entrance to their den on the way back to camp on the night-drive.
No large quantities or variety of wildlife otherwise during our 3-day stay.
We were concerned by the amount of time spent searching for a particular animal in a particular area when we should perhaps have done more general searching throughout the concession.
Apart from the Aardwolf siting (location previously known) we gained very little from the night-drives and arrived back at camp quite late (7.30 to 7.45) - just in time for dinner but with little time to freshen-up." See all these reviews: 11n in Botswana

"Lovely accomodation.

My only comment would be that maybe this camp is more suited to bird lovers.

We were a bit surprised at how few animals we saw and this was no fault of our tracker and guide as they were fabulous." See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe