Reviews of Doro Nawas
Wildlife sightings and reviews
497 independent comments and wildlife information from our travellers who have visited Doro Nawas and kindly agreed to share their thoughts. They do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa
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"Excellent return visit"
Searching for the desert elephants is better from this camp than another that we have visited. Do not be put off by the dark burnt out appearance of the main building as we were on our first visit - it is very well appointed and has a huge dining room, balcony and seating area with exceptional views. One of our favourites." See all these reviews: 17n in Namibia
"Doro Nawas review"
We had a very nice guide - Michael - who was clearly very into the desert elephants & nature. In addition to the desert elephant tracking, we had a treat on our 2nd night: we opted for a short hike with sundowner drinks back on the lodge roof, and to our surprise a group of 19 elephants were trudging in a long line about 1km from the lodge. It was beautiful to see them this way, in the evening light.
The food was a bit disappointing, redeemed only by a delicious lunch as we waited to leave." See all these reviews: 14n in Namibia
"Doro Nawas review"
"Weird but Wonderful!!"
We were met by a very pleasant manager called Steven and given a good orientation of the place. Arrangements were made to take our belongings to the lodge. It really was huge and sumptuous if not a bit over the top accommodation, but we really liked it.
The activities offered here are very expensive but can be easily done by yourself such as visiting Twylfontein, Organ pipes etc. If Desert Adapted Elephants are your thing then one might want to pay the high prices. We have seen so many elephants and they all look the same except the desert elephants are a bit long in the legs, thin and apparently bad tempered and if you are lucky you can see them on the way to Twylfontein in your own car.
We went on an early morning walk with a very knowledgeable guide and really enjoyed it. In the evening the same guy showed us various star constellations with the rooftop telescope.
The food served here was cooked to a good standard, although I was served an apple crumble with raw crumble one night. When I pointed this out; the waitress said it was definitely cooked but it was as raw as any dough and a few other guests stared to point out the same problem, but the staff said, "nothing wrong with it"! Anyway it was a busy night and I really didn't mind it at all." See all these reviews: 8n in Namibia; 8n in Botswana; 1n in South Africa
"Doro Nawas review"
The restaurant facility (and the house style) is rather more formal than at Kulala, but the food is ample and good.
We were sceptical about doing the elephant tracking activity but when our guide, Lister, promised we would definitely find elephants, we did it and had another wonderful Namibian experience. He had already walked us around the wilderness, giving names to so many plants, insects, tracks, birds. He really came up trumps with the elephants: two groups and two solitary bulls. Plus two cheetahs. Not bad ! This was an extraordinary experience, topped by a fine sunset." See all these reviews: 16n in Namibia; 2n in South Africa
"Doro Nawas review"
Would have been nice to have had a few walks offered from the Lodge, but otherwise service good and only thing that could have been improved was food (perfectly safe but not particularly creative)." See all these reviews: 14n in Namibia
"Southern Africa Manager"
"Doro Nawas review"
We had an unfortunate experience with a radio failure which meant that we did not get to see one of the big herds in the early morning drive. That siad the camp did allow us to go again in the afternoon where we had a wonderful experience of the herd in late evening light.
The sleeping out experience is NOT to be missed, truly wonderful." See all these reviews: 19n in Namibia
"Doro Nawas - chalets on the wide open plains"
The pool while lovely, was just too small for the number of guests. Although we had a nice few hours on the loungers, most people were left to sit on the deck. I'd recommend they invest in more than 5 loungers!
There were plenty of activities on offer, but you did have to fit in with their planned schedule - this wasn't a problem for us as we were self-drive, so we drove ourselves to Twyfelfontein and the Organ Pipes as they didn't have this on offer the afternoon we wanted to do it. We're glad we did, because it was very easy to do this yourself, it cost us nothing (apart from a little petrol!) and we had the Organ Pipes to ourselves - a real highlight.
If you're self-drive I'd recommend doing the local attractions yourself because they are easy to find and self-guide. In terms of the Doro Nawas activities, we did a guided desert elephant safari with the Doro Nawas guide one morning, and found the Oscar group up into the river, after a 2 hour mission where we'd nearly given up hope! It was amazing to get so close to them. We really enjoyed this activity and would recommed it.
Staff were variable. Our first night they were great - kind, attentive and very cheerful. On the second night service was patchy at best, and we waited over an hour for our dinner. When busy they look like they might struggle to maintain good service. The food was average - it was edible and well presented, but not of a high standard.
We would go back to Doro Nawas, because we thought the setting and our beautiful room really made this a special place to stay." See all these reviews: 15n in Namibia
"Doro Nawas review"
Very interesting trips to find the desert adapted elephants. long and not very comfortable morning outing with little to show for it mainly due to the intercom radio on our vehicle not allowing contact with the other vehicle which was more successful. Afternoon trip was very successful and was run for us because of the morning's technical problem. This was not totally resolved, but was sufficient to let us get excellent access to the animals. The staff tried to charge the full rate for the second trip, despite it being necessary because of the technical malfunction. However, we did manage to negotiate a more appropriate charge after the staff had to contact more senior managers 'elsewhere'.
Slight difficulties with this arrangement on check-out, but resolved simply. Altogether a very good place to stay, though the overall 'feel' resulting from it being run on a contract basis means that it suffers a little in comparison with the directly managed lodges." See all these reviews: 17n in Namibia
"Best accomodation we had"
The desert elephants more than made up for our difficulties when we found them." See all these reviews: 18n in Namibia
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