Travel reviews by Yee Family from Hong Kong

"For where it is and what it is, the lodge was overall quite pleasant. Because we were unfamiliar with the area, we dined exclusively at the Lodge. The food was okay, about what we expected, despite the restaurant being probably one of the finer establishments in town! The rooms were clean, the staff was nice, but internet access was fairly difficult. Our friends had a family suite upstairs which was very nice, and we had two adjoining rooms, which we actually didn't need (the kids wanted to sleep with us anyway).

We enjoyed shopping at their local products shop on site and used their booking office for activities. Because their booking office is not the actual operator, we didn't book in time for a microlight tour (turns out the operator was already full), so instead we booked a family helicopter ride. Despite the expensive price tag, the helicopter ride over Victoria Falls was worthwhile (as the view from the ground was too misty in many places).

Note to ExpertAfrica: We found out after we got there that the microlight flights only operate on the Zambia side, which means that we would have had to exit Zimbabwe and then re-enter, thus incurring more visa costs. Should your clients require visas into Zimbabwe, it would be helpful to suggest the double entry Zimbabwe visa if clients are interested in activities such as microlight or tours into Chobe."

"We were very happy with the staff, the location, the rooms, the game drives and the food. Our chef was excellent and even allowed our kids to make cookies in the kitchen one day. The game drives were very good. While the location isn't easy to get to, the transfers overall went smoothly.

The only hiccup in transfers was when WIlderness Air picked us up at the Chitabe airstrip on our way out: The plane arrival time was erroneously given to Sandibe as later than when the plane actually arrived (we were just able to make it); and when we got there, the co-pilot told us that they only had seats for 4 on the plane, despite our party being 7 people. We were told that they had to call to order another plane for us and started to depart with none of us. Just as they were about to depart, the plane suddenly returned for four of us and another 3-passenger plane showed up. It was quite confusing but fortunately it all worked out. All the other transfers went very smoothly. In any case, we could hear Katherine (was that the Sandibe manager's name?) on the radio figuring out what to do for us, and I could tell that she was working hard on making our transfer work.

We also were able to have our own vehicle because we had 7 people, so our 2.5 year old son was able to join us on all the game drives and boat ride. It was wonderful. Our guide/driver and tracker were all very good and we were able to see many animals, some of which we had to hunt down! It was fantastic.

One suggestion for the Sandibe would be for the store to have more smaller sizes available, especially for men's shirts. There were plenty of 2XXLs available!"