Travel reviews by Mrs A from London

"This is an older style luxury hotel with a 'colonial' feel. The situation is stunning with a great view of the bridge at Victoria Falls and of the clouds of spray coming off the top of the falls. The service was excellent and food good.

There is a very nice, large swimiing pool and you can walk to the Falls from the grounds, although I had not realised before I went that you have to walk through the National Park to get there so the 'you are now entering the National Park, beware of wild animals' sign was a bit of a shock!

As I was on my own I got the guard (armed) to walk me through. If you want to walk across the bridge at the falls you need to take your passport as the bridge spans between Zimbabwe and Zambia."

"This is a lovely lodge with lots to see as there are always elephants at the water hole, and Savuti Chanel. There was a lot of game in the area - elephants everywhere also particularly impala, giraffe, ostrich, and zebra. Before I arrived they had not seen leopard for 6 days in the camp, but I saw two different ones on two separate game drives and on my second night another one was seen catching a guinea fowl just outside of the dining area.

There are lion at Savuti, but I did not see any, although on my last morning when we were looking for lion we ended up in the middle of a vast herd of zebra which stretched as far as the eye could see on every side: it was spectacular.

I had an excellent guide, Baba, who was also great at pointing out birds for me as well. Because the other party who should have shared my truck did not do the first evening drive and the left the next day I had two days with a truck to myself so it was like a private safari - it was great."

"This is an old camp which is showiing its age. Actually I enjoyed this camp the best of the whole trip, but my tent could have had cleaner straw mats on the floor. Also the water comes from a bore hole here and it is very brown. Although I was warned about not drinking it it would have been useful to know about the staining as to begin with I thought that the loo in my tent was dirty. I did also have drain problems, but they were fixed promptly and with no hassle.

The camp is on a private reservie so going off road and night driving were great. The guide and spotter, IP and Justice, were the best of the trip, with everything being pointed out. I saw lots of lion here, new varieties of game( warthog, hyena, tsessebe, red lechwe, genet, african wild cat, python amongst others) and excellent birds. As well as game drives I went on a boat trip in the Delta (saw lots of hippos) a jungle walk and in a mokoro - where again we saw lots of hippo: one so close we had to take evasive action.

This is a great camp for people who are serious about seeing the wildlife. The staff were friendly and very welcoming and although certain things could be immproved it would be a great shame if it were tarted up too much."

"For me this camp was too big and felt more like a hotel than a safari camp so the atmosphere was different somehow. My guide was not so good as at the other camps at pointing things out, and my second night I was late being collected for dinner because I had been forgotten. But staff were friendly and it was easy to make individual arrangements for example on my last morning I was able to fix up a boat trip, which was usually an afternoon activity.

The boat trip from Kwara Camp was a great way to arrive and the cabin was lovely - lit by candle light at night. There are two swimming pools here - one relativley big. There is also a very good shop! There was less game here but again I saw new varieties and cheetah for the first time."

"Tao Pan Camp is lovely, small and very friendly. I really liked the Kalahari and it made a great contrast to the Delta.

The pan is great terrain for game viewing and the guide and spotter Dutch and Xsinco were excellent. and I was looked after very well. The only thing I missed out on was the bush walk which had been stopped while there were lion cubs about. There were two lots that I saw, one only ten days old.

The weather was mixed here with some rain and the first morning there was thick fog which hi-lighted the beautiful spiders' webs which were everywhere.covered in dew. And seeing the oryx appear out of the fog was amazing. I also enjoyed the full day trip and lunch out where we travelled about 200 kilometers to get an idea of the country amd seeing the line of giraffes on the skyline as we were having sundowners was a great end to the day."

"I spent the last night of my holiday here. The location is lovely, the staff were friendly and service was good and I would certainly recommend it."