Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs MJ from SW London

"We enjoyed the Royal Livingstone as it gave us a good place to prepare for our safari trip and to get over the flight. It had a peaceful atmosphere and was close enough to the falls that we could walk to it on our own.

The food was good, if a bit expensive."

"Kwetsani is a really well run camp and we especially liked it because it is so small and intimate. Our guide, Florence, was exceptionally good finding a lion with an impala kill one day and a leopard hunting on another. She is to be commended.

Our boat rides were quite enjoyable and this is the only camp where we could take a mokoro trip. We had no idea on booking this camp that both islands that have game are located at the Jao Camp and Handu island, not directly at Kwetsani."

"The camp itself was fine, however, due to the high water levels we were unable to reach the buffalo herd which was the main reason for going to the camp. As we booked late in April we feel that this situation could have been predicted as the water levels were already creating problems.

Two things could be done: The camp could find a way to get vehicles across to the island where the buffalo had fled along with the Skimmer lion pride. Secondly your organisation could highlight the risk that this exceptional bufflalo offering might not be available at this time of year due to high water levels. Please be advised that the owners plan to tear down the existing camp according to the general manager, Lizzie, and rebuild it as a luxury camp in November of this year.

Our guide Kenny's sundowners were exceptional if perhaps unplanned. The first evening we fell in among a young male lion group and shared our drinks from the 4x4. The next evening we found ourselves stuck in the mud with the sun going down and Kenny had to carry each of us on his back to high ground where he had prepared our sundowner table. This was beyond the call of duty as my husband outweighs him by about 15 kilos."

"This camp turned out to be our least favorite although the animal sitings were quite good. It is a larger camp and we found it too big. As a consequence it was more regimented in its activities. For example they did not offer when requested to let us stay out the whole day as we did in Kwetsani.

Being a dry camp we had to spend a lot of time in a car looking for game which is more difficult to find given the type of terrain of this camp. This said we had our only close encounter with a huge bull elephant at our tents front entrance which was made more exciting by a group of quarrelous baboons who were showering us their leftover hard fruit from the canopy of trees above us.

The hides mentioned in your writeup create an incorrect expectation. The two hides have to reached by car and were not offered by the camp. One apprently no longer is useful due to water movement in the Savuti channel."