Travel reviews by Mr G & Ms B from Hove

"Excellent lodge with great attention to detail and personal service. The sundowner experience was the best of our trip and the memory of it will stay with us forever.

The restaurant was well designed with a great ambience and a food quality to match. The lounge area of the lodge was similarly well designed and a lovely place to relax.

I have a very minor quibble that the lighting in the individual lodges was a bit underpowered, so I sometimes needed a torch to find things in my luggage, but it feels churlish to mention such a trivial point on what was an amazing stay."

"We'd booked this trip maybe 18 months previously and I'd forgot that we'd be sleeping out in the open air until just before we arrived for this leg of our trip. To be honest, I was a bit nervous. However, our guide Sebastian was a great calming influence and I soon relaxed and just put my trust in him and he didn't let us down.

We did the trail in a group of 8 people (the maximum) and were fortunate that the other 6 people were great fun to be with and excellent hiking companions. Personally, I could have done without the hour or so visit to the eco indoctrination camp before the trek started, but that's probably a minority view.

The trek isn't difficult for anyone who is moderately fit or walks regularly. Sebastian made plenty of stops to highlight and explain what was going on around us. Compared to how I expected to feel, I honestly had a really good night's sleep on both of the evenings. The sleeping cots were comfortable and I guess I'd just got used to the environment from walking through it during the day.

Despite being low tech, It's all a smooth, well oiled operation and I can highly recommend it so long as you're happy to mix a little rough with the smooth."

"This was a bit of a mixed bag. We arrived after a tiring drive to be met by the manager waving a dead chameleon at us and asking us drive slowly so as not to run them over. I wasn't sure if he was accusing us of driving over the chameleon or if it happened earlier. Whilst I empathise with his concern for the chameleon, it was a Basil Fawlty style welcome.

We stayed in an Eagles Nest chalet, which is a 15 minute drive away from the main lodge and restaurant, so it involves driving back in for your evening meal. The benefit is great views and exclusion, but we'd have probably been as happy in one of the chalets near the main lodge and skipped the hassle of driving in and out.

There are some lovely looking walking trails around the lodge, but as we'd just had 3 days doing the Tok Tokkie trails we were a bit over trekked and decided instead to drive into Luderitz and Kolmanskop on our rest day whilst at Eagles Nest.

The food was a pretty average and on our second evening meal fell below average meaning we sent a dish back uneaten. We were still asked if we were enjoying our meal and charged for it anyway, which just felt a bit clunky."

"Location, location, location.

The views are truly amazing, but I suspect the sheer remoteness creates issues with staffing and supplies. The place felt under-managed and a disorganised compared to other lodges we visited. I liked the design of the individual lodges, but I can see how some people might view them as a little bit hard and industrial.

The food offering was poor in choice and execution relative to the general aspiration and pricing of the lodge, but I repeat that this may be a factor of the extreme remoteness of the place.

The 'activity' on offer is a 4WD drive to the river bed of the canyon which takes about 3 hours each way with an hour to picnic and swim in stagnant water in the middle. It's the only 'game' in town and probably worth doing whilst you're there, but not one I'd think of repeating."

"We only stayed one night here, but could have happily stayed another night.

The desert chalet we had was well designed with a lovely view.

The game drive was decent enough but it was made by seeing the cheetahs close up at the end."

"We had 3 nights here at the end of our trip and that was probably too long.

The individual lodges are incredibly well designed and luxurious, but felt very cold on the night that we had a rain and thunderstorm, despite having a fire made up in the bedroom. The staff are very good and our guide Jonas was great company out in the reserve.

The food was pretty good but without much variety. The dining area itself was desperately underlit in the evenings so that people were reading wine menus with their torches. How many times the management must have watched that, but not thought to invest in a few candles for the tables, defies my imagination given how well thought out the rest of the place is.

It's a great place near the airport to start or end your trip, but I wouldn't stay more than a night or two at the most."