Travel reviews by Mr & Miss S from UK

"Comfy guesthouse.

If i went to Namibia gain i would skip this stay and drive a couple of hours out of windhoek personally."

"I suggest you do not recommend this lodge. The local staff were very good but the 'manager' was useless with zero qualities as a host. She never even introduced herself or said good morning at breakfast when we were the only guests present. The staff indicated that the previous managers left at Xmas. It seemed this new person had no idea how to run anything. She was rude and dismissive to the staff in front of us, did not show us anything or tell us anything and left us to find our chalet ourselves. We only found out from another guest that a guide appeared each afternoon to discuss activities - these were in fact very limited - a short accompanied walk or a sundowner drive. Almost no information about anything was provided by the manager and none existed in the room.

We were given one of the new rooms - slightly further away from the lodge. It was so new that there was no furniture in a large room - nothing so all our bags, clothes etc could only be left on the floor . The mosquito nets were still to be delivered which was not good given there were quite a few insects about. We complained three times that there was zero hot water - nothing was done about it but no one gave us any update either.

This is really not a good lodge - by far the worse place on our trip.

[Ed: As part of a brief email exchange about this with these travellers, they commented further:

Zebra River Lodge – we liked the place – its just that the management of it seemed inept to be honest. The local staff were lovely and helpful but the place is not at all well run at the top in my view. Easily overcome I’d imagine."

"Very comfortable, excellent staff, really good food and an extremely pleasant host (Thomas).

Cannot fault this place at all. Top service."

"Perhaps a little bit far out of twon - either a drive or taxi ride away"

"Really nice place with excellent views. Good food although service a little formal at times. Noticeable, compared to other lodges, that no women work here. Air con was needed at night and ours was quite noisy.

Room cleaning was a little basic we thought and the camp would benefit from there being more of a 'host' manager. However it is a great place that we thoroughly enjoyed."

"Its a basic camp. We stayed here to be in the park and close to a waterhole.

Previous rainfall meant there was no activity at the waterhole! The camp is fine is a little basic - the game drive was not brilliant due to a fairly unprofessional guide we thought."

"Very comfy and good food - more like a hotel than a game lodge but very enjoyable.

Waterhole activity was good and the guides were really good. Very pleasant staff"

"Possibly our favourite place and wished we had stayed longer.

Lovely tented rooms with loads of space and generous outdoor decks/seating. Guided walks were free and well staffed. Very good food. The whole design and ambience of the camp is superb - we were welcomed by Dhow (manager?) who was an excellent host.

A really nice place."

"- Friendly staff.
- Accommodation spacious and clean, pretty location.
- Some game drives felt a bit rushed but generally good.
- Picnics worried us slightly - food not chilled and was stored in plastic containers which were hot and sweaty by lunchtime. We did have upset stomachs one night which I'm sure was as a result of this.
- Lack of electricity was quite annoying 6pm - 10pm.
- More comfortable chairs/loungers to sit on balcony would be good.
- Food generally good - plentiful and lots of vegetables"

"- Cannot praise this camp highly enough!!!!!!
- Accommodation was amazing (we had Tent 1) and I would go back tomorrow which, considering I've never camped and have always flatly refused to go on a camping holiday, is a huge achievement on their part!
- Staff could not do enough to help and were very attentive.
- Food was delicious and beautifully presented.
- Game Driver (Mpogo) was fabulous at finding interesting things for us to see.

Loved it, loved it, loved it..."

"After Selous it was a bit of a come down.
- The room was dreary and we had ant invasions.
- The rusting bars on the window and rusting mozzie mesh on the door didn't help to improve the look of the room.
- Staff a bit too laid back in terms of service, but always polite.
- Restaurant food was excellent. Breakfast & lunch very good. BBQ/Curry night food was just OK.
- More loungers/shade by the pool would be helpful.
- More hammocks on the beach would be nice.
- Tidying up the overgrown vegetation and having a general tidy up/raking the sand to be level inside the beach huts to be able to lie on the bed comfortably would be to it's advantage.
- Supplying sun loungers on the beach that were not falling to pieces would also be a plus.
- Beach uncrowded and scenic
- Water warm and we had high tide every day so were able to swim
- Tea/coffee at sunrise a nice touch but never enough tea, coffee, cups, spoons etc!!!!!
- Very relaxing few days"

"A very poor hotel.

We had a room that was next to a very noisy generator that was on all night. Next morning I immediately asked to be moved and they seemed very un-surprised by the fact. Our second room was ok.

Stone Town is filthy and has no buildings, sights, activities or cultural interest of note to encourage anyone to visit it. I would never recommend anyone to go there and wished we had been advised to travel to the airport from Matamwe.

Being next to the sea was a slight plus. The amount of debris and litter washed up and just left on the beach was not pleasant."