Travel reviews by Mr T&M &Ms S&J from UK

"An excellent stop off on our way north, just 1.5 hours from Windhoek. This was the ideal place to rest after a long overnight flight from the UK.

We found it really homely, very peaceful and tranquil it was just what we needed. The rooms were comfortable, the food and service was excellent and the farmstead was set in beautiful surroundings.Definitely a place to remember.
We enjoyed a lovely game drive here too, it was wonderful.

Could perhaps benefit from a "buggy" to carry luggage to rooms, there was no help offered on this front!"

"A beautiful bush lodge built in traditional style and set in a lovely location, we had a pleasant stay here, the food and service were very good and rooms were comfortable well furnished and spacious. The restaurant staff would sing after dinner, it was a nice treat.

A well designed lodge with lovely restaurant (Lappa) a viewing deck and small pool, the gardens were immaculate with a colourful Jackaranda tree providing a stunning backdrop.

Run more like a hotel than a game lodge for me and perhaps not so relaxing, nevertheless it was lovely. Game drive in a large open vehicle rather disappointing, the guide could perhaps have made it more interesting/entertaining but said very little about the resident wildlilfe ."

"A beautiful camp on the fringes of Etosha, this place has recently been re-furbished and sadly animals are now rarely seen at the waterhole...it is a fantastic lodge/ waterhole design but loses its charm being devoid of animals.
We were dissapointed at this.

Food and service could have been better I'm afraid.
All in all the scene was set in a spectacular location but the key players just didn't turn up .

This would not be a place we'd go back to."

"We loved our stay here the wildlife was simply amazing, not to be missed if visiting Etosha.
This amazing waterhole attracts hundreds of springbok, zebra,kudu, oryx, waterbuck, giraffe, rhino, elephant and predators including lion hyeana and jackals every day.

Do not venture out to adjacent waterholes at least one day of your stay or you will miss a treat, we saw massive herds during the morning and early afternoon then in the evening we saw 12 rare black rhino come to drink, then the big cats came to drink and feed off an oryx which had died during the heat of the day. Absolutely unbelievable and certainly the highlight of our trip from a wildlife perspective.

Our visit though was not without problems as the receptionist (Lenzy, she was very helpful) said that our booking had been "deleted" and they had no rooms for us (indicating that the reason was due to non payment by our agent?).This was very worrying and time consuming before eventually a lovely waterhole chalet was found for us on day 1.

The camp was full and she said there were no rooms for our next night so we had to wait around for hours before a cancellation came in. We were housed in a sub standard room in a noisy area next to the camping site.

The waiting around particularly on day 2 was really unpleasant and caused uneccesary stress,it was a worry to us all as we could not plan our day and felt we had wasted a key part of our holiday.

Despite all of this the food, the location and the experience at Okaukejo was wonderful thanks mainly to the attention of Lenzy on reception who was persistent in finding rooms for us spending many hours on the phone ringing around for possible cancellations. What was strange here is that she was able to check ahead to Dolomite Camp (our next destination) and the bookings there were ok, thankfully!"

"Dolomite camp and the rooms were lovely, the food was good and the team from the local community worked hard to help make their guests happy, especially Douglas behind the bar.
There are only two rooms here which overlook the waterhole though the views in general were stunning.

There are however issues with the camp design in this wild and desolate area of Etosha, I refer in particular to the wooden walkways and paved areas to the rooms. The walkways are poorly lit at night and resulted in my partner suffering an extremely heavy fall from a step down onto the rocks which could have been very serious indeed, I was pleased that she was able to get to her feet without serious injury, she has though suffered badly grazed and swollen knees and she still suffers some pain from this. Her back was also bruised but thankfully there is no recurent pain here.

You cannot believe my relief when I found my partner was ok after the fall, my vision of her at the time sprawled amonst jagged rocks and crying out in pain was that she had suffered a broken back.

For safety reasons it would be helpful if each of the wooden steps had a visible edge as all the steps simply merge into one, this may help prevent future accidents of this nature.

Another issue at this camp is that staff insist that guests are transported back to their rooms after dinner using a golf buggy, stating that it is safe from animals but strangely we were told on two occasions to walk down to breakfast at 6:30am even though it was still almost dark...that walk from our room was at least 800m up/down really steep pathways.....we are both retired and though we consider ourselves quite fit this was too much, so I had to insist that a buggy be provided.

This place is definitely not for those less able."

"A really friendly lodge on top of the Etendeka Plateau with an amazing elevated view, we were on top of the world looking down into the Klip River Valley below...fabulous.

The staff here were superb and we were again serenaded so melodically after dinner.

The menu was read out in the local Damaraland dialect, very similar to the bushmens "click click" language, one of the waitresses Marianna was such fun putting so much into her singing and dancing but they were all great and we enjoyed our stay here immensely. The lodge is on the Grootberg Pass and a trip out to Palmwag was thrilling to say the least, the views were fantastic but not for faint hearted drivers and the pass should not be attempted unless you have a 4x4.

Also very important, the very very steep track up to the lodge should only be attempted if an experienced 4x4 driver, but you have an option to leave your vehicle at the bottom (where security will look after it) and travel up in the lodge vehicle."

"We had chosen Okonjima as our final camp in Namibia having seen and heard so much of this place famous for re-introducing cheetah into the wild, we were looking forward to this.

Our start was not a good one though as we'd been placed in garden room 1, the closest to the restaurant/lappa with no terrace or balcony and overlooked by all in camp. It was not the best of rooms as there was absolutely no privacy unless we closed our doors and curtains, After dinner smokers would gather outside of our room which was not pleasant. We felt imprissoned somewhat so expressed our views and thankfully were upgraded to a view room for our second night which was lovely.

If Expert Africa are sending clients here I would definetly insist that you do not want Garden Rooms 1 & 2, the other rooms in this area have much more space and some degree of privacy. Rooms aside we had some wonderful wildlife sightings and game drives allowing us to trek cheetah and wild dog "on foot".

The staff were pleasant and the food was good, so it all ended very well."