Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs P from Maidstone

"Great place to stay one night to recover from flight from UK."

"We stayed in one of the wooden chalets on stilts and would recommend this, both for the room and the wonderful views. A torch is useful for the walk to and from the main building for dinner.

I went on the early morning game drive and was the only one on it - perfect as I could ask the very helpful guide to stop whenever I wanted to take photos. My wife didn't accompany me as we'd just heard that our granddaughter had been born (late, should have been before we left home!) and remained glued to the internet. So grateful for the wi-fi and mobile phone signal which we didn't get on other parts of the trip.

Only disappointment was not seeing the meerkats as this seems to be promoted as a highlight at this location. Questions about this were met with ambiguous replies, we wonder if they're no longer there but they're not admitting it?

Although the staff were friendly this was the least personal of all the private lodges."

"The only place to stay if you want to catch the sunrise at the dunes early and take photos of Dead Vlei without the crowds. We did the sunrise tour with Sharpaka, a very helpful, knowledgeable guide. It had been very windy overnight and remained so which meant we came back for breakfast rather than having it on the dunes.

Trips to Elim dune, Sesriem Gorge and Dune 40 and 45 at sunset were easy to do on our own.

We parked in the 2wd car park and never had a problem with being taken in their vehicle to or from the car park.

Have rated food as average in comparison to other places we stayed, oryx steak excellent though.

There is no internet access here but there is an internet cafe at Oasis Garage outside the park."

"A lovely, friendly place to stay, spacious room and excellent breakfast.

Very good meal at 'The Tug' and would also recommend The Village Cafe for lunch or just coffee and cake.

We drove to Walvis Bay to see flamingoes.

I did the kayaking trip which I have emailed you separately about."

"We drove from Swakopmund and stopped at Uis. We found it concerning that the only garage there had no petrol and indeed were not expecting a delivery for 2 days. Fortunately we had enough for our journey, had just wanted to top-up as recommended. We found an excellent coffee shop there ?Cactus Coffee at the end of the village.

Camp Kipwe was excellent in every respect - just one small detail, a fridge in the room would be an improvement to keep water in - only place we didn't have one (sole reason why facilities rated as average).

The desert elephant trip was a highlight - not to be missed. Our guide Taffy was very knowledgeable."

"A disappointment - this did not live up to our expectations. As the newest camp in the NWR we expected more but it seems to be treated as the poor relation and a remote outpost, not the flagship.

Staff here seem to have been relocated from Okaukuejo and not knowledgeable about the area, there were no maps left and the shop was virtually empty. At checkout there seemed to be random allocation of drinks to room bills which took a while to sort out. N.B. Expert Africa voucher had this as DB whereas it was DBB as standard with only drinks being extra. Service was very slow one night and the food disappointing (convinced we had watered down tomato ketchup soup one evening!).

Wi-fi was stated as available but was very, very slow and didn't work on Apple devices at all.

The room was fine and had great views.

One issue the camp has is that it is built on several levels with extended walkways. Transport is by buggy - don't forget anything or leave anything in your car as it will take you 40 minutes there and back. One of the drivers was obviously practising for F1 racing!!

The location was fine, and it is well worth while visiting the western part of Etosha for the wildlife and putting up with the camp's shortcomings, but there are far fewer waterholes accessible than they state."

"The prime reason to stay here is the waterhole and this certainly lived up to expectations; giraffes and rhinos at night are worth seeing. The elephants seemed to have a daily visit for a drink and a bath.

Our electricity tripped out the first night but we filled out a fault slip and it was repaired (blown water heater) by 11 am which was pretty impressive.

Everyone was asked for a 500 N$ deposit in cash on arrival, no problem but we hadn't been advised of this beforehand."

"Typically excellent private lodge reception and service. A very luxurious, enjoyable and relaxing stay.

Not much game compared to Etosha so best to stay here after you've been saturated with game viewing for a few days to relax and enjoy the beautiful lodge and surroundings."

"Main differentiator here is the early morning walks (with Kules) to see mainly birds and also wildlife eg locusts, mongoose, dassies but no game.

Restaurant service here was excellent.

Not the best place to stay if you have trouble climbing up and down steps and slopes to your room and to the restaurant."