Travel reviews by The H family from Farnham

"Large, clean and comfortable rooms in location looking up at mountains. Friendly and helpful owners who you eat with at dinner.

Owners run a huge farm which must be challenging so they do well to cope with questions from European 'townies'.

There is quite a lot of wildlife round the guest house and we were disappointed that we were unable to take advantage of the larger hikes into the mountains."

"We used Desert Homestead for their horse riding services. Our daughters are keen riders and we booked a two day ride and camp out which the excellent Megan as guide. We all agree that this was the best family trip ever!

The horses were all in good condition and while my wife and I were beginners our children were still able to gallop across huge plains surrounded by fantastically coloured mountains. The three hour ride culminated at sunset with the children galloping in with a herd of Oryx! The camp was in an idyllic spot set up under a weavers nest and overlooking the plain and mountains. Food, BBQ and drinks awaited us and a moon free night sky of amazing brilliance completed a perfect day.

The next day my wife and got a lift back to the lodge allowing Megan and our daughters to whiz back in under half the time it took us to hack out. The lodge was attractive and the service and food good. The rooms were well appointed, but draughty in the gale that was blowing."

"Set on a ridge after a 10Km drive in from the main road the site looked impressive. The igloo style rooms were very well appointed, comfortable with great views.

The dining and bar areas looked very good and the food was excellent. Staff were very helpful. The tame (but fairly vicious) Zebra and the Meerkat rehabilitation area were pleasant bonuses.

A dawn walk along one of their trails led to the plains below the lodge where a large herd of Zebra were feeding."

"The guesthouse was much more upmarket than we were expecting. The rooms were large, well appointed, clean and very comfortable.

The gardens were neat colourful and well kept. Breakfast was very good. Peter was particularly helpful and went out of his way to assist when I struggled to obtain cash from the local ATM. Restaurants are all within 5 minutes walk.

While in Swakop my daughters all went skydiving with Ground Rush Adventures. They were excellent. We would also strongly recommend the lay down sand boarding company Expert Africa use. It was great fun and much more exhilarating than expected. We achieved 64kph!"

"The rooms were large and stunning with a fantastic panoramic view of distant mountains. The wheel out beds were great; even in winter! The stars were fantastic to watch while lying wrapped up warm. Staff were great fun and very good with excellent food. Make use of the courtyard seat round the fire at night.

The Desert Elephant Safari with Ryan was a highlight. It took Ryan a long time to locate the elephants but once found we spent a good time viewing them and learning about them. The scenery we saw during the search was great.

We would also recommend the living museum which is about 5-10 minuted drive."

"Great location overlooking plains. Always wildlife visible with lions visiting the waterhole twice while we were staying. Rooms very up market and all with great views. Room 13 has good views of the waterhole and two others may have views but I do not think you can book specific rooms.

Bar and pool area fantastic and well appointed restaurant. For us service at restaurant was slow, largely down to the member of staff serving. That aside the food was good and all the staff very friendly and helpful. We would certainly visit again.

Driving round the waterholes was easy and a lot of wildlife seen, especially elephant and giraffe. At the moment you will not see many other cars in western Etosha, although it looks like they are about to open this area up for more tourists."

"Excellent location for eastern Etosha and the floodlit waterhole was great fun. Our rooms were large, clean and good quality. The restaurant is OK but tends to run out of food! The shop is dreadful, poorly stocked and missing most of the products you want. Most rooms have BBQ facilities but the shop does not stock enough to have a BBQ! If possible bring in fuel and food for BBQ, alternatively visit the restaurant and arrange for them to provide food and salad for a charge.

Waterholes round the camp were very productive. We saw 11 lions, elephant black and white rhino and much more. Get up at dawn to try and find the lion! Worth visiting due to location, but not the same quality as some lodges."