Travel reviews by Ms T from Middlesex

"Little Kwara was our first camp and therefore our first experience of a safari in Botswana.

From the start, the staff there made us feel incredibly welcome and special. I don't think we can name anyone in particular because all of them were friendly and efficient and contributed to the intimate atmosphere at the camp. We also liked the fact that all the staff, including the managers, were Botswanan.

TJ and Chester, our guides, were excellent and passionate about the tracking and animals and worked well as a team. Litte Kwara was the only camp where we had both a guide and a spotter and we think this made a real difference in terms of tracking game. I will never forget the moment we found the 2 wild dogs and then the rest of the Kwara pack and the joy on TJ's face only to be saddened when he counted the pups and found that 3 out of 10 were missing. TJ's knowledge was extensive but he also gave opportunites to his juniors (Chester and Galaxy) to shine. TJ was also good showing us different aspects of the concession. As well as 4 game drives we also went on Makoro, went rod fishing and on a boat trip to the Moremi Game reserve. We were also lucky enough to have 2 drives alone. TJ weighed up what we'd already seen (which was a lot), the animals that he knew were around at that time and the other options and he decided to take us 'birding' - this was a great option and thoroughly enjoyable, but in fact turned into more serious tracking as game was unexpectedly located!

Our best experiences at Little Kwara were - breakfast round the 'boma', the relative 'wealth' of lions (we saw 8 lions there out of a total of 10 on the trip), chasing the wild dogs and then finding their pack and pups, the 2 boat trips, the sundowners on the first day (viewing a herd of cape buffalo in the mist against the blood red of the dying sun) and our interactions with the staff.

This was the only camp that had a series of maps in the lounge area that allowed us to see where we were relative to the surrounding consessions and where we had been each day. These were quite useful and possibly something the other camps could implement.

Our only suggestion for the camp is that of the three camps, they were the only ones who did not do anything special for our honeymoon. It may perhaps be because when we told them, they did not fully comprehend (as we are an older couple)."

"Our 3 days at Duma Tau were fabulous and excellent for a honeymooning couple. The new rooms are really comfortable with gorgeous views across the lake. The game is also all around you and the camp. On one walk back from the plunge pool (which was the nicest pool of the 3 camps with plenty of shade, a changing room and towels) we encountered a monitor lizard, a giraffe, 2 kudo, impala, guinea fowl, Jamesons firebirds and countless little bee eaters! The camp also has a lot of facilities with plenty of open space to enjoy private views.

The camp gave us 'private dining' on 2 nights out of 3, a bottle of fizz and made us feel very special. Thanks to Olivia for this who, as our host, was incredibly warm and generous. The rest of the staff were also very friendly and welcoming and nothing was too much trouble.

The gaming was the best out of the three camps and provided 4 days of non stop action. We saw pretty much everything at Duma Tau - 2 lions, 5 leopards (one on each of the 4 days we were there and on one occasion a mum with her pup - we did not see leopards anywhere else), a pack of wild dogs, a cheetah, endless hyena (including one in daylight), a hippo out of the water and in day light, a civet (apparently quite rare), a bat-eared fox (also rare) to name but a few. Our guide, Lazi, was top notch. He not only had the skills of a tracker but also was able to deal with guests, respond to our requests and have a laugh with us. He took us on a boat trip in mid-day siesta time which made a very long day for him.

The only non-positive comment about Duma Tau is the fact that it felt less intimate than the other camps and less Botswanan. There are a lot of non-Botswanan staff and the interactions that we had with staff generally felt more 'hotelly' than the other camps. What was great for us was the combination of Duma Tau with the other 2 camps i.e. because we were on our honeymoon it was great to be totally spoilt for a couple of days with high levels of service, but it was also nice to get to know a bit more about Botswana and the Delta life in the other camps.

The highlights - the whole thing!"

"The camp and staff at Tubu Tree are great. They made a real effort for our honeymoon (and were the only camp to have taken this information into account before we arrived - even though we told the other camps). They gave us the gorgeous honeymoon suite complete with 'hidden bedded terrace' and his and hers outside showers and turning our room into a 'candlelit' retreat after dinner on our first night. This was very special. The atmosphere at the camp is intimate and relaxed and the staff very friendly. We would like to give the waitress Juliette a special mention.

The main reason why we are only giving this camp a rating of 'average' is because of the lack of game. There is not a lot the camp can do about this and it may be worse this year due to the lack of water. However, our guide was not very good at handling this with us. Actually because we had seen so much at the other camps we were not too bothered and told him this when he picked us up from the airport. We indicated strongly that we had heard that there were hyena pups and that we really wanted to see them with their parents. For the first 2 drives we were with 4 other people and so we were happy to go along with what they wanted and indeed on the first night we got to see 1 hyena pup briefly.

However, on the second day, when we were lucky enough to be on our own with the guide and he was generous to give us extra time (as our morning drive had been cut short because of flights) he did not really give us options of what we could do e.g. we could have gone boating or done birding but he seemed hell bent on tracking down leopard (even though we weren't really that bothered). We ended up going on a fruitless search for an elusive leopard and coming back so late that we missed seeing the pups. The following morning the pups were not out of their den.

The highlights of Tubu Tree were the hyena pup, the resident fruit bats and the honeymoon suite."