Travel reviews by Dr D from Parker

"Central Guest House turned out to be what we expected--adequate to very good room and facilities. The breakfast was very good including cooked eggs and bacon with lots of choice, The owners and staff were very friendly and helpful, advising us as to where to go and what to do. Good location a five minute walk to the central down town.

We walked around town several times and drove to Walvis Bay as well. Overall we did not see much reason to return with a group. We spent an entire day on a drive through the Namib desert park and enjoyed that very much. But given the 6 hour drive from Windhoek and the 6 hour drive to Kalala Desert Camp, we are not sure how to make it work to include Swampkomund."

"This is a spectacular setting for a desert camp with mountains on all side and a dry river bed wandering through the property in front of our tent. My wife loved everything about this place and I came to appreciate the attraction of a lodge set in the desert. We went for a walk on our first night -- about an hour along the river bed and an encounter with an oryx where we both looked at each other in surprise and then he wandered off while we took photos. The next morning 6AM trip to the dunes was a high point and Kalala's direct access to the park is a big plus. We loved climbing the dunes, seeing the animals and the intense scenery.

It was very hot (42 C) in the afternoon and we did a late afternoon drive that included a small canyon which was, in our opinion, of not much scenic value or interest. Given the long drive to get there and a long drive to our next destination, the drive around options were not attractive."

"We arrived about 8PM at night after a long day of travel from Kalala Desert Lodge in Namibia. We had a light dinner in the bar and retired early. The hotel is in a very beautiful setting with amazing grounds. It is an older building and well maintained. The rooms are large and comfortable and our room had a breathtaking view of Table Mountain.

The breakfast was excellent with lots of choice and my eggs prepared perfectly. The first morning we had to wait for a table but not long. We ate at their high end restaurant (outside restaurant operating on their property) and they fit us in when we said we were hotel guests, even though they were fully booked. It was a gourmet meal in every respect. Wonderful.

We liked the hotel in every respect and would stay there again."

"We loved everything about this place--location, design, decor, staff. It was our favorite lodging on the entire trip. The staff briefed us on the place, the recent flood and recovery, and addition of new rooms, highlights of the town. We could walk to everything we wanted to do in Franschoek. The rooms were very large and well appointed in a five star manner. The creme brulee waiting on our pillows when we returned from dinner was a touch we will not forget.

We had dinner at The Tasting Room and it was superb and one we will repeat next year with our group. What we would like to add next year is a winery visit with an excellent presentation about wine making and a tasting. We had lunch at The Post Card Cafe at a winery near Stellenbosch which was a magical setting on the lawn of the winery overlooking mountains. We will repeat this next year as well. We also will arrange a meeting with friends at Stellenbosch University for a morning while we are there and maybe combine that with lunch at The Post Card Cafe."

"This place was perfect for what we intended. We had a full day in Winelands and an early flight Botswana the next morning. Hotel Verde is very close to the airport. We drove there, checked in, and followed a hotel staff to get gas for our rental car and return the car and return to the hotel. What a deal! Then the front desk assisted us in online check in for our flights.

We were tired and decided to eat at the hotel dining area which had a nice menu and good wine list 30-40 wines to choose from. It was a good dinner and, next morning a full breakfast at 5:30AM!. The hotel dropped us off at the terminal and we were on our way.

The rooms were mid-sized and had everything we needed but no extra frills. We have stayed in Hotel Verde type places before and are most impressed with their concept and execution. Will use them again and again."

"Kwara Camp was most enjoyable and we had a memorable 13 hour all day game drive with lunch in the bush with Tom and his tracker Kelly. This was the best part of Kwara Camp--excellent guides and staff. This was the best game drive our our trip with sightings of lions and over 150 elephants and rather constant game coming into view all day long. Our second game drive found a pack of 15 wild dogs and we watched them for 40 minutes.

Botswana camps and game drives are VERY different from East Africa where we have been five times. The camps are small and intimate. The staff is uniformly superb and knows your name from the beginning. The drives are in beautiful terrain, woods, grasses, water crossings, savannah. AND there are not many animals compared to East Africa. Except for our one all day game drive, the other five days of drives at a total of three camps did not produce many animal sightings. When we did have a good sighting, such as the wild dogs, we spent a lot of time there and learned a lot about them from the guides who seem to know the game on an almost personal basis.

It takes some adjustment to appreciate the Botswana game viewing experience. You have very few vehicles to contend with. The guides have great local knowledge and game viewing is distributed between lots of birds, regular elephant and impala viewing and occasional other antelope, wart hogs, and the rare cat encounter.

Kwara was the best game viewing. However Kwara as a camp was disappointing in terms of our tent and the overall condition of the camp. It had a worn out feel. Our tent was very small with an off-again-on-again hot water shower, holes in the window mesh. The public areas were nice and in better repair but all over a renovation is needed."

"Lebala Camp was our favorite. Our tent was large and well designed. It was the only place where I would like to spend time in the tent and on the deck relaxing. The staff and common areas were excellent and we liked everything about it EXCEPT there were almost no animals after three game drives.

On our evening game drive we found a leopard and our guide kept contact with him for over an hour and a half. It was the animal highlight for the whole trip. That morning however after four hours we saw a handful of impala, some warthogs and elephants and little else--literally nothing. We would love to bring out group here but the game is so sparse which is contrary to how you describe Lebala on the website and how others describe Lebala.

We would like to hear from you about the game viewing. Would it be different a month later such as late May or early June?

Also although the guide, Tsabo, was very good he did not connect with us with the intimate information about the animals as did the guides at Kwara and Baines. He was still very good."

"Baines Camp is beautiful with post card perfect setting and the tents connected by a raised walkway with lots of water all around. The staff was excellent and friendly and the guide, Fred, was outstanding and he made the game drives worthwhile with has narratives. The game drives needed Fred because there were almost no animals.

There were memorable touches at this camp. Returning to our tent the first night after dark following the evening game drive we discovered two tubs were on our deck filled with water and bubbles 4 feet high. My first ever bubble bath. The second night we slept out on the deck in our beds and under the stars. These were wonderful touches.

On the other hand the tents are good but not great--better than Kwara but not as large or as nice as Labala. There is no comfortable place to sit inside the tent. Baines clearly tries to provide a high level of service with touches of luxury."

"We loved the location of the hotel and the grounds were well tended but from the beginning the place had the feel of a huge family resort. Hallways were narrow and rooms were a bit small. Staff was helpful.

We walked to the Royal Livingstone Hotel next door and what a difference. We loved the ambiance and the grounds and saw one room from the outside. We ate dinner here and the food was well prepared and served with good wine selections."