Travel reviews by Caracal party from London

"Wilderness lodge Erongo is absolutely lovely with great food.

It gives a real opportunity to walk rather than sit in a vehicle and we had a terrific guide (Classi) who talk four of us out walking and bird spotting."

"Okinjima Bush Camp was as lovely as ever again with good food and very good guiding, they really do run both a professional and friendly operation there.

Do go on all the activities as we saw great Cheetah and Leopard, and go to the night hide for the Porcupine (but wrap up very warm in winter)"

"Okaukuejo was good good, much better appointed than we expected, the service was friendly and efficient.

The food in the restaurants was pretty good, a buffet, so lots to eat, and the local school children gave a singing and dancing performance which added to the atmosphere.

But the big plus of Okaukuejo is the waterhole, which is great. We spent a very happy evening eating sandwiches we made for ourselves and drinking abottle of wine. We saw numbers of elephant, game animals and black rhino.

During the day you can drive yourself around Etosha."

"Halali was very good, much better appointed than we expected with good service and a very good meal in the restaurant.

The waterhole is a little quieter than Okaukuejo but still worth time sitting in the evening, we saw a lovely family of elephant drinking."

"Etosha Aoba Lodge is lovely (and we saw a Caracal on the way into the lodge in late afternoon), very well run by a young German couple who manage the place.

the food was excellent and they were very helpful (gave me internet access for a reasonable cost), we had a Kudu join us at the waterhole for breakfast."

"Nkwazi Lodge is more rustic lodge but very friendly and comfortable and we had a lovely sundowner cruise and a very pleasant evening chatting with the owner."

"Ndhovu Lodge was absloutely delightful, again quite rustic but with such a warm and firiendly atmosphere.

Horst was lovely and took us out for a very long trip to the Caprivi Game park, and one afternoon we self drove around Mahango park and saw terrific Sable and Roan. I have to say we were very sad to leave the atmosphere of Ndhovu."

"Camp Kwando was a very disappointing camp. It is a beautiful spot and has enormous potential but the service had 'gone to absolute pot'. Our understanding is that the manager has changed recently and about ten days ago all the good staff walked out. Other than the guide Yilly the others hadn't a clue. Here is a list of the little things that add up to a very bad impression:

This was the only lodge that did not greet us with a welcome drink, in fact we arrived and Ramona said welcome I will explain everything and kept us standing while she told us how the place operated, namely electricity only on at 10 am off at 1pm then on 6-9. Water on at 6am off later in the morning back on at 6pm off later. So you cannot really have hot water and electricity at the same time when you need it.

She then tried to take us to the ordinary chalets and we had to insist on the Treehouses that we had booked.

Our Treehouse had no bedside lights so when the electricity was on we had to switch the lights off the other side of the room. There was no alternative lighting (most lodges give torches when there is limited electricity - obviously we had our own but shouldn't have needed to at a so called good lodge.)

Our room was also missing a curtain over the door which was at the side, so when one of the staff wandered up to the lodge there was no privacy and on one occasion we were both changing. We were told that the curtain had been stolen from the laundry but as there was no curtain rail that was a lie.

Our friend's room had no bath plug, we were told this was stolen as well.

You couldn't drink the water but we were not provided with water in the room.

The beds were never turned down and there were certainly none of the niceties evident at other lodges such as hot water bottles, notes or sweets on the beds. Similarly the covers on the windows were not rolled up or down as you might expect.
The food was not very good, one bizarre example was a stuffed savoury pancake which had sugar in the pancake batter! More importantly while there, one of our party became ill and because of the nature and speed of his symptoms and the fact that other people in the camp were ill we are pretty sure it was food poisoning.

The serving staff had very poor English and it was difficult to order anything special (or even a glass of wine)
The timing of breakfast was poor so a seven o'clock breakfast on our last day was not laid out at all until 7.20 and when our order for eggs was taken it came back wrong.

Overall I would say the place is about to implode. We did talk to both the so called manager and the owner who was there. I am not sure they really understood or listened. However, again I would stress that the guide was very good and he rescued the situation for us, otherwise it would have been a really bad stay and the only one that was three nights."

"Nxamaseri Lodge was wonderful and the new manager Cat is terrific, it was a total contrast to Kwando [Ed: this refers to Camp Kwando, their previous stop] and we again felt like welcome guests, even friends.

The birding and boat trips were excellent but don't expect any big game because it is right among the reeds and delightful for that."

"Kalahari Arms hotel was fine, actually better than expected, comfortable and clean rooms with space and OK food. But there is absolutely nothing to do there except go to the supermarket and stay in the hotel."

"Kalahari bush Breaks was terrific, again we were made to feel really welcome, the design and setting of the place was lovely and the game viewing was much better than we expected.

We had a great time driving ourselves around the 4-wheel drive route and had good sitings. The food and wine were excellent."

"Rivendell Guest House was a terrible disappointment. They had emailed us when in the Caprivi to say there was a double booking and was it all right for our day room to have shared facilities. We didn't think we could say anything but yes. However, we did not know what we were saying yes to. When we checked in our room (no 1) was fine if basic, but Ralph and Sandra's (no 3) was very small with barely anything between the bedroom and the toilet and bath area.

When we were shown the room we were supposed to have as a day room it was a three bedded dorm type room and the facilities were shared with at least eight people (in fact more I think). This place is really not much better than a back packer's hostel and we were staggered that you have it on the list. It seems totally out of keeping when there are so many options in Windhoek. Anyway we kicked up such a fuss about the day room that they let us keep No 1 until 4pm."