Travel reviews by Mr D from Hanger Hill

"This was our first night in Maun and was a great introduction to Botswana.

We would definitely recommend as an introductory stop before heading into the bush. We were even taken out on a quick drive around the estate to see the resident animals up close; even though the grounds here are ultimately enclosed it served as a perfect starter for ten for the camps to come!"

"We stayed 2 nights here at the beginning of our very first safari and wished we'd stayed at least another night!

Everything here was fantastic - the quality of the guide and tracker were top rate, the variety of wildlife in the concession was incredible and we even managed to see a good sized pack of Wild Dog on our first day. Suffice to say, we were somewhat spoilt here, having the privilege of seeing a successful lion hunt, a wild dog chase, giraffe and elephant to name a few.

The atmosphere in camp was an unexpected bonus here; albeit we may have gotten lucky with a good group of fellow guests, the staff certainly played up to this and made the feeling around the grounds very positive. We particularly loved one evening where the staff sang some African style songs and really got the atmosphere going- fab!

The quality of the accommodation and facilities here were above and beyond our expectations, especially given the remoteness of the location. We particularly enjoyed listening to the wildlife wandering through over the course of the evening...!

We can't recommend this place enough. Many thanks for such an enjoyable stay!"

"We stayed 3 nights here in our second camp of three during our safari. Following on from it's sister camp, Lebala, our expectations had been set high and Little Kwara certainly did not disappoint.

The quality of the guiding and tracking here was outstanding - we had Dicks and Chester for the full time here and to our mind these deserve special mention here. On two of the morning drives alone we saw Wild Dog, Cheetah and Lion, then Lion, Leopard and Cheetah respectively. This would almost be enough in itself, but suffice to say the remaining drives were almost equally abundant and we saw far more than we could have reasonably (or unreasonably!) expected.

As with Lebala, the accommodation here was excellent. The facilities were inviting and a perfect retreat in the heat of the day before our next game drive. The staff were really welcoming and all had incredible tales to tell whether it be of wildlife out in the bush or their home towns.

We also went on a mokoro/ speed boat drive while we were here and whilst we were worried about the game we might miss by not going on the evening game drive, this was quickly alleviated and turned into a highlight of our trip. What could be better than watching the sun go down over the delta with a gin and tonic! (and lots of stunning birdlife to boot!)

Thank you Little Kwara for a fantastic stay - we'll be saving up to come back!"

"This was our third and final camp on our safari and in many ways wish we'd stayed here first on the basis that this camp is possibly more suited to an overnight respite from travelling rather than a safari location in its own right.

To start with the positives, the decor and facilities here are very good - everything is tastefully decorated and very much has a luxury feel. The tents felt very secure, even though we were very remote, and the location itself was fantastic with numerous animals passing through, making for excellent viewing. The food here was possibly the best we had in any of the places we stayed on the trip.

Unfortunately the quality of the game drives and activities here did not meet expectations for a number of reasons. Foremost, the format here provides one guide per vehicle only - there were no trackers to assist the location of wildlife and this put sole responsibility on the driver. In itself this lends towards being problematic, however, in this instance we don't believe our guide was able or willing to locate animals through tracking himself and relied solely on the radio contact with other safari vehicles. This meant that we spent the majority of our drives driving on the parks roads waiting to see what our 'luck' brought.

One example in particular, one morning we found fresh cheetah tracks and attempted to track the animal; however after a short time our guide announced that the cheetah had disappeared. The other guests in the car with us were safari professionals on holiday, and insisted that the tracks were fresh. Based on their knowledge we should have been able to find this and were disappointed when we ultimately drove on.

Aside from this, we felt this camp places more emphasis on appearing high-end than delivering real value. Whilst out on a drive one morning, we chanced upon a leopard stalking a herd of red lechwe and were happy to sit and watch to see the outcome of the hunt. Unfortunately the stakeout was peppered with requests from camp to return back as some newer guests needed picking up from the airstrip and all other vehicles were committed to a picnic elsewhere. In fairness to the guide, he fought our case for us after we insisted that we wanted to stay - however the repeated interruption was distracting both to us and the animal and a source of frustration.

A final example was on our third day when we opted to stay in camp and not do a game drive. We had been told by one of the staff that there were 5 male lions in the camp, but if we stayed in the bar area with the senior staff we'd be perfectly safe. However, after about an hour we noticed that the bar area had emptied and that we were completely on our own. We began walking back to or tent and passed the staff quarters where we were met by one of the back-of-house who appeared shocked that we were on own when 5 lions were in the camp. The staff really looked after us and made sure that we were safe here, but the senior team were no where to be seen. As it turns out, they had gone on their own safari in our 'spare' vehicle.

We wouldn't normally write a long review and want to make it clear that not all aspects of Macahba were negative. We did manage to see some great game just sitting by the bar area and the facilities were lovely as were the staff. All in all the stay here was adequate we enjoyed our time, however we wouldn't stay here again in the future."