Travel reviews by Mrs A & Mr J T from Essex

"A perfectly adequate B&B. The hostess was friendly. Sensibly priced mini-bar. Each room has a private outdoor seating area with table and chairs and the garden is very attractive.

Only a short distance from Joes' Beerhouse for a good dinner at each end of our holiday. We drove ourselves on the first occasion but walked there in daylight and got a taxi back the second time. The staff at the Beerhouse arranged a taxi and saw us into it, ensuring that the cab was genuine."

"We were well greeted and were lucky enough to get an upgrade, to the Honeymoon Suite, a large chalet complete with Jacuzzi. However we did not have a chance to try this out and given the warnings of acute water shortages and the need to keep showers brief it would not have been appropriate to use it.

We arrived early enough to get on the afternoon game drive & sundowner which were well worth doing. We had a very good, conscientious and knowledgeable guide; we got the impression that the others were too.

All staff were very friendly and helpful.

A very good start to the holiday and a realistic and excellent place to break the long journey south. It was also an introduction to driving on gravel and sand roads."

"The rooms were fine as was the food. The walk up the hill for the sundowner was nice too - excellent sunset views. Worth it. The chalets are stunningly done in the rocks, and the grounds are alive with dassies and wandering oryx.

It is as close to the canyon as any other lodge and the canyon can be visited easily in your own vehicle - worth an early start to beat the rush. A note to self drivers - there is petrol at the Canyon Roadhouse, which you will probably pass on the way, and is a very reliable source.

The staff were friendly and helpful. A young lady on reception lent us her own phone to ring Bidvest about the broken boot lock catch (our phone had a Namibian sim card but failed to work in half the country - we were sold the wrong card! Oh well). Having got the advice, she arranged for one of the maintenance staff to help. His name was 'Lofty', and he welded it up for us to enable us to continue to Aus. Excellent - friendly and helpful."

"Wonderful views across the desert from your position below the cliffs.

Excellent accommodation with lots of space, although the 7km on the sand track back to the lodge/to get to the main road was a bit of a drag. The wildlife makes up for that though - oryx and springbok everywhere. Possibly the furthest two chalets were not really suitable for access in a Corolla, very tricky final approach.

There are some nice walking trails around the lodge and Eagles Nest too. We did the mountain walk behind the chalets; steep in places but worth the effort. We went on their mountain and desert (all day drive) to see mountains, bushman rock art, desert and wildlife. Our guide and driver was Nakame who was very friendly and knowledgable and helped to make it a really good day out.

This is a good base to day trip to Luderitz and to the ghost town Kolmanskop. More welding on the boot lock catch at a local car repair shop. Princely sum of N$50 (about £3).

Our only comment would be that the chalets should have one mouseproof cupboard for storing food products.

The meals at the lodge were all good; on two nights we had a braai kit and did DIY dinner to save the 7km drive. They are a complete 3 course dinner and were great value."

"Met personally by our host, Thomas. Very high quality food with excellent service.

Our chalet was lovely, you would never know that it was a canvas structure. We would love to have had time to use the pool and to test out the outside shower and bath!

Full day desert tour with our guide and driver 'KK'. This included: walking on and in the dunes, the Dead Vrei complete with petrified trees, picnic feast complete with tablecloths and all the trimmings and drinks, and then finally to the Sesreim Canyon. It was an excellent day out, made more so by KK with his helpfulness, friendliness and excellent knowledge (a pity some of the others failed to show their appreciation).

In our absence, our host Thomas had tried to have our boot lock catch welded but it was by now beyond repair. He had tried to obtain a spare for us but parts have to come direct from RSA. When we got back he kindly made many phone calls (some via RSA) and eventually made a firm appointment with the rental agency at our next stop (this resulted in the car being exchanged without any fuss). Thomas also organised for members of his staff to help us to temporarily rope up the boot lid for the drive next day.

What an excellent place to stay. All the staff were so friendly and helpful, and once again our thanks to Thomas and all."

"Excellent position in respect of the town. Wonderful room and good food.

The owners are proud of their town and very friendly, and helpful with their advice and guidance of places to eat and things to do. E.g. we ate at The Jetty (The Tug needs booking weeks in advance for info) a very good meal, and we went to the museum which was very good too (we went back again after lunch).

We bought woolly wall hangings from the 'Karakulia' workshop; an experience in itself to see the artisans at work.

We left an ipod in the room safe and thought it lost. We drove on to our next lodge (Doro Nawas), and lo and behold it beat us there by hours; the owners had had it forwarded on a local flight. We were, and remain, very grateful for this excellent service."

"When we were booked in, the staff happily reunited us with our ipod. The singing on arrival and departure was enjoyable.

The room was excellent and the surroundings wonderful. The meals were very good. Pushing the beds out and sleeping under the stars one night was superb.

We did a short walk around the area (3/4 km or so) and enjoyed seeing various wildlife around us.

Staff were generally helpful and attentive, but attention to detail lacked on a number of occasions. Examples include:
- waiting at reception for nearly 10 minutes on arrival; perhaps the delay was to round up the singing chorus.
- we were not told that a glass of wine was included with each meal (and were not fully taken off our final bill which included a bottle of wine and a fair few beers);
- we were not told that on the second night dinner was a braai in the desert. We only just turned up at reception in time and were not really dressed for a meal outside;
- we were disappointed that there was no written information about the trips/activities, and no pricing. There was verbal information from the guides at dinner, but the content was inaccurate. We booked an activity, and our guide Liberty was very knowledgeable and informative, but the trip was not the one that we thought we had booked. Not Liberty's fault though, one of the other guides had given the trip details and taken the booking. (There may have been some hanky panky amongst the guides at play here). Fortunately, we did get to see the rock art and had an enjoyable trip but did not get to see the organ pipes.

Our comment are not intended as complaints, our intention is more to be helpful because Doro Nawas is so close to being excellent."

"The room was fine although self catering would be limited really (there are no pots, pans, cooking facilities (other than a braai) or crockery) - fortunately we weren't.

Dinner had to be booked in advance and then you had to find out at a reception area where you should sit. Although there was an allocated waiter or waitress, the level of service was relatively poor, with long waits for drinks. The meal was entirely self service but when the bill was paid back at the reception area the waiter was always on hand and eager to claim a tip.

The position within the park means that most areas are accessible for day tripping (although a very early start would be needed to reach the extremities).

The water hole is an excellent feature and during our various visits we saw many big animals including elephants, rhino, lions, giraffes and all the various smaller wildlife.

An excellent time of year for activity at this waterhole at all times of day and night."

"Hobatere did not disappoint despite having come from the middle of Etosha.

Our room was comfortable, with good luggage space and a nice veranda overlooking the bush. Despite the fact the we were mid-terrace it was quiet and felt private. It was the only place that we stayed where we were escorted back to our room after dinner as there was nothing to separate us from the local wildlife, as demonstrated by the elephant dung on the doorstep!

The food was presented well and the cooked to order breakfasts delicious. Bar prices were good, encouraging rather more gin and tonics than are sensible.

We really enjoyed our two hours in the hide, seeing plenty of game including our best view of the holiday of eland, but including good viewings of giraffe, zebra, warthogs, springbok, kudu, jackals and a great flock of guinea fowl. There were also many birds and eagles. On returning to the lodge, late morning, a troop of baboons came down to the waterhole adjacent to the building, along with kudu, all drinking just meters from us and with the minimal of barriers."

"We were delighted with our spacious chalet here ,(Standard Room 8), with a 1.5 meter bed each and an enormous window overlooking the plain. Wildlife was plentiful, with a nearby warthog den, the resident of which enjoyed digging around the walls of our chalet.

Meals were served in a spacious glass sided building, tables were allocated. My only criticism is that we felt service was very rushed at dinner and we felt under pressure to be quick. The Bushmans Omelette for breakfast was vey generous!

The activities were highly organised, well described and priced in written and verbal information. We went on two trips, both Leopard and Cheetah spotting. These were well organised with many trips departing at the same time but none of the transport was crammed full, meaning that everybody had a good view of all about them. Our guide on each trip was Imms, who was enthusiastic and determined that the viewing would be successful. This involved a fair amount of off road driving through vicious thorn bushes but well worth it.


On leaving Okonjima Plains Camp we were stopped at the last exit gate by the gate man who had noticed that we had a slow puncture. He pointed it out to us and helped us to change the wheel within the gates of the Lodge.
Without this we would have found the puncture while on the main road and had a much more stressful change of the wheel.
It is also worth other visitors knowing that there is a guest toilet right by this gate which came in very handy for us!"

"We were very pleased to be allowed to check in very early, allowing us to leave our luggage and do a little shopping in Windhoek.

From a personal perspective, we would have been better to have slightly changed our arrival and departure day as both of our days in Windhoek were Sundays and pretty much everything was shut by lunch time."

"An average big chain hotel with motel style rooms. Staff were friendly enough, but we were surprised as residents to have to pay for our dinners in cash at the table rather than have them on the bill. Breakfast was very good.

Location was right at the edge of the town, about 20 minutes walk from the centre. In retrospect, we should have taken the Expert Africa advice and stayed at one of the lodges in town. The town itself is well serviced by persistent hawkers on almost every street.

After the Falls, we did the 'Zambesi Loop' walk mentioned in the Rough Guide. The staff at the Tourist Information office stated that it was safe provided you were sensible (as did a guide from one of the local tour agencies). However, we were sensible, but still ended up closer to elephants on foot than was perhaps a good idea, and some local residents were certainly shocked that we were on that road on foot."