Travel reviews by Mrs H from Wales

"For this one section I am replying on behalf of my husband who is away at the moment. I know he found the Slipway excellent, with a particularly good breakfast"

"Very grand place. Good food. Excellent breakfast with lots of variety. The business centre is run by Kearsley safaris, but it was a very reasonable rate, and the man running it was helpful"

"We had a very good guide and driver here, who worked very hard and tried very hard to help us see what they felt we should. WE were happy with what they showed us anyway. Very friendly and willing to discuss things. The camp centre was fine. No choice in food, but was perfectly acceptable and beautifully presented. A solar powered fan made the second 2 nights more bearable, heat on the first night was a bit difficult to relax in.
One amazing incident where the elephants walked directly past our tent in the moonlight-beautiful"

"Nicole was filling in for the normal manager, but did a brilliant job of making sure we got to do what we wanted-full or part day safari. Very anxious to be as helpful as possible. For various reasons we ended up having 3 different guides and drivers-not their fault at all, but didn't lead to good continuity. Good sighting and all of them very ken to show us as much as possible."

"What an amazing place. I hadn't really done much thinking about this section of the holiday, but in many ways it put the seal on an amazing holiday. Beautiful beach immediately there. Fabulous food, with always a choice. Very friendly helpful staff and managers. Felt thoroughly pampered."

"Our only problem was finding the house - the trick is to look for road names on the kerb, not further up.

then the house and rooms were beautiful, spacious, airy and comfortable. We were treated like royalty.

We knew we were off to a good start when the first half hour we had seen a whale and her baby after drinking a free sherry!!

Lots of whales. Then our last morning watching whales breaching while eating a sumptous breakfast."

"No problem finding it, although we did wonder a little bit where we were heading as the roads are not fantastic.

Then entering the compound was an amazing experience and totally unexpected. Beautiful grounds and wonderful rooms. Other people may regularly live at this standard, we don't, and were completly bowled over. The extra touches in the rooms like a sealed scroll of bedtime story, and luxurious bath robes. 12 chefs to pamper to some of the best food I have ever been offered.

The whole living was extraordinary and far above any standard I have enjoyed before.

Then Jacques, our guide (we had quite some time with him as our personal guide) was very enthusiastic to show us as much as possible and laid on an archaeological expert to explain the cave paintings, and carried sundowner drinks to special places and did everything possible to make it interesting and exciting. Everyone was friendly and helpful, but obviously Jacques was specially important to us.

If 5 star is the best, this was 12 star!!"

"Now I know why Kwando camps are special-trackers as well as locally based guides, I can see makes a huge difference. The places the driver got those vehicles wa startling.

Being able to go off the tracks meant we had one morning where we saw a lion, 4 cheetahs and two leopards in one morning. We couldn't believe our luck. Anita and Lloyd running the camp were doing a brilliant job of making us welcome. I was a bit nervous to begin with, as the nighttime noises sounded a bit threatening, and the care the guides take meant I remained aware of the dangers, but I grew more and more confident and enjoyed it so much.

We were treated to a dance and song at one point by a whole group of staff- that was an extra special treat we enjoyed.. The food was amazing, and Anita even managed to organise gluten free wraps for my brother in law.

Ezekiel (our guide) and Jamoo(the tracker) did a fantastic job. They are so amazingly knowledgeable, and very willing to tell us as much as we were interested in hearing. They didn't seem to mind being pelted with questions about animals, their lives and how Botswana works.

I can also understand why Kwando have the guides eating meals with the guests, as it gave us a chance to build up a relationship and time to ask even more questions. My only problem about that is that it seems the guides don't have much time "off"."

"Vundi was fascinating, and highly knowledgeable. When he started talking of a kingfisher having two foveas, I knew we had someone with an encyclopaedia to pass on to us.

Whenever we weren't finding something to watch, he would stop and tell us about something of the ecology, or termite mounds or trees or birds or something that enriched what we were seeing. We again saw all sorts of wonderful animals.

The food again was great - I do not know how they cook so well in what must be difficult circumstances, and as for how well our washing was done and returned all beautiful - much better than I manage."

"The whole place made me laugh, from the "Zulus" who greeted us, to the colourful paintings, the metal warthogs and the real zebras and monkeys running around. Wonderful food."