Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs N from Hants

"Rob and Marianna, and the staff at Zebra River Lodge were very friendly and helpful. They very kindly moved us to another room, because of a mouse in our original room! Special thanks to Jana.

We enjoyed the food, particularly the family atmosphere sitting around dining tables, the setting and the walk up to the Quiver tree.

The lodge is a little bit off the beaten track (if there is such a thing in Namibia), but it was a very nice place to spend our first 2 nights in Namibia."

"Thomas, the manager, and his wife made us feel very welcome, although we were slightly surprised that one of the first things Thomas did for us when we arrived was arrange restaurant bookings for us in Swakopmund, which was the next place we were staying. However this was quite a good idea.

The setting and the views are good, and we enjoyed the sundowner drive. We went on an organised trip to Sossusvlei, which had its good points, but we were a little disappointed as we felt we were rushed and weren't given the opportunity to climb one of the big dunes.

Bottled water is free, unlike Doro Nawas."

"We thought Sam a little stand-offish when we first arrived, but think he must have been pre-occupied. He was an excellent host, being very informative and helpful. He introduced us to some excellent South African wines and told us about how he trains his staff.

We had dinner at Sam's the first night we arrived and the food was good. The breakfast was the best we had in Namibia - there was such a variety of things available.

Sam provides free internet access and tea/coffee with a wide selection of different tea bags. There are also lots of books (belonging to Einstein, his dog), that are available for browsing.

Sam's is about a 15 minute walk from the centre of Swakopmund - we walked and found it safe.

Overall, we found Sam's a very homely and friendly place to stay.

Sea kayaking excursion: This was a great half-day trip. Jeanne was very helpful and reassured us that the trip was safe. We saw lots of seals and dolphins - it was terrific when they came so close to the kayaks, and there are no other boats around. Jeanne kindly emailed us some digital photos of our trip.

Excursion to coastal desert: This was a great day-trip, even though we didn't quite get to Sandwich Harbour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and helpful. The rest of the party spoke German so he had to repeat everything for us. We loved driving and walking in the dunes, and running down them. We also saw a lot of bird life, including pelicans and flamingoes. Lunch was also excellent."

"We very much enjoyed our stay at Doro Nawas. Elaine, who took us trekking Desert Elephants and to Twyfelfontein was very knowledgeable and would stop to show us things of interest or if we spotted any interesting birds. We didn't feel hurried.

Our room was very comfortable, the food was good and the setting pretty spectacular.

Tea and coffee always available within the central lodge. However, we were charged for bottled water.

Our only slightly negative comment is that when leaving, we asked for someone to take our bags to our car. Although we were told that someone would do this, it didn't happen, so we ended up carrying our own bags. This gave us the slight impression that once we had settled our bill, the lodge wasn't that bothered about us."

"We had a chalet near the waterhole at Okaukuejo, but weren't disturbed by all the people who come to view the waterhole in the evening. The waterhole is brilliant - there is so much wildlife around in the middle of the day, and we saw rhinos both nights at around 9pm.

The chalets have very recently been refurbished, and are very smart and comfortable, with mosquito nets and air conditioning.

The food was ok - one night it was a buffet, the other a barbeque, but we would recommend either getting food early or booking a table, as Okaukuejo is very busy. The shop had a limited selection of goods - better than Namutoni though (which only had sparkling bottled water).

Note that on checking out, the reception radios one of the housekeeping staff to check that the room has been left in a good state before returning the deposit.

We expected there to be more information about where particular animals had been sighted and were surprised that this didn't exist.

We enjoyed our time at Okaukuejo, and saw a lot of interesting things on our self-driven game drives."

"Halali was much quieter than Okakuejo, i.e. less people. The rooms had recently been done up. We had a one-bedroomed bungalow, which had a separate lounge - both the bedroom and lounge had air conditioning. The bed had mosquito nets.

The food in the restaurant was similar to Okaukuejo, and the shop was stocked similarly to the one at Okaukuejo.

We saw rhino at the waterhole in the evening, and one lunchtime we were at the waterhole, about 35 elephants came and used the waterhole.

Again, like Okaukeujo, there was no information about what animals could be seen where."

"Waterberg is in a beautiful setting. We arrived at about 3pm,having travelled from Halali, and were in good time for afternoon tea and then a game drive. The game drive enabled us to see white (wide-mouthed) rhino at very close quarters - we were able to get out of the Land Rover and were within ~10 metres of the animals. Fantastic.

The following day we went on a guided walk up onto the plateau, where we learned about the traditions and beliefs of the local people, and the uses to which the various plants were put. This was extremely interesting and our guide was very knowledgeable.

Our room was very pleasant and the food good. The staff were very friendly.

The approach road to the lodge is sandy, quite hilly in places and has a lot of humps. Despite being very careful, our car grounded in a couple of places."

"We were very fortunate to be upgraded to the Villa from the Bush Camp. Our room, in the main villa, was amazing - we had a lovely view over the waterhole and into the bush. The service and food were excellent. Aldo is a very good chef.

The first night at Okonjima, we were the only guests and felt very spoilt, having a chef, guide (Johann) and hostess (Anya) to ourselves. Our evening trip was tracking hyena, which was a bit different.

On our second day, the morning activity was a bushman walk, where we learnt about how bushman tracked, hunted and survived. The afternoon activity was tracking leopard. We started a bit late, but found a leopard in a dry river-bed. It appeared to be sleeping, but then climbed into the tree next to us to protect it's most recent kill.

On our last morning, we went to see the cheetahs and wild dogs. The cheetahs are in a fenced reserve, but it was great to see them being fed.

Okonjima was a great end to our holiday - we may never stay anywhere as exclusive again."