Travel reviews by Ms F from War

"Overall we enjoyed Kulala very much. The location and the accomadtion are excellent and the service and warm welcome from the hosts Fani and Elana was excellent. Our day out to the dunes, climbing dune 45 and into seisreim canyon was great and well worth doing with the guide . Overall this trip was good value.

There are two aspects I would suggest some changes to. The food although presented well was often tasteless and overdone, which with game can make it very tough.

Secondly, the evening drive/sundowner covers ground that was in the morning drive and whilst the sundowner was nice to do, I thought charging more than the price of a drink for it, to those who had already paid for the morning drive was profligate. You basically didn't see anything new."

"We stayed at a veiw tent overlooking with 180 degree of the vast horizon; spectacular. The tent was well equiped and in good condition. The service was friendly and attentive. The food excellent.

Mowani put a lot of attention to the detail - sundowner drinks on the rocks overlooking the vast countryside, a log fire to relax after dinner and chat to the other guess before bed. On our last morning they laid a private table at the viewpoint on the rocks for our breakfast, a wonderful surprise. We felt really pampered.

We took the trip to see the desert elephants which was a long and dusty ride of over 5 hours but our guide was tenacious and found two seperarte herds, to our delight and satisfaction."

"The location of Ongava lodge is excellent. When you arrive into the main hall it is quite impressive. The rooms are the most well apointed that we experienced and we we very satisfied from that point of view.

However, thats were it ends. I counldn't wait to leave the place in the end.The food was poor a sort of bland buffet which lacked any variety, but food does make a holiday for us. The service was almost aggressive in its lack of attention. The staff appeared to be feedup, hanging around with long faces. The management were only visable slinking around in the corner of the bar, making no effort what so ever. They had no interest in their guests.

Our biggest complaint however, was the complete rip off that the trips ended up being. After many long drives we thought we would have a day off and go with the guide into Etosha and later around the reserve. We assumed that the price would be the standard 400 odd rand that we had been charged in the other camps and were horrified when we saw the bill . They charge us more than double each for the trip in to Etosha and 400 rand for a short wild goose chase around the reserve with a plesant but clueless guide. It was a complete and utter rip off and I would strongly recommend that other visitors are not duped by this shameless profiteering. (I have written to the Managing Direct of Wilderness Safaris about this)

The rip off was emphasised even more when we stayed the next day at Mushara Lodge who charged just 400 rand for a trip into Etosha with a guide who was brought up there and very knowledgeable. Needless to say we didn't take the second trip, but he did tell us lost about Etosha for free as he chatted with us casually in the hotel."

"Mushara is a lovely lodge. There was a warm welcome for us and it was clear from the outset that they were a service oriented team.The food was excellent, the staff pleasant and the lovely garden and pool a great place to relax.

On our second night we were entertained at dinner by an impromtu performance by the kitchen and waiting staff singing some of their tribal songs. It was a real treat and gave us another dimention to the african way off life in Etosha."

"Okonjima is an eficiently run operation. We we welcomed by a young training hotel manager who belted through a list of instructions and directions in a gasp and clearly needed to learn to hide her stress in fornt of guess.

Happy to report that the rest of our stay was excellent. The food probably the best we had had at all the lodges and the drives were run by knowledgeable and pleasant guides who clearly loved what they were doing.

In a one night stay we packed in a lot in the 20 hours we had (lunch, afternoon drive, dinner, night hide, morning drive, breakfast, exit) and we enjoyed every moment. For a more leisureIy pace I would recommend 2 night stay."