Travel reviews by Mr AB from SW London

"We spent one night here on arrival in Windhoek. Olive Grove was easy to find, with the benefit of the Expert Africa marked map, and one's car is parked within their secure gates. Our room was on the ground floor in the courtyard (don't remember room number) and was very comfortable. We ate lunch, dinner, and breakfast at the Olive Grove and food was excellent.

The only very minor snafu (which may have been our jet-lagged/traveling misunderstanding) was that we heard that dinner was 6 pm onwards so when we arrived around 7 pm we were surprised that everyone else was just finishing at it appeared that it was a firm 6 pm start. This was not a problem and they served us an excellent meal. We walked into town, which is very straight forward, around 20 minutes I think."

"Hoodia is a wonderful place to stay. Thomas, the proprietor, is a very extrovert, uber hospitable host, who runs the place with admirable efficiency.

Hoodia is set in a secluded plain, some way from the main Sossulviei area. This means it takes a little longer for the dawn drive to the dunes (which is the obligatory excursion) but in our view this was more than compensated for by the attractions of Hoodia itself.

We ate very well. The individual rondavels are very comfortable, complete with the Namibian speciality of outside, but private!, showers.

We took the Hoodia guide, Enos I believe was his name, for the Sossulviei excursion, which we thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a lot. We stayed 2 nights."

"Tok Tokkie is a wonderful way to start one's Namibian experience. It is a quided walk, starting around 330 pm, after lunch on Day 1, walking a full day on Day 2, and arriving back in the Tok Tokkie HQ around 9 am on Day 3. The walking itself is very easy, with small distances and no particular elevation losses or gains. During our walk the maximum day time temperature was in the late 20s celsius so not troubling.

What makes the experience so enjoyable and special is the guide (Sebastian was our guide) and the wonderful camps, where one sleeps under a blaze of stars (following Sebastian's very informative star-gazing talk), the first time when the Milky Way really was milky, in very comfortable camp beds, complete with very welcome hot water bottles. Food is plentiful and excellent, served by very welcoming staff. The long drop loos (complete with signalling devices to indicate vacancy or otherwise) and hot bucket showers, both open to the African plains but secluded from one's fellow guests, were a tremendous "Out of Africa" experience.

It does get cold at night and there was one breakfast where there was a distinct run on the hot porridge, but one rapidly warms up and are relieved that the long lunch break on Day 2 is under canvas. We were woken one night by a nearby oryx grazing and everyone was very excited on the second night by the mournful call of a passing hyena. Tok Tokkie was a high point of a holiday complete with highpoints!"

"Cornerstone is centrally located about 5 minutes walk from both the sea and "downtown". It is run with great charm and efficiency by Peter and his staff.

We stayed in the courtyard apartment, which was very comfortable. Breakfast was an extensive buffet, tasty and abundant.

I would definitely stay there on a return to Swakopmund.

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Whilst staying here these travellers also took part in a guided trip to Sandwich Harbour, here are their comments:

Sandwich Harbour is an interesting day-long excursion, an example of where shifting sand dunes have encroached on the historic habitation and fresh water lagoon. We were very fortunate to have Bruno himself, who runs both Turnstone and Mundulea Reserve, as our guide. Highlights also included driving at speed along the sand, the key requirement being timing one's return to avoid high tide wholly covering the "road".

We did get temporarily stuck, which was great fun but were easily freed by a combination of a Land rover tow (our companion vehicle) and letting the tires down even further. It was definitely a trip where the quality of one's guide was crucial."

"We only stayed one night here as the base both for visiting the Bushman rock engravings at Twfelfontein and driving onto Etendeka.

The rondavel is very comfortable and the main lodge, clad in dark grey, atmospherically set on a slight raised hill, offers excellent views of the plain and surrounding hills.

Perhaps we were overly spoilt by our other experiences in Namibia but Doro Nawas is the only place we stayed where we would not return.

We had no specific complaints, the staff were friendly, the lodge and rooms comfortable, the food fine but for us Doro Nawas didn't provide the knock out "wow factor" that our other places did."

"Etendeka was for us a "must do" (again) experience. It is set in the extraordinary Etendeka conservancy, which is itself a triumph of Namibian trendsetting, combining the interests of the Damaraland local community with those of tourism, often a difficult marriage. Etendeka is intimately connected with its inspirational proprietor, Dennis Liebenberg, who helped successfully pioneer this joint approach more than 20 years ago. But Bonnie is an equally inspirational co-host and guide.

We spent 2 nights there which is probably about right although a third night would not have been a hardship posting. Activities include both game drives (including the arrival and departure as the roads are not accessible to "ordinary" vehicles so one is collected from Palmvag Lodge, itself an atmospheric and historic camp) and guided walks, with Bonnie during our stay. We did see game, kudu, giraffe, etc. but the landscape is the main reason to visit.

Food was homespun but delicious, the camp fire attractive, and Dennis's star-gazing talk very informative.. Tents are relatively simple but very comfortable, complete with outside showers, and uninterrupted views of the mountains.

We couldn't recommend Etendeka more highly, bags of character, real intensity and commitment."

"Ongava Lodge is a great place to stay on the outskirts of the Etosha park. The Etosha model seems to offer a choice of very comfortable, privately-run, lodges/camps outside the park and Government-run, considerably less luxurious, camps/lodges within the park. We stayed in both but there is no question that Ongava Lodge (there are other Ongava properties on the reserve) is the top of its tree.

Attractions include exceptionally comfortable rooms, set in individual rondavels, a lit waterhole with hide (from which we saw white and black rhino each night), a wonderful dining terrace offering views both of the waterhole and the plains. Food is excellent, service exceptional.

We enjoyed game drives, both to Etosha itself and within the Ongava reserve (complete with sundowner and passing elephant). There is, understandably, far more game in Etosha itself but then where would you regularly see rhino less than 20 metres way from one's semi-private hide?

I can't think of any way in which it could be improved."

"Halali is one of the 3 main camps with Etosha itself. The location is great (we saw kudu and two rhino at its waterhole). But the room was scruffy and run down, service was desultory and lacking any focus, food was OK. There is a very large swimming pool!

The big (only?) advantage is that one can start a game drive from the middle of the park itself at sunrise - breakfast is served from 530 am.

So Halali wasn't bad - but for us suffered from coming directly after Ongava Lodge."

"For us Mundulea was by far the highlight of our stay in Namibia. But it wouldn't necessarily be the case for everyone.

Mundulea is a private game reserve created by Bruno Nebe. Accommodation is set within a small tented camp, with its own waterhole. There were a total of 6 guests, including the two of us, during our stay. The only activity (other than talking, eating, drinking, and sleeping) is walking in the reserve, expertly guided by Bruno. Tommy stays behind to cook the most delicious meals over an atmospheric open fire, one of many highlights being the daily fresh, home-made bread, baked in some rescued car part (I think).

What staying in Mundelea gives its very lucky guests is an intense, in-depth, understanding of how wild game and its environment, the whole integrated chain of life, operates, from the termites, beetles, guinea fowl, snakes, up to the predators.

This was a uniquely powerful experience for us - it might not have the same appeal for others. You may not see a lot of animals or being able to tick boxes on the number of different species seen.

For example, we didn't see leopard, except a hazy dark outline at dusk at our waterhole, but we did hear the leopard call (a distinctive, rasping, sawing sound) all night 5 minutes (or less ) from our tent and the next morning we followed the tracks of the leopard female, and her companions from just outside our camp. Plus we just avoided tripping over a languid black mamba (Obviously Bruno saw it well in time, a few metres ahead of us)."

"Okonjima has a number of electronically tagged leopard and cheetah.

The upside is that you are highly likely to see both animals during your stay - although officially they rate your chances as 50:50. The downside (especially after our experience in Mundulea) is that the experience is obviously, whilst not guaranteed, contrived using tracking devices. So I guess Okonjima does what it "says on the tin".

We saw two leopard, a mother and, separately, her cub. We saw the cub catch a guinea fowl in mid flight, quite extraordinary and the next morning (6 am departure) we found two young cheetah, which allowed us to walk within 10 metres.

The lodge itself is very comfortable as are the individual rooms. Food was good.

Go there if you want to maximise your chances of seeing leopard and cheetah."

"Erongo Wilderness Lodge is very attractively set in the Erongo hills. The individual tents are very luxurious - the only challenge being which of the several individual terraces one choses to drink one's beer.

The main lodge is attractively situated and the food excellent.

Erongo is strong on birds - the only game we saw were klipspringer and baboons.

It offers both guided and self-guided walks.

Relatively tame but very well done with beautiful views."