Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs S from Wellington

"Very nice place to start. Good food and helpful staff - even did our laundry.

Helpful info on where to dine - Joe's Brew bar great fun.

Lovely breakfast. Nice grounds."

"A highlight. Lovely accommodation and food.

Cheetah tracking and sundowner drinks super.

Sorry didn’t have the energy to do the morning game drive. Thought the trip to the Africat centre was expensive but regarded it as a contribution to the work they are doing.

Very nice gift shop - sorry I didn’t buy a few more things there - but rather a slow purchasing procedure."

"Accommodation old, basic but adequate. No problems with inventory or payments. Dining room atmospheric but food not very good.

Drive in for 20kms on the D2512 road was shocking-corrugations. The gateman played a great joke on us when we arrived as told us we were to drive up a km, turn left and then another 80kms. Surely you mean “one eight kms” we said. No, no, 80. The he burst out laughing-as did we, with great relief! The ladies at check-in said he got most people on that.

Really enjoyed the walk up to the top of the escarpment - both for exercise and the views."

"Very pleasant. Good food. Nice staff.

Did two very good game drives with the Lodge guide."

"Great. No problems with inventory or payments. Good food.

Superb waterhole viewing."

"Another highlight. Wish we had had three nights here.

Road in awful tho. On the way from Etosha we detoured to see Finger Rock and had lunch at the Finger Rock lodge. A lovely setting and very good easy lunch. We also visited the Petrified Forest. Highly recommended- suggest you add this to the notes to travellers. We decided against the nature drive to see the elephants and instead drove ourselves to the Damara Living Museum; another place we highly recommend. Got to Twyfelfontein rock engravings but the roads were so unappealing we didn’t get to Burnt Mountain or Organ Pipes that day. The unexpected Bush dinner was superb. Staff and accommodation excellent. We did buy a lunch to take with us which was very expensive but we were glad of it on the Skeleton Coast. The surprise bush dinner under the stars was a highlight.

We drove out to the Skeleton Coast on the C39/34 and were so pleased we had. Firstly the more direct road was the worst we struck (on our way to Twyfelfontein). We met a tour bus driver there who recommended the coast road as being much better - and he was right. It was a very scenic drive out to the coast and a great drive south on the salt road. We would have been very sorry if we had missed this and the extra time was no problem. The weather was kind to us - it would be different in fog/wet conditions.

The road from Henties Bay is being upgraded and the scenery was very disappointing from here to Swakopmund."

"Brigadoon very well located. Great breakfast served by lovely staff.

The new manager at reception was very willing and keen but not very well informed. Found a good Walking tour in English in the morning which was interesting.

Walvis Bay flamingos and a brisk walk in the afternoon - needed!"

"Drive from Swakopmund to Desert Homestead. A long hard drive. Took more like 8 hours. Not a good road altho very scenic. Wished we had stayed somewhere en route - there looked to be some interesting/ attractive places.

Desert Homestead. Suggest that on the separate page about this place it says that it is 22 kms south of Sesriem. It seemed to be endless getting there. (Later I saw on our itinerary that it is “just over 30kms from Sesriem”). Also there are two parts to the Desert Homestead, both signposted separately from the road. We guessed - correctly - we were in the Lodge but it may help to say exactly which part is booked.

It was a lovely spot - again good food, really attractive chalets. We went with the lodge guide to Sossusvlei - a good choice. Another day here would have been very nice too - to walk around a bit or relax by their pool. The setting was very scenic - made up for it being further away from Sesriem for visiting Sossusvlei."

"A wonderful finale in Namibia. Would have been great to have another night here too.

Lovely hostess, food, rooms, walks…. Also the drive across was very interesting and on a pretty good road too. It did take about 6 ½ hours but we enjoyed it and didn’t feel exhausted on arrival.

We were surprised to be the only guests that night. Very easy hour drive to the airport and efficient handover of the car. A pleasant wait in the Wilderness Safari Lounge altho the plane ended up leaving quite a bit later. It did seem a bit shambolic in the departure Lounge."

"A pleasant hotel but obviously not a Lodge. Nice breakfasts.

Good pool..warmest swim on the trip.

Impressed by the Falls."

"A lovely place on the river. Great to have the laundry done!

Again, very pleasant staff. Good food and nice to meet with other guests at meals etc.

The two river cruises another highlight, and the game drive also good.

A very good guide - Tefo. Chobe river area is amazing"

"It was really good to experience actually camping among the wildlife. Very impressed by the organisation of the campsites, tents, cooking arrangements etc. And the food was amazing esp given the cooking set-up.

Hadn’t appreciated that Game Drives meant quite so much driving! The bigger animals were rather elusive in Moremi. We would have liked a few more quiet stops here to observe the smaller birds, and to have a break from the rather rough terrain we drove over at times. (Our guide was a very good driver so this is not a criticism of his driving!)

Once we got to Khwai the larger animals were much more co-operative and we did spend longer just watching. It was too long a day driving across from one campsite to the next - maybe a shorter route could have been taken, although I know we needed to give the team time to move and set up camp before we got there. We did enjoy the tranquillity of the mokoro cruise."