Travel reviews by Drs from Washington, USA

"The lobby areas of the Southern Sun hotel were very nice, but the rooms were a bit old; the bathroom in particular was a bit shabby. Everything was very clean, though, and it was quite conveniently located near the airport.

However, despite the fact that our trip package included breakfast pre-paid, the hotel insisted on charging us for breakfast, even though we had a pre-paid voucher that we showed to them!

For that reason, I would avoid staying there in the future, since the staff seemed quite inflexible regarding that situation."

"We loved Chitabe Lediba! The size of the camp was fantastic -- it accomodates 10 guests maximum, and when we were there the total occupancy ranged from 4 to 8 guests, which made the camp very intimate. The staff were very friendly, and we thought our guide, Andy, was great! At the camp, we enjoyed the fresh-baked bread served with every meal, which was particularly delicious!

We saw fantastic game at Chitabe Lediba! We had several excellent viewings of leopard, which seemed particularly abundant. There were lots of elephant (which we got to see extremely up-close, as they often wandered right up to our tent!).

We were very fortunate to get excellent sightings of the resident wild dog pack -- we saw 13 dogs, including 6 pups, on three separate occasions, and were able to observe the pups playing with each other and with a bone they had found! We also saw several interesting nocturnal animals, such as the serval, springhare, and porcupine."

"We enjoyed Xigera -- visiting a water camp was interesting, and a good change of pace from our other activities. However, the abundance of game at this camp was much lower than at the other camps we visited, so 3 nights was a bit too much to spend at this particular site -- 2 nights would have been adequate.

At this camp they sold hand-woven baskets made by the camp staff, which were very beautiful, so this was a good place to get souvenirs!

We were hoping to see the sitatunga antelope, but did not see any (apparently they are quite difficult to spot), but we did see an abundance of lechwe, as well as some interesting up-close encounters with buffalo that were in the water near our boat! We also saw several beautiful types of storks, herons, and other water birds.

We visited toward the end of the dry season, and the water levels were getting low -- apparently our group had the last boat ride of the season (around Oct 10); I was glad we were able to do that -- it would have been disappointing to come to a water camp only to find out it was too late in the season for the boat rides!"

"We really enjoyed Duma Tau. Our guide, Lazi, was excellent. The area along the Selinda channel was full of wildlife. We had great viewings of leopard, lions, cheetah, and hyena. We also saw hippo, crocodile, monitor lizards, and various types of antelope.

The late-night drives offered at this camp were quite interesting - we got to see lots of hippo out of the water grazing, and we also spotted nocturnal creatures such as the genet and the african wild cat!

The camp itself also offered fantastic wildlife viewing -- just sitting by the pool at siesta time we observed a herd of nearly 50 elephants walk past, as well as 2 hippo, several warthog, and a large monitor lizard!"