Travel reviews by The Honey Badgers from NY

"We spent two nights at Lagoon from May 13-15th with Charles as our guide and AT as tracker. The entire staff at the camp was very courteous and attentive. The rooms were well kept. At night, it gets really chilly in the room. You can hear the hippos in the lagoon outside your room the entire night. It's quite beautiful especially coming from New York, you hear cars honking and fire truck sirens, so it's a very welcomed change to hear hippos serenading you.

The game drives were very exciting. We saw a lot during this time. The guide and tracker are very active in tracking for cheetahs, lions, leopards and wild dogs. We did see lions during the afternoon snoozing but didn't catch the elusive wild dogs and cheetah though others during our time there were lucky to see them. Also, the camp gave us checklists which was a plus so I can just tick off what I saw instead of jotting down the names in my notebook.

Some negatives:
Freezing in the evenings - At Vumbura, they left "hot water bags" between the sheets that warms your bed considerably, perhaps, Lagoon can do something similar

The water in the sink goes down very slowly and the water is yellowish-brown which leaves a metallic after taste after teeth brushing.

Concerns:
The staff does seem a bit tired as I understand they work 7 weeks a day for three months straight followed by 21 days off. The guide joins you for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At Vumbura Plains, the guide didn't have to join you for brunch and dinner which I believe enables him to have a slight break and/or time to unwind."

"We spent three nights at this camp which was the perfect length as we got to unpack a bit and rest up in between the travelling. Our guide Donald was very knowledgeable and thorough in teaching and answering questions. Our tracker was JD who was very very good. They were the best I had in the three camps that I visited.

We were lucky to see wild dogs, leopard, pride of lions and the female lions too. The game drives were chilly in the mornings and evenings but very productive and exciting. Dinner and desserts were so good especially after a tiring evening of tracking animals.

Our tent (I believe it's #3) did get a bit too hot during the afternoon to be able to fall asleep. There were also a lot of bees that joined us during afternoon tea which were a bit scary as i learned that they can get aggressive. At night, it gets really cold. Even the extra blankets did not keep us warm enough. More insulation for the tent will be super helpful as it makes getting up at 6am a bit easier.

The water was also a bit yellowish-brown and some times way too hot. The water pressure in the shower was a bit low and the hot water knob gets so hot that you can easily get burned. Also, the insect killer spray "Doom" used at all the camps doesn't work. The bugs only get wet but don't die. I suggest they buy a different brand like Raid that does work."

"We stayed here for two nights at the end of our trip. There's plentiful wild life in this camp that even though we didn't have a separate tracker as we did at Kwando camps, we saw a lot. We saw a cheetah which we've been hoping to see all of the time but wasn't lucky enough at the other two camps.

We saw tons of birds, crocodiles, sable antelopes, reedbucks and waterbucks. Our guide Ona was extremely knowledgleable and taught us about the delta, the trees, the birds and basically asked what I wanted to see and worked extra hard on spotting it. The 4x4 were more comfortable as they are landrovers but it seats eight which can make it difficult for the people in the back row to ask questions or hear the guide.

I do think it would have been helpful as the guide had to drive, talk and track and shine the spotlight during night drives all at once. The facilities here are absolutely gorgeous though you can feel like it's a bit over indulgent, after all we are in the bush, to have the plunge pool running though there's no chance one will use it as it's almost winter time.

Service was excellent, food was the best we've had - absolute gourmet, wines and drinks were very good! It almost felt like this part of our trip was more laid-back. We did welcome a little break after being at two camps that were super active in helping you see animals."