Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs B from Seattle

"After a long journey, this was the perfect overnight stop before beginning our Botswana safari.

Close to the airport, beautiful grounds along the river, friendly and helpful staff, and the private dinner on the pier was an unexpected treat!"

"This was the first camp of our Botswana safari, and the best of the three we stayed at in the Delta.

Great staff, great food, outstanding guides, wonderful safari/game viewing experiences and we really enjoyed the boat and mokoro canoe excursions"

"Nice camp with nice amenities, but Machaba fell far, far short of expectations in the most important area (at least for us), that is the safari/game viewing experiences, for the following reasons:

1. The Machaba jeeps did not have canopies. We were told different stories as to why that is the case, but the bottom line is that management has apparently decided the sun is not hot enough to justify installing the canvas canopies until sometime in September. Management is wrong! It was miserably hot for the last one and one-half hour or so of the morning game drives, and miserably hot for the first one and one-half hour or so of the evening game drives. The sun was so intense that we used umbrellas as a shield. We saw jeeps from at least 9 other safari companies operating in the area, and every single one had canopies. All the pictures we saw of Machaba Camp when we were booking showed jeeps with canopies and we read nothing that indicated the clients would be exposed to full sun in jeeps without canopies. Had that been disclosed up front, we would have booked elsewhere. While we get that some clients may prefer full sun, management should get that other clients do not.

2. It was the most crowded concession we visited in Botswana. While we read that we would experience more vehicle traffic, we underestimated how much. During one drive there were as many as 12-13 vehicles following a pack of wild dogs! We much preferred the less crowded concessions we toured while at Splash Enclave and Selinda Explorers.

3. The game was few and far between compared to Splash Enclave and Selinda Explorers.

4. The guides (at least ours) were not as knowledgeable or as enthusiastic as our guides at Splash Enclave and Selinda Explorers (perhaps because of #3 above).

The bottom line, if we were to redo our itinerary, we would not go to Machaba. This camp should not be on Expert Africa's recommended list (or at least it should be earmarked with a warning that the safari/game viewing experience will not match other areas in the Okavango Delta)."

"A great camp to end our Botswana safari.

Again, great staff, good food, outstanding guides, wonderful safari/game viewing experiences and we really enjoyed the canoe trips and extended walking safari's."

"Just stayed overnight on our way to Rwanda. It worked."

"We really enjoyed our stay at Mountain Gorilla View Lodge.

Great location, beautiful grounds and friendly staff."