Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs G from Liphook

"We arrived at Vic Falls airport from J'burg and were escorted to Ilala where we were greeted with a cold drink and given an overview of the lodges facilities by a very pleasant young man called Kevin. Our immediate impression was of a beautiful, clean and efficient hotel with welcoming staff to whom nothing was too much trouble and they would do everything they could to make the guests happy without being to formal, they had the balance between service and friendliness just right and we felt "at home" right from the start.

We enjoyed some excellent dinners in the evening and were treated to viewings of elephant visiting the garden just below the restaurant terrace.

The Sunset cruise arranged by the hotel was a magical experience and they also booked a helicopter trip over the Falls for us.
We only booked a 15 minute flight in the helicopter and we thought this was long enough and was money well spent to be able to see the falls, the bridge and the gorge all laid out below we were able to appreciate the scale of the whole thing.

Our onward travel by road to Kazangula and acroos the border to Kasane airport was very efficient and the airport at Kasane is very smart and almost brand new. Just one note that we did not have to make a river crossing at the border as mentioned in our itinerary, we just waled through the border and were picked up the other side.

Our overall experience at Ilala Lodge and Victoria Falls was very enjoyable and the locals very friendly and polite.

We saw elephant, baboon, Warthogs and monkeys in and around the hotel and the Falls."

"We were so impressed by our arrival at Selinda, being met on the airstrip driven to the water and whisked down the Spillway at speed through the waterlilies and past the hippos a bit like a James Bond movie. We were then greeted by a posse of staff offering us drinks and flannels to wipe away the dust- what a welcome!

Our stay at Selinda was great, lovely accomodation in a perfect spot with very welcoming staff gave the place a very homely feel. We were even visited by an elephant chewing the tree on the edge of our terrace in the early hours and the hippos grunts kept us company all through the night.

The dinners on the first two evenings we thought were fairly ordinary, but greatly improved and were more what we expected on the third night. We understand there was a temporary chef cooking on the first two evenings and the permanent second chef took over on he third night.

Our guide Matt was great and provided us with some super game viewing, he always seemed to know where the animals were and was so knowledgeable about everything in the bush. We followed four female lions hunting, saw a female leopard and her cub and the peak viewing was watching a male leopard hunting!.We came away with some great photos and even got the classic shots of the male leopard climbing a tree and the breakfasts, eaten in the bush were very atmospheric.

Altogether a great safari experience.

We saw hyena, hippos, lions, leopards, giraffe, zebras, wildebest, buffalo and numerous different impalas"

"On arrival at Little Kwara we were warmly welcomed by the staff and given a cold drink and given all the information about the lodge with particular emphasis on care with animals within the lodge area, especially baboons. Our first impression of the communal areas was ok, but when we were shown our private lodge we were both very disappointed, it all looked very run down and in need of a total make over. Just some of the points that struck us immediately were poor quality linen and towels, a safe that we were advised not to use in case it might not open! Window covers that had been damaged and patched. We subsequently discovered that we could not use the shower in the bath as the diverter was seized. There was no insect screening on the other shower so we did not want to use it after dusk and the ceiling fan was so noisy we couldn't use it.

After arrival at Little Kwara my wife was taken ill and had to stay in bed so unfortunately we could not go on any of the game drives so we can make no comment on the game viewing at all.

We cannot praise the staff in the lodge and in the Maun office enough as they did everything in their power to arrange transport for us back to Maun at short notice.They also met us at the airport, took us to doctors and pharmacy to collect the prescriptions and got us to a hotel.

Many thanks to Babbewe and Lessor at the lodge for there help."