Travel reviews by Mrs M from So. California

"The staff is exceptionally warm and caring. They know your name. They are friendly. Our safari guide "OD" was incredible. He had a great sense of humor and he knew exactly where to find the animals. In fact, he managed to find a leopard in a tree with its dead impala hanging over a branch, simply by looking at a bird perched on a tree limb!

The food at this lodge was plentiful. Some meals were better than others. This is because the chef rotated with every meal. (Our only recommendation for improvement would be to use one of the more excellent chefs consistently, instead of rotating.) We loved dining at the long table with everyone. We also loved the private dinner on our last night.

Our room #1 was over the top beautiful, with a view of the water. Warning to some: There is no internet, except for emergencies. Personally, we loved being off the grid for a few days! If we are lucky enough to return to Botswana, we would return to OD and Chitabe Lediba. This year was VERY dry due to the drought, and it would be nice to see the area under more "normal" conditions."

"The first thing they told us as we arrived was: " Check out our gift shop, We just received some beautiful diamond bracelets" and "sign up for a massage." We felt that they were trying to sell, sell, sell. That is not why we were on safari.

Then, due to the drought, there were no boat services (no makoro), which is why we chose this camp. However, also due to the drought, we were able to see a very large pack of wild dogs! We also saw lions mating! Sadly, while our guides (Fred and someone else) did an excellent job of getting us to see the wild dogs and hyenas and mating lions, they were not as warm and friendly as our other guides. This took away from our overall experience.

The food at Xaranna was THE BEST on the entire trip. The chef could open a restaurant in New York and be successful. The room was beautiful. We laughed each day as the elephants came to play in our private swimming pool.

So, in summary, we enjoyed our time at Xaranna, but we would not go back."

"We LOVED our guide "Coupe", we LOVED our room, and we loved the couple that shared the vehicle with us.

This was our favorite lodge of the trip. The breakfast out in the wild was incredible. The bubble bath and private dinner for our anniversary was so special, a memory of a lifetime. We saw giraffes mating, we saw an enormously wide variety of antelope and birds, we saw prides of lions. There could not be a better guide nor tracker than Coupe.

Our only suggested improvements for this camp have to do with food. The dinner under the stars had us sitting in a row, instead of facing each other. It was strange. And we would have wished for some light snacks in our room. Otherwise, everything was incredible.

We would definitely return to this luxurious and small camp."