Travel reviews by The Swiss from Switzerland

"We booked 3 nights and two of the only 11 tented chalets for us 4 and did enjoy every single minute of our stay at Hoodia.

The owners Henreza & Thomas with their dedicated team and attention to details have created the ultimate desert lodge experience. Special mention to the food. Under the professional & expert direction of our guide Paulus, we enjoyed the sundowner with campfire on the nearby hill and learnt a lot about the desert ecosystem during the excursion to the dunes, petrified forest and Sesriem Canyon.

Instead of staying inside the park or closer to the park, it is definitely worth the money and the about 30’ to 45’ max additional driving distance to the park entrance. You get so much more privacy, quality service, luxury and attention."

"The huge advantage of the Strand Hotel over any other B&B or hotel in town is the location. Directly over the quai and adjacent to the beach.

Water in June was cold: 11°C, a few courageous tourists & locals go swimming anyway, and our eldest son did too... . No road or traffic between the hotel and the water. Make sure you book a room with a view on the Atlantic Ocean. Another big plus are the 3 restaurants attached to the Strand Hotel, all with terrasse. The seafood restaurant is good. At breakfast we could enjoy from the terrasse the dolphins hunting in the bay.

Also not far away from the iconic The Tug Restaurant, The Tug offers shuttles back & forth to the hotel for N$50 p. p. (useful at night). Disadvantage of the Strand Hotel is the size with 125 rooms, more tourists around and less privacy and attention you may get in smaller & more exclusive lodges around Namibia.

This is a 4 star hotel, not a 5 star luxury lodge. Do not miss to stop in Walvis Bay to see the pelicans, flamingos & seals. Or even push South another 45km from Walvis Bay to Sandwich Harbour (we did not manage).

If you are heading South or coming from the South (Sossusvlei), the service station in Solitaire is a good hint: Shop for repairs and excellent apple pie at the bakery."

"We booked 2 of the 15 tented chalets and got to stay at Nr 14 & 15 at the far end of the lodge area. Golf carts take you there if you do not fancy walking.

Wonderful privacy, the sites are separated with larger rocks and you feel alone in that desert environment, with just the rock dassies & ground squirrels roaming the boulders. The 5 or 6 zebras on the property are part of the entertainment for the guests; without the fence, the hay & the water, they would not be there. We really enjoyed our 3 nights stay and the activities.

Food is good, nice pool and the sundowners from the sofas deposited at the top of the mountain nearby the common area are spectacular. One morning, we climbed the third highest mountain with our guide Beni (highest being the Gross Spitzkoppe itself, second highest the Pontok). Spotted two black eagles and leopard tracks. Inform yourself exactly about difficulty & length of the mountain hikes.

Climbing the Gross Spitzkoppe is alpinism, none of the 3 hikes is a walk in the park. The trails on the property though are easy to walk on your own and enjoyable. We toured the bushmen paintings with our guide Abraham and the Namibian Eye. Special mention for the kindness of the staff and the owners. The tented chalet and the common area are of a special style. Everything is build from metallic beams and tented, to comply with the temporary nature of the lodge."

"We booked 2 of the 16 chalets for 3 nights. It took us a little bit of courage to book, fearing at first the rather dark fortress appearance of the common building on top of the hill. You may feel a little bit like Luke Skywalker on Tatooine with the Jawas.

Megan convinced us and we are glad we stayed there. The joint venture between Wilderness and the Doro Nawas community seems to work very well. The majority of the staff is local (not the case in many other lodges) and extremely kind. The checkin & checkout procedure includes being greeted by chants by the staff, not cheesy at all. We could feel true welcome & farewell. Pool area is very nice.

Excellent meals with fantastic view on the desert, and rolling the bed outside the chalet on the platform to sleep under the milky way are two other highlights. Excursions with our very kind guide Stephanos to see the desert elephants and the ancient bushmen engravings at Twyfelfontain are a must. We added the petrified forest, the organ pipes and a Damara living museum.

Great ecofriendly community run experience."

"We booked 2 of the 8 bungalows for 2 nights and were delighted to occupy #7 and #8 far away from the reception & dining area. Means more animal visits.

Each bungalow has an own separate open air hut with 2 divans to watch the animals roaming the property and feeding the guinea fouls & hornbills with the bird food (provided). This is the place to see a leopard if you do not mind the VHF tracking. Almost guaranteed. We got two leopard sightings and two rhino sightings in the total 3 game drives we booked. Highlight being the leopard kill of a young oryx.

Stay 3 nights to increase your chances to see more. And pay a visit to the AfriCat Foundation. Okonjima & AfriCat are one. The one can’t exist without the other, though my impression is that AfriCat has seen better days. Doesn't do much any longer outside initiatives securing the commercial success of the lodge. They were more engaged in the past from what you can read in the exhibition; today AfriCat "manages" a few cheetahs & lions they cannot release into wilderness. And actively manages the leopard population at Okonjima to the benefit of the operation. Apparently some school class education on predators is still being done.

The pangolin tracking excursion is problematic in my opinion, we did not book. Why should tourists disturb the last living pangolins in wintertime, making them use precious calories and putting them under stress with the tracking & picture tacking? Just for a picture trophy and to tick another box on your wildlife list. Probably reduces the chances of the pangolins to feed properly and survive the winter at the end. An initiative to secure the survival of the specie would look different.

Nevertheless fantastic luxury lodge with its own style, excellent food, special mention to our guide Opari, and good service (but not fantastic, we got better at other luxury lodges)."

"Building the whole Andersson complex around the waterhole and effectively making it the centre of everything makes that lodge unique in Namibia. Very large modern light rooms with AC.

The view on the waterhole is even streamed inside the rooms, if you happen to be away from the common area or on your private terrasse. Sighting of Rhinos at the water hole during dinner almost guaranteed (you get 2 m close to the hole through a hide accessible with a 25 m tunnel). And many other sightings. We had 13 elephants at lunchtime one day. We booked 2 of the perhaps 9 bungalows for 4 nights and enjoyed a unique almost private luxury Safari experience.

Special mention for the food from the Lady Chef Cook, for the manager Benedikta and expertise of our guide Vilho. Visitor Centre / Museum at Andersson is worth the detour. The game drive within the relatively crowded Etosha National Park was a disappointment compared to what you can see doing much less kilometers at the much less crowded Ongava (despite the 4 lodges on the property).

The Etosha visit is a must nevertheless for the landscape and the views on the salt pan. In retrospect, when leaving Andersson, we should have perhaps taken the tedious approx. 6 hour drive on gravel roads through Etosha from East to West to get a better impression of the National Park instead of leaving Southeast by the tar roads."

"The four of us spend 4 nights at Mundulea with Bruno and Matthew his assistant at the camp. Mundulea is a minimal environmental impact footprint camp. It was just us, privately; Bruno doesn't take more than 6 guests at the time.

Megan's idea, from Expert Africa, to spend time at Mundulea with Bruno Nebe at the end of our 3 1/2 weeks' trip was excellent.

Whilst all the lodges & camps we visited in Namibia are making money with the wilderness & wildlife, Bruno (owner) is in the wilderness & nature restauration business, which he partly finances taking guests. No game drives at Mundulea, beside birds & insects, you will NOT see animals on the nature walks, perhaps in the distance... But the tracks. Humans are the #1 predator on top of the food chain; normal behavior of all animals is to flee at the noise, sight or smell of humans. A car is a different beast; animals at game lodges have learnt that cars are no threat and have been accustomed to tolerate the daily game drives, even approaching to a few meters close. At Mundulea, you have the opportunity though to see animals from the hides near the water holes, if you are patient & silent. We observed very large numbers of elands for example.

We got another perspective on Namibia, carnivore issues, elephant issues, environmental subjects and a completely different wildlife & nature experience. Bruno is extremely knowledgeable on all animals, insects & birds, vegetation, ecology, biology, geology, Namibia in general; he has incredible tracking skills he acquired as a guide and throughout his life with the bushmen.

We very much enjoyed the 2 nature walks & talks daily and learned a lot. The tents are comfortable with very warm blankets (at 1800 m elevation it may get close to 0°C at night in wintertime), the food cooked on the open fire is excellent. Add to this the beautiful landscape of the reserve and you somehow get the picture."

"After 3 weeks in the Bush and on gravel roads, the 4 of us very much enjoyed the luxury & peace of the rooms and baths of Olive Grove before taking our flight home.

Dinner was excellent and the chief of staff was kind enough to organize a birthday cake overnight for our eldest. Olive Grove established the connection for a 3 hours city tour of Windhoek, including main landmarks of the city, Katutura, a local market at Katutura (impressive) and a visit at the Penduka women's development project crafts center. We paid N$2800 for the four of us.

Our guide & driver Gary did just an OK job, really just driving us around & taking care of us. These tours of Katutura & the city are probably good business; the more knowledgeable the guide, the better your tour will get."

"While tourism seems to still be at a low to medium level in Zimbabwe to Botswana in summer 2022, premium lodges in high season like Splash are back to normal. The period now is an excellent time to travel (from when borders reopened from pandemic restrictions); accommodations and camp grounds are not so busy, the wildlife & nature has re-occuped spaces vacated by tourists during pandemic and has not retracted again. Corona measures did not bug us much; at Splash fortunately nobody has to wear masks. Very sensible policy considering that everything takes place outside.

Accommodations, camp facilities, game drives, meals, everything was perfect.

One vehicle breakdown. Vehicles are an expensive asset, maintenance is key for a long life. Our guide "Mr G." and our spotter Knobli did an outstanding job. Interaction with them was easy, we went fishing and caught fish, which we got to eat for dinner; bird viewing (&photography) and introduction to trees, bushes & grasses was an unexpected additional highlight.

We also enjoyed very much the porridge by the fire in the early morning, the morning coffee and sunset drinks in the bush, the outside shower, the boat tour and the amazing nature & wildlife.

Spash Camp is an excellent choice, we recommend."