Travel reviews by Ms S from New York

"Staff were very friendly and helpful, Camp had a nice feel, was spacacious and the rooms more than comfortable. Food great as was service. Layout of camp excellent. Thanks particulary to Dudley. All in all cosy,very comfortable and not needing in any aspect.

Would rate camp as a 4* (out of 5) that is not ultra luxurious, but certainly well above any standard rating. Only uncontrollable element was the anilmals and we never saw buffalo!

I also wouldn't necessarily recommend for general game viewing as it is quite restrictive compared to other locations."

"Loved this camp. Talk about ultra luxury. Rooms were amazing, service and food fabulous. No detail was too much. If you want the Ritz of all safaris, this is the place. The animal veiwing was excellent and had about everying you imagined one would reasonably be able to see in one spot.

Only negative is the evening water trip, which was not comfortable, fun or interesting."

"A wonderful, small cosy family lodge. Heather and Chris made one feel really welcome. It was like staying in their house. No detail was too much. Although I stayed in more luxurious camps, I really enjoyed myself here.

The rooms were very comfortable and cosy, the food excellent, and the guests were all able to become friends around the intimate fire pit. We had excellent game viewing and a couple of adrenaline rush experiences. The guide was very good and interesting (name began with S)."

"I've rated this camp as poor in comparison to the ultra luxury billing and related price.

I found lots of people being helpful, but I never got to know their names, and there didn't seem to be one person who was my "contact". I was given different information by different staff (eg lunch is at 10:30 and another staff person told me 11:00) The beds had no covers on them (and hence got covered in sand which ended up in the bed).

The "hot" water bottles were tepid at best. There was no coffee station and the facilities in the rooms were inadequate in this regard. Broken furniture in the room, inadequate storage (and we didn't have much with us), patio furniture was dirty and really uncomfortable. The food buffets had no covers on the plates, so was permanently swarmed by flies, birds and wasps. The dinner food was really not good. The advertized Gym, and coffee machine were not operational.

The hide was seasonal so another piece of false advertising. The covers on the "tents" were on the outside and impossible to manage without staff. It meant the room was pitch black so one couldn't see the sunrise or sunset. My tshirts were all shrunk in the laundry (and they had been washed in 2 other camps without incident).

On the bright side, the rooms were certainly spacious, the new lobby very nice, and the staff did try to be helpful. Overall however, it could not compare to Vumbara and I would prefer any other camp to this. It certainly wasn't worth the money. I have 3 different groups of friends going to Botswana and I've told then to avoid going to this camp. I did let the manager know of my concerns and unhappines, but instead of offering to help, I just got a "sorry you're not having a good experience, but we appreciate your comments. I would at least have hoped for some kind of a refund since certain facilities were not available.

Guide also wasn't good at listening, and tended to do his own thing. We specifically asked not to get too close to the elephants (we had a couple of nervous experiences, and he insisted on driving right up to the herds (almost laughing at our concern).
Game veiwing however was good."

"Seemed like a "standard" business hotel (in comparison to the US). Comfortable, had everthing but not fancy. Didn't want for anything. Helpful staff"