Travel reviews by Mr A & Ms G from Ireland

"Wolwedans was our favourite lodge of the honeymoon. We were treated like royalty from the moment we were met off the plane. Our guide Hermann was superb, so very knowledgeable and kind. All of the lodge staff were so professional and would tend to any need. We had a special meal in the wine cellar on our first night and the staff sang. It was very special. The food was absolutely fantastic.

Cheetah tracking was suggested as our morning activity with an early rise of 4am. We were woken with a warm flask of water for a cup of tea and a bun. THen we drove off to find the Cheetahs in the jeep with Hermann and the dog. we saw the 5 male cheetahs very close to the car and were able to take some amazing photos.

In the afternoon, after a siesta we went to Nadeet to see how they are trying to educate the Namibians to be conscious of the resources that they have and to use these wisely. We could not fault anything with Wolwedans; we had room 1 which had 2 four poster beds and an amazing view. We loved the fact that Wolwedans was luxurious but alsofocused on being kind to the environment. This is truly a special place and we would love to return again one day."

"We were driven here from Wolwedans and it was somewhat of a disappointment after Wolwedans. The rooms were lovely and the view across the valley was beautiful but a step down from Wolwedans. The Staff were very pleasant and helpful but not to the same professional level as those in Wolwedans, it was almost as if they were trying to hard. The food was good.

The activities were good and we were taken to an amazing spot for sundowners on the first day. We climbed the dunes and we went to the dead vlei. The activities were good and enjoyable but by the time we got do the dead vlei it was too hot in the morning and we had missed the best light to catch the real beauty of the place.

We enjoyed our stay here."

"We arrived in Windhoek from Kulala by plane. We were met and transfered to Terra Africa. The guest house was great and so comfortable for what we needed for one night. It was right opposite the president's new residence and close to the town centre.

We had a great room upstairs overlooking the new residence. the staff were very helpful and arranged with us to get our hire car delivered to the guest house earlier than originally planned.

Very comfortable and a lovely pool and garden terrace to enjoy the afternoon!"

"for our first night's stay in Mowani we had a tented room, which was wonderful. Sun downer spot at Mowani is very special and a great place to see some amazing sunsets with a G&T or two.

Staff were very friendly and professional. we had a great waiter called Eugene who looked after us very well.

As we were on honeymoon we had our dinner by the fire pit which was really romantic. the food was excellent with a very good selection of South African wine! Rooms were very comfortable and we had champagne and a fruit basket in our room!"

"We were not sure what to expect at the Rhino Camp as we were collected from Palmwag lodge which felt more like back packers place than a lodge and knew that Rhino was more about the rhinos than the accommodation. We had also braced ourselves for the 2 hour off road ride to the camp from Palmwag. We knew this Desert Rhino was in the middle of no where and were expecting basic accommodation with the bucket showers, that we had read about before leaving for Namibia.

The drive to the camp was fantastic and we saw a lot of game a long the way and arrived at the lodge just in time for sundowners. We were greeted by Helen the camp manager who was lovely and then taken to our room and someone followed shortly after with our G&T's! We were amazed and blown away but he luxury of the tents in the middle of no where. Hot showers and fabulous accommodation. watching the sunset was great as you could hear only the animals and the wind whistling through the grass.

There were pre dinner drinks around the camp fire and we enjoyed tales of the day's rhino trekking and a tale or 2 from Chris Baaker the area manager for Wildnerness Safaris. What a character and some stories! Dinner was great and we ate with Helen, the guests and the guides. It was a great experience.

We went tracking Rhinos early the next morning. the trackers were positive that we would see a rhino early on as they had seen fresh tracks,however, we were not lucky. We had lunch out in the bush and then split up and went tracking for rhinos. We were so lucky that we saw one. We had a rather treacherous journey aross country/rivers/mountains to get to the rhino, but it was worth the roller coaster ride. our drive was such a fantastic off roader. We saw the rhino from one side of the mountain and drove around the other side of the mountain to get down wind of her so that we could trek up to her on foot.

Wow, it was an amazing experience and worth the long wait. We got to within 100metres of her. She was such a large animal and beautiful.

On the journey back to the camp, we were fortunate enough to see 2 cheetahs getting up from their afternoon rest and walk past us!

Rhino Camp is certainly worth the effort to go to and a very special place that puts you in the middle of nature. we loved this place too and it was probably our 2nd favourite place after Wolwedans."

"We returned from Desert Rhino to 2 nights in Mowani. We had one night in the luxury room and then one night in the suite. the Luxury room was beautiful with your own private deck. we had dinner on the deck which was lovely. We asked that Eugene be our waiter again.

Food was excellent.

The next day we were moving to the Suite so we went out on an activity to see the desert Elephants. our guide was Frederik and we had 9 people in the jeep. of all the places that we had been so far we had a max of 4 in a jeep. We felt that this was ridiculous and felt that it was more like a disney park rather than a Namibian activity to search for the Desert Elephants. Frederik's driving was not great and was far too quick in the conditions, causing many of us to be swinging out of the side of the jeep.

We saw plenty of elephants but the first lot that we saw the guide didn't just sit still to see them and for us to enjoy them, he would move the jeep every few minutes. We felt that this was more disruptive to them and we were not able to just sit and admire them. We then went off and his off road driving was not the best and as a result of this we got stuck in the sand. this was a combination of having too many in the jeep and his driving.

We had to radio for help from the lodge. we were lucky that another camp came and helped us out. It involved us all getting out of the jeep and getting into the other jeep as the elephants were walking straight down the river bed where we were stuck. This was in actual fact the highlight of the trip. It was a little touchy for a while as there were lots of baby elephants and matriarchs, but the experience and the heart beating fast was an amazing experience. If we had not gotten stuck in the sand it would have been a very disappointing acitvity,

We then returned to the lodge and went to the suite. It was such a stunning room, outdoor shower and bath and 2 outdoor decks. lounge, bedroom, and bathroom. we again had dinner in the room on the deck. THis was a real luxury and was a real treat."

"Ongava was fine. The room was nice. We felt that it was much larger and there were a lot more people at the lodge than we had been used to up to now. The food was fine. It was buffet style which was a little disappointing compared to the other lodges that we had stayed at. The rooms were comfortable and the main area overlooking the waterhole was fantastic.We sat and watched all the animals come in and heard the lions roaring. We saw a rhino and her baby come into drink from the water hole. it was fantastic.

the activities into Etosha were good and we saw a lot of animals in the parks. Teacher our guide was really nice and very knowledeable. We went out in the afternoon into the Ongava Reserve and saw a lot of animals and had a great time. We had heard the lions roaring during the night and the guides knew that they were close by. We went to see Tony the rhino before our sundowners and then we went to see if we could see the lions. and boy did we see them. We saw 12 young male lions. We sat and watched them for ages. It was great. this was our first time to see any lions on the trip so far.

Ongava is great as a lodge in many ways as it is right on the edge of Etosha and it has it's own reserve so you can go into that at night time when the park is closed."

"We were pleasantly surprised with the facilities at Halali Camp. We had booked this place as it was a pit stop half way through the park. we had had a very eventful day seeing lots of lions and elephants and many other animals and were just expecting a basic room at Halali. we had a nice room and we were pleasantly suprised with the buffet dinner that was offered to us.

the water hole is a great locaion to sit and see many animals.

Halali is a great pit stop for all types of traveller."

"We arrived at Onguma and unfortunately had only one night here. We were there with another couple and that was it. We really had a fabulous time here.

It was extremely luxrious and sumptous in every way. The rooms were fantastic and comfortable. the food was amazing. we wished that we could have stayed for a second night and would really love to return to here again. it was a very relaxing place to reach after a long drive through the park from Halali."

"We arrived at Okonjima and were met at the gate to the reserve and the security man seemed to be having some trouble locating our names as guests in the lodge! he then told us that we had been upgraded to the bush camp and that we were not in the main camp. We were delighted as we had tried to get into the bush camp but there was no availabity. We drove down and were greeted and shown to our room.

The lodge was lovely. It was quite dated in terms of decor compared to some of the luxury lodges that we had stayed in but was still very comfortable. we didn't really like the way that our time was spent on lots of differnt activities and that this was all prearranged. We felt that this was a little overwhelming after such a laid back experience. We only did 2 activities here which were very good as these were our last days in Namibia and we wanted to have some rest before our long trip back to Cornwall.

the food was excellent and the service was good. we asked for a packed breakfast on the last morning as we left early to get back to Windhoek to take our flight to SA to go back to the UK. they were great and packed us up with a feast!

Okonjima is a great place to stay to see what they are doing with the community and in terms of rescuing cheetahs and their work is excellent."