Travel reviews by Mr and Mrs G from London

"Bagatelle makes an obvious stopover destination when travelling south of WIndhoek and one night is probably enough, but it really beat expectations.

The staff were superb, the game drive exceeded expectations, as did the dinner. There is decent game viewing here, including two white rhino, although these are habituated to people to the point of being tame rather than wild."

"A superb new hotel, with a stunning backdrop, jaw-dropping rooms and excellent staff.

Worth noting there are very few animals on its private reserve, although there was talk of restocking it. Also fairly out the way, but 100% worth it!"

"This was our favourite lodge on our trip.

Recently refurbed, good food and wonderful staff. A sensitively restored private concession with private access to the national park which contains the dunes, Deadvlei, Sossusvlei etc.

If this is an option for you - go for it!"

"A lovely, simple guesthouse which stands out because of the exceptional service from the owners.

They anticipated everything we needed and were extremely on top of organising tours."

"A lovely lodge with close links to the community and a seriously good location which challenged the significantly more expensive Sonop.

An easy drive from Swakopmund which breaks up a journey nicely.

You are borderline guaranteed to see zebra as the reserve the lodge sits on is small and fenced to keep the zebra in."

"An excellent boutique hotel with 5 star facilities and rooms. Well-located.

There is at least one more expensive option in Windhoek but even the fussiest traveller wouldn't need better than this."

"One of several private lodges to have sprung up near the airport, this is not just a stopover to work around flight times or wait for a Covid test. It was one of our favourites.

The lodge is part of a 50,000 hectare private reserve, which is a massive slug of land (two-thirds the size of Madikwe in South Africa, which has multiple camps and dozens of vehicles traversing it at any one moment).

The camp is excellent, the food the best we had on our trip by a distance, and the game density very good, although the animals are still being habituated to vehicles so are skittish. Elephants and lions incoming, and the (oligarch) owner of the reserve apparently plans to have the whole big five."