Travel reviews by Seema from USA

"Just a wonderful boutique hotel with gorgeous decor.

We spent a lovely first afternoon and night in Zambia here, had a great meal of nshima and grilled fish/goat stew at the restaurant and relaxed with some Mosi at the bar afterwards."

"A truly special camp in the more remote eastern part of the LZ park, we loved it’s rustic yet beautifully appointed bush camp style reed chalets with the big open verandah and outdoor tub/showers.

Ours was chalet 3 that overlooked the lagoon and winterthorn forest beyond, and also had a view of the river. We spent our midday hours watching eles mud bathing in the lagoon after stopping at the river for a drink, huge baboon families scampering around as well as impalas, warthogs, waterbuck and many different birds milling about. There were eles wandering around camp everyday and we even had a leopard on the other side of the staff quarters one afternoon perched high up on an acacia.

Mark and Madelein were exceptional hosts and fun to hang out with, and the staff was fantastic. Our guide Boaz was wonderful with a great sense of humor. We did a canoe safari one afternoon and game drives on all days. The landscapes in this part of the park are just gorgeous and the highlight apart from the eles were the multiple wild dog sightings (15 dogs ripping through an impala one night) and seeing aardvarks (one very close to the jeep that decided to hide and burrowed a hole and then came out backwards and hung around for a few mins before running away).

What we loved most about Old Mondoro was the attention to detail, all the little touches that make a place extra special and memorable."

"A lovely camp situated in a quiet corner of the busy central area of the South Luangwa, with boat access for a quick river crossing to enter the national park. Our room here was the largest by far of any of the camps, with a sit out overlooking the river and outdoor showers. Sarel, our host, and staff were great and so was the guiding.

The vehicle density in this part of the park is high, especially around the dogs and big cats, although our guide Sebastian Jr, understanding our reluctance to be a part of the sighting frenzy, did his best to keep us away from other vehicles as much as possible.

Our highlight at Nkwali was a large buffalo herd at a watering hole with the sun setting behind them, as well as the large numbers of amazing birds we saw in our two days."

"Kaingo was like home away from home, we especially enjoyed the camaraderie and laughter shared with Callie and Catherine, Catherine’s fabulous and vibrant food and descriptions (the best of our trip and already missing our 3pm tea time snacks), and perhaps the best guiding of our trip with Chapuma.

The tastefully appointed chalet and sit out at the water’s edge was lovely, as was our night in the Elephant Hide sleepout. We saw incredible flora (the ebony grove, flowering wild gardenias, sweet smelling wild jasmines and varied habitats), fauna and birds in our three days and the most leopards of our trip, including some special and intimate moments with Chisomo and Mwezi. We also enjoyed the Hippo hide (saw 10 carmines on a tree branch) and Wild Dog Lagoon hide (lots of bird life including several love birds on a tree).

We were lucky to have the vehicle to ourselves for all game drives and saw few other vehicles during our time there."

"Tafika was the most intimate of the camps we stayed at since it is family owned and managed and we had most of our meals with the family. It was wonderful to spend time talking to John and Carol, John being one of the original pioneers of the Luangwa valley, as well as their daughter/husband Jen and Nick who manage the camp, and their daughter/husband Christine and Bruce who were visiting. An inspiring and generous family. Vel and the rest of the staff were fantastic as well, and we enjoyed having the very experienced Lloyd as our guide.

We loved the very rustic and open reed and thatch chalets built around trunks of the sausage tree with eles walking around camp on both days. We were the only jeep most of the time given the remote location of the camp and there is no radioing between camp jeeps which makes for a truly serene safari experience. We ran into the BBC jeep with Will and Lianne who are still tracking and filming Olimba, and were able to see her a couple of times and speak with them a little about all the leopard activity in the area one morning.

Our highlight here was seeing a flap necked chameleon on a night drive and our time spent with Olimba at the end of our very last game drive of the trip.

Tafika was the perfect cherry on the top ending to our trip."