Travel reviews by M and D from France

"Very pleasant hotel and personnel.

We were allocated a room with a pleasant view, allowing us sightings of the mist from Victoria Falls and beautiful sunrises from our balcony (room 33).

Very comfortable and spotless room; quiet hotel with beautiful decoration; very good service, including support to book activities and pass information; large choice of food and beverages for breakfast. We did not eat lunch nor dinner there. Easy access on foot to the falls themselves and the town center."

"Our stay at Splash Camp was simply exceptional. We rate it the best accomodation and experience of our trip to Southern Africa.

All team members - camp managers, assistants, chefs, cleaners, etc - are very welcoming, extremely professional, nice, listening and answering any needs you can have. They are also very careful about all safety and security aspects. We saw it as very nice that all team members are made visible - for example, the junior waiters get to present the menu for dinner.

Finally, we were asked multiple times for our open and honest feedback, and we did perceive this as a strong and honest will to improve even further - knowing that the quality of the overall experience is already extremely high!

Wildlife is extremely abundant. We saw countless and extremely varied animals.

It is simply magical to arrive at the Camp and see elephants, giraffes and zebras only a few dozens of meters away, in the plain in front of the main area, after having already seen pelicans, ostrichs, warthogs, etc on the way from the airstrip. And then the safari excursions bring it to a higher level, with extremely knowledgeable guides and trackers. They are able to spot so many animals, as well as perfectly explain the animals habits, ways of life, and how they track them. It is also very pleasant also to be maximum 6 guests in a car, and staying with the same guide, tracker, and guests during the stay. One small potential point for improvement would be that, beyond the obvious stars of the show (lions, leopards, elephants, buffalos, hyenas, wild dogs, hyenas, hippos, etc - which we were lucky to see all during our stay), guides potentially spend some more time also on looking for and providing explanations on plants and smaller animals, like birds, reptiles, small rodents, insects, as these are also of interest. We for example got some explanation on termites and their role in the ecosystem and the food chain, which was also great. Same principle of taking more time at a slower pace to see birds during the boat tour would be appreciated. Finally, we had a 30-minute tour on a mokoro, which either should have been longer, in another location; or simply replaced by an additional game drive.

The accommodation at the camp, both common area and bedrooms, is very beautiful, very clean, well organised, and very comfortable. Everything is carefully thought of in the smallest details. And even if some people might regard this as an inconvenient, we loved having no network, allowing for a digital detox and nice discussions with the other guests.

Food was relatively simple dishes, but always nicely presented and tasting good, with many drinks, hot and cold, being available all day long.

Transfers are organised extremely smoothly and in a very efficient manner, allowing to spend the maximum amount of time to enjoy the camp and wildlife.

Finally, one request to Expert Africa: we wished you could have mentioned the baby & mum charity that Splash support before we left home. This would have allowed us to bring some baby items with us, that we no longer need, and would have been useful in Botswana."

"We rate City Lodge as average in comparison to all other accomodation we stayed in during our trip in Southern Africa.

Objective of staying there was indeed merely convenience: stop overnight during transfers from Botswana to Namibia.

The hotel is a standard, very good quality, airport hotel - therefore lacking personality and "soul".

It is very conveniently located, within Jo'burg airport. It offers decent, clean and quiet bedrooms; as well as good standard food with many options (we tested dinner and breakfast), served at very convenient times, from 04.00am until late at night - so you are sure to get food if you arrive late or leave early. Staff is courteous. Only negative point is that we had asked for a wake-up call at 4.00am, to leave at 4.30am, and the hotel prsonnel did not show up - they came to our room when we were ready to depart at 04.20am. So recommendation to put your alarm clock on as a back-up!"

"Kalahari Red Dunes Lodges was both a convenient and pleasant stop on our way from Windhoek to Sesriem.

Staff is welcoming, enthusiastic, attentive.

Our bedroom was very spacious, clean comfortable and nicely furnished. Decoration is made in an attentive manner, however sometimes in a bit of a surprising manner.
Food is good and well presented, with some strange associations of ingredients.

We did 2 of the self-guided walks suggested by the lodge. Both were very well sign-posted. We however found that the walks lacked interest - little wildlife to be seen, and not much from the landscapes. We did not take part in other activities (fat bike tours, driving tour, etc)."

"Hoodia Desert Lodge is set in a beautiful location.

Rooms are clean, nicely decorated and organised, comfortable, quiet. We loved being able to watch the stars at night, without any light pollution.

Decoration is very well done. We found the lounge area very convenient, comfortable and with a nice variety of books on different aspects of Namibia.

We enjoyed the activities very much: sundowner on our own with a great view over the mountains, candle and fire light, simple but good snacks and drinks, followed by explanations on stars and constellations; as well as the excursion to Sossuvlei with a very knowledgeable guide (wildlife from smallest to biggest; ecosystem; as well as an amazing teaching on population, geology, geography, climate of Namibia to explain the forming of the dunes and the vlei). We had our time to climb on one of the dunes overlooking Dead vlei, and then enjoyed a amazing luxury picnic lunch experience, quietly sitted at a white-clothed table under a tree.

Staff overall was very professional and attentive. We were sometimes puzzled by the observations of the owner.

Transfers are also well and smoothly organised.

Finally, food was very good and nicely presented, with an effort to offer "European-style" food and game meat depending on the evenings."

"Spitzkoppen Lodge is all about location in our opinion.

It is very nicely located close to the Spitzkoppe (massive) boulders and arch, so the views are beautiful. We found it good and important that the local community gets involved in the running of the hotel and in its financial outcomes.

The area is however quite far away from everything. We would consider it as a stop-over on a long road, or if you are passionate about hiking.

Rooms are quiet spacious. Beds are comfortable.

There was however no air conditioning, no good system of ventilation "by design" (only a fan) and no shadow from trees or else to cool the room during the day - so it was quite difficult to stay inside as a result. The rooms look a bit like curious luxury mobil homes, so not the greatest architecture; and we did not feel like specific decoration efforts had been made, contrarily to other places.

We were allocated room #1, which is the closest to the common area, and linked to the structure where the hotel buggies circulate. This resulted in the room floor vibrating each time a buggy drove past. Luckily this stopped at night. We asked the hotel manager to change room, considering we had asked for a quiet bedroom upfront: he told us he had not been made aware of our request (?) but he acknowledged that the room was far from ideal. No switch was possible though as the hotel and the camp nearby were both fully booked.

Most staff appeared to us as they did not really care about guests, or were even not really welcoming (we did get our bags transported from our car to our room via buggy, but had to do the rest of the carrying ourselves) nor enthusiastic. We had the impression our waitress did not understand English very well, which is OK, but she got no support from senior staff members. It resulted in errors in our orders.

It was also the only lodge where we were not offered to have the room prepared for the night. Only minor points, but all together gave us a mediocre impression.

Activities appeared to us as quite limited. Except for a few zebras on fodder, no wild life was to be seen. We did the self-drive, with 3 stops around Spitzkoppen, and limited explanations from guides from the local community."

"Okonjima Bush Camp is very comfortable, spacious, quiet and nicely decorated - both the main area and the bedrooms. We enjoyed our private "lounge" area, just near by and separate from our bedroom, with the originality of having grains to give to birds.

Staff was welcoming, enthusiatic, professional, courteous and efficient. They kindly and swiftly made changes in our activities, as what they had pre-organised was different from what we had asked for. They also asked for complete feedback before our departure.

Food was very good, both at dinner and breakfast.

We were lucky to be only the 2 of us for the activities (both game drives), with the same guide in the evening and the following morning. He was very knowledgeable on wild life, explained to us what he was planning on showing us, and gave us time to see wild life once spotted. Wild life in Okonjima reserve is quite abundant, so we had the chance to see many animals, including some we had not seen in other locations, so it came as a nice complement. Small caveat was that the reserve is fully fenced, to protect wild life from the outside, and vice versa, so it sometimes gives an impression that it can lack spontaneity when spotting a rhino for example. The encounter remains magical though!

It was a very pleasant way to finish our amazing travel to Southern Africa."