Travel reviews by Ms W & Mr M from LA
Review Distribution
Total number of trips
1
Countries visited
1
Lodges stayed in
3
Excursions taken
1
Overall Trip Evaluation
Botswana between 21 Jul 2009 and 30 Jul 2009
"Susannah assisted us in planning our trip and helped point us in the direction of camps that fit our needs. Chris was also very helpful in answering our questions about appropriate photography equipment. We also appreciated Lucy's help with our last-minute questions.
This resulted in an experience that we will remember for the rest of our lives.
Suggestions for improvement:
We were originally booked on a morning flight from Maun to Johannesburg on our last day in Botswana, but we were on the stand-by list for the mid-afternoon flight that day. Shortly after we booked our trip, seats opened up on the afternoon flight and our booking was changed accordingly. Because we were scheduled on an 8am flight from Mapula to Maun, we think our changed booking was not updated with either Mack Air or Mapula Lodge. However, the connecting flight was pushed back and we were able to enjoy our morning game drive. That minor hiccup is our only suggestion for improvement, but it did not detract from our wonderful experience overall.
We would definitely recommend Expert Africa to our friends and family.
For the photographers amongst our travellers, these travellers also observed, by email after their trip:
We just returned from our trip to Botswana yesterday. What an amazing experience! We were only there for 8 days, but I can't count the number of impressions we collected on the way.
I just wanted to follow up with you regarding the discussion we had regarding lens selection. Per your advice, the 100-400 lens was definitely the right way to go. The extra zoom came in very handy -- the majority of my pictures were taken in the >200 mm range -- and bumping the ISO was usually enough to deal with the low light situations. Tellingly, one of the guests we rode with at Kwando had both the 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 and the 70-200 f/2.8 lenses, and he didn't use the latter at all during the 3 days we spent together on game drives.
Your advice on the flash was also good. Too bad I pulled my clip-on flash at the last moment due to weight concerns and the mistaken belief that I wouldn't be able to use it on animals at night. I later learned that it would not have bothered animals with night vision, and it would have come in handy on two occasions (you were also right about this). But we'll still have the memories.
Thanks again for your help. My girlfriend and I absolutely loved it in Africa and are already thinking of doing a trip to Uganda in two years. We'll keep in touch.
- - - - - - -
Oh, by the way, I highly recommend online lens rentals for people who only want such expensive lenses to use every once in a while. It cost me about $160 for a three week rental, and the lens was insured in case anything happened to is (easing my mind very much). Based on a friend's recommendation, I used www.lensrentals.com [Ed: this is a US-based company], and I think they have similar services in the UK.
I think a lot of amateur photographers would love the opportunity to go on safari with such an incredible lens without having to invest over $1500 in something they will not be able to use very often. You can really tell the difference between my pictures and my girlfriend's pictures (she used my entry-level zoom)."
This resulted in an experience that we will remember for the rest of our lives.
Suggestions for improvement:
We were originally booked on a morning flight from Maun to Johannesburg on our last day in Botswana, but we were on the stand-by list for the mid-afternoon flight that day. Shortly after we booked our trip, seats opened up on the afternoon flight and our booking was changed accordingly. Because we were scheduled on an 8am flight from Mapula to Maun, we think our changed booking was not updated with either Mack Air or Mapula Lodge. However, the connecting flight was pushed back and we were able to enjoy our morning game drive. That minor hiccup is our only suggestion for improvement, but it did not detract from our wonderful experience overall.
We would definitely recommend Expert Africa to our friends and family.
For the photographers amongst our travellers, these travellers also observed, by email after their trip:
We just returned from our trip to Botswana yesterday. What an amazing experience! We were only there for 8 days, but I can't count the number of impressions we collected on the way.
I just wanted to follow up with you regarding the discussion we had regarding lens selection. Per your advice, the 100-400 lens was definitely the right way to go. The extra zoom came in very handy -- the majority of my pictures were taken in the >200 mm range -- and bumping the ISO was usually enough to deal with the low light situations. Tellingly, one of the guests we rode with at Kwando had both the 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 and the 70-200 f/2.8 lenses, and he didn't use the latter at all during the 3 days we spent together on game drives.
Your advice on the flash was also good. Too bad I pulled my clip-on flash at the last moment due to weight concerns and the mistaken belief that I wouldn't be able to use it on animals at night. I later learned that it would not have bothered animals with night vision, and it would have come in handy on two occasions (you were also right about this). But we'll still have the memories.
Thanks again for your help. My girlfriend and I absolutely loved it in Africa and are already thinking of doing a trip to Uganda in two years. We'll keep in touch.
- - - - - - -
Oh, by the way, I highly recommend online lens rentals for people who only want such expensive lenses to use every once in a while. It cost me about $160 for a three week rental, and the lens was insured in case anything happened to is (easing my mind very much). Based on a friend's recommendation, I used www.lensrentals.com [Ed: this is a US-based company], and I think they have similar services in the UK.
I think a lot of amateur photographers would love the opportunity to go on safari with such an incredible lens without having to invest over $1500 in something they will not be able to use very often. You can really tell the difference between my pictures and my girlfriend's pictures (she used my entry-level zoom)."
Lagoon Camp
"Lagoon Camp review"
2 nights
Arrived
22 Jul 2009
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Good
Facilities
Good
Stanley's Camp
"Stanley's Camp review"
2 nights
Arrived
24 Jul 2009
"Stanley's Camp is a luxurious camp in the Okavango Delta, which seems to be aimed at honeymooners and well-to-do families. The food was the best we had during our trip, the accommodations were beautiful, and the camp staff was very helpful. However, our game drives at Stanley's did not hold a candle to the game drives at other camps. We encountered mostly elephant, antelope, and giraffe, which we had not seen much of at our prior camp. We thought this would be a good time to learn more about these animals and various behaviors they were exhibiting, but our guide did little more than point at the animal, say its name, and impatiently say "done?" after hearing a few shutter clicks on our cameras. We found this to be terribly disheartening, especially considering the premium we paid to stay at Stanley's and our wonderful experiences at other, less expensive, camps.
We tried to ask questions of the guide to encourage more dialogue during the game drives, but received short answers and no further discussion unless prompted by us. Based on our limited interactions with other guides at Stanley's, we believe that our experience was limited to our guide, but it nonetheless put a damper on our overall experience.
The saving grace of Stanley's, for the purposes of our trip, was the Elephant Experience, which we really enjoyed. In fact, the Elephant Experience was the reason we requested Stanley's in the first place. However, knowing what we know now, we would have requested to stay a single night at Stanley's, just long enough to do the Elephant Experience.
We would recommend Stanley's for people looking for luxurious accommodations who are not concerned about the quality of guiding, or for those very interested in the Elephant Experience (but just for one night)."
We tried to ask questions of the guide to encourage more dialogue during the game drives, but received short answers and no further discussion unless prompted by us. Based on our limited interactions with other guides at Stanley's, we believe that our experience was limited to our guide, but it nonetheless put a damper on our overall experience.
The saving grace of Stanley's, for the purposes of our trip, was the Elephant Experience, which we really enjoyed. In fact, the Elephant Experience was the reason we requested Stanley's in the first place. However, knowing what we know now, we would have requested to stay a single night at Stanley's, just long enough to do the Elephant Experience.
We would recommend Stanley's for people looking for luxurious accommodations who are not concerned about the quality of guiding, or for those very interested in the Elephant Experience (but just for one night)."
Average
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Average
Location
Good
Service
Excellent
Activities
Average
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Good
Feedback response
We were disappointed to hear that these travellers did not have a good guiding experience at Stanley’s Camp.
We passed on these travellers comments to the management of Stanley’s Camp, who were very concerned and responded speedily:
“We take feedback of this nature very seriously, as we pride ourselves in our standard of guiding at all our camps. We believe it is an integral part of a safari experience and because of this we invest a great deal of time training and developing our guides. We have a dedicated training officer and over and above this run a guide training programme annually for all our guides. As you can imagine this is a substantial investment on our part.
This feedback has been dealt with at the highest level within Sanctuary Retreats and our Operations director in Botswana will be addressing this directly with the guide concerned and the necessary steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again.”
We are pleased that this has been dealt with at such a high level – and feel confident that they are acting swiftly to rectify this issue.
In addition, the camp wanted us to convey their apologies for a disappointing stay, and have made a kind gesture to these travellers to try to make up for their disappointment.
We passed on these travellers comments to the management of Stanley’s Camp, who were very concerned and responded speedily:
“We take feedback of this nature very seriously, as we pride ourselves in our standard of guiding at all our camps. We believe it is an integral part of a safari experience and because of this we invest a great deal of time training and developing our guides. We have a dedicated training officer and over and above this run a guide training programme annually for all our guides. As you can imagine this is a substantial investment on our part.
This feedback has been dealt with at the highest level within Sanctuary Retreats and our Operations director in Botswana will be addressing this directly with the guide concerned and the necessary steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again.”
We are pleased that this has been dealt with at such a high level – and feel confident that they are acting swiftly to rectify this issue.
In addition, the camp wanted us to convey their apologies for a disappointing stay, and have made a kind gesture to these travellers to try to make up for their disappointment.
Elephant Activity
"Stanley's Elephant Experience"
25 Jul 2009 • Morning excursion
Doug was very knowledgeable about elephants and aware of making the experience rewarding for all types of tourists. The lunch with the elephants after Doug's general presentation was delicious and the individual good-byes from the elephants were memorable.
Excellent
Mapula Lodge
"Mapula Lodge review"
3 nights
Arrived
26 Jul 2009
"We loved the three days we spent at Mapula. We found the accommodations comfortable, the staff extremely warm and helpful, the activities fun, and the guides excellent. We really enjoyed the variety of activities offered at Mapula, and were lucky enough to participate in all of the available activities while we were there.
The game drives were interesting, and our guide (Matt) and tracker (Mike) took time to discuss with us behaviors exhibited by the animals we saw, various uses of the plants we observed, and general uses of the environment by the people of Botswana. We also liked the walking safari we did one afternoon, which gave us a better perspective of a local environment (and our first bit of exercise during our trip). Our mokoro trip was very relaxing and included a number of unexpected elephant sightings.
The highlights at Mapula were seeing a pack of wild dogs, and following them long enough to watch them (unsuccessfully) hunt impala, and having a group of elephants decide to snack on the vegetation outside our chalet for about 30 minutes during "siesta" one afternoon. We were also treated to a surprise "bush dinner" on our last night at Mapula, which was a really wonderful experience. In addition to the extra effort for this surprise, we truly appreciate the efforts of Jane and Dudu to change our flight to Maun (originally scheduled for 8:00am, despite us having a mid-afternoon flight from Maun to Johannesburg). It took them significant time to achieve this, but it gave us the opportunity to go on one final morning game drive.
We would recommend Mapula Lodge to anyone looking for good guiding and a variety of interesting animals and activities."
The game drives were interesting, and our guide (Matt) and tracker (Mike) took time to discuss with us behaviors exhibited by the animals we saw, various uses of the plants we observed, and general uses of the environment by the people of Botswana. We also liked the walking safari we did one afternoon, which gave us a better perspective of a local environment (and our first bit of exercise during our trip). Our mokoro trip was very relaxing and included a number of unexpected elephant sightings.
The highlights at Mapula were seeing a pack of wild dogs, and following them long enough to watch them (unsuccessfully) hunt impala, and having a group of elephants decide to snack on the vegetation outside our chalet for about 30 minutes during "siesta" one afternoon. We were also treated to a surprise "bush dinner" on our last night at Mapula, which was a really wonderful experience. In addition to the extra effort for this surprise, we truly appreciate the efforts of Jane and Dudu to change our flight to Maun (originally scheduled for 8:00am, despite us having a mid-afternoon flight from Maun to Johannesburg). It took them significant time to achieve this, but it gave us the opportunity to go on one final morning game drive.
We would recommend Mapula Lodge to anyone looking for good guiding and a variety of interesting animals and activities."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Good
Facilities
Excellent
Our room and the facilities were very nice -- everything we needed and nothing excessive. The staff was welcoming and always very helpful, and we enjoyed our meals at Lagoon.
We would recommend Lagoon to anyone focused on quality game and guiding."