Travel reviews by Mr O & Mrs R from Germany

"To us it was the perfect start of our Namibia self-drive holiday. A chance to relax and leave work behind us before starting with the big drives.

Great stop-over on the way to the Namib Desert and we were amazed by the variety of wildlife. Plenty of ostriches, oryx and wilderbeast. We even saw 6 giraffes, which came as a total surprise. Enormous weaver bird nests.

We really enjoyed the walking trails, knowing that we would be spending a lot of time in our cars on the drives between different lodges. We also participated in a sunset-drive, saw even more animals and enjoyed the sun set on top of the dunes. Amazing!"

"Absolutely amazing location. It really is in the middle of nowhere, just opposite dune number one. We had booked a sunrise trip into Soussouvlei, the guide was knowledgeable and continuously pointed out animal tracks and highlighted various plants. We were lucky in that the amount of rain they had received this year was already more than 4 times the average yearly amount, which resulted in an amazing amount of plants even on the dunes and Soussouvlei was still flooded and full of animals.

The food on the first night was great, however, on the second night both presentation and quality of food were seriously below par. The rooms can get really cold, there is no air-conditioning or heating, which we liked as we wanted to minimize our environmental impact. They supply hot water bottles in the evening, which was a really nice touch.

We expected a lot from this lodge and it came up to par, however, the bathrooms would benefit from a whitewash."

"Great location on the mouth of the Swakop river, which at this time of year was a dry river bed. A walk into the city center took us less than 10 minutes.

Our chalets, which were very spacious, looked out onto the sea. The staff at reception were very friendly and booked us into the restaurants we wanted to try, the Tug and Küki's pub, both excellent and reconfirmed pick-up time for our trip to Sandwich Harbour, which we felt was a highlight of our trip. I would recommend anyone to do it!

We also enjoyed the handmade wind glasses supplied with the mini bar. It all was very well organized and the place well tended.

Whilst here, Expert Africa organised a day-trip to Sandwich Harbour. These travellers commented:

We had great expectations and were not disappointed. Our driver and guide Ernst, was very knowledgeable and easy-going. We passes the guano islands and salt mines, saw masses of flamingoes and pelicans and decided to have lunch amid the dunes, as it seemed too windy at the ocean.

The picknick lunch privided by Ernst was delicious and the location superb. We then waited for low tide in order to continue our trip to sandwich harbour, left the car and continued barefoot on top of a dune in order to enjoy the view over the mounth of the Swakop river and enjoyed hearing the dunes "sing" as we run down again. On our return the fogs moved in, we could hardly see a thing, but enormous flocks of cormorans overtaking us. The day was one of our highlights and I would highly recommend it to anyone!"

"It it a great location at the foot of the Brandberg and the main building is a lovely lodge. We knew not to expect much, but chose the lodge as a convenient stop-over on our way to see the White Lady painting.

The rooms are basic, which we expected and did not mind, but staff were totally unfriendly (the only place during our trip where we felt that management just could not be bothered and staff therefore neither). The whole place looked unloved and uncared. There were caged animals both in the bar area and outside, which we did not appreciate.

It felt a shame that a potentially fab lodge was not performing to its full potential."

"An amazing camp and great value for money! It is ideally placed for the Twyfelfountain rock engravings, which we all enjoyed so much, that we went back there again the following day. it was the only place where we stayed for three days and it was a great decisions. It is a great place to just relax and enjoy the view. Having said that, we did a lot and went to the petrified forest, Twyfelfountain and the Organ Pipes. We even managed to do a flight down the Abu-Huab river to the Skeleton coast, an experience we would not want to have missed.

They serve sun-downer drinks and a great selection of appetisers on a small mountain behind the restaurant, where there is a 360 degree view over the surrounding plains. Meals were exquisite, we are still debating whether they were the best meals we got served in Namibia, but we all agree that it was absolutely the best lodge we stayed in. On our last day, the waiter as a special surprise served us a candle-lit dinner in a small area enclosed by rocks and illuminated by an open fire and plenty of lanterns.

Whilst I was initially worried by the thought of bathrooms in the open, we enjoyed the wildlife it offered, such as a wild cat licking tooth paste from the sind and little geckos on the rocks. One of our treasured memories are the sunrises enjoyed from the open-air shower!"

"We enjoyed being in the Etosha, rather than having to face the daily drives into the reserve and would not hesitate to do the same again. Nevertheless we were surprised about the size of the camp, it felt like a village of holiday resort.

Staff were very good in looking after individual guests, who were in the clear minority. We had breakfast and dinner in a small room off the main restaurant, which was lovely.

The selection of food in the shop was unfortunately very limited, therefore there was no chance to use the BBQ."

"We expected more from this camp than from Okaukuejo, where we had stayed for the two previous nights, but were severely disappointed

The chalets were nice, but dinner on the first night was unedible with some salads being served being the left-overs from lunch-time. We therefore on the second day decided to try out lunch at Namutoni, which was lovely and just buy grocery supply for sandwiches for supper.In addition we found that the waterholes near Namutoni were a lot more frequented than the ones around Halali.

We would not go back to Halali but next time stay in Namotomi, which has both a lovely restaurant and well stocked shop.

There were clearly not enough waiters and it felt like a school canteen."

"A great lodge and great value for money!

Dinners were delicious too and we agreed that the omelettes served for breakfast were the best we had eaten, ever. There was also an amazing variety of homemade jams and marmalade and freshly cut fruit.

It was the perfect stop-over on our way back to Windhoek and a great place to unwind. and just enjoy looking at the game at the waterhole in front of the terrace. We participated in an evening drive and saw amongst others some white rhinos."

"Nice little place to relax in Klein-Windhoek. It is a bit out of the centre, which was fine for us, as we had experienced Windhoek centre on arrival to Namibia.

They offer spa treatments, which we did not try out as we only had a couple of hours there in the afternoon and wanted an early night before an early transfer to the airport."