Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs S from Morden

"Good location close to the international airport and in easy reach of Windhoek. The lodge is tastefully fitted with ample lounge and dining room and has friendly, welcoming staff. Our double room had lovely views and all necessary facilities including a fridge. The bed was very comfortable. There was a good choice at breakfast and dinner was to a high standard. We only stayed one night immediately after landing at the airport but would have happily stayed longer if our schedule had allowed.

On the morning that we left we were offered quite detailed tips on how to make the best of our time in Etosha National Park by a staff member who used to work there. These proved to be uesful."

"Within easy walking distance of Swakopmund centre, the house has a tranquil and relaxing feel to it.

Our room was very comfortable with tea and coffee making facilities outside in the upstairs lounge area where guests also have free use of a computer with internet access. There is secure parking on site.

Can't comment on dinner as we ate in town but cooked breakfast was excellent. There was a very wide choice at breakfast including fresh fruit.

Whilst here, Expert Africa organised a day Kayaking at Pelican Point for these travellers.
They rated this as "Excellent" and commented:

Jeanne organises this trip and is very friendly and welcoming. The drive to Pelican Point becomes part of the trip and is enhanced by her knowledge and enthusiasm.

We are complete novices at kayaking but any worries were quickly dispelled by Jeanne who is also organised, very reassuring and clearly loves both the kayaking and the seals. When you are in the water Jeanne is always nearby to help if required and provides sandwiches and drinks as refreshments on the beach once the kayaking is finished.

It is also a nice touch that Jeanne takes a photo of you on the water and emails it to you as a reminder of your trip."

"We were upgraded to Bush Camp on arrival - the chalet was beautiful and had a fantastic view with oryx and warhogs wandering past. A nice touch is the bird seed supplied at the chalet to attract the birds and we were lucky enough to have a friendly yellowbilled hornbill that seemed to know what was on offer!

We only stayed one night but the activities included an afternoon drive tracking leopards, a visit to a hide after dinner (where we saw porcupine and honey badgers) and an early morning tracking (on foot) of the cheetahs. A very full, and enjoyable, itinerary. The guides were friendly and knowledgeable.

The only criticism would be that check-out and 'brunch' was a little hurried after the morning activity (you leave for the activity before breakfast) and the choice of food was less than at some lodges we visited."

"It is definitely worth staying in the park as you have the advantage of viewing wildlife at the camp water hole in the evening. It also enables you to get out into the park early when the wildlife can be more active. Make sure you ask to see the sightings book as this can help give you an idea of where the more elusive animals can be.

However, service at reception and the shop is a little dismissive and it is best to be prepared for this as you will probably have been spoilt in other lodges with eager and polite staff. The waiters and cleaners were cheery and polite.

The room itself is functional with a comfy bed and small kitchen including a fridge but no cooker. AC works well and is welcome on the very hot days. Our chalet was within easy walking distance of the water hole."

"It is definitely worth staying in the park as you have the advantage of viewing wildlife at the camp water hole in the evening. It also enables you to get out into the park early when the wildlife can be more active. Make sure you ask to see the sightings book - it helped us to see a pride of lions that were feeding on the same kill for a few mornings in a row.

However, service at reception is a little dismissive and it is best to be prepared for this as you will probably have been spoilt in other lodges with eager and polite staff. The waiters and cleaners were cheery and polite.

The room itself is functional with a comfy bed and small kitchen including a fridge but no cooker. AC works well (but is very loud) and is welcome on the very hot days. We had one night in a standard double room and one night in a bush chalet. Whilst the bush chalet was significantly larger it is probably not worth the extra money if you are planning to be in the park for most of the day."

"Tented accomodation has electricity and running water, toilet and shower (and tea & coffee making facilities). A small fridge would have been nice to keep water bottles cold. Very comfortable bed. It's probably stating the obvious but these tents get very hot and the free-standing fan doesn't really help in the heat of the day.

The food and service is very good and the staff are excellent and really seem to enjoy themselves. It's worth getting to dinner early if they are full as a couple of tables are set next to the toilets!

The lodge is very close to Etosha and a good base for visiting the park. We didn't go on any organised excursions as we had our own car to explore the park."

"Comfortable lodge with excellent staff and food. The Eland steak that I had here was the best meal of the holiday.

The rooms are set right on the river providing a beautiful location. We only stayed one night here and didn't go on any organised excursions.

We appreciated having a fridge in the room to keep our water and milk cold."

"Beautiful location on the river from where you can see hippos, crocodiles and sometimes elephants. The bed was very comfortable but the bathroom is fairly basic.

Johan and Monica provided a warm welcome and we enjoyed the boat excursion with Martin where we saw many unusual birds as well as hippos, crocs and water monitors."

"Lovely setting, although could do with a bit more signage early on the approach road to reassure you that you are on the right road!

Treehouse accommodation was excellent, very roomy with good furnishings, mosquito net and balcony to sit out on. Good large bathroom with bath, shower, toilet and sink. Water comes from the river, so expect to have to pick out various bits of greenery from your bathwater! No tea and coffee making facilities in the room which was disappointing.

On our second day, we went to order a drink at the bar and we noticed a sign saying that the drinks bill (which includes any beverage ordered with dinner) must be checked by guests each night as it can't be changed after that. We felt we should have been told about this rule on arrival, as if a mistake had been made on our first nights drinks bil from dinner, we wouldn't have been able to challenge it as we didn't know about the rule on that day! Incidentally, our drinks bill was wrong on the second night, but luckily, by that time we'd seen the notice so had asked to check it!

On arrival, we booked three activities with the receptionist, boat trip on the afternoon of arrival, mokoro trip at 9am the next morning, and game drive at 2pm the next afternoon. As we were about to go for breakfast at 8am the next morning, a member of staff knocked on the door to collect us for the game drive - we explained we were booked on the game drive for 2pm, but were told we had been booked on for the 8am game drive. As they have a policy of not doing a game drive unless there are at least four people going we were told we wouldn't be able to do a game drive in the afternoon. When we pointed out that it wasn't our mistake that it had been booked for the wrong time, they did agree to take us in the afternoon, but only after a slightly heated exchange, which left us feeling like we didn't really want to go in case it caused bad feeling, so we just spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the surroundings.

On speaking to the management later, we were given an apology and told that it was a mistake that the receptionist had made before. The receptionist was told that from then on the bookings have to be done directly through the office, so hopefully this situation won't arise again.

The two trips we did were very good, the afternoon boat trip was relaxing with lovely views and glimpses of hippos, elephant and various birds. The mokoro trip was lovely, with a very different perspective by travelling so low in the river, the mokoro guide was excellent too. Evening meals were of an average standard, but we found the breakfast to be very good - especially the pancakes. The locals that served the meals/breakfast were polite and friendly."

"Loved it here, warm welcome and very well looked after by Joy and Rob. Plenty of great activities on offer with great guides. rooms clean and lovely, food excellent, all staff members we had contact with were friendly and good at their respective jobs. The free laundry service was much appreciated too.

Meals are taken at large tables with Rob and Joy joining all the guests to eat. Their attitudes and characters made this work very well, which hadn't been our experience at some of the other lodges where meals were served at large tables. We were very sorry to have to leave - would have happily stayed for weeks!!

We got stuck in the driveway leading to the lodge because the sand is too deep for a 2WD to safely negotiate. If anyone is arriving in a 2WD the lodge is happy to collect them from a suitable location outside the lodge.

We were due to have our hire car collected from here on our second day, and we had been told by Expert Africa to make sure that the car hire company looked over the car and signed the form for us to keep that stated the car was given back in good order. We were therefore concerned when Budget didn't arrive to collect the car on the pre-arranged day, and even more concerned when they still hadn't turned up when we were due to leave! However, Joy completely put our minds at rest by reassuring us that when they came to collect the car she wouldn't turn over the keys to them without them signing the form first!"

"Lovely location with unlimited access to Victoria Falls for hotel guests. The service was not as good as at the lodges we stayed at and it's the only hotel I've ever been to that said that if I wanted a small jug of fresh milk for the tea in the room (i don't like the powdered creamer they provide), i'd have to order it, and pay for it, on room service. We found some cockroaches in the room but the staff we told didn't seem too bothered.

We stayed in ten different hotels/lodges during our holiday, and this was the only one with a bed that gave me backache. We did like the choice of fresh fruit at breakfast, but didn't like being chastised by a member of staff for putting the bread into the toaster using my hands instead of tongs - I had to point out to her that there weren't any tongs (someone had moved them out of that area) and felt she should have checked the tongs were there before complaining at me! Also wouldn't have objected to her apologising for her mistake. Can't fault the service that the porters gave though.

The hotel Activity Centre arranged an elephant safari excursion for us through Mukuni Big 5. This was well organised and the people in charge of the elephant rides/feeding made us feel very welcome. I had some feelings of guilt booking this trip, being afraid of indirectly supporting animal exploitation, but they obviously cared for the animals and we were assured that the animals were rescued orphans and their offspring. It was a very interesting and enjoyable experience."