Reviews of Sandibe Safari Lodge
(93%) From 53 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Sandibe Safari Lodge review
The third camp we visited and very different from the Kwando camps. More luxury and aiming to 5-star service with lots of staff. The overall impression was more formal than the other camps we visited. We missed the informal atmosphere in this camp, like chatting with guides and other guests over diner and sharing the experience of the day (separate setting of tables when dining).
There was a very cold wind, especially early mornings, which might be the reason for spotting less 'cats'. However, we enjoyed seeing lots of other game and many different beautiful birds.
All staff was very friendly and did their utmost to please us. Without doubt, they're all working very hard, especially when elephants, hippo's, baboons and hyena's are disturbing the daily routines!
Great Safari
In the information supplied in advance it described a bush walk with a guide who could show rope making, fire from sticks etc. When we asked about this they seemed quite taken aback and clearly had not expected to provide this activity.
Having said that our guide did take us out for a short walk and showed us how to tel the difference in tracks. Perhaps this feature should be removed from the brochure.
Sandibe Safari Lodge review
This was one of two @Beyond camps visited.These comments apply to both. The 'corporate formula' seems to be striving to offer a 5Star hotel service which is out of keeping with the safari experience.
An excessive number of staff (personal butler, masseuse and a legion of waiters, supervisors etc) created a stifling/stuffy atmosphere in stark contrast to the two Kwando Safari camps visited. Once you had broken through the formal service regime, the staff turned out to be pleasant and natural, they just needed to be released from the absurd 'house style' imposed on them. The menus were overelaborate but the actual result was disappointing. Worst of all guests were seated at separate tables which inhibited social interchange. More Bournemouth than Okavango!.
The guide was excellent but the tracker was a trainee, who while pleasant enough, did'nt contribute much.
Sandibe Safari Lodge feedback
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Sandibe. All the staff are very friendly and helpful. Our guide Tshabo and tracker Bring were excellent and found us all the sightings we were hoping for.
They also provided us with interesting facts about the animals we were seeing and gave us an overview of their tracking skills, helping us to see what they were seeing (although we were still unable to interpret the information as accurately as they did). All the staff at the lodge made sure our stay was luxurious and spoiled us rotten. We can honestly say that we couldn't fault Sandibe or its staff in any way.
Thank you for a wonderful time and we hope to see you again in the near future.
Sandibe Safari Lodge review
Whilst the location is good, due to the preponderance of papyrus in the river there was almost no sight of water and this detracted slightly from the views from the camp. The remaining area around the camp was as spectacular as any we visited. The facilities were the most luxurious that we met and the staff again excellent.
Dining arrangements were different to the other camps we visited in that tables were allocated to each group (as in a restaurant) which made it more difficult to meet and mix with other guests. We feel that this is a missed opportunity to enhance the holiday.
Expert Africa comments
We passed this to the camp's owners, &Beyond. One of their management team replied:
"Thank you so much for sending us your comments on your stay at Sandibe. We're delighted you had such a good stay and particularly that the staff took such great care of you - I'll be sure to pass your comments onto the team.
Dining arrangements can sometimes be tricky to get right as some guests are looking for romantic getaways or privacy, while others (like yourselves) want to meet other guests. We try to judge it at the lodge, and am sorry that we didn't make the right call on this occasion.
I hope you are still savouring the stories you have to tell of your trip through Botswana."
Sandibe Safari Lodge review
Excellent staff and service - great food. Very good game drives.
Electric boat for breakfast was a great touch, but the mokoro was pretty disappointing - very short trip on a small lagoon. It was about an hour's drive from the camp. This is probably due to the water conditions at the time, but it would have beeen better to tell us before that this was the case and give us the choice of whether to do it or not.
This was our first lodge and on a couple of drives we spent some time 'tracking' a lion which we never found as it had crossed out of the reserve. As this was the start of our trip we were happy to see anything so felt that this a bit of a waste of time. We did tell our guide this on other drives and he was perfectly heppy to do as we asked.
Birthday at Sandibe Lodge.
We hadn't seen a leopard at Lebala Camp (not from the lack of trying) but within three minutes of getting off the plane at Sandibe we were sitting in the wagon watching one (a female that had not long killed a female impala and her young). The male impala was about 4 mtrs from the leopard snorting at it and being ignored!!
Our lodge was just great and we even had a visit from an elephant one morning - it was about 3 mtres form the door! Our guide and tracker at this lodge was BT and Bring who again were brilliant (BT had a great sense of humour). Again for much of our stay here we had the vehicle to ourselves so we could concentrate on birdwatching. We did however see more wild dogs, lions and leopards as well as a host of birds.
The fruit bats in the roof of the main building were quite cute although each night a genet came in to try his luck for one we also had a visit from an owl (Pearl spotted I think) which was after the flying insects attracted by the lights.
Again you couldn't fault the food and many thanks go to Bruce, Sasha and Ollie for putting on a birthday treat in our lodge a most memorable experience. Bruce I hope the hippo problem has gone away!!
Sandibe Safari Lodge review
The game viewing was excellent. You can't beat a pack of wild dogs killing 3 impala babies. Gee was an excellent guide.
The manager, Sasha, is an extemely efficient and caring person. Sasha went out of her way to help my wife deal with a medical concern.
The food was pleasantly good and available to suit the guests. It is a camp we would return to.
Sandibe Safari Lodge review
We really felt good and very welcome here. Eveything is done to make you feel home.
Activities also excellent, the only drawback for us was the location completely hidden in the reeds, so no view at all. The room in itself was just beautiful !
Slightly disappointed by CCA in Sandibe
We had already been in some CCAfrica camps (Ngala Lodge, Soussuvlei Mountain Lodge) and we have always been happy about the guides professionality and the managers ospitality. That is the reason why we chose Sandibe over other lodges.
We were disappointed by the total lack of management ( every day there was a different manager who was never aware of what had been arranged the previuos day). As a result of this situation the clients were never treated with the attention we were used to.
The guides (a different one every day) did not look motivated at all. During the so called long day safari one of them quickly stole our place on the sleeping bags to take a nap leaving us standing up and waiting to start again. Another one gave us a terrible impression throwing a piece of dirt toward a hippo to find out wether was sleeping.
Expert Africa comments
We passed this feedback onto CC Africa and have had this response from one of their directors, Graham:
"I was really concerned to read about the total lack of Management that the guests experienced at Sandibe as well as the guide behaviour. CC Africa prides themselves in the quality of their staff and we put an enormous amount of time into training them, but clearly we have let your (and our) guests down and for this I must apologise. Please assure them that I will personally handle this going forward with the guides and management at Sandibe and make sure it never happens again."
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
