Reviews of Kulala Desert Lodge
(88%) From 144 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Fiftieth Birthday to Remember at Kulala
We stayed at Kulala Desert Lodge a few years ago, and decided that we would like to return there to celebrate a 50th birthday. It was certainly a good choice. The management and staff were all wonderful. Everyone was so friendly, helpful and competent. We had comfortable accommodation with lovely views, good excursions, and excellent food and service.
To celebrate the birthday, we enjoyed a sunrise trip into Sossusvlei and lovely afternoon nature drive with a "sundowner". The highlight of the holiday happened that evening when the lodge staff surprised us by bringing in a birthday cake during dinner. The staff sang a beautiful rendition of "happy birthday" and started dancing. The performance was wonderful, and we were very touched by the very kind and thoughtful gesture. The singing and dancing continued as guests joined in. It was a wonderful surprise, and a very memorable day.
Excursions from Kulala Desert Lodge
We had an enjoyable excursion into Sossusvlei. The scenery is beautiful. We have done this trip before, however on this occasion we experienced the delightful view of water in the vlei and increased vegetation and wildlife. On our previous trips it has been completely dry. The walk to Dead Vlei is worthwhile for the amazing scenery.
On our last visit the lodge used an open sided vehicle. The vehicles have been replaced by glass sided vehicles. This is good from the perspective of keeping the biting cold and wind out during the early morning, but it does rattle a bit!
Kulala Desert Lodge review
The main attraction was the proximity to the dunes and the easy access into the park.
The trip to the dunes was well worthwhile and the climb up the dune was harder than expected. We did have a problem when the electrics in our chalet blew the fuses but the staff were really good in fixing things. We took the trip to Sesriem Canyon - something we could have done in our own vehicle. This was a little of an anti-climax after Fish River.
Kulala Desert Lodge review
Lovely lodge and lovely rooms. Helpful staff and our guide, Angula, was great. The let down was the food with poor quality beef and lamb being served at dinner. We felt it was the fault of whoever buys the meat, not the chef. Why on earth don't they serve game?
Nevertheless, this is a minor quibble as it is a great place to stay especially as they have their own gate to the park!
Kulala Desert Lodge review
Fantastic views, service was good, food was a bit average.
Read more about the whole safariAmazing desert location
Balloon ride over the dunes was amazing - highly recommended.
The dune drive with the walk to Deadvlei was also brilliant, and our guide Willem was very knowledgeable. We also enjoyed a walk by ourselves along the dry riverbed by the lodge.
The trip to Sesriem Canyon was pleasant but no more than you could do if you drove yourself on the way past.
The view over the dunes from the room was spectacular, and the corn crickets made novel companions to watch it with! Meals were nice, with extremely large portions. The staff were friendly, and we particularly enjoyed the singing and dancing one evening.
Kulala Desert Lodge review
The staff were all incredibly attentive to detail in making our stay as enjoyable & comfortable as possible. An unfortunate breakdown in the water supply led to our being transferred on the second night to the Little Kulala Lodge. This proved even more luxurious...if such could be possible!! It was almost like being in heaven! We didn't want tp leave!!
Given the completely unbiased advice of staff we made our own trip to Sossusvlei which was within easy travelling distance. However we took advantage of a fantastic dunebuggy trip which included watching the sunset from a hilltop on the estate.
Set in the Desert with Dune Views
Found the lodge very pretentious,rushing out with hot towels when you arrive we thought over the top
. They seemed to make sure that George carried your bags and a tip was definitely seemed expected
.There was no written list of expeditions which we found difficult to take in as there were several and expensive. 900 dollars for the Dunes.We decided to take a walk instead and this ended in rather a farce as the manager grew anxious when we didnt return within anhour and sent out a search party. He was very overweight and running through the desert was not good for him im afraid
Food and room very good,individual balconies nice.
.I would have preferred to stay at Sesriem with hindsight although sunset over the dunes was beautiful
A Mixed Experience
The accommodation was very good but there was something missing here. It lacked personality and felt a bit soulless in the public areas. The staff seemed to need more training and motivation from hands-on management.
The scenery is spectacular and it's worth the fairly high cost to join their tour to Sossusvlei as they have a private gate which saves over an hour travelling compared to using your own vehicle. It would also be easy to miss Dead Vlei (far more impressive than the more famous Sossusvlei) without a guide.
Food was only average - we were there on a Sunday night with only a few other guests and the normal buffet was changed to a set meal which was by far the worst meal of the whole trip. Chef's night off?
Quad bikes are great fun and we were looked after from a safety point of view and didn't feel we had to go any faster than we wanted to.
Kulala Desert Lodge review
Another wonderful place. Again we visited Sossusvlei, Sesriem Canyon, etc. under our own steam.
At Kulala Desert Lodge we did use the pool which was more attractively situated (and in fact we had more time because prevented by wind from going into Sossusvlei until the afternoon).
We enjoyed the musical entertainment after dinner here. Helpful and friendly staff and managers.
Kulala Desert Lodge review
Very good location, with easy access to the Park. We had an interesting tour to Naukluft mountains. Rooms were a bit small, but OK. Service attentive and nice. And our guide, William, was super-excellent, thank you. We also did a balloon trip, quite exciting.
Read more about the whole safari
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.
