Travel reviews by Ms N & Mr S from Bristol

"A really warm welcome, great room and excellent location made Acorn House a brilliant place to start our holiday. The staff couldn't have been more helpful and we loved sitting on the balcony watching the sun set over Cape Town.

Breakfast was great and plentiful and suggestions of things to do and the best times to go were much appreciated."

"We had a lovely room at the front of the main building, with an amazing bathroom which was bigger that the bedroom. The welcome and information available was excellent, and the breakfast with fruits fresh from the garden was wonderful.

There wasn't much open in Clanwilliam on the Sunday we arrived, and our host booking the only available restaurant for us was a nice touch."

"We only really used Annies Cottage as a stop over to break a long journey. The room was clean and comfortable and breakfast was good."

"A really unique location with rooms built around the living rock. This does involve a fair amount of walking and climbing between the main facilities and the rooms, so make sure you let them know in advance if this is a problem. It wasn't for us and we loved it.

Went on the sundowner walk on our first night which was good, and free, including the sundowner drink. All of the food was buffets and the selection small, however the food was well cooked and tasty so this caused us no problems. The bar prices were reasonable considering that they had a captive audience."

"On arriving at Sinclair Guest Farm we discovered we had a puncture. An enquiry to our host about where to get it fixed produced 2 helpful men who removed and repaired the tyre almost immediately. The highlight of the stay was watching them immerse the tyre in the pool to located the puncture. Namibian hospitality and ingenuity at its best!

The homemade food for the evening meal and breakfast was delicious and the welcome warm. We didn't quite make it to the Copper Mine after fixing the tyre, but the walk across the fields at sunset was lovely."

"The rooms were basic but with character which suited us. They were also clean and well maintained. The food took the form of a fixed menu, so there was no choice. However, it was very good quality and nicely cooked, so for a short stay was fine.

We decided to book a 4WD trip to Sossusvlei instead of taking our 2WD car as far as we could and then taking the 4WD bus for the last bit. The trip was expensive, but worth it as we saw parts of the dunes and canyon we never would have found on our own. There had been a lot of rain earlier in the year, so some of the first dunes in the park were disappointingly green. However, they got more red the closer you got to Sossusvlei so the photo opportunites got better as the day went on. Our guide was first class, giving us details of the local floara and fauna as well as drawing a great diagram on a sand dune to explain their formation."

"The room was spacious and clean, and the welcome warm. Although the food was a fixed menu, it was excellent and varied. We chose to eat in both nights and weren't disappointed. The garden was beautiful but we didn't get the chance to sit in it for very long as we had booked a trip to Sandwich Harbour which took us out all day.

Our only disappointment was not being allowed to take Einstien the dog home with us!

Whilst in Swakop, we organised a 'Day trip to Sandwich Harbour' for these travellers. They commented:

An excellent trip, timed just right so that we got to Sandwich Harbour before everyone else turned up, so the beach we were driving on was pristine and great for photos. Our guide was first class and pitched the day just right so that we all got what we wanted out of it, saw lots of interesting birds and animals, climbed dunes and had great fun too. The buffet lunch on the beach was good, if a little sandy."

"As we were driving up the gravel road to Erongo we got the impression we were going to like this place. We, in fact, loved it. As keen nature watchers it was perfectly located. Just sitting on the balcony and waiting for the wildlife to come to you was brilliant and the rooms/tents were set up far enough apart that it felt like you were the only one there. We also went on a sundowner drive to see the rock paintings and a sunrise walk to see the camp from the top of the nearest hill (or mountain as they call it). Our guide Johny was excellent and very knowledgable about all the flora and fauna.

We really wanted to stay another day and go on some of the other walks on offer, and just sit on our balcony.

The rooms are tents with a thatched roof over the top, with open bathrooms which were very bracing in the winter morning cold. The hot water bottles were much appreciated as it was rather cold at night.

The food was great, with some choice included in the fixed menu. It was fun watching the porcupines and genet wandering around outside the restaurant while you ate."

"We booked a waterhole room at Okaukuejo and were a bit surprised that it didn't actually have a view of the waterhole. That said, the room was really good and the walk to the waterhole was short.

The overall feeling in the camp was very corporate - imagine a holiday camp run by the civil service, and you wouldn't be far off. The food was OK but not great, with long queue's for the buffet, and a general feeling of being rushed through. Due to a powercut in the morning, the breakfast was restricted to cold meats and yoghurt, which was a bit disappointing as we'd paid for the full breakfast in advance, and no refunds were offered.

However, the amazing variety of animals visiting the waterhole made up for the shortcomings in the set up. We would have liked to stay another night for this reason alone, but the camp was fully booked so we had to move to Namutoni for the rest of our stay in Etosha."

"The title of this review refers to our check in. We were warned by Expert Africa that Namutoni camp doesn't understand the concept of half board. They weren't kidding! After about 30 minutes and many photocopies of invoices they finally told us to go and sort it out with the restaurant direct. Fortunately the restaurant managed to sort it out and we had no further problems.

The room was nice and clean with an absolutely huge bath which we made good use of. The food was much better than at Okaukuejo and the staff more friendly. The waterhole was a bit disappointing after the one at Okaukuejo, but it was good to be in the less used end of Etosha during the weekend, and the animal sightings in the park itself were excellent."

"Probably the highlight of our holiday. Arriving at our chalet with the sides of the tent removed and warthogs on the lawn was a magical experience. We had the chalet furthest from the restaurant but nearest to the wildlife, which was great. Bird food was provided to attract the smaller inhabitants and we sat for hours soaking up the sun and watching the birds.

Trips are expensive, but worth it. We went out on our first night to find leopards. The leopard's collar didn't detract from the experience at all for us and it was almost a hard to find as an uncollared one. The next morning we tracked cheetahs on foot. Our guide Rohan was excellent, although not so popular when he pointed out the frost beside the road - we were cold enough already! The cold was forgotten once we found 4 cheetah having their breakfast (an oryx apparently). We stood watching them for nearly an hour and there was no pressure to leave until we were ready and craving a nice warm breakfast.

The food was excellent and sitting around large tables chatting to the other guests was great. We'd have been happy to stay for another week, although we would have liked more jumpers as it was freezing cold."