Travel reviews by Prof V & Mr T from Oxford

"This was the first of four camps on our trip and got us off to a great start - after being picked up from the plane, we went straight out on a game drive and saw a leopard.

Our guide, Ken, had a great personality - really lively and friendly, as well as being very skilled at finding animals. The next day we saw lots of lions, including a pair mating; and on subsequent days we saw more leopards, and also some wonderful birds, including Verreaux's Eagle Owl.

The tents are lovely and we really enjoyed the food. The camp has a really fun and charming atmosphere."

"We had a lovely time here, and really enjoyed the opportunity to do some walking. Every day we saw Perl's Fishing Owl - just fantastic.

The tents are amazing; almost Tardis-like, in the sense of looking normal-sized from the outside, but feeling enormous once you are inside. The range of animals was perhaps not as great here as in other camps on our trip, but there is still masses to see.

The camp felt a little bit bigger and busier than the other ones on our trip, with lots of people coming and going. That was fine and we talked to lots of interesting people."

"This was our absolute favourite camp on the trip and we could happily have spent weeks there! Just getting there was quite an adventure (driving through deep water on the way out and having a mokoro ride on the way back - not your average airport transfer). This is perhaps a more 'basic' camp, but in a gorgeous, retro way (e.g. no hot water in taps, but they bring you hot water to wash in the morning, and arrange for a bucket shower when you want it).

The service and attention to detail were astonishing and OP is an absolutely incredible guide with a brilliant personality. All the camp staff were superb and were very happy to interact with the guest.

We had some fantastic walks, saw masses of animals (including hyena, jackal, genet, and sitatunga, as well as lions and hippos). The night drives were magical and we had one extraordinary 'surprise' dinner away from the camp. I can't praise this place enough - or the team that makes it so special."

"This camp was also wonderful - quiet, remote and extremely well run. Witness was our brilliant guide, and we also enjoyed chatting to Russ the camp manager.

The tents are very pretty. There was a lot of dense vegetation around, so we thought that we might not see that many animals - but that assumption turned out to be wrong! Loads of zebras and giraffes - and when we went to try to do a mokoro trip, we found that there was a lioness and her four cubs playing around the mokoro! So that trip got delayed a bit, while we focussed on the lion family. When they finally wandered off, we had a splendid boat trip right at sundown.

A really excellent place."

"A really beautiful place which exceeded our expectations by a long way. We had a lovely room with a balcony and a view over the lake - the sunrise was fantastic. The food is superb and it is nice to stay in a place where there are also Zambian guests. We had an excellent birding session with one of the guides and a nice game drive.

I wish we had booked two nights rather than just one; we could have spent a lot longer enjoying the art collection, the location and the food!"

"Absolutely wonderful - a really stylish, friendly, well-run camp. The staff were all great and the Coppingers were extremely hospitable. Everything felt very relaxed. Fantastic food and lots of close encounters with elephants!

The microlight flight was an amazing experience!"

"This was our favourite of all the places we stayed. Unbelievable numbers of animals on the plain right in front of our tree-house.

We were looked after by an excellent team (Alex the guide, Alex the scout, and James and Crispin running the camp). Just an utterly romantic place to be."

"Another splendid bush-camp! Simpler than Chikoko, but very charming. There is a small waterhole that attracts hippos and warthogs.

Again, we were delighted with the team looking after us."

"We enjoyed Kaingo very much - especially the setting, the individual decks overlooking the river, and the smart decor of the houses. Our guide, Patrick, was very good and even found us an aardvark. We also had a brilliant guide (Andrew) walking us from Kaingo to Mwamba. The hides were also extremely good, especially the hippo hide.

By comparison with Tafika, however, Kaingo (and Mwamba) felt more regimented. Walking was given less of a priority (e.g. it wasn't possible to walk in the afternoons). They also didn't allow quite enough time for people to shower/change before dinner after coming in the from the game drive (20 minutes wasn't really enough for us, so we felt a bit rushed). Having had a full breakfast at the start of the day at Tafika, Chikoko and Croc, I found it difficult to adjust to having just a muffin before the morning activity. But these are very small quibbles."

"A very pretty bush-camp with a hide close by. There were more insects here than anywhere else we stayed; I got a lot of bites.

The staff were very helpful and even did laundry for us on our last day (when we were leaving just after lunch). We would have liked to have walked on our last morning, but there was no guide available for that (the game-drive took priority). Again, no walking available in the afternoons."

"Really enjoyed staying here on our last night! Excellent steak in the restaurant. But we did not spend long here - got there about 8 pm and left again at 6 the next morning. The staff were lovely and helped with check-in.

I'd be very happy to stay here again."