Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs S from Sydney

"We thought the Sundowner cruises were a very enjoyable and relaxing way to see lots of hippos.

We also really enjoyed the visit to the local village and school, where we were most impressed by Malindi the head master, who joined us for dinner one night at the lodge.

Islands of Siankaba is a great place to recover from jet-lag as the sound of the Zambezi river rushing past is extremely soporific. It's also a great place from which to visit Victoria Falls.

Note that there is no air conditioning or wi-fi in the rooms, but this didn't bother us.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable stay."

"We would have stayed for an extra night or two, had we known how fantastic the houseboat experience was. As it was, we stayed for 2 nights and were sorry to leave.

We came down with shocking colds while staying here and were largely confined to quarters, however, this didn't matter as we saw masses of elephants, hippos, buffalos, impalas, crocodiles, Lady Lechwade deer and kudu without even getting out of bed due to having the (only) guest-room with its' own sliding picture windows to a deck.

An excellent alternative to spending weeks bouncing around in a safari vehicle! Would recommend everyone to include this experience in their safari itinerary."

"The game viewing tended to be restricted to the flood plain in Chobe National Park, so the game drives were a bit repetitive, although the opportunity to see game (including our only leopard) was good. Muchenje's game viewing experience suffered by comparison with Ichobezi Houseboat and Zuka Lodge at Phinda, so we wouldn't recommend a stay of more than 2-3 days here.

The lodge managers, Joy & Robert, are overly talkative and join guests for most meals, which for us was a bit overpowering."

"We loved the Cape Grace Hotel in Cape Town. The room (with view of Table Mountain and the marina) was spacious and beautifully decorated. Service from all members of staff was outstanding. Excellent food in the restaurant.

We loved our day trip to the Cape of Good Hope, but were disappointed by our visit to the wineries around Stellenbosch other than Boschendal."

"Zuka Lodge was the most expensive place that we stayed, but also the best. We stayed for 6 nights and would have liked to stay for ever! It was like having our own fully staffed country house in Africa. Nothing was too much trouble for Ryan (the manager) and his team of 9 staff. Meals from Warren and Dudu were outstanding.

Game drives with Kyle (ranger) and Simmi (tracker) were a source of constant delight. On our first morning, we were privileged to share a close quarters 20 minute encounter with two incredibly rare wild dogs. One evening, we found our path back to the lodge blocked by a herd of elephants, so we simply turned off the engine and waited breathlessly as they passed by the vehicle just an arm's length away. They then turned up at Zuka's waterhole an hour later and stayed throughout dinner. Priceless! We had another unforgettable experience when we drove off-road to get close to a pride of lions only for our vehicle to fall into a giant warthog hole just at the moment when we were surrounded by five lions. Luckily Kyle and Simmi were professionalism personified and we survived, but it was a somewhat nerve-wracking 45 minute wait until the rescue vehicle turned up to tow us out!

Game viewings at Phinda are limited to 3 vehicles per sighting which was terrific, but at most of our (many) sightings we were the only vehicle present.

Ryan and Warren organised a surprise 'brai in the bush' for us on our last night complete with kerosene lanterns and starched white tablecloth. Magical.

We cannot recommend Zuka Lodge highly enough. Heavenly."

"We never got to stay at the Kigali Serena Hotel as Rwandair Express cancelled our flight and rescheduled it to the following day - which was annoying especially as they didn't even notify us of the change.

Rwandair Express also cancelled our flight back to Jo'burg TWICE, again without notifying us. Avoid Rwandair Express like the plague and fly South African Airways instead."

"We were extremely happy with this lodge, but you do need to be aware that there's a steep 250m hike from the car park to the lodge and a further climb up to the rooms. However, if you can't manage that then you're not going to manage a gorilla trek!

Excellent food and service. Very happy with our driver, Alex, from Primate Safaris.

Do the golden monkey trek BEFORE you visit the gorillas to acclimatise and to avoid disappointment by comparison with the awesome experience of seeing the gorillas up close and personal.

We also enjoyed fascinating visits to the Gorilla Vet Project and a local orphanage/school run by the Faith Foundation.

We loved Rwanda - safe, people very friendly, beautiful countryside and a lovely cool climate.

We stayed 4 nights at Sabinyo Silverback lodge and felt that was the perfect amount of time there."