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Traveller reviews

Travel reviews by Mr A & Ms M from Sante Fe

Review Distribution

Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Terrible

Total number of trips

1

Countries visited

1

Lodges stayed in

8

Excursions taken

0

My Oct 2013 trip

Namibia between 4 Oct 2013 and 22 Oct 2013

Trip rating: Excellent
"We had a great trip. With the one exception we were more than happy with each place we stayed. The guides were all excellent. We were surprised at how good the food was. As non meat eaters, we were ready to make compromises but at every lodge, the cooks prepared us excellent meals.

We were also happy that we did the trip in the order we did the trip, We had just done a game oriented trip to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, so it was good to start with the Namib and end with Etosha.

We wound up driving 3000 km. It would have been nice to have picked up the car in Swakomund and then head to Damaraland. But I would not have wanted to miss either Wolvedans or Kulala and we probably could not have afforded all the flight to go from Windhoek to the Namib and Swakomund.

We hope to come back and be able to get further up to the Skeleton Coast and the Kunene River region.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None. Expert Africa was great to deal with. Very responsive, good advice. We did not have a single problem with any of the arrangements made by Expert Africa."

Wolwedans Desert Lodge

Wolwedans Desert Lodge

"Wolwedans Dunes Lodge review"

2 nights Arrived 5 Oct 2013
"Spectacular setting. Orynx' sleeping next to our porch. Great food and service. Probably our favorite lodge.

Drive from Windhoek is long with no facilities along the way. Some people might find that excessive if it's their first day. But it was worth it."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Kulala Desert Lodge

Kulala Desert Lodge

"Kulala Desert Lodge review"

2 nights Arrived 7 Oct 2013
"Another spectacular location. Very different from Wolwedans. Not quite as isolated. We encountered many other groups around Dean Vlei and Soussesvlei.

It was very hot (up to 45C) so the pool was a great relief."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Image alt

Organic Square Guesthouse (Not currently featured by Expert Africa)

"Organic Square Guesthouse review"

3 nights Arrived 9 Oct 2013
"Nice B&B very close to the center of town. Very helpful owner and staff."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Good
Service
Excellent
Rooms
Good
Doro Nawas

Doro Nawas

"Doro Nawas review"

2 nights Arrived 12 Oct 2013
"When you approach Doro Nawas, it's a pretty weird sight seeing what looks like Moorish castle on top of a hill. But it turns out to a well designed main facility with view rooms around the bottom.

We were lucky that our guide was able to find the group of desert elephants very quickly and we were able to follow them into the small village where there is a water tank. In addition, the village was holding its big celebration at the time. However, if the elephants had been somewhere else that day, it might not have been such an outstanding experience."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Good
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Desert Rhino Camp

Desert Rhino Camp

"Desert Rhino Camp review"

2 nights Arrived 14 Oct 2013
"We very much enjoyed our stay there. Great staff, good food and interesting other guests.

However, the rhino tracking has its limitations. There aren't many rhinos there so it may take a very long time to find one, The group the day before took 12 hours. We were lucky and the trackers found two less than two hours. It's an interesting experience getting out of the vehicle and following the trackers to get a good view but since you are not allowed with 100-150 meters, you will only see them at some distance. Nevertheless, the country is beautiful and we came across both desert elephants and a lion.

Also it's a very long safari vehicle drive from where you leave your car at the gate to the facility."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Good
Service
Excellent
Activities
Average
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Okaukuejo Camp

Okaukuejo Camp

"Okaukuejo Camp review"

2 nights Arrived 16 Oct 2013
"In six weeks of traveling in Africa staying at 15 safari camps, this is the only one we were unhappy with.

Although we were warned by Chris McIntyre's book that the camp had variable reports, we did want to stay near the waterhole.

First, the staff was unfriendly, not knowledgable about Etosha and not helpful. We couldn't an answer to even simple questions like "is there a restaurant at Halali?" I suppose it's a reflection of the staff dealing with masses of people but we didn't have any such experiences elsewhere.

The food was really awful. The first night there was sufficient food but it was all cooked badly. The second night they seemed to have run out food. The trays that were full of food (rice, vegetables, etc) were almost all empty. Since we don't eat meat (which was not a problem at any other lodge), we were reduced to a dinner of rice and ice cream. At breakfast the next morning most of the food that had been there the previous morning wasn't there. When we got to Halali for lunch, we found that they had run out of a lot food.

Unfortunately, we didn't see much at the water hole while we were there and, as the book warned, there was a lot of noise from people talking loudly on their cell phones.

We did have some great sightings at the water holes in the park during the day so would have been much happier at a lodge outside the park."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Poor
Rooms
Average
Food
Terrible
Mushara Bush Camp

Mushara Bush Camp

"Mushara Bush Camp review"

2 nights Arrived 18 Oct 2013
"Great camp. Some of the best food we had in Africa.

Location let us be in an excellent camp and get back to Etosha in a few minutes."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Okonjima Plains Camp

Okonjima Plains Camp

"Okonjima Main Camp review"

2 nights Arrived 20 Oct 2013
"A very nice way to end our trip. Staff was excellent.

We have some mixed feelings as to Okojima as a destination. The area is not as scenic as a lot of the other places we visited and as Africat has (for good reason) made education its main mission, what visitors see is a lot different from what we had read about Okijima. There are not a lot of cats there and they no longer are allowed to roam near the main camp area. They are changing the camp to be a "plains" camp by removing nonnative plants. It all makes sense but as a tourist experience it's not what it was. But we enjoyed it and appreciate the dedication of Africat to deal with the complexities in the survival of large cats."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Good
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Good
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent

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