Reviews of Lagoon Camp

"Our guide and tracker (Carlos and PD) were excellent. Carlos looked after us in terms of showing us birds as well as mammals and could not be more helpful.

Grace, upon knowing I had left my camera battery at home, took details and got them flown out for us. It was an old, obsolete camera, so all credit to her persistence." See all these reviews: 16n in Botswana; 2n in Zambia

"Lagoon camp was rebuilt early in 2011, and the facilites are outstanding. Fantastic individual rooms, very spacious with outstanding views. The public rooms are also commendable as is the food.

Moses is a very good Manager and working hard to build up his team. Whilst the staff are friendly, in comparison with other camps they interacted less with us, due to their lack of confidence in english. I'm sure this will improve over time.

Bali and AT were very competant guides, but could have communicated more with us. A lot of time was spent tracking the wild dogs (an outstanding game sighting) but the ride in the Yuris was not too comfortable. Althogh the guides assured us they were the best vehicles for the terrain. In comparison with other camps in the Delta, there seemed to be less game at Lagoon, but may be that was because of the season." See all these reviews: 13n in Botswana; 2n in Zambia

"We had Wild dog sighting that you only could really dream about, we saw them for 6 days running, puppies playing, adults hunting and adults feeding. General game was excellent.

The new camp is stunning - 50 nights would not have been long enough!" See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana

"Recently refurbished...the rooms are enormous. Beautiful communal areas including library, bar etc. Staff were excellent and super friendly.

Good range of trips out including the jeep, big boat, on foot... And Wild Dogs!
Moses - our guide - was 5*." See all these reviews: 6n in Namibia; 6n in Botswana

"Loved the refurbished rooms. A bath robe would have been a welcome addition.

Staff were very professional and informative. Camp lacked a feeling of intimacy, not sure if this was because it is newly refurbished. Little in the way of personal touches. Would have liked coffee in room in morning. Would have preferred breakfast before drive and lunch afterwards rather than brunch. All meals were excellent in content. Meal times felt rushed. Had the feeling of a canteen. Did not like that no staff were around between midday and 3.15 pm.

Saw all of the animals that were on wish list and staff went out of their way to ensure this." See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana

"Lovely new rooms that were more like houses. Game a bit sparser here but we did see very small wilddog puppies which was certainly a treat. The boat trip was relaxing but not as interesting as at Kwara. Food was fine without being exceptional.

We shared a vehicle with a family of four, who were very pleasant but with just two rows of seats this could have been a problem in different circumstances (as well as the issue of two people sitting in the middle).

As everywhere there were very nice and enthusiastic staff." See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana

"A wonderful camp - really fantastic accommodation and layout - and a very friendly environment created by the professional staff.

Great expertise, enthusiasm, commitment and customer care from the driver/guide (Carlos) and tracker (James).

Two great activity sightings with the local pack of wild dogs and a long daylight sighting with a pangolin added to the excitement of the game viewings !" See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana

"Our stay at Lagoon coincided with a sharp fall in temperature -we were warned it could get cold in June/July and by golly it did -nearly freezing .
However first impressions were most favourable -a wondeful welcome by staff on arrival and a real wow factor on passing through reception to see the lagoon on the doorstep.
The rooms had not only been recently refurbished but considerably enlarged to the size of small bungalows and by far the most spacious of all the lodges we stayed at. Perhaps not as intimate as other lodges ,especially as tents were not nestled in the trees but other factors more than made up for this
Highlights included
-a wonderfully warm atmosphere among staff,who treated one another with care and respect
-our guide Stan and tracker Bidi .Stan was by far and away the best guide on the whole trip and the others were very good .When we explained we were interested in just about everything and we wouldn't think it a bad day if we didnt see the big 5 ,he positively glowed and used every opportunity to share his considerable knowledge ,using his own hand drawn diagrams and notes to illustrate key points.He is a natural teacher and brought to life the complex interrelationships within the ecosystems of the delta.
-crashing throught the bush to track 3 cheetah brothers
-the camaraderie around the campfire-the camp was full and especially lively
-staff singing and dancing after dinner -led by the incomparable Grace -very moving and joyful
-seeing 72 species of birds in one morning
-bird watching around the lodge and especially from the upper level in the trees
-fishing on the evening boat ride-even though we caught nothing
-good curio shop -grace opened up at 6am so we could buy hats and gloves
It was disappointing not to be able to go on a walking safari but it was explained that because the previous rains had been good , the grass was still very high and so visibility was very restricted.
Not too much animal activity on nightdrives -perhaps the cold?-but we did see striped hyena ,genet and civet
Despite 7 layers of clothing it was extremely cold -the 'bushbaby' hotwaterbottles were welcome but the thin blankets on game drives were not a patch on the fleece lined ponchos" See all these reviews: 11n in Botswana

"Although we weren't lucky enough to see the wild dogs or cheetahs at any of the camps, we were absolutely delighted to see something that had always been a favourite of ours, but we never expected to see on any trip. It was an early evening drive on our first night at Lagoon. We were sitting on the rear seats of the vehicle and since others on the vehicle were mainly looking forward, we were making sure to check around the back side of each termite mound and bush as we passed. It certainly paid off. We were just checking behind one such mound, when we both spotted something fairly small scuttling away. We were so excited we could hardly say the name of the animal to alert everyone – It was a pangolin! Bali, our guide pulled the vehicle to a sudden stop and we all jumped off the vehicle and managed to catch up on foot. To get such a close look at such a rare and magical animal was an absolutely amazing experience. Pangolins are creatures that are associated with luck and we were certainly very lucky.

The new camp at Lagoon is beautiful. The rooms are more like thatched lodges rather than tents are very luxurious and private. The camp is in a lovely location and the view across the lagoon from the room delightful and very relaxing.

The only downside at Lagoon was the vehicles. They are based on the Toyota Hilux and are starting to get very old and unreliable. I think that the worst one was usually left for our guide who was a pretty good bush mechanic too! One evening, we were stuck in deep sand, completely in the dark with no 4WD and the battery failing. He did an excellent job coaxing the vehicle back to camp and although we were probably quite safe in the vehicle, it was still a bit spooky. The following evening, the owner of Kwando Safaris came to see the new camp and dined with us. We raised the condition of the vehicle with him and we were told that replacements were due, but it may take a while to renew the whole fleet." See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana

"Lagoon had been rebuilt about 2 months before we arrived so everything was new and we had the treat of using their new chalets which are very large (more space than you can possibly use) - we did have some issues getting hot water to the room (not sure the plumbing was 100% correct). The camp used the older jeeps but like Kwara were upgrading.

Whilst the camp and camp staff were excellent we had our worst guiding experience here. Our guide and tracker were clearly knowledgeable but we had to ask lots of questions (rather than them volunteering interesting observations) and compared to our other camps we had more difficulty communicating with out guide. Our guide and spotter did do a good job of finding some wild dogs one day using excellent tracking skills, although this came at the expense of seeing other game (as we were in the wrong area for other game) - this meant we spent a long 6 hour morning game drive on that which perhaps wasn't the best thing if you are not massively into wild dogs." See all these reviews: 7n in Botswana; 3n in Zambia