Reviews of Lagoon Camp

"We stayed at Splash Camp for 3 days 1st & now 3 days to stay at Lagoon Camp. We had such a great experience in our 1st ever safari at Splash Camp we really had no expectations here at Lagoon Camp. This Camp is right on the water & the days (Aug. 6th) were just starting to get hot, so being close to water this felt a lot cooler for us right away. The rooms at the Camp were fantastic, lots of room to spread out & views along the river. The overall camp facilities are a bit dated & some maintance needed, i.e.all the tiles from pool missing, but we had the most volume of animals in close conditions here. Our experiences from watching large pride of lions get into position to hunt Cape Buffilo, to tracking a leopard for nearly an hour that finally roars at us & runs away to following Wild Dog pack line up trotting military style & narrowly missing antelope. Night drive disclosed young lions trying to figure out how to get a porcupine over without getting stuck. All the time we are mere feet away watching the events unfold. We had no idea it could be even better then we already experienced at our 1st safari. Even more close sights & large volumes of pride, herd, packs every type of animal except Rhino, but none of us were disappointed didn't see this 1 animal. So much to see in river rides & land safari's. Cannot say enough good things about the service and people running the camp. The encounters & especially the guides Gee & PD were amazing at tracking & positioning vehicles right in the middle of all the action. Many times it was only the 4 of us, along with our 2 guides." See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe

"We had to fly from Kasane to reach this camp. Due to a last-minute cancellation we were the only passengers for this 1-hour flight.

Unfortunately, we only spent 2 nights at this camp. The views of the river in front of our room were superb. There was a full charging station in the room, which included 2 Usb outlets and we were able to charge all our devices at the same time. The rooms were huge and very well appointed and food was excellent. We had early morning game drives starting after an early breakfast (sitting around the campfire) and returning for a full breakfast. After our last camp, it was nice to have some time to ourselves before tea and the afternoon game drive at 4pm. We enjoyed just sitting on our balcony and watching an elephant feeding on the river bank right in front of our room. He eventually swam over to our side of the river to continue grazing. Hippos were also in plain view, going in and out of the water.

The highlight of this trip was finding a pride of lions feeding on a roan antelope. In all there were 2 males, 2 females and 7 cubs all competing for the spoils. We sat there for ages just taking it all in. The next day, we went back to the same location so the new arrivals could also experience this sight. This was the only camp where we had a tracker in addition to the guide. On day 2 we followed lion tracks for a couple of hours without success, but did see a huge herd of buffalo. Unfortunately, we did not see any wild dogs as they were apparently denning.

We stopped by the river (with hippos) for sundowners and to watch the sunset. A full bar had been put out on a table, again an unexpected surprise. Driving back to camp at night was uneventful. The nights were very noisy with the sounds of hippos in the river.

Again, a wonderful experience with no negatives." See all these reviews: 11n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe

"Lagoon is as always a wonderful camp with lovely, friendly, helpful staff, noisy hippos, good food and again the personal touches which make it so special. Nothing is too much trouble.

As our trip was a special celebration, one evening we returned to find a card and present on the bed and at dinner some of the staff appeared singing “Happy Birthday” and carrying a delicious, decorated cake with candles. It was a wonderful surprise and much appreciated.

Again we had some amazing sightings both during the day and at night when spot-lighting thanks to some excellent work by both the guide and the tracker. Among the highlights were the tracking down of two cheetah brothers, as well as sightings of sable, roan and porcupine." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe

"The situation and the facilities are magnificent. Better than both Little Vumbura and Gomoti.

But, food and service very poor.
Breakfast before a drive: porridge and cereal and sponge cakes. No proper orange juice. No cheese. No fruit. (Although i did get some cheese and fruit by asking for it; but why not put it out.) No eggs. No meat, cold or hot (bacon). (But they did produce specially strong coffee for the Notts every day after we had asked for stronger on the first morning.)
Lunch unimaginative and again only boring fruit: apples.
Dinner very poor and dull food. e g overly spiced lentil soup followed by dry tasteless roast chicken underdone carrots and tinned peas . No choice.
Very hot Mexican soup followed by shredded beef ( dry and tasteless ) cold stir fried broccoli, cold stuffed gem squash . Inedible bullet like chocolate donut to finish. No choice of wine unless one asked for it. Service, particularly of wine, incredibly slow.

We had a torch in our room. It didn't work. And when we went to the management they said "It's a wind up torch". But no-one had explained this to us (and we left the torch as we were about go on a drive and it did not get back to the room).

I suspect a combination of not enough staff and no proper management of the staff that were there.

Night drives are a waste of time unless you are a fanatic. In all our trips, we saw half a civet, half a hare, and a black backed jackal. And we saw the jackal in daylight which was much more use.

We did have a wonderful sighting of lion cubs with Spencer and James.

The other guides spent far too much time talking on the radio turned up very loud. Much of what was said appeared to be either repetitive or idle chatter or both, and it was very distracting and off putting. Radio transmissions should be kept to a minimum and when made should be as brief as possible.

Problems of communication. Language was a problem. They did not have a good grasp of Enlish. One example only. We asked the camp to get their office in Maun to reserve us seats on a booked BA fllight as we could not do it ourselves as there is no wifi. We gave them all the details to allow them to access the BA website and told them to do so after 7.20 pm on the day we handed the details over as we could not reserve seats earlier without paying. First they came back about 6 pm and said we had to pay. Then, when we again explained they had to do it after 7.20, they went off and, in effect, never came back. We did eventually get our flight details paper back but not reservation.

For sighting details see my separate e-mail." See all these reviews: 12n in Botswana; 3n in Zambia

"Lovely welcome. Accommodation comfortable and well equipped.
Excellent food.
Very good guide and tracker with good information.
Despite only staying one night we saw a number of animals in that 24 hours.
Beautiful location by a river, close to hippos and elephants, and one or two crocodiles." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana

"This was our favourite camp because of its location right on the river with hippo coming and going, as well as other animals coming to drink. Plenty of game but still needed to have a skilled tracker to find it. We really liked the tracking experience.

Also liked the the Kwando model of having a guide and a tracker for each truck. This was especially important for the night drives which were rather uninteresting when there was only one guide/driver searching for night-time beasts. Also Kwando camps were private concessions allowing off-road exploration and a maximum of 3 trucks per 'action site' so there was never overcrowding of the tourists or by the tourists." See all these reviews: 11n in Botswana

"Good to see plenty of water after being at Gomoti Plains! River outside had lots of often amusing hippo activity.

Elephants in abundance - even delayed our arrival at the camp and in getting from chalet to the bar.

Great staff and great sightings including aardwolf, jackal and one wild dog." See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana

"The beautiful position by water channel full of hippos and water lillies is enhanced by atmospheric thatched bungalows which are endowed with a bathroom with bathtub, comfy leather chairs and a cool breezy deck where one can view kingfishers, hippos and other daily life on the river. Heaven!

The safaris were as exciting and varied as one could wish with lions, elephants, a profusion of birdlife, hippos and antelope including red lechwe, impala, kudu etc. Very impressed by the large numbers of hippos. Didn't see wild dogs, but not for want of trying. The staff were exceptional, their cheerful teamwork reflecting genuine enjoyment of their lovely camp.

Cannot fault the experience here and will be my top priority to come back." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe

"Lagoon Camp has large, beautifully furnished tents facing the river, each with a verandah that makes the perfect spot for viewing the numerous animals that visit the river. The location enables Lagoon to offer boat trips, which make a peaceful and relaxing alternative to a game drive.

One of us has mobility challenges, and the staff could not have been more helpful, finding ways to make it easier to get and out of the vehicle and negotiate steps and ramps within the camp.

We had a great team in our guide and tracker, Poster and KT. The wildlife was amazing: numerous antelope species, including roan; zebra, elephant, giraffe, hippo, baboon. We had wonderful close-up encounters with two magnificent male lions; witnessed lions mating; found a beautiful female leopard lounging in a tree; and after a hectic chase through the bush, saw a wild dog kill.

We also saw, for the first time, brown hyena." See all these reviews: 10n in Botswana

"This was our first safari so we did not know what to expect, but this surpassed anything we had dreamt of. Poster our guide and James our tracker were first class and so knowledgeable and knew just where to go and see the wildlife,which was plentiful, we were also lucky enough to see wild dogs, brown hyenas, a civet, serval and leopard as well.
The staff were really friendly and efficient and looked after us well with great food. Our cabin/tent was perfect, roomy, very comfortable and blessed with a wonderful outlook over the lagoon where we could watch numerous different animals and birds. The whole experience was excellent, the time just passed too quickly." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe