Reviews of Zarafa Camp
(100%) From 13 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Our favorite stay
We LOVED our guide "Coupe", we LOVED our room, and we loved the couple that shared the vehicle with us.
This was our favorite lodge of the trip. The breakfast out in the wild was incredible. The bubble bath and private dinner for our anniversary was so special, a memory of a lifetime. We saw giraffes mating, we saw an enormously wide variety of antelope and birds, we saw prides of lions. There could not be a better guide nor tracker than Coupe.
Our only suggested improvements for this camp have to do with food. The dinner under the stars had us sitting in a row, instead of facing each other. It was strange. And we would have wished for some light snacks in our room. Otherwise, everything was incredible.
We would definitely return to this luxurious and small camp.
Luxury Glamping in the Bush
Our experience at Zarafa was nothing short of magical! My husband and I loved the intimate nature of the camp, which boasts just four "tents" and allowed us to feel as though we had been welcomed into the home of our most delightful and gracious hosts, Saskia and David. Both went above and beyond to ensure our stay was comfortable and memorable, and we thoroughly enjoyed their company; sharing our daily experiences and shooting the breeze around the campfire and dining table was such a treat! Additionally, all of the staff at Zarafa are incredibly accommodating; no ask is too small!
Game drives with our expert safari guide, Pete, were fantastic! He went out of his way to ensure we were able to complete another spotting of the big 5 and obtain incredible photographs. During the duration of our stay, we had sightings of several different animals--too many to mention them all--but we did have an incredible encounter with a leopard and no fewer than 40 elephants around a water hole!
On our last full day, Pete took us on a full day game drive, starting well before the crack of dawn and ending well after sunset (talk about stamina, patience, and a passion for game!), and, along with other members of the fantastic staff, surprised us with a several course lunch in the bush. What a day! But it did not end there, for when we returned, our lovely hosts and their incredible staff had drawn a hot bath for us that was followed by private dinner served to us in our tent--a brilliant and romantic end to the day!
Every meal at Zarafa is out-of-this-world delicious and high-end restaurant worthy. You can tell that an incredible amount of time and thought is given to the menu, which is extremely varied and flavorful!
Our "tent" was extremely luxurious and spacious, with a comfortable seating area that was perfect for relaxing mid-day when not on a drive, a delightful bed, and a bathroom featuring a stunning copper soaking tub. We shouldn't neglect to mention the copper gas heaters, which were extremely useful when warming up the tent in the evenings and mornings!
It is not a question of if we will be back to Zarafa, but merely when!
Outstanding experience, up close and personal
Very small exclusive camp. Stunning water front position. Hippos and Elephants wandering close by, very close by.
A very intimate experience - like a very special house party. Fabulous food - passionate young chef.
We visited a lioness with several young cubs - watched her play with them - so self satisfied - a very proud lioness.
On the last night we were taken into the bush for a BBQ. Such attention to detail.
A wonderful place.
Wow! Didn't want to leave even after 5 days!
This camp is something like, "Out of Africa"! Everything and everyone we met were perfect! This camp has got absolutely everything right. The staff at the camp from the top down were all professional, charming, knowledgable and felt like friends when it came time for us to leave!
Motts, our guide, was outstanding. He was an amazing tracker, host, and guide and he shared experiences with us we have never had before, and probably never will again. We will always remember the double buffalo kill, mother and a calf by the two male brother lions on our last night. The adrenalin flowed while we witnessed the chase, the kill and the sadness under a full moon. We stayed for several hours in very low light watching the brothers at work. The story continued the next morning when the whole pride, including young cubs came to feed. We even saw several lions cross the water to get to the kill.
Motts showed us so much, leopards, cheetah, roan, which we'd never seen before, lions, ........... And the list went on.
Life at the camp was fabulous. The setting is stunning and there was always a large variety of animals a birds visiting outside the main viewing deck. Lots of action in the camp as well with elephants walking through, destroying the odd tree and a Marshall eagle sitting with it's prey, a slender mongoose, in one of the camp trees.
The food was out of this world. Hermann, the chef, created healthy, colourful, varied meals which were always outstanding, and food you'd expect to experience in a top city restaurant!
Our host Willem, apologies if I've spelt it incorrectly, was charming, enthusiastic and great to talk and spend time with. He has a great outlook and life and runs a very happy camp. Nothing was ever too much trouble.
This camp, although expensive, was well worth the money. It exceeded our expectations in every way. The Great Plains Consevation company that hold this concession are doing a phenomable job!
Zarafa Camp review
Beautiful camp,awesome food,very good guide.
We had a wonderful stay.
Perfection
Somewhere the minute you arrive you are already planning how you can return.
Just stunning in every aspect, location, design,wildlife viewing and staff. Exceptional knowledge and great company from our guide Lets. You could just stay in camp all day and watch the scenery and elephants passing by but there are boat trips at sunset to be taken and wild dogs to follow. The rooms may be very impressive but they still manage to keep a bush feel. Hippos and hyena calls surround you at night.
A great variety of delicious food and the choice of joining in for laughs at the dinner table or having a romantic private meal for two.
Zarafa Camp review
Amaizing service in overall. You feel at home.
The food is also gorgeous, thanks for the chef for being so inventive!
Can life get any better?
Absolutely fantastic. All the same comments apply as with Vumbura.
[Ed: their comments were: "A wonderful camp with fantastic rooms and amazing views in the heart of the bush. Brilliant management team, guides, staff and hippos that definitely went bump in the night! We can't praise it enough."]
A special mention about our guide Dux. What a larger than life character and we loved him.
Probably the best guide we ever had and certainly the most fun.
Zarafa spectacular!
An amazing place to end a trip.
Sheer luxury in the bush - but without ever feeling that this lodge had lost touch with its purpose of providing a real safari adventure. Zarafa has a strong emphasis on the environment with solar panels providing the majority of the electricity. But this was in all respects an A* experience.
Tess and Stuart are young but committed, expert (naturalists by training) and delightful hosts.
The camp is well-run; nothing seems to be too much trouble and there is greater flexibility here, given the small number of tents, to do whatever you like, whenever you like. The facilities are outstanding with indoor shower and bath plus a dramatic outside shower (sourced from a Parisian house of ill-repute!) overlooking the lagoon: the nearest to safely bathing with hippos you could ask for. A particularly nice touch is the loan of a camera with 100-400mm lens plus CD download to take home.
Chef Comfort deserves the first Botswana Michelin star - unbeatable quality and presentation. The lodge site gives you dining with incredible views over the lagoon where hippos and elephants frolick. We even saw wild dogs from the deck. Some of the game viewing was superb (although on occasion we did have to search which may have been a result of the exceptional flood waters). Steve, our guide, was enthusiastic and eagle-eyed.
Zarafa Camp review
Zerafa camp is relaxed and peaceful which helps bring you back down to earth after seeing all the wonderful animals and birds on the drives.
When travelling in July and the Expert Africa agent says 'it will be cold in the morning' believe her, its true. What was handy was the camp had a laptop so I could download images from my camera as I had run out of memory; they then burned a CD for me so I could clear the memory chip and take lots more shots.
There were so many highlights, like seeing cheetahs, leopards and lions all on one drive or one night getting jabbed in the ribs for snoring when it was the hippos grunting outside our tent. One of the best was stopping on an afternoon drive to have Gin and Tonics by the lagoon and watch the stunning sunsets.
