Reviews of Okuti

"Beautiful intimate and peaceful lodge by the river. The room was stylish, large and clean with a balcony overlooking the river. The staff were were exceptional; welcoming, friendly and helpful, and also very talented! We were treated to some great singing and dancing at dinner times and the food was fabulous.

The game drives were very good. Our guide Solani was very experienced and combined exciting rides with a patient and relaxed style around the animals. We had a sighting of wild dogs, which was incredible. It was very cold first thing in the morning on the vehicle, but we were kept cosy with hot water bottles, blankets and coffee. Sun downers were a treat.

We did the evening river cruise, which provided a different and equally enjoyable aspect to our stay. Sightings of various birds, hippos and even an elephant feeding in the water at the river's edge. Topped off again by a drink and snacks, whilst watching a beautiful sun set." See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe

"I loved this camp also for the included drinks and laundry, its setting on the river and lovely room. The staff were also wonderful and I felt well cared for." See all these reviews: 11n in Tanzania; 6n in Zanzibar; 5n in Botswana; 2n in South Africa; 1n in Zambia; 1n in Kenya

"We really enjoyed our three nights at Okuti. The rooms are spacious, light and well equipped, with the lodge offering luxury but in a friendly, not pretentious way.

All the staff were very welcoming and helpful, ensuring that you felt special. The central area by the water is a lovely place to eat and relax.

A good variety of wildlife can be seen on the game drives and the guide was knowledge." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana; 3n in South Africa; 3n in Zimbabwe

"My cabin, Bee-Eater, was cozy and had easy access to the lodge. The young, hard-working management team made every effort to make my stay comfortable. Manager, Ace, provided exceptional service in working with Expert Africa to rearrange a cancelled flight and transfers to Zambia at the end of my trip.

Very good guiding by Cautious, but I was upset on my first afternoon not to have been "cautioned" that there would be no pit stop on the afternoon cruise, necessitating a painful and rushed return to camp instead of "sundowners on the water."

The food at dinner was poor, but perhaps the chef was unable to give meats such as lamb shank and oxtail the long, low heat, slow cook needed to make them tender.

Wildlife sightings were good. One highlight was to see hippos mating, and another to witness a leopard stalking an impala. Happily the impala won out to live another day!" See all these reviews: 14n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe

"Okuti was the perfect choice for us. There are only seven chalets and staff make every effort to ensure that you have a special experience here. We were surprised by the attention to detail. On arrival, guests are allocated to a guide, who stays with you on all your game drives, escorts you back to your chalet at night etc Our guide was the highly skilled Solly. He was able to spot animals from noticing their slightest movement. This resulted in the high light of our wild life viewing when he saw a tail moving in a tree: it was a leopard's. Solly positioned our jeep so that we could very clearly watch the leopard. On our game drives, Solly shared a lot of fascinating information about all the animals we saw. Most of them we viewed at close quarters. There were four or five guests in each jeep. Guides worked together to share information and that resulted in our second sighting of wild dogs. Solly drove long distances to try to locate lions, but they were not spotted during our stay.

All meals at eaten at one large table with guides joining the guests. Food was very well-cooked and plentiful. A high light for us was a surprise lunch in the bush. Staff had thought of everything, even hot water and soap for you to wash your hands before the meal. Insects were not a problem.

We were allocated a family chalet with two bedrooms. It was very spacious with a comfortable sitting area. There were two sinks, as well as inside and outside showers. Okuit's setting is very peaceful. Rooms overlook the river and each room has a private viewing platform. The chalets are solidly built, but the walls, whilst high, do not reach the ceiling. The gap is filled with mesh to keep out insects, but it still gets very cold at night., We really appreciated the hot water bottles that were put in our bed at night and the hot drink brought to your chalet as a wake up call.

We stayed 3 nights here and think that is a minimum stay. In that time, we had 5 game drives in the jeep and one trip on the river.

." See all these reviews: 5n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe; 2n in Namibia

"I left a piece of my heart in Okuti. The staff were amazing, friendly, helpful. They sang to us before every dinner and one evening invited me to dance with them. It made me forget about how cold the room was because of being open to the elements! Newly awakened love for hot water bottles. And the quantity of animals was amazing.

One odd thing happened which didn't fit with the rest of my experience there. On the third day when we got to the safari vehicle for the morning drive, we noticed the tops had been taken off all the vehicles. Given our experience at AfriCats we knew this would be a problem and asked for the top to be put back on. Our guide was clearly in a bind. He had not agreed with the decision but had been ignored. So Jeanne went to one of the managers and asked for the top to go on and he said of course and made it happen. This took time out of our drive and left us puzzled about why we weren't asked about something like that. It was the same day the manager returned from leave so I assumed it was his decision.

There was also an issue with elephants seeming stressed out with our presence. We asked to move on when the elephant was bellowing and being protective of their young. We asked to move on and get out of their space. The guide ignored us until we got really insistent. We heard later that this area had been a hunting lodge previously and maybe the elephants remembered." See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana; 4n in South Africa; 2n in Zimbabwe

"Okuti is a beautiful camp and we had a wonderful visit there at the start of our Botswana trip. The staff are outstanding and the service excellent, with nothing too much trouble at all. It was Amanda's birthday trip (having had her birthday a few months before) and the staff sprung a lovely surprise on her (I won't reveal it as its a bit of a pattern through our holiday).

Our guide was really good (Solomon) and very knowledgeable and gave us plenty of time at each sighting. We did a boat trip on the afternoon of our first full day and this was the only reason for a slightly lower mark against the activities as we'd have skipped it if we'd been told that it was very likely to be very quiet (quite normal at this time of year). At this time of the season (going into winter) activity on the water was very quiet and felt more like a gentle river cruise that anything else....so we'd suggest checking this if you are visiting in early winter. However.... the following morning Africa did it's usual surprise trick and provided us with a wonderful leopard sighting on the move for 15-20 mins and an exhilarating encounter with Wild Dogs eating and a persistent Hyena trying to grab a snack from them, which resulted in a scrap between them all and a Hyena with a very sore backside (but it did get away with some meat). We had lesser elephant sightings but the one we did was of a massive herd of 60/70 plus some really good hippo sighting too.

Food was excellent and plentiful (and constant!) and the architecture of the camp was quite different to the usual safari style but really blended in well to the surrounding. We stayed two nights which felt about right. All in all a wonderful visit and a great camp to start the trip off!!

A small note, at the time of the year we went it was chilly in the morning and evening... so pack an extra jumper though hot water bottles are provided for the morning trip with blankets!" See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana

"Okuti was an interesting experience. The staff was very nice and they were very attentive to their guests. We had the experience of having staff members sit on either side of us at lunch and dinner so we really didn't get to mingle with the other guests which was fine but odd. There was a Ker and Downey beverage manager in the 1st evening from Lusaka to see how things were going at the camp. Very nice person to chat with.

Service: was excellent especially our guide. The staff knew all guests by name which was nice.

Food: was excellent as well. There was a huge variety at all meals and eggs to order in the morning. Lunch was a buffet and dinner was wait staff walking around with a plate or bowl to serve the contents with each guest. There was 1 evening when we were told there was kudu fillets for dinner everyone at the table except us were served kudu (one of my husbands favorite fillets). Instead we were served beef. We can only assume that they did not have enough kudu fillets and assumed we wouldn't want kudu? When I asked our guide about it he was not able to respond. Sitting away from the other guests and not receiving what was advertised for dinner was rather off putting.

Activities: the game drives were excellent. Moremi had a large variety of animals as well as birds. Moremi was so diverse in its geographical layout where one minute you were in a woodland and then a huge meadow would open up on the next turn.. We got to see Pel's Fish Eagle and Verreaux's Giant Eagle Owl due to our guide's excellent spotting. Seeing those birds was one of the highlight's of our trip. We also appreciated that there were no night game drives which gave us time between game drive's and dinner. People did dress for dinner with some women wearing dresses.

Facilities: The main lodge and the dining area were very nice. We really appreciated the bar area as it was a serve yourself operation. There was chilled water available to fill our water bottles. There was a refrigerator with bottled water and other beverages which was also self serve. This was the best beverage operation we have ever seen in any lodge we have ever seen and enjoyed the self serve.

Rooms: were adequate. There were 2 wing chairs, which was nice, but they seemed to be covered with wool fabric. They were to hot to sit in very long. The issue we had with our room was that we kept finding animal/insect droppings in one area of our room. We kept cleaning them up and they would reappear. We do not know if they were Gecko, bats or rate droppings. There was something in the ceiling chirping at us when we were using the bathroom area. Also the screen above the door to our room had a large fist size hole in it would allowed things to come inside.

This camp was able to provide car batteries for us to hook up our CPAP machines. It disappeared during the day as they were using it and it returned in the evening. So we were not able to use our CPAPs when taking a nap. There was no distilled water offered.

Just an FYI - There was a guest in camp who was very obnoxious. She wanted the staff to sing and dance every night before dinner was served which also involved getting the rest of the guests to dance to the dinner table. We were embarrassed for the staff because this guest was trying to imitate the dancing and singing done by the staff. She looked ridiculous!

We would recommend this camp to others. However it is not the same quality as a Wilderness camp." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana; 6n in Zambia

"Loved the rooms, very unusual architecture , the outdoor shower was great" See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana; 5n in Zimbabwe

"Great experience.

Guiding was great, very flexible and great location.

Rooms were very nice and the staff was great.

They even obtained sun block for us when getting their supplies." See all these reviews: 7n in Botswana; 6n in Zimbabwe; 1n in South Africa