Reviews of Little Kwara
(93%) From 159 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
| 
A gem in the delta
What a special place! The staff, the accommodations, the food; all wonderful. Everybody there makes you feel special.
Having been to other Kwondo camps, it seems that the welcoming feel is a hallmark of the company. We can't say enough good things about little Kwara
A fabulous experience and excellent safari.
Staying at Little Kwara is an unforgettable experience. It is an absolute treat to be able to stay in the heart of the Okavango Delta, and to have the opportunity to experience such amazing safaris every day.
The camp is beautiful and basic, and the staff are wonderful. The safaris are in open top vehicles with a maximum of 6 people to a truck, and the guides are amazing - it was a privilege to be driven around the delta (sometimes at pace!) by guides with such experience, and we learnt so much from them every day.
All the food and drink were of excellent quality, we were consistently amazed at what the chefs were able to produce in the middle of nowhere!
Again it would have been good to have it highlighted to us that there is no air conditioning in the rooms. We completely understand why this is the case, but it gets unbearably hot in the middle of the day and there isn't much respite from the heat.
Fantastic - we loved this place
The game drives were briliiant - we saw so much and had so many exciting experiences. The lodge itself was friendly, comfortable and had just the right "feel".Our guide and tracker were both friendly and enthusiastic.
A very minor point was that the plunge pool seemed seriously over-chlorinated - after cooling off in the pool for 10 minutes, my skin was badly irritated afterwards. A cold shower sorted that out for me, but I didn't fancy using the pool again afterwards. However because I was enjoying my time there so much I forgot to mention this to the management, but I'm sure this is something that they can easily rectify.
Little Kwara review
Whilst we appreciated that we were in a wild part of Africa, the previous camps had provided very acceptable accommodation and food. Unfortunately in this last camp, the food was not of the same quality, we felt that one or two of the staff were rather inconsiderate, and the water servicing on the 'tent' was poor. I did complain and the manager had an attempt at cleaning the water but to no avail.
This was disappointing, as this was our last camp on a wonderful trip. This let the camp down, and the overall standard of the trip, but we should say that the game drives led by TJ and Chester were first class, and that they managed to bring the standard up to a decent overall level, which is the reason that we have scored it as excellent - after all, we were in Botswana to see the animals, not to have five star experience!! However, we feel that you should mention this to the manager at Little Kwara.
TJ was our guide and Chester the tracker, and they were probably the best on our trip. Very few animals on our first drive were close, but came across zebra, wildebeest and lioness, and our first sundowner here was the best sunset yet. Returned to the lioness who had her cubs with her now, and as soon as she called them they ran back immediately. Tracking cheetah and found the large male after an hour or so, and waited for him to settle - lovely to watch him relax and wander beside our jeep. Huge herd of buffalo and coffee by a hippo pool, and later on found another pack of wild dogs, with red lechwe running through the water. Saw a honey badger which was quite unusual, and coffee with hippo and crocodile.
Very hot on our second day, and not far from the camp we saw some tracks. Followed them into a swampy area, where we found a lioness with her recently killed warthog. She was covered in mud from the fight, but fed and then dragged it into a large scrubby bush to hide it from others. Off she went to get her cubs, and we went back for brunch. We returned to the kill later in the afternoon to find the lioness and her cubs had nearly finished off the warthog, with them all laying around clearly full up.
Went on a boat trip to see The Rookery, a bird covered island. Many birds of differing types nesting there, and from the boat's top deck we were on a level with them. Good to go on a boat trip, but needed to cover our faces from the many midges etc. on our return. We saw a large hyena, and were following lion tracks when we spotted a leopard. He was quite nervous, hid in a bush and came out in a rush growling and running away from us. A beautiful sight, and apart from the baboons that had to be chased away from the landing strip, a fitting end to our safari.
Little Kwara review
This camp was good but we were a bit disappointed by the guiding. The buildings and rooms were very good and comfortable. The food and service around the camp was of high quality.
The guide assigned to us didn't listen to what we wished to do at our arrival. We were the only arrival that day and the rest of the guests were leaving. We therefore seemed to get shooed into what he wanted us to do. We enjoyed parts of the water safari down to the heronry but the trip on the boat was too fast at times and coming back we just had flies hitting us in the face. It was too far in the time available.
One of the trips we had a different guide who was the manager of the camp. He took only the two of us out. We had a wonderfully interesting and good safari with a lioness and a lot of other game. The contrast was notable. The original guide did find some other game later and was pleasant enough but the first impression was not too good. Interestingly we met other people who went to both here and lagoon and they had similar concerns about the guiding feeling that it was the mangers fault.
Basic Camp + Excellent Bird/Wildlife Viewing
Little Kwara was the most basic camp of the 4 that we stayed at in Botswana. We were a little concerned by the number of insects inside our room and the lack of mosquito nets around the bed when we first arrived. However, the staff that sprayed the room whilst we ate our evening meals were clearly experts as we were not in the least bit troubled by insects as we slept. An elephant with a bad case of flatulence that arrived in the early hours one night did disturb our sleep, but we did not mind.
Game drives were very good with excellent lion and wild dog sightings, plus the only cheetah sighting of our 8 day stay in Botswana. The night drive was very good too, with sightings of a genet and several bush babies.
A particular highlight, and good reason on it's own to stay at Little Kwara, was a boat ride to a heronry in Moremi National Park. Highly recommended!
Food was good and the staff were very friendly.
We were able to charge camera batteries in a cupboard behind the bar.
the dogs were amazing at Little Kwara
We are not dog people, and we really didn't care if we saw the dogs or not. I had no idea just how exciting it would be to watch them hunt, and to watch and learn about their family interactions.
Hobbs, our guide, told us, "Hang on." Off he zoomed, and I do mean zoomed. With heels down, and legs wide-spread, we braced ourselves as Hobbs accelerated across country. He said the dogs were hunting--he could tell by the impala's speed and straight-line run. Sure enough, we see first one dog then another. They are spread out trotting along making use of of all the old island mounds to look around. Unlike any pack of dogs I've ever seen, these dogs were hunting independently though moving as a group making a wide sweep of the area. When several of the dogs gave chase--the impala leaping and bounding--Hobbs drove the vehicle hard, slowing only to navigate through pockets of dense brush. When we happened on the dominate male standing alone Hobbs knew they had given up on those impala. We followed the male, watching as he listened to locate the remainder of the pack.
By now, multiple Kwando vehicles were giving chase following different dogs. One vehicle happened on a successful kill. Hobbs aggressively out drove another vehicle to get us #2 arrival on the scene. The dog was devouring the impala, ripping it to pieces, swallowing without chewing. When the 3rd (Kwando policy--no more than 3-vehicles on a scene) arrived it begged for us to move so it could have a better view. Hobbs said it was first-come, first-serve, we needn't move unless we wanted. Of course we moved; treat others like you would like to be treated.
Whichever dog is successful in making a kill, gulps down as much as it can as fast as it can, then signals to the other dogs to feed while s/he goes back to feed the pups by regurgitating the chunks it swallowed. Only the dominant male and female reproduce, then the entire family pack supports the upbringing of the one litter. We counted 16-puppies, so thus far the entire litter has survived. The group dynamics are astounding. I'm so glad we were able see this.
Also while at Little Kwara, we had a wonderful encounter and photo-op with a male cheetah; watched a morning puppy-feed and the resultant tug-a-wars and other games; watched and listened from a very short distance as 2-hyenas crunched on what remained of an impala's skeleton; and spent an entire day at the heronry watching and photographing the many different birds' antics, nest-building, feeding of chicks, grooming, mating, etc.
An amazing stay at Little Kwara!
Loved Little Kwara
A small camp with an intimate feel to it. Friendly welcoming staff. Kwando has a rather formulaic approach to the daily activities but it seems to work vey well.
Huge variety of game with the current star attraction the wild dogs and their puppies. Heavy emphasis on game tracking and fascinating to watch the interaction between the guide and the tracker which is not a feature in most Botswana camps. Boat trip to the heronry well worth it - even if not an avid bird fan then go for the sunset. Mokoro trip very relaxing (even with the hippos) and informative.
A nice time of year to visit - a bit chilly first thing in the morning but not too hot during the day.
Loved Little Kwara
As soon as we arrived at Little Kwara we knew we were going to love it. Charles, the manager, along with all the staff were passionate, enthusiastic, efficient and friendly - all you could hope for on holiday.
The camp was great and our tent - No 1 - comfortable and private being the only one on one side of the main camp. The view was of the floodplains with local residents such as kudo and impala visiting daily. Food was very good and plentiful and service excellent.
Dutch was a most knowledgeable guide and along with Kelly, our tracker, wonderful company. They went out of their way to show us as much as possible and were more than happy to extend the game drives whenever anything special turned up. The highlight of our trip was visiting the den of 16 wild dog pups and we were lucky enough to be there when some adults arrived back from a hunt. It was amazing to see them regurgitating their kill to feed the pups plus alpha female/baby sitters with the sound being phenomenal - I'm so glad I managed to film it to get all the sound!
One night drive we witnessed a fierce and noisy encounter between an intruder, adult male lion and a young male resident - more great soundtrack, and the next night we followed a huge black-maned resident male with the furriest black tummy ever! We saw more giant eagle owls than ever before and a serval hunting and even had a snake encounter ............ well, a purple roller had the encounter when he attacked and ate a small snake swallowing it from head to tail.
Oh, how could I forget - on our very first drive we followed two cheetah brothers as they stalked, ambushed, chased and killed a lone impala stag. The next morning the two brothers looked more like very pregnant females with their tummies almost dragging on the floor - priceless. We were so glad they didn't get disturbed whilst feasting. Once again we were thankful we had paid for a private guide/vehicle as it meant Dutch could drive as slowly and carefully as possible to avoid jarring my husband's back - and having experienced the very same back complaint himself, Dutch was the best possible person for the task!
All in all we loved our time at Little Kwara and would return tomorrow given the chance. Thank you one and all.
Just Wonderful
Last stop on our six day safari and probably my favourite camp - very small and possibly less luxurious but great atmosphere - lion in camp one morning, charged by hippos whilst on boat trip.
We were looked after by Hobbs and Justice/TJ and Chester - fantastic guides and trackers who made sure we had an amazing time - family of wild dogs with 6 week old puppies.
Ocavanga Delta is one of the seven wonders of the world!!
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
