Reviews of Little Kwara
(94%) From 162 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Review of Little Kwara
I could not believe the quality and quantity of animal encounters.
Read more about the whole safari
Lovely intimate camp in the delta.
Excellent guiding but did not feel as friendly in camp as Tau Pan.
Guides and spotters worked well to locate wildlife and we saw cheetah and lots of lions. We were lucky to have the manager Charles take us on some drives and he was excellent.
Great room in a truly wild location.
Review of Little Kwara
Little Kwara is a lovely little camp , well situated and nicely run . Staff welcoming , they don't wear name badges tho ( Kwando policy) which is a shame because it's really not easy to remember everyone's names . I think you can have a better relationship / experience if you know names ( even if you are reading them !!) .
We paid for a private guide and had Duks who was extremely knowledgable on all aspects of flora and fauna of the delta. We learned a huge amount from him . A great sense of humour too. We spent 12 1/2 hrs in the jeep one day tracking a family of cheetah learning to hunt !! . A picnic lunch was brought out to us in the bush which was a real treat while waiting for action from the cheetah. Chester was our tracker and he and Duks made a great team for us. It's the first time in many safaris that we have paid for a private guide and it was absolutely worth it .
My only negative of the camp ( which I said on the Kwando questionnaire) was that there was always a pressure to sit down and get the meal over and done with as quickly as possible . All a bit unrelaxing and unnecessary . We have not experienced this in any other camps. I appreciate the staff want to get finished but actually it was a bit irritating . The pre meal drinks and chat round the bar area really didn't exist and the plates were cleared so quickly from the table. A small point really but I think worth mentioning.
We loved being on the boat and also mokoros , a nice change from the game drives and the opportunity to see other things.
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!
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.
