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Sandibe Safari Lodge
Sandibe Safari Lodge
Sandibe Safari Lodge
Sandibe Safari Lodge
Sandibe Safari Lodge
Sandibe Safari Lodge
Sandibe Safari Lodge
Sandibe Safari Lodge
Sandibe Safari Lodge
Sandibe Safari Lodge

Sandibe Safari Lodge


19°27’11.0"S 23°18’8.0"E

Reviews of Sandibe Safari Lodge

Wildlife sightings and reviews

76 independent comments and wildlife information from our travellers who have visited Sandibe Safari Lodge and kindly agreed to share their thoughts. They do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa

Wildlife sightings by our travellers
Starting in May-2018, 10 of our travellers have recorded their wildlife sightings at Sandibe Safari Lodge.
Lion

100% success

Leopard

90% success

Cheetah

50% success

Wild dog

78% success

Elephant

100% success

Giraffe

100% success

Spotted Hyena

100% success

Wildebeest

100% success

Zebra

100% success

Buffalo

89% success

Eland

50% success

Roan antelope

13% success

Aardvark

0% success

Black Rhino

0% success

Hippo

0% success

Pangolin

0% success

White Rhino

0% success

Showing 21-30 of 76
Duration
Arrival date
Mr H & Ms S
Dorking

"Delightful lodge and staff"

5 nights Arrived 14 Dec 2013
"Everything was excellent - the skill and knowledge of the guides and the quality and quantity of wildlife were outstanding.
The friendliness, helpfulness, humour and singing and dancing of the entire staff greatly enhanced the experience.
Hope the rebuilding of the camp, and its expansion with double the accommodation, doesn't change these things." See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Mrs & Mr T
Staffs

"Sandibe Safari Lodge review"

3 nights Arrived 30 Oct 2013
"We had fantastic game viewing, best ever and even saw some smaller nocturnal animals such as porcupine, spring hare, bat eared foxes so very lucky. We did not like being Put at separate tables for meals as we much prefer communal dining so that one can exchange stories about the day with other guests.

Lodge was well managed by Skipper, meals were good and the room was comfortable. The lodge will close at end of 2013 for complete refurb so obviously some parts are looking a bit tired. Interesting to see the new camp." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana; 3n in Zimbabwe
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Good
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Good
Facilities:
Average
Mr & Mrs C
Essex

"Very friendly - an excellent camp"

3 nights Arrived 19 May 2013
"What a wonderful place Sandibe is.

The rooms were fine with all you would need including a safe and a hairdryer. There was a lovely outside deck with two loungers and a table and two chairs which overlooked the river - great for an afternoon of relaxing.

The food was excellent with perhaps too much to eat and drink but nevertheless varied and good quality. We even ate Kudu one evening.

The staff were always happy and smiling and pleased to serve you. Whilst we were there it was our anniversary and the lodge made us a surprise chocolate cake in the shape of a heart plus a bottle of bubbly in our room.

We found the game drives very interesting and saw lion and cheetah within our first hour. Had a good sighting of wild dogs and also leopard. The trackers were excellent as were the guides who drove carefully and thoughtfully with respect for the landscape and terrain.

On our last evening the lodge arranged a few surprises for all the guests, so hope you are lucky to be staying there when this happens." See all these reviews: 9n in Botswana; 3n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Good
Mr & Mrs O
Somerset

"Sandibe - A Return Visit After 11 Years"

4 nights Arrived 19 Apr 2013
"We last visited Sandibe in 2002 and it was the first camp of our first safari holiday. The camp is unchanged but is now in need of some TLC. We understand it is to be pulled down in 2014 and replaced by rooms on stilts as is common across much of the Delta. This may explain the reluctance to carry out renovation work. Sadly they also intend to greatly increase the number of rooms to 15. In our view this will destroy the intimacy and exclusivity of the current formula and we will not return to such a large camp. The concession is already shared with Chitabe and Chitabe Lediba and the extra rooms may result in crowded game drives.

Our stay was a curates egg - excellent in parts. The management, staff and day to day organization were wonderful. The And Beyond practice of allocating guests a personal team of guide, butler and housekeeper was new to us and in camp worked brilliantly. Judy our 'butler' was just perfect. Always smiling, always there when needed and nothing was ever too much trouble. Mmaajo (?) our housekeeper was largely invisible but our room was always 'put back in order' whenever we left it for long enough! One negative aspect of the rooms is a lack of an inside shower. It was unseasonably cold and showering outside became a challenge!

The less perfect member of the team was our guide Gee. We began well enough but it became clear that he had his own agenda which seemed to be driven by an urge to track lion, leopard or dogs interminably and often resulting in anything else en route being given no more than cursory attention. Half way through our stay we were joined by another British couple who had also been taking safari holidays for many years. Gee made no attempt to find out what we wanted to do and became truculent when we made it clear that we were not interested in another fruitless hunt for a pride of lions we had already seen at length twice. On our final morning we had a different guide to take us to the airstrip via a short game drive. Gee had already been out for some hours and when our guide radioed him to ask if he had any sightings his reply was 'Yes, lots.' He made no attempt to pass on sightings or locations, most of which he had made along the route he knew we were taking. When our new guide made a remarkable siting of wild dog he immediately passed it on to Gee. He replied 'Oh yes we saw those there early this morning'!!

Gee said that he had been at Sandibe for 13 years. We suspect this is too long and he has become complacent. The major exciting sighting of a very recent lion kill was made almost entirely by luck. He and the tracker were once again out of the vehicle inspecting leopard spoor when we heard the kill take place close by in thick bush. Had we been driving we would not have heard it. Gee later attributed the sighting to his use of tracking skills and knowledge of nature. A second sighting of the same pride was also pure luck as they walked out of the bush 20 metres from where our team were changing a tyre!

This was an unhappy experience for us balanced only by the efforts of the camp management to bombard us with the most marvellous food in wonderful bush, deck and boma settings. Wilderness please note - not a single instance of tough meat at any time! Aaron and Skipper were marvellous managers but we do not favour the And Beyond practice of separate dining. We find it unnecessarily divisive.

On balance Sandibe seems to have concentrated on the hotel aspects of the experience to the detriment of the game viewing. Witness the availability of a personal butler, housekeeper, masseuse and WiFi. If they are to increase to 15 rooms they will have to address the guiding and revitalise the game drives whatever the season. We also learned that there was plenty of water to operate the electric boat but it had been discontinued/moved as it was 'too slow' and vulnerable to hippo. If the latter is true it must also be true at the camp it has been moved to? More misguided guide influence? Despite the guiding experience we loved our stay but will not return." See all these reviews: 8n in Botswana
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location:
Good
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Average
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Excellent
Ms W
Austria

"Sandibe Safari Lodge review"

3 nights Arrived 8 Apr 2013
"Sandibe has a very nice dining area. Service and food were wonderful. Especially Joshua, the chef, made our stay there a true gourmet experience! The bush dinner as well as the bush lunch at the river were amazing and a great surprise!

Wildlife in the Sandibe area was excellent, we saw cheetah, many leopoards and lions - the focus of the guides was definitely on tracking the cats, even though we kept assuring them that we like relaxed game drives and are also interested in other game and birds. We do appreciate that the guides were working so hard to show us lions and leopards at every game drive in the best position for taking pictures (understanding that many other guests probably put a lot of pressure on the guides in this regard). However, we sometimes felt that the vehicles were destroying a lot of vegetation when offroading and moving so close to animals (lions and leopards) that they felt crowded and moved away.

The manager, Aron, creates a warm and welcoming atmosphere and we enjoyed our stay at Sandibe very much. We were told that the camp will be taken down and rebuilt in the course of next year, with up to 20 new tented chalets. We think that this would be far too many visitors (and cars!) in the area. Wildlife would be affected and the intimate ambiance of the camp would be lost. We believe that 8 chalets are just fine and we would not consider coming back if guest numbers were to be increased." See all these reviews: 16n in Botswana; 2n in Zambia
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Good
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Good
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
The L family
Sweden

"Sandibe Safari Lodge review"

3 nights Arrived 23 Dec 2012
"Great safari and excellent guides. Wildlife was marvellous. We can highly recommend Sandibe." See all these reviews: 6n in Botswana; 6n in Mozambique; 1n in South Africa
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Good
Facilities:
Excellent
Mr & Mrs W
Edinburgh

"Unbelievable game viewing"

3 nights Arrived 17 Nov 2012
"Saw a fantastic amount of game - Numerous Leopard and Wild Dog sightings when we were often the only vehicle - lions became so passe that we barely bothered to stop.

Camp felt a little dingy and run down but may be due to location right on river.
Staff very friendly and obliging.

What impressed us most was the effort that the management and staff made to vary the evening dining experience - from a bush dinner with full table settings etc to simply moving all the dining tables out under the stars to better enjoy the in camp BBQ" See all these reviews: 7n in Mozambique; 6n in Botswana; 3n in Namibia; 1n in South Africa
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Good
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Average
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Average
Mr H
Wickham

"Sandibe Safari Lodge review"

2 nights Arrived 13 Nov 2012
"As I was picked up from the airstrip the guide asked me what I would most like to see. I told him Wild dogs and leopards. Within 5 minutes he had shown me a leopard up a tree - wonderful. Again, the guide and lodge staff were very friendly and helpful.

Numerous lions were seen and another leopard on the last morning's game drive was viewed to round things off nicely." See all these reviews: 13n in Botswana
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Good
Rooms:
Good
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Good
Mr H
Sheffield

"Sandibe Safari Lodge review"

2 nights Arrived 27 Oct 2012
"Excellent guide Tsabo" See all these reviews: 5n in Botswana
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Good
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Good
Mr & Mrs R
Texas, USA

"Sandibe- First Class Service, Excellent Game"

2 nights Arrived 16 Oct 2012
"Skipper, Gift and O.T. were outstanding as was whole staff. Food was excellent and great variety of game." See all these reviews: 5n in Botswana
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location:
Excellent
Service:
Excellent
Activities:
Excellent
Rooms:
Excellent
Food:
Excellent
Facilities:
Excellent
Showing 21-30 of 76
94%
76 reviews of Sandibe Safari Lodge by travellers since August 2007
Overall rating by our travellers
61
11
3
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1
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