Reviews of Sossus Dune Lodge
(89%) From 123 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Sossus Dune Lodge review
Nice place to stay, staff excellent apart from management team who did not appear to be clear about local site seeing, advised us that at Elan Dune trip we would see the same as Sousevilli Dune trip which is extremley not the case.
Read more about the whole safariSossus Dune Lodge review
This camp is really first class and I would have no hesitation in giving it five stars.
The staff without exception were all so friendly and helpful from the first moment we arrived until we finally left feeling that we had struck gold.
This camp is inside the park, and has the advantage that you can go out very early and stay late. Our guide, Rambo, was incredibly knowledgeable and went to endless trouble to ensure we had a great time.
This was one of our highlights.
Sossus Dune Lodge review
A great location and very spacious accommodation. The pool area needed some shade but the pool was very warm and in a lovley setting.
The lounge and dining room were welcoming, although we had all our meals on the terrace overlooking the small waterhole.
We had booked to do a balloon flight through Expert Africa while we were staying here. It was a wonderful experience watching the sun come up and then having a champagne breakfast in the desert. Eric the owner of the company gave us a superb flight - an expensive trip but worth every penny.
Sossus Dune Lodge review
This was a flaw in our programme, both because of its proximity to Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge (less than an hour by road) and the lodge per se.
NWR, government sponsored, had poured a lot of money into building this lodge, but the staffing was appalling - the majority of the staff seemed to have been there only a couple of weeks, having been recruited from unrelated jobs such as parking attendant, and were lacking in training.
The activities of the two lodges were the same, and having done the dune excursion at Sossus Dune, Sossuvlei Mtn Lodge had to put on a drive they don't normally do, to entertain us. It would have been better to have done the dune excursion with Sossusvlei, as they have an air conditioned closed vehicle for this drive, whereas we endured Sossus Dune open jeep for over an hour, at speed, on the 'main' road.
The rooms were incredibly hot - we and all our products liquified - and the outlook not scenic. The 'desert' chalets looked out on a pile of shale, put there to hide the parking area.
Sossus Dune Lodge review
What a disappointment! Although the lodge may technically within the boundaries of the park, in fact it's 5 kms from the entrance and thus is further from Sossusvlei than Sossusvlei Lodge.
The chalets stand below a high basalt cliff and, since they face west, get unbearably hot. There are no ceiling fans. Moreover, unlike the chalets at Doro Nawas with their wide sliding doors, the bedrooms at SDL have no less than nine narrow tilting windows (see photo in brochure) and the only access to the rear shadeless deck is via the central back door. Whoever designed this accommodation should be shot!
The food too was unimpressive. The only choice at dinner was between two different meats and this was brought to the table already plated with the vegetables. And for this they have the gall to charge N$1775.5 per person per day HB.
Quite frankly, we think Expert Africa should abandon this place.
Expert Africa comments
We’re really sorry that this lodge was a disappointment, and we put these comments to the team at Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR).
This traveller is perfectly correct: Sossusvlei Lodge is much closer to the gate than Sossus Dune Lodge. However, we must also note that Sossus Dune Lodge is inside the national park, and Sossusvlei Lodge is outside the gate. Due to the closing times of the park gate, guests from Sossus Dune Lodge can access the great dunes of Sossusvlei much earlier, and stay much later, than those at Sossusvlei Lodge.
These travellers visited this lodge in late-October, which is Namibia’s hottest period.
Sossus Dune Lodge was designed without air-conditioning to minimise its environmental footprint. Part of the original ‘brief’ to the designer was, we’re told, to design a lodge that would remain comfortable even when it is very windy in this area (sometimes there are high winds and small sand-storms here). He did this by designing solid chalets, and limiting how the windows open. However, it’s now clear that, during the hottest parts of the year, this helps to make the chalets far too enclosed and hot!
We’ve spoken to the NWR team, and they’re actively looking at altering the design to make it more comfortable during these hotter periods, to help cool the chalets down.
Sossus Dune Lodge review
A superb lodge. Very new, huge room with excellent facilities, including large fridge. Excellent food and service. Ask for a higher numbered chalet near to waterhole - ours (number 3) was remote from that view.
Lodge was less than half full so it is to be hoped that service levels can be maintained when it is full. Chalets are nicley arranged for reasonably good privacy. Pre-dawn (because lodge is inside park) trip to Sossuvlei well worth while but you need a good fleece as well as supplied warm poncho - it is COLD!
Sossus Dune Lodge review
Wonderful setting; very friendly service which was not always very efficient.
Fantastic situation for visiting Sossusflei, but travelling in the early morning in an open Land Rover, we were as cold as we have been in years.
Wonderful location
We really appreciated the welcome, friendliness and enthusiasm of all the staff. The location inside the park was a real bonus.
The guide was very good.
Sossus Dune Lodge review
This is fairly new and up-market lodge in an enviable location. Set against a back-drop of rugged low lying mountains, with views across a vast plain to the dunes, there is a canyon on your door-step, and you can beat the hordes to the dunes as you're inside the gate and don't have the restriction of waiting for sun-rise to enter the area.
The chalets (mountain or dune view) won't fail to put a smile on even the most seasoned traveller's lips. You can sit on your balcony without seeing the other chalets due to the clever way they've staggered them. Food is of reasonably high standard, and drinks were surprisingly good value.
When we visited, however, the manager was away, and his deputy was standing in. He was eager to please, and helped sort out a booking mess up which threatened to spoil our stay. That said, during our 2 night's stay, there was an air or disorganisation about the place, culminating in us almost missing our balloon flight. We were told to meet at the reception at 6am. Wake-up calls had been arranged, but these never happened. There was nobody to meet us at 6 at the reception, except a security guard, who wasn't particularly helpful. By 6:10, we were concerned something had gone wrong. Knowing this was a balloon flight, we didn't have time to dither, and following the advice of the guard, decided to drive to the main gate, where we assumed our lift would be. There was nobody to drive us to the car-park. Normally this isn't a problem in the day, but it was pitch black, and you literally couldn't see where you were going without a torch. We eventually met our pick-up vehicle on the road, half way to the main gate.
Ultimately, the pick-up vehicle was late, and not the fault of the lodge, however, it just felt as though the lodge hadn't made to effort to supply at least one person who could be around to coordinate.
All the above aside, this is a great place to stay, and we would recommend staying here.
Sossus Dune Lodge review
The rooms are very attractive and well designed, and the location is excellent, being inside the park. But the service is completely chaotic, to the point of being comical. The staff are friendly and pleasant, but even the simplest request seems to cause total confusion.
We did not make use of the guiding here, since it seemed rather over-priced for what is really just a drive to the dunes, so we drove ourselves instead.
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.
