Reviews of Olive Grove
(88%) From 338 travellersThey do not necessarily represent the views of Expert Africa.
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Olive Grove is Comfortable
Olive Grove Guest House is a mixture of reasonable quality renovated rooms and some rather tired aspects. I stayed in two different renovated rooms over a couple of visits. The positives are a firm comfortable bed, a refurbished bathroom in an interesting concrete/cement style which to my mind complements the dry and "desert" nature of Windhoek and Namibia and there are basic comforts such as a stocked fridge and minimalist furniture.
Less attractive aspects where the total darkness and lack of any form of reception when I arrived around 10.30pm (was let in by security guard), there was no indication about the quality of the drinking water, there was no complimentary bottled water provided ($N18.00 for a small bottle from the bar fridge) and you were pretty much left to your own devices. The lighting in my rooms was good in the bathroom area but very limited in the bedroom with minimal room lighting.
There is a "plunge" pool and quite nice umbrella seating over several levels and wi-fi worked quite well in these public areas. It tended to drop out once in your room.
During "normal" trading hours the staff where cheerful and helpful and worked hard to sort out some transfer difficulties with a separate company. The downstairs dining area was well presented with a modest buffet and quality "full cooked" breakfast and other meals were generally tasty and of good quality and, along with the drinks service, reasonably priced. It is located a fair distance from anything else of much interest and this would be OK if walking is your thing, otherwise you are pretty well stuck or need a taxi.
It is quite noisy with loud barking from neighbourhood dogs being a bit of a pest and the noisy, squeaky security gate starts around 0500 hours as movements of the day start.
Overall, it is a mid level quality place which is comfortable for the "standard" overnight stay as you transit Windhoek. I suspect if you were contemplating a longer stay you might prefer a more up market place and convenient location.
Adequate
The Olive Grove provides adequate accommodations for an overnight stay, although having seen the place I now believe there are probably better places in the same price range. The pictures on the internet make the rooms look a fair bit nicer than they really are. On our first night's stay, we had a room that didn't seem to have had its update/upgrade so didn't look like the photos on the website. The shower was virtually unusable, the hot water tap on one of the sinks didn't work, we could hear conversation clearly from the next room, and we couldn't connect to wifi unless we were outside on the patio. But, the bed was comfortable and clean.
On the second night, we stayed in a room on the main floor, next to the reception area. We weren't bothered by noise from the reception area as dinner is over early and we arose before breakfast started. However, we were awakened at 4:00 am by bright lights shining directly into our bedroom window from the parking lot. Also, the only shower was in the tub, which was slanted so a bit dangerous to stand in. The water sprayed onto the bathroom floor and when we used the bathmat to dry up the floor we were disgusted to see the bathmat turn a dirty brown. Ugh...
On the upside, the staff were all very friendly and helpful. The meals were good and the pick up and drop off area - which is a gated area right outside reception - was very convenient.
A fun place to end our holiday
Windhoek was a bit of a culture shock having come from the desert - thankfully the Olive Grove is tucked in the back streets and not too lively.
The team here were great fun and obviously enjoyed working together and entertaining their guests - nothing was too much trouble. They are used to this being a first or last stop on a trip and as either a first or last impression of Namibia - they left us wanting to come back.
Our room was huge, really huge. The outside seating area very private although we sat by the pool on our last afternoon enjoying the sound of the water.
Olive Grove review
Our one night stay was definitely acceptable. But our overall experience was average.
Steps to room were a bit challenging. Fully open shower in middle of room is unappealing. Troubles with TV led to 2 visits downstairs by my husband and 2 up by person on duty. Split of champagne on in-room fridge menu required trip by my husband to bar. Our window was on back of kitchen so there was noise in early morning. And person on check out had difficulty coming to conclusion on our bar charges.
Pleasant stop on arrival in Windhoek
We were in Windhoek for only one day and focused on preparations for starting our 2 week self-drive Namibia tour the following day. Olive Grove was a perfectly pleasant place for this brief stay. Room was lovely and comfortable; layout of the inn was attractive.
It was a bit hard to figure out at first who had what role and where to direct any questions but in the end every staff person was very pleasant and responsive to all of our needs. At our request, they were also able to connect us to a young man who provided a nice tour of the town at the end of the day so we could get some sense of its history and culture, which we appreciated.
There's some complicated history and tension with the hotel next door, which seems part of the same operation (which evidently it was but no longer is). The staff did end up helping us get a dinner reservation there and all went well but it was a bit confusing.
Great place to start or end a journey
We chose it as our first stop after a tiring overnight flight and it proved an ideal place to start a holiday.
The staff were very friendly and helpful. We chose to have dinner there and the food and service was very good.
Olive Grove review
Nice spot but we were there less than 24 hours, so I haven't any comments.
Read more about the whole tripOlive Grove Windhoek
Very adequate for an overnight stay after our long haul flights
Read more about the whole trip
