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Traveller reviews

Travel reviews by Dr H from Lancs

Review Distribution

Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Terrible

Total number of trips

3

Countries visited

3

Lodges stayed in

11

Excursions taken

8

Wonderful Experience

Rwanda between 23 Aug 2018 and 5 Sep 2018

Trip rating: Excellent
"All went very smoothly.

The meet and greet at Kigali was spot on and the Primate Safari rep was there with my name easily visible on a prominent sign and waiting for me. he introduced me to Sula who would be my guide for the rest of my 12 days in Rwanda.

The whole trip worked extremely well without any hitches."

Arranged By Tracy Lederer


Kigali Serena Hotel

Kigali Serena Hotel

"Good 3 night stay"

3 nights Arrived 23 Aug 2018
"A very well appointed ,international standard hotel.

Clean, efficient service, good food and courteous staff."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Kigali Tour and Genocide Memorial Visit

Kigali Tour and Genocide Memorial Visit

"Harrowing but essential"

24 Aug 2018 • All-day excursion

I spent about 3 hours at the genocide Museum. The displays and voice overs are in English and French. I had an audio guide which was excellent.

The whole experience was very moving.

As well as the displays about the genocide against the Tutsis and its origins and consequences there is an exhibition about genocides in other countries and their origins.

Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel

Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel

"Needs an upgrade to bring it up to scratch"

3 nights Arrived 26 Aug 2018
"The staff were helpful and the food and service were satisfactory. The rooms are tired and in need of money spending on them. The rooms looked bare and in the bathroom the shower curtain around the bath had been removed, inverted and converted into a curtain for the window which was adjacent to the shower.

This curtain was grubby/mouldy because it was repeatedly wet.When I first arrived there was no water from the taps but the staff rapidly sorted this out.
There was a long printed list of do's and don'ts in the room including advice that you weren't allowed to wash any clothes and if you did you may be charged!

It was cool in the evenings. The staff would light a fire in the sitting area of the room if required and each night I had two hot water bottles placed in the bed, I think that was standard practice.

However the view from the restaurant terrace over Lake Kivu is stunning."
Average
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Average

Location
Excellent
Service
Good
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Poor
Food
Average
Facilities
Average
King’s Palace & Museum Visit

King’s Palace & Museum Visit

"Excellent"

26 Aug 2018 • All-day excursion

I didn't know what to expect here but I really enjoyed the tour.

I had my own personal guide , a young man who was very knowledgeable and charming and explained the relatively recent history of Rwanda and it's Kings.

The King's Palace is beautiful inside and the woven screens and baskets are very attractive. Also visited the Royal cattle [whose name escapes me] but these are not slaughtered for food and when they die they are buried.
Excellent
Chimpanzee Trekking in Nyungwe Forest

Chimpanzee Trekking in Nyungwe Forest

"Shy Chimps"

27 Aug 2018 • All-day excursion

This was the first real trek in the forest in a small group. It had rained and was slippy underfoot. The guides and trackers were very good and helpful in cutting down undergrowth so we could follow where the chimps were. You need good walking boots and the walking pole which you are loaned at no cost [ a little like a shorter version of a shepherd's crook ] is very useful.

There was quite a bit of up & down and the chimps are mostly in the tops of the trees so you end up walking about with your nose in the air whilst trying to watch you don't slip or trip.

I didn't hire a porter but you could have one to help carry heavy bags, cameras and water as well as to help push and pull you if you felt you needed that type of assistance!
Canopy Walk in Nyungwe Forest

Canopy Walk in Nyungwe Forest

"Great"

28 Aug 2018 • All-day excursion

I enjoyed this very much. I did this alone with one of the local park guides who was great fun . There's a trek down to the start and then a medium climb back afterwards.

I'm no real fan of heights but if you can manage the fact that the bridge is very wobbly especially if it's windy [ they close it if it's too windy] then it's a great experience with good views. I did it early afternoon so we only saw a few birds ,but no primates.

The guide walked across hands free whilst holding my phone one handed, taking a video of me walking across clinging on for grim death with both hands and trying to smile at the same time, all recorded for posterity!

Definitely worth doing.
Excellent
Colobus Trekking in Nyungwe

Colobus Trekking in Nyungwe

"Easy Trek"

28 Aug 2018 • All-day excursion

This was a very easy trek, virtually no distance to walk and the Colobus Monkeys were all around, above us in good numbers and the serious photographers had afield day.
Excellent
Cormoran Lodge

Cormoran Lodge

"Good lake side lodgings"

2 nights Arrived 29 Aug 2018
"Nice accommodation, a little way out of town overlooking Lake Kivu with great views from the room's balcony and public rooms.

I arrived in an extended downpour [umbrellas available] and the narrow slippery paths between the cabin and reception/restaurant might be tricky for someone with mobility problems.

I was the only guest staying there [ I spent 2 nights] and that felt slightly weird but I was well looked after by considerate staff and after the initial rain, the next day was clear.

I had a trip to the local museum which dealt with ecological matters, natural history, geology and a roof garden where there were plants growing that are used in traditional Rwandan remedies. also had about trip on the lake which was enjoyable too."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Good
Activities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Average
Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge

Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge

"Great Spot"

4 nights Arrived 31 Aug 2018
"Beautiful lodge. On arrival, be warned there are 190 steps from the car park up to reception. One of the staff carried by fairly heavy bag on his head all the way up! I gather that they are in the process of building a ramp/series of ramps to improve accessibility.

Friendly personal greeting from Philip and Chrissie who manage the lodge as well as hot towel and a soft drink on arrival.

Lovely accommodation in individual bungalows with your own personal attendant to make bed, change towels take your washing to be done and replenish water [from their own bore hole/spring which is filtered]. comfy beds, electric heaters and a fire can be lit if necessary. Hot water bottles in bed too. Lovely food and good choice. All staff extremely attentive and welcoming

Early start for Gorilla trekking. Be down at reception at 6.00am, they put gaiters on you, give you a snack bag to take for the trek and provide gloves [ for gripping the undergrowth and in case of nettles.] Quick breakfast [cooked or continental] Then off to the Park Centre to be allocated the Gorilla family [ one of ten that are habituated to humans.....they also have another ten families for research only] that you will be visiting. You can specify easy, medium or more difficult treks but as the Gorillas move about from one day to the next there are no real guarantees.

I did 2 treks the first was about 90-120mins but not much elevation and we saw about 20 Gorillas including a three day old baby. The next day it was a shorter trek but much steeper and the landscape and vegetation were different so it was a nice contrast. On that occasion we saw about 16 gorillas who were much more active and were interacting, grooming, playing, climbing trees and eating bark from the trees.

It was all first rate and thoroughly enjoyable and very memorable.

When you arrive back at the lodge, they insist on taking your gaiters and boots off and cleaning the boots for the next day!"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Golden Monkey Trekking

Golden Monkey Trekking

"Easy Trekw"

1 Sep 2018 • Morning excursion

very easy walk to see these monkeys. They were basically eating/ playing in a field near to the fringes of a forest.

Easy to see and they would come really close up.
Excellent
Gorilla Trekking Safari

Gorilla Trekking Safari

"Brilliant Climax to my Trip"

2 Sep 2018 • Morning excursion

It was brilliant. I had no idea that we would be so close up and personal with the Gorillas. One just brushed past me, inches away.

The SilverBack was very regal, with great presence ,you certainly knew who was boss. The younger family members were huge fun,interacting and playing and the mothers were often busy grooming some of the younger ones.

[ In another section of his review, this traveller noted:

Early start for Gorilla trekking. Be down at reception at 6.00am, they put gaiters on you, give you a snack bag to take for the trek and provide gloves [ for gripping the undergrowth and in case of nettles.] Quick breakfast [cooked or continental] Then off to the Park Centre to be allocated the Gorilla family [ one of ten that are habituated to humans.....they also have another ten families for research only] that you will be visiting. You can specify easy, medium or more difficult treks but as the Gorillas move about from one day to the next there are no real guarantees.

I did 2 treks the first was about 90-120mins but not much elevation and we saw about 20 Gorillas including a three day old baby. The next day it was a shorter trek but much steeper and the landscape and vegetation were different so it was a nice contrast. On that occasion we saw about 16 gorillas who were much more active and were interacting, grooming, playing, climbing trees and eating bark from the trees.

It was all first rate and thoroughly enjoyable and very memorable.]

Excellent
Gorilla Trekking Safari

Gorilla Trekking Safari

"Wonderful"

3 Sep 2018 • Morning excursion

A brilliant experience like no other.

Just do it!
Excellent

Brilliant Botswana Experience

Botswana between 29 Apr 2012 and 9 May 2012

Trip rating: Excellent
"This was such a great holiday.We were so pleased we tried three camps in different areas and we loved them all. Kwando Safaris who ran the camps should be complemented on their camps, staff, service, food and general all round attention to guests comfort and safari experience.The animal sightings were marvellous and probably better than we had anticipated and the Okavango Delta is just beautiful. The whole trip was a huge success.

Note for Megan.........bet you wish you were at the Durban Trade Fair.....we met several people who worked in the travel industry and were vising different camps and some of them were in Africa for 3 weeks!!

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

We were completely happy with all aspects of your service. Thank you Megan for your suggestions , for putting together our itinerary ,introducing us to Kwando Safaris and organizing our travel arrangements."

Arranged By Megan Green


Nxai Pan Camp

Nxai Pan Camp

"Wonderful Nxai Pan"

3 nights Arrived 30 Apr 2012
"For our three night stay we were the only two guests and were looked after like royalty.Janet was a great hostess , very warm,chatty and welcoming.Our guide was Pax and our tracker was a Bushman called Shoes and both were excellent. with good knowledge and able to answer all that we asked. We had great sightings of the local pride of Lions every day, sometimes at very close quarters . We also saw Cheetah ,Ellies,Giraffes,Antelope [Springbok,Steenbok] and had a great trip to Baines Baobabs with lunch alfresco.All the meals were excellent and the food was plentiful.

From our room we had a great view of the Elephants at the nearby waterhole. Sitting around the camp fire at night we had wonderful views of the stars and milky way.Pax used his laser pointer to show us all the constellations.The beds were very comfy and we slept extremely well.The early mornings and evenings were cool but otherwise it was brilliant blue cloudless skies all the time."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Lebala Camp

Lebala Camp

"Lebala Camp Safari"

3 nights Arrived 3 May 2012
"Another good Kwando operated camp ,nicely appointed with friendly,helpful staff ,good food and busier than Nxai Pan.We had two different guides and trackers over the 3 nights and being a private reserve did night drives and one short walk in the bush.Here we saw our only Lepoard sighting ; beneath the tree where its kill was hidden in the branches overhead .

We saw a herd of Buffalo crossing the river and had Ellies wandering outside our tent the first night and Hippos the next night who were noisily eating the Sausage Tree fruit practically on our verandah.......it sounded as if they were cracking skulls open! We also saw Roan Antelope here and Lions but although we tracked Wild Dogs furiously we never saw them.

The camp staff made traditional food for one dinner and entertained us with wonderful traditional singing and dancing."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Little Kwara

Little Kwara (Not currently featured by Expert Africa)

"Lovely Little Kwara"

3 nights Arrived 6 May 2012
"This was another excellent camp with great staff led by Leso and Hilda who were all friendly,welcoming and made our stay memorable.Good food ,comfy beds and well appointed tents.Our guide Hobs and tracker Kenny were great and very knowledgeable.On our first evening drive we tracked and were very close to a pack of 9 wild dogs and followed them until nightfall. Also saw Spotted Hyena and two male Lions walking along the road near to the camp .

The following morning we tracked a pride of Lions after finding their kill [2 Zebras].We also tracked two different Cheetah groups and saw them killing an Impala.We had a lazy motorboat trip on the Delta one evening with a glorious sunset and a Mokoro trip early one morning near to a few not too inquisitive Hippos.There is a great emphasis at all Kwando camps on guest safety so we always felt secure and in safe hands.

We liked the fact that at all of the camps the emphasis was on tracking and seeing the animals and we also liked Kwandos emphasis on Staff Training and personal development .Once again we had an evening of traditional food preceeded by wonderful singing and then all guests joined in with the dancing with varying degrees of success!!"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent

Trip of a lifetime

Zambia between 30 Jul 2007 and 15 Aug 2007

Trip rating: Excellent
"Absolutely out of this world! We feel so privileged to have had such a wonderful experience and have met so many lovely people. The safaris were more than we ever could have dreamed of and we saw absolutely everything we wanted to see and more!

We expected with all the transfers that at some point something might go wrong/ bags be lost etc, but everything went exactly according to plan.

Thank you so much for organising this holiday. We were very sad to have to leave Zambia.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Keep up the good work!"

Arranged By Claire Scott


Tena Tena

Tena Tena

"Great start to our trip"

3 nights Arrived 31 Jul 2007
"All the staff were wonderful - made to feel very welcome. Guiding was superb, both walks and drives. We loved the surprise bush breakfast!

Accomodation was first class! We loved it!"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Nkwali

Nkwali

"3 nights wasn't long enough! So sad to leave"

3 nights Arrived 3 Aug 2007
"All the staff were fab - we got on so well with Fiona, Kiki and Brendan. We were very lucky to have Brendan just to ourselves on the walks which was wonderful- his knowledge was so impressive. Fiona was a great hostess- so easy to talk to and very good at keeping the converstaion flowing at dinner. We wish we had been able to record Kiki's laugh- so infectious!

Thanks Fiona for organising a great surprise bush dinner whcih we enjoyed immensely.

Accomodation was great- we even liked the family of 13 tree frogs living behind our bathroom mirror!

We were lucky enough to see a play performed by a local theatre group who came to the camp. Their improvisation and singing were excellent. Real Royal Shakespeare Company standard!"
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Chongwe River Camp

Chongwe River Camp

""

5 nights Arrived 6 Aug 2007
"We were welcomed to camp by Oliver the elephant who frequently wanders through camp!

When we first arrived, apart from the 2 of us, there was a party of 12 Italians who spoke little English. We were given a lot of support at dinner and sat with the staff, which made it easier for us.

We loved the location of the camp. Being able to sit outside our tent and look across to the other river bank and see elephant, hippo, crocodile, buffalo, warthogs and a variety of birds was spectacular. We had neither fished or canoed before, and really enjoyed these activities.

We were also taken to see a 6 month old orphaned elephant being cared for at Conservation Lower Zambezi, and shown around the site. It was interesting to hear about CLZ's education programme and how they teach local school children about the bush and poaching etc.

We were very lucky to have 2 walking trips with Duncan, the head guide, who was not only an excellent guide but a lovely person too."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent

Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Avani Victoria Falls

Avani Victoria Falls

"Disney on the Zambezi"

2 nights Arrived 11 Aug 2007
"It was a bit of a shock to the system arriving here after being in the bush. It was obviously much more commercialised. But the hotel was fine and we enjoyed visiting Vic Falls and did a microlight trip.

We can also reccomend afternoon tea at the Royal Livingstone- yum! The views were spectacular."
Good
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Good

Location
Excellent
Service
Good
Facilities
Good
Rooms
Good
Food
Good

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