Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs B from Berkeley
Review Distribution
Total number of trips
1
Countries visited
1
Lodges stayed in
3
Excursions taken
0
8 days and 3 Botswana camps
Botswana between 5 May 2013 and 13 May 2013
"We spent 2+ months in Africa visiting 4 countries [South Africa, Ethiopia and Zambia in addition to Botswana] and we enjoyed amazing experiences in every country. But our Botswana safari was truly our peak experience.
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
Your website gave us the best safari planning information available anywhere ... until we began speaking directly with your staff [Megan, Claire and Nick] who are clearly "expert" on Africa."
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
Your website gave us the best safari planning information available anywhere ... until we began speaking directly with your staff [Megan, Claire and Nick] who are clearly "expert" on Africa."
Arranged By Megan Green
Chitabe Camp
"Amazing Game Viewing and Guiding at Chitabe"
3 nights
Arrived
5 May 2013
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
Kwara Camp
"Top guides, no game to be found"
3 nights
Arrived
8 May 2013
"Our guide at Kwara was highly knowledgeable and a wonderful companion, but in 3 days of game drives, including a 7 hour drive where we were met with a delicious bush lunch -- we saw almost no game apart from the hippos that were at Kwara's front door, occasional elephants and the omnipresent impala and two jackals.
Our accommodations were excellent, the food satisfactory and to our liking, and the opportunity to enjoy non-vehicle activities was a plus -- our mokoro trip and hike were great and informative, as were the double-decker motorized launch trips, which gave us a unique awareness and appreciation of the delta, its waterways, bird life and vegetation.
But because our prime motive for visiting expensive Botswana camps like Kwara was to see game, fundamentally we were disappointed and wouldn't recommend Kwara -- at this time of year -- to visitors. We were told by our guide that the normally resident prides of lions had moved away from the reserve. A bad fire had scorched a sizeable area of the reserve just a week before our visit."
Our accommodations were excellent, the food satisfactory and to our liking, and the opportunity to enjoy non-vehicle activities was a plus -- our mokoro trip and hike were great and informative, as were the double-decker motorized launch trips, which gave us a unique awareness and appreciation of the delta, its waterways, bird life and vegetation.
But because our prime motive for visiting expensive Botswana camps like Kwara was to see game, fundamentally we were disappointed and wouldn't recommend Kwara -- at this time of year -- to visitors. We were told by our guide that the normally resident prides of lions had moved away from the reserve. A bad fire had scorched a sizeable area of the reserve just a week before our visit."
Poor
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Poor
Location
Good
Service
Good
Activities
Excellent
Rooms
Average
Food
Good
Facilities
Average
Shinde Footsteps
"Terrific experience at Footsteps with caution"
2 nights
Arrived
11 May 2013
"We were thrilled by the Footsteps experience -- really luxury camping and hiking in wild Africa. Footsteps offers a different level of intimacy with the wild, and we were very happy to discover it.
The accommodations far exceeded our expectations for what we expected to be a more rustic camp, and the great food and opportunity to share a deeper social connection with the camp manager and staff -- we were the only guests, but this camp never has more than 6-7 -- was another unexpected plus. Hiking on foot to see plentiful wildlife -- zebras, giraffe, elephants, and even lion -- is a different experience than being in the safety of a vehicle, and has to be experienced to be understood. Game was plentiful.
But we had an unexpected event -- walking at dusk, later than we had felt was prudent, we discovered ourselves under surveillance by a male and female lion, though 100+ meters away, the female arose and began to circle us -- nothing untoward happened and we were able to return quickly and safely to our vehicle, but we felt our guide, while armed, should not have had us walking so late. Perhaps the fact that our guide was substituting for the regular guide, was not physically fit and seemed to delay this last walk, contributed to this scary experience. Fortunately the assistant guide was vigilant, very observant and spotted the lions."
The accommodations far exceeded our expectations for what we expected to be a more rustic camp, and the great food and opportunity to share a deeper social connection with the camp manager and staff -- we were the only guests, but this camp never has more than 6-7 -- was another unexpected plus. Hiking on foot to see plentiful wildlife -- zebras, giraffe, elephants, and even lion -- is a different experience than being in the safety of a vehicle, and has to be experienced to be understood. Game was plentiful.
But we had an unexpected event -- walking at dusk, later than we had felt was prudent, we discovered ourselves under surveillance by a male and female lion, though 100+ meters away, the female arose and began to circle us -- nothing untoward happened and we were able to return quickly and safely to our vehicle, but we felt our guide, while armed, should not have had us walking so late. Perhaps the fact that our guide was substituting for the regular guide, was not physically fit and seemed to delay this last walk, contributed to this scary experience. Fortunately the assistant guide was vigilant, very observant and spotted the lions."
Excellent
Experience Report
Overall Rating:
Excellent
Location
Excellent
Service
Excellent
Activities
Good
Rooms
Excellent
Food
Excellent
Facilities
Excellent
The game was present and the guiding was committed, determined and successful -- we even experienced a 10 hour all-day drive [we were met with a bush lunch served with tables and chairs -- amazing]. On this particular drive we witnessed a cheetah spot, chase and kill an impala, saw leopard brothers guarding their kill tied in a tree, followed a pack of wild dogs through the bush on their hunt, observed a pride of lions from 2 meters, resting after their kill ... and more. We really appreciated our guide's high motivation and ability to deliver -- the guiding here is serious, and each group of guests felt they had the "best" guide -- quite a testament.
Accommodations were luxurious beyond expectations, food was delicious and almost too generous, staff and guides were very sociable and sophisticated, and our cultural evening, which included dances, was really appreciated. Exceeded all expectations."