Travel reviews by B family from Guildford

"This is one of the truly great hotels in the world.

The welcome, ambience, service, attention to detail, amenities and food were of the highest order.

One felt it was a privilege to have stayed there and the icing on the cake was that it was only a few minutes walk from the awe-inspiring Victoria Falls."

"In two and a half days we saw an amazing amount of wild life: numerous elephants, giraffes, various antelopes, zebra, African wild dogs. But particularly special was seeing two lionesses stalking a herd of buffalo and making a kill, then seeing the male lion come to join the meal. Subsequently we saw the cubs being brought to the kill.

Two mornings later we got to within about 20 metres of the whole pride of lions feasting on a freshly killed buffalo - the male, 5 females, 7 cubs and a young male who was kept at a distance. We sat in the Land Rover watching for good ten minutes before making way for arrivals from another camp.

We were immensely impressed by the quality of the guides although for the most part we had the same one all the time which was a nice touch. Their knowledge and bush craft was humbling.

In the camp the staff were first class: welcoming, friendly and helpful. The food was excellent. The tented chalets were of a high standard, clean, comfortable and well appointed. I had not expected to find that the camp is on mains electricity, so my solar charger for laptop, camera batteries etc was redundant.

The only criticism I have, and it came to light subsequently, is that Wilderness Safaris, who run Davison's Camp and from whose airstrip in Hwange we flew to Mana Pools, will not allow other safari camps to use 'their' airstrip in Mana Pools even though the land is owned by the National Park. Because of that we had a two hour drive over rough tracks to/from the other operational airstrip in Mana Pools instead of a 20 minute one. It seemed an unhelpful and short-sighted policy."

"The atmosphere is Vundu camp was very different to that at Davison's, perhaps because we were the only guests staying there at the time. In the first place the staff were much more racially mixed. The accommodation was as good and although the rooms did not look out onto a water pan, they were only a few metres from the banks of the Zimbabwe and big animals such as hippos and elephants did wander through the camp at night, justifying the need for the armed escort when moving around the camp at night.

In contrast to Davison's, we spent little time driving around and much more walking and following the trails of animals. We had complete confidence in Nick, who was our guide all the time and who owns the camp. Twice we went out for a half day canoeing on the Zambesi with him, glad of his knowledge and experience given the number of hippos on the river. Stopping the canoes to let a family of elephants swim across the river in front of us was unforgettable. So was coming back in the canoes at sunset to find a candle-lit dinner set up on the bank.

We could none of us give this camp a higher recommendation."

"Please see my review for the first stay at the Victoria Falls Hotel"