Travel reviews by Harvey and Jo from Lewes

"A good staging post only 35/40 minutes from the airport - though some of the route is on 15 minutes of really dreadful dirt road, worse than some in Luangwa."

"Returning to Luangwa, to Nkwali for the first visit, it was a very good recommendation for the south end of South Luangwa. Just outside the park, yet plenty of game in the camp either walking through or enjoying the small lagoon set 70 yards back from the river bank behind the camp buildings. Access to the park was very quick (by boat in late October when the pontoon was closed due to low water) but via steep steps on one side and sand bag path on the other, not so easy at night on the return journey. At 76, OK for us, but demanding if you have mobility issues.

The camp and chalets are lovely, high quality, small pool welcome in the heat, staff all very good indeed. Guiding was excellent, lots of game of all sorts on drives, a morning walk very informative on ecology etc. Will happily return if we can.

We were taken aback at the number of vehicles homing in on animals in this southern end of the park (we have been to centre and north only in the past), and actually backed off at night on one occasion when several cars from other camps were pressing in on lions."

"Rooms a little smaller than other camps (being the original rondavels we stayed in 50 years ago!) but with decent washrooms now added behind.

Dining outside - since dining room went into the river a couple of years ago - was lovely. Small waterhole behind the camp drew in elephants and others to watch from the hide. Guiding was very good and willing to adopt our pace and stay and watch animals behaviour.

Driving through Nsefu sector and central Luangwa meant there were fewer cars around, very welcome after the pressure in the south. Plenty of game around, particularly leopard sightings and dogs."

"Our second visit, good feel to having a family run camp again.

Food outstanding, a step up from other camps, happy to let you look round the kitchen and laundry area. Catering staff particularly friendly and attentive.

Guiding very good indeed, with a walk across (by canoe) to one of the bush camps very informative on ecosystems. Excellent game viewing, at a pace to suit us. Village visit close by reflects the close ongoing involvement of the family with community and school, plus local football teams - we took several footballs to donate as well as school equipment.

We left by road to Mfuwe airport on what is currently a poor road, nearly two hours, but you can fly from Tafika to Mfuwe or Lusaka if you can pay....... Classic bush dining outside for dinner, elephants through the camp as well as at the waterhole and hide.

Will certainly return if possible."

"Very high levels of guiding, service, and food, with the original round house rooms well modernised - the only criticism being that the toilets could do with a bit more privacy within the washroom area.

The view from the bar and the river bank is tremendous, a huge panoramic sweep of the river in both directions, that will bear any amount of relaxed inspection. Having been on several safaris elsewhere in Zambia, we very much liked the guiding style of George who, more than most, is willing to stop and wait to see what may happen, and bring his experiences and thoughts to bear. We enjoyed our three days a great deal.

As with all camps, we would like to see some Zambian women employed in future to give local girls role models to aspire to."

"Arriving from Nsefu, we found the same high standard of food, service and guiding in this camp as we had there. The tents are impressive and spacious and have the added attraction of being able to look straight out through the fine gauze netting to a private view of the river sand bank (often with grazing bushbuck or warthog) at dawn or during siesta time.

We took two guided walks with Jason Alfonsi and learned a great deal, not just about plants and animals but also about Zambia past and present, and as former residents valued that. Good game viewing here (as at Nsefu) in the height of the dry season. The winds brought quite a few leaves and flowers into the washroom areas at times - needs careful inspection at night!

As with all camps in the park, we would like to see some Zambian women employed in future to provide role models for Zambian girls."

"Our third camp on this holiday, and (without taking anything away from the excellent time we had at the other two) the one that we put top of our list for a return visit if we can manage one in future. Partly that is to do with the additional activities on offer. The microlight flight at dawn costs extra, but boy was it worth it for both of us: words can't really capture it.

A short bike ride through the elephant zone near the camp costs nothing, but certainly adds spice. Back in Zambia for the third time, having worked there long ago, we would have reservations about a local village visit being a tourist show, were it not for the big support and involvement which John & Carol Coppinger have put into the school and the village: it was a lovely visit with a genuine response both ways.

The food was superb, and the direct contact with the family owning and running Tafika, and their employees who live in the village, the sense of continuity and the atmosphere it added, all gave something extra to our holiday that we valued and enjoyed, and we had a great five days."

"We support a British charity, Zambia Orphans of AIDS, which supports Hope & Faith Community School in a poor township on the edge of Lusaka, and we arranged a visit to the school via the local ZOA office in Lusaka.

If you want to see something inspiring, go to Hope and Faith, and take something to help it. The Head, Rose Mumbi, has created a school of 500 with no government money, from scratch, in 10 years: she is a remarkable woman (age 71), and our visit meant a lot to us to see what ZOA is doing, and what she is doing. The taxi ride through Ngombe compound gives the tough context for a tender story."

"Small in scale, this is preferable to the large (more central) hotels we have used before. Stylish and comfortable bedrooms and public rooms.

No road name at the end of the road so you need to know it is just off Sable Road. Shower not working due to low Lusaka water pressure when we were there, but the bath was fine."

"Bagatelle Ranch was easily reachable on arrival, even though our flight was 2.5 hours delayed by calling in at Accra in the middle of the night (ugh!).

It was a lovely place to start: relaxed, some interesting game viewing, and staff who were all very keen to give us the best of service and conversation, which they did. The cheetah experience with Paul taking us out of the vehicle in the large enclosure, once he had stepped out to give the 3 males their daily feed, was quite something, more than we had expected, and to get within a few metres of cheetah in the open was great. His enthusiasm and well communicated expertise, and that of other staff, was much appreciated.

The dune chalets are very good (air conditioning!) and being set up one of the Kalahari red dune ridges was nice. . In the Bradt Guide, Bagatelle is shown in the wrong place, on the M41 instead of the D1268 on page 182 3rd edition."

"Canon Lodge was our longest drive, but worth making it for Fish River Canyon, and for the imaginative way chalets are scattered among the great boulders of the kopies.

The sundowner climb up on the kopie, and the sunrise walk out to the quiver trees were both of them enjoyable, well guided, and gave some great photo opportunities. Nice swimming pool as well, next to the palm tree: the new one now being built is on the other side of the lodge, still nearly the same distance away, and will give a similar chance to relax in a quiet place. Again, staff were helpful, efficient and charming.

We did drive down to Ai-Ais, but wished we hadn't. It is under reconstruction currently (we were asked politely to leave the building site), was stonkingly hot, and only the last few kms on the road had any real scenery."

"Sinclair Guest Farm gave us a refreshing and enjoyably different experience from being in lodges and camps. Comfortable rooms and good food, and we made the tiring but interesting walk out to the copper mine.

The Hoffmans have now stepped back from running the guest side day to day, though we had a pleasant chat with Hannelore. It is their son in law Peter who we spoke to mostly and ate with (his wife we saw only briefly), and he was very interesting to talk to about the difficulties of farming in this climate, of what daily life involves with young children there, and a lot of useful context about Namibia's economy and recent history as well."

"Sossus Dune Lodge is gleamingly new, and for our two nights, there was only the three of us plus a German couple with two young children staying.

The accommodation is very good, the situation superb at the foot of a big kopie looking out to the distant dunes, and the staff were also keen to please, and charming, with good food, and a pleasant little swimming pool.

We took the morning drive to Sossusvlei, having asked questions of the customer relations manager about the trip, because it was an expensive one (over $900) and we had our own 4x4. We decided to take the guided trip because a) we knew that the last 5km could be difficult through the sand without more 4x4 driving experience, and b) we know from experience that a guide usually adds so much to understanding and enjoyment.

Our guide Felix was very good at his job, both in terms of cheerful and excellent information and careful and skilled driving, and in most ways the trip was a very successful one. But not in one respect: we left soon after 5.30. but by sunrise at 6.40 I was very unhappy with the trip, because by then we had not even reached the viewpoint at the first red dune.

I had expected, from everything I had read in the Bradt Guide, in Expert Africa's brochure, and everywhere else, that we would head at speed for the tar road and Sossusvlei so as to get down right among the dunes, and preferably to Sossusvlei itself, for sunrise.

I have a new, expensive digital SLR, and deluded optimism about my photographic skills, so this was a real disappointment. After that, as I say, the trip was very good, but the light for photography down there was flat, as my pictures now show.

Felix was great (went and found the sunglasses I dropped a long way back at one point). The reason we were so slow was that the road taken from the lodge to the tar was out over the plain (and through the river channel below Sesriem Gorge), only joining the tar about 10km or more from the gate.

Aware that I would be among the first of your clients giving feedback to you on the new lodge, I asked to talk to Felix later, with two of the managers (including the senior one) also there, so that I could try to get across all the positives as well as explaining my disappointment/frustration, and giving them a chance to give their point of view.

We talked for half an hour, and what seemed to come out of it was that the trip had been more tuned to the other family with children than to my photography.

I made the point that the evening before I had tried to find out about leaving time and getting down to the dunes, but had not had a clear answer, and obviously there was a gap in the communication between that member of staff and Felix.

However, I still can't see for the life of me why the lodge does not, as standard practice, drive the 5 minutes round the back of the kopie to the start of the tar road, and go fast to the middle of the dunes at least, or to Sussusvlei with a really early start.

That is what Sabina (quite understandably) expected to happen, and why she recommended this lodge to us, being inside the national Park so that they don't have to wait till later for entry.

It's what I did myself the next morning at 5.30. Sadly, just as sunrise was a minute away, the cloud came down, and I never got the red dunes at dawn which I wanted …. So, at the least, I think you should tell future clients to insist that the morning trip does make speed, if that is what the client wants, and to ask very pointed questions the night before to make sure that it will."

"Sam's Giardino is lovely, just as you describe it, with the sad exception that Mr Einstein is no more, and has been replaced by Ms Ornella.

Sam is so helpful, offering to phone for restaurant booking and trip confirmations for us.

The fish at Erich's restaurant was so good that we went back for a second evening."

"Doro Nawas looked forbidding with its black stone, but was both luxurious (loved the bed with a view, and the outside shower as well as the inside one) and with probably the most cheerful staff of the whole trip.

We have cringed a bit in the past at the cultural dancing at a hotel in Victoria Falls: the little song and dance here after each meal, being by the people we already knew from serving us food or drinks, and singing some of their own songs with such evident enjoyment and humour, was different. Great fun, and I am a huge fan of African harmony.

The long morning drive not only found the elephants, it gave us at 45 minutes or more of relaxed and absorbing watching on the way out, then another shorter session on the way back, and that was excellent, not least because there were two calves of 4 weeks and 2 weeks.

And the landscape we travelled through on the rest of that trip was so varied, and our guide very informative on bushes, trees and birds.

Expensive place to stay, but well worth it. We enjoyed the rock carvings and the guided tour at Twyfelfontain which we drove ourselves to."

"Ongava Tented Camp, with its smaller, simpler and more intimate style, was in contrast to the scale and pretensions of Doro Nawas and Sossus Dune, but no less enjoyable.

We were made to feel very welcome, and the policy there of mixing all the guests together at the table for the evening meal meant that we had some lively conversations that we would have missed otherwise.

Viewing in the conservancy was good, better than in Etosha itself now that the rains have dispersed the animals."

"Erongo Wilderness Lodge has such a great situation, it was a good place to unwind at the end of our trip.

Being able to stroll around the walks on our own fitted in with this, and we enjoyed our drive out to the rock paintings, which were just there in a cave in the hillside to be walked up to, rather than an organised place as at Twyfelfontain."