Travel reviews by Mr & Miss M from Maidstone

"A lovely comfortable lodge, everyone very helpful, food great and I much appreciated the effort made for me as a non-meat eater.

Our only concern was that there were 2 maybe 3 times when there were 3 of us abreast in the game viewing vehicle; fortunately it did not cause us a problem but for some people it might. We were expecting there would be 3 rows of 2 people if 6 were in the vehicle.

The guide, Charles, was brilliant and was endlessly patient with our repeated questions 'which bird is that?' and located several leopard sightings, elephant drama and all the rest. Everything seemed to run very smoothly from Kapani and a very good place to stay at the start. We enjoyed meeting Mario and also Christina Carr. Judy too had a big hand in the smooth running of things.

The view from our chalet (no.2) was fantastic across the 'river',being able to see elephants virtually from your bed! 3 nights here worked well for us."

"Innocent our guide made our stay here amazing. He and Lewis, the scout, had us stalking a lion on foot and even better was Innocent's excitement when we saw a pack of 5 wild dogs which are so endangered (we saw them several times over our stay there); another highlight was when he drove us to Mchenja and we had a wonderful sighting en route of a leopard in a sausage tree - probably our best leopard spot! These events were among many others such as the unexpected day time sight of honey badgers. The food was brilliant again and my non-meat diet was excellently catered for as at Kapani. There were just 4 of us in the jeep each time here which was great.

We did feel that the room and decking was in a slight 'end of season' state but it wasn't a problem.

Two nights here was ideal for us."

"Mchenja was possibly our favourite of the 3 places we stayed with NCS. It combined considerable comfort with a brilliant combination of walking and driving safaris which we did with Julius and Batwell the scout.

Ian hosted us on our first night here - and he was superb at filling us in with everything and sorting out any queries we had. Nikita was with us for the second 2 nights and she was also a delight, great company and very efficient with it. I can't tell you how much we enjoyed the big bath in the room each night - a real treat in the bush. We also liked the fact that we didn't have to have mosquito nets here which makes it much easier if you have to get up in the night!

We especially enjoyed the location with the hippos chorusing all night and the lions roaring across the river. We had a few extra visitors in the room - a wallspider (harmless), huge caterpillar, geckos and lizards which were all ok as they were no threat! The food here was again fantastic and no effort spared to sort me out as usual.

One of the highlights for us was on our last morning when we came upon the Mwamba lion pride - 17 adults and three cubs- fantastic, Julius and Batwell always knew where to find great things! 3 nights here was ideal."

"Pioneer was the best possible way to spend the essential last night In Lusaka prior to the flight early the following morning.

Paul was an enormous help on arrival regarding flight check in and telling us the info we needed re supper/breks/bar. Also Alfred was great too.

We were really pleased we hadn't gone to an 'international' hotel or somewhere less in keeping with our previous 8 nights! A good choice."